A History Of England In 25 Poems – Catherine Clarke

‘This fagge-end, this Rump of a Parliament with corrupt Maggots in it’, as contemporary lawyer and politician Clement Walker described it. Seventy- eight members were now left available to serve, but only sixty-five appeared in May 1659. The weakened Parliament was struggling to agree on a constitution: what sort of republic was this, and how should it be run?

It was losing its control over the army and tensions escalated. In the autumn of 1659, the Rump sent Lambert to suppress army discontent and Royalist risings in the north, but, growing increasingly mistrustful of him and other leading officers, Parliament dismissed (cashiered) them on 12 October. Lambert appealed to troops in London, and marched on Westminster.

On 13 October, Lambert’s forces surrounded Parliament and expelled the members of the Rump – again. As they marched out of Westminster Hall, the soldiers gave Lambert a standing ovation: the man who’d given the Rump a good kicking. Lambert now became a member of the Committee of Safety – the interim government which took over in place of the Rump Parliament.

But there was more to come. General George Monck, commander-in- chief of the army in Scotland, had declared in support of Parliament, and now rode to London to its aid. The Committee of Safety sent Lambert north to deal with him. But Lambert’s army was disintegrating: years of chaotic government had led to unpaid wages, spiralling deficits and lack of funds, and resentment was fermenting. Lambert’s men had had enough of – as the ballad puts it – scrounging for ‘Free quarter in the North’.

By Christmas Eve, unpaid soldiers across England were clamouring for the return of the Rump, and military Commander-in-Chief Charles Fleetwood formally called for it to be restored. ‘Bum-fodder’ takes great delight in this about- turn from the strongmen of the English army: the ‘men of Mars’ who had squared up to the Rump Parliament, now pleading for it to come back. The poem scoffs at these army figures who’ve ‘submitted to kiss the Parliament’s Arse’: brown-nosing of the most humiliating kind.

Catherine Clarke is a Professor at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and Director of the Victoria County History of England. She was previously Professor of English Literature at the University of Southampton, where she remains a Visiting Professor. 1kitap1.com/en Catherine Clarke A HISTORY OF ENGLAND IN 25 POEMS With illustrations by Edward Bettison 1kitap1.com/en Contents Introduction A Note on Texts and Translations 1. Beginnings ‘Cædmon’s Hymn’ (around 730) 2. Vikings Extract from The Battle of Maldon (around 1000) 3.

Conquest and Resistance ‘The Death of King William’ from the Peterborough Chronicle (around 1087) 4. Anarchy: The Land Torn Apart ‘Who Will Give Me a Fountain of Tears’ by Henry of Huntingdon (around 1146) 5. Mice, Monks and ‘Merry England’ ‘Sumer Is Icumen In’ (around 1260) 6. What Women Want Extract from ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ by Geoffrey Chaucer (probably 1390s) 7.

Love and Loss in a Time of Plague Extract from Pearl (around 1390) 8. Once More unto the Breach: Neighbours and Adversaries ‘Agincourt Carol’ (1415) 9. Anne Boleyn and All That ‘Whoso List to Hunt’ by Thomas Wyatt (around 1520s) 10. Words for Burning ‘The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate’ by Anne Askew (1546) 11.

Poetry, Prophecy and the Island ‘This England’ (John of Gaunt’s Speech) from Richard II by William Shakespeare (around 1595) 12. The Arse-End of England ‘Bum-fodder, or, Waste-paper, Proper to Wipe the Nation’s RUMP with, or Your Own’ attributed to Alexander Brome (1660) 13. Out of the Ashes: Making the Metropolis Extract from Annus Mirabilis by John Dryden (1667) 14. Below Stairs in the Country House Extract from ‘Crumble-Hall’ by Mary Leapor (around 1745) 15.

From Africa to New England to England: A Voice for Freedom ‘To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth’ by Phillis Wheatley (1773) 16. Contemplation of the Dust: England in Ruins Extract from Eighteen Hundred and Eleven by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1812) 17. Under the Wheels of Progress Extract from ‘The Cry of the Children’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1842) 18.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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