Counter-revolutionary transformations of Charles I in Burke, Austen and Scott

Dani Napton; A. D. Cousins

doi:10.18172/jes.3033

Authors

Dani Napton Macquarie University
A. D. Cousins Macquarie University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.3033

Keywords:

Counter-Revolution, Charles I, Edmund Burke, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, mythology.

Abstract

Few would deny Charles I’s uniqueness in British history. The voluminous interpretations of Charles since his execution amply indicate the impact of his myth on subsequent generations. This essay considers mythologizings of the executed monarch by Edmund Burke, Jane Austen and Walter Scott. These three writers, albeit to different degrees and in different ways, saw his pertinence to then-current debates against revolution, that is to say, to advocacy of counter-revolution at the time of or in the shadow of the French Revolution. Specifically this essay focuses initially on Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France which shaped the framework of much conservative thinking from 1790. Thereafter the essay considers affinities between Burke’s text (and his text’s divergences from) non-fiction and fiction by the politically conservative Jane Austen and Walter Scott. The focus is on two pre-eminent myths authored or authorised by the monarch himself which endured into and beyond the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Charles as the Royal Martyr and Charles as Christ (and, hence, as intercessor for his people).

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Author Biographies

Dani Napton, Macquarie University

Dani Napton is an Honorary Associate at Macquarie University, and has published numerous articles on English non-dramatic literature and culture 1750-1900, with special attention to: the history of ideas; rhetorical theory and practice; genre; landscape/place narrative; historiography; and representations of revolution and counter-revolution. She has co-edited The French Revolution and the British Novel in the Romantic Period with A. D. Cousins and Stephanie Russo. Her research interests include politics and theologies of power, with special attention to: political and associated theological conservatism spanning the 17^thand 19^th centuries; political theory; and politics and the novel c. 1600-1850.

A. D. Cousins, Macquarie University

A. D. Cousins is Professor of English at Macquarie University, and has published fourteen books internationally, including monographs on Andrew Marvell, Thomas More, Shakespeare's non-dramatic verse, and on religious verse of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He has published many articles, all in refereed and, for the most part, international journals. He is on the Editorial Board of Moreana, the international journal of More and Erasmus studies, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Language, Literature and Culture. His research interests include the literature and culture of early modern England, the historiography of the history of ideas, and utopian narrative.

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