Schwyzer, Philip, “The politics of British antiquity and the descent from Troy in the early Stuart era”, in: Francesca Kaminski-Jones, and Rhys Kaminski-Jones (eds), Celts, Romans, Britons: classical and Celtic influence in the construction of British identities, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 79–96.
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By the early Stuart era, English scholars and statesmen had largely abandoned belief in medieval Welsh traditions regarding the Trojan Brutus and the British empire ruled by his descendants, choosing instead to rely on Classical descriptions of British antiquity. Yet in defiance of this historiographical turn, the themes of Trojan descent and ancient empire enjoyed a remarkable popular renaissance in the first half of the seventeenth century. Despite Geoffrey of Monmouth’s banishment from the realm of serious history, the Descent from Troy was arguably known, accepted, and publicly celebrated by more people in the early Stuart era than at any point in the past. Focusing on texts including Michael Drayton’s topographical epic Poly-Olbion, Anthony Munday’s civic pageant The Triumphes of Reunited Britannia, and the anonymous broadside Troynovant Must Not be Burnt, this chapter explores a range of factors that help account for this late efflorescence of the British History, including James VI and I’s unsuccessful campaign for closer union between England and Scotland, and the local priorities of communities in Wales and London.
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