Painting the Nation in its Native Colours: John Leland’s Antiquarian Projects in the Context of Imperial and National Building of England, 1530–1540

Abstract

In this article, the author concentrates on the intellectual projects of John Leland (1503–1552), the first antiquarian of early modern England. The origins of a certain tradition of English antiquarian historiography are connected with the name of this poet and polemicist. Today, researchers see heuristic potential in studying the political and socio-cultural foundations that led to the emergence of antiquarian discourse in the first half of the sixteenth century. The aim of the article is to define the role of John Leland’s intellectual thought within two interrelated and most relevant processes for his time, namely the imperial and nation-building of England during Henry VIII’s reign. In order to achieve his research goal, the author, firstly, identifies the peculiarities of the genesis of the imperial idea in the Middle Ages and its transformation during the reign of Henry VIII; secondly, analyses Leland’s creative projects aimed at legitimising the Tudor dynastic rights to “recreate” the ancient composite monarchy of the British Isles; thirdly, drawing on the Swiss historian Caspar Hirschi’s theory of pre-modern nationalism, identifies the characteristics of the proto-national discourse and the signs of the participation of the English antiquarian in it. The article is based on an analysis of John Leland’s “New Year’s Gift”, a letter in which the sender informs the monarch of his plans to produce a series of works on the history and geography of Britain. The study shows that the envisaged projects were aimed not only at creating an image of the Tudor empire fulfilling dynastic political ambitions, but also at consistently glorifying the “British” collective subject.