{"id":253317,"date":"2026-07-13T02:43:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/a-history-of-england-in-25-poems-catherine-clarke\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T02:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:43:55","slug":"a-history-of-england-in-25-poems-catherine-clarke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/a-history-of-england-in-25-poems-catherine-clarke\/","title":{"rendered":"A History Of England In 25 Poems – Catherine Clarke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018This fagge-end, this Rump of a Parliament with corrupt Maggots in it\u2019, 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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On 13 October, Lambert\u2019s forces surrounded Parliament and expelled the members of the Rump \u2013 again. As they marched out of Westminster Hall, the soldiers gave Lambert a standing ovation: the man who\u2019d given the Rump a good kicking. Lambert now became a member of the Committee of Safety \u2013 the interim government which took over in place of the Rump Parliament.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s army was disintegrating: years of chaotic government had led to unpaid wages, spiralling deficits and lack of funds, and resentment was fermenting. Lambert\u2019s men had had enough of \u2013 as the ballad puts it \u2013 scrounging for \u2018Free quarter in the North\u2019.<\/p>\n

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. \u2018Bum-fodder\u2019 takes great delight in this about- turn from the strongmen of the English army: the \u2018men of Mars\u2019 who had squared up to the Rump Parliament, now pleading for it to come back. The poem scoffs at these army figures who\u2019ve \u2018submitted to kiss the Parliament\u2019s Arse\u2019: brown-nosing of the most humiliating kind.<\/p>\n

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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 \u2018C\u00e6dmon\u2019s Hymn\u2019 (around 730) 2. Vikings Extract from The Battle of Maldon (around 1000) 3.<\/p>\n

Conquest and Resistance \u2018The Death of King William\u2019 from the Peterborough Chronicle (around 1087) 4. Anarchy: The Land Torn Apart \u2018Who Will Give Me a Fountain of Tears\u2019 by Henry of Huntingdon (around 1146) 5. Mice, Monks and \u2018Merry England\u2019 \u2018Sumer Is Icumen In\u2019 (around 1260) 6. What Women Want Extract from \u2018The Wife of Bath\u2019s Tale\u2019 by Geoffrey Chaucer (probably 1390s) 7.<\/p>\n

Love and Loss in a Time of Plague Extract from Pearl (around 1390) 8. Once More unto the Breach: Neighbours and Adversaries \u2018Agincourt Carol\u2019 (1415) 9. Anne Boleyn and All That \u2018Whoso List to Hunt\u2019 by Thomas Wyatt (around 1520s) 10. Words for Burning \u2018The Ballad Which Anne Askew Made and Sang When She Was in Newgate\u2019 by Anne Askew (1546) 11.<\/p>\n

Poetry, Prophecy and the Island \u2018This England\u2019 (John of Gaunt\u2019s Speech) from Richard II by William Shakespeare (around 1595) 12. The Arse-End of England \u2018Bum-fodder, or, Waste-paper, Proper to Wipe the Nation\u2019s RUMP with, or Your Own\u2019 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 \u2018Crumble-Hall\u2019 by Mary Leapor (around 1745) 15.<\/p>\n

From Africa to New England to England: A Voice for Freedom \u2018To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth\u2019 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 \u2018The Cry of the Children\u2019 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1842) 18.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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