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Full-Text Articles in History

The King Of Witchcraft: Scotland's Witchcraft Crisis And Religious Politics Under King James Vi, Tristan Rimmer May 2021

The King Of Witchcraft: Scotland's Witchcraft Crisis And Religious Politics Under King James Vi, Tristan Rimmer

LSU Master's Theses

In 1590 King James VI of Scotland was the supposed target of diabolical witchcraft; the North Berwick witches were accused of attempting to sink the ship carrying James and his new bride from Copenhagen back to Edinburgh following their marriage. This event set off a widespread witch-hunt in Scotland, one that James took a personal and vested interest in. The hunt continued through 1597, occurring across multiple Scottish locales, resulting in judicial statute rearrangements, and famously inspiring James’ treatise Daemonologie. In addition to Daemonlogie, James also wrote multiple treatises on the theory of divine right in the midst …


Staging Reformation: Religious Theater In England, 1525-1553, Alexandra R. Whitley Mar 2021

Staging Reformation: Religious Theater In England, 1525-1553, Alexandra R. Whitley

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes and explores the role of privately sponsored religious theater and dramatic performance in the English Reformation, 1525-1553. In the sixteenth century, most theater was religious in nature, and audiences were accustomed to receiving clear moral and political messaging in the form of dramatic entertainment. Plays that were written and performed specifically for individual monarchs also include these commentaries and moral arguments, and can provide historians with significant insight into what messages were presented to monarchs. These insights are particularly illuminating in studies of the cultural progress of the English Reformation under Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary …


Liminal Liberation: Courtesans And Embodied Anxieties In Sixteenth-Century Venice, Mandonesia Carter Nov 2020

Liminal Liberation: Courtesans And Embodied Anxieties In Sixteenth-Century Venice, Mandonesia Carter

LSU Master's Theses

Invectives against the courtesan—a more educated, erudite, and socially elite version of the ordinary prostitute—were commonplace in early modern Venice. A metropolitan center by the sixteenth century, Venice had become one of the most tolerant cities in Europe, allowing the courtesan to rapidly rise far past her social standing. The courtesan, through strategic self-fashioning and self-promotion, blurred the boundaries of gender roles, class roles, and the conventional social hierarchy. This precipitated attacks from critics seeking to provide clarity of the courtesan’s place and protect the interests of their patriarchal society. This thesis examines representations of the sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan in …


Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey Jun 2020

Bernard Palissy: Early Career - Securing Patronage And Mimicking Nature In A Moment Of Crisis, Karissa Bailey

LSU Master's Theses

Early in 1562, France was experiencing a state of high religious tension between Protestants and Catholics that would precipitate the outbreak of the Religious Wars on March 1. A week before, Bernard Palissy, a Huguenot potter, wrote a letter to his Catholic patron from prison inBordeaux where he was being held on charges associated with an iconoclastic incident in his home city of Saintes. This letter would later be published as a dedication letter for the pamphlet Architecture et Ordonnance, which featured the description of a grotto commissioned by Anne de Montmorency, Palissy’s patron, seven years earlier. This thesis analyzes …


Politics And Religion During The Rise And Reign Of Anne Boleyn, Megan E. Scherrer Jul 2019

Politics And Religion During The Rise And Reign Of Anne Boleyn, Megan E. Scherrer

LSU Master's Theses

During the 1520s and 1530s England endured a tumultuous time of drastic political change and religious reform. At the heart of it all was Anne Boleyn, whose relationship with King Henry VIII launched the English Reformation and the Royal Supremacy, and whose tragic end became a story passed down through the current day. This work examines Anne’s life, particularly her religion and influence in politics, and the figures who shone and dimmed as she came to power and once she lost everything. Some of the most significant of these figures include Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Hugh …