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"BY WILL BEQUEATH'D": THE MONARCH'S POWER TO FIX THE SUCCESSION BY WILL

In Elizabethan England continuity with the past was a potent source of legitimacy (hence the use of charges of "novelty" and "innovation" to discredit religious and political claims or activities). But in the 1590s discontinuity was unavoidable: the English people were facing, in Elizabeth's impending death without an heir, a radical disjunction in their history. The arguments over the succession were a contest, not just between candidates, but over which of the competing historical narratives could best restore that breach and re-align the monarchy, and the nation, with its antecedents.²⁶ The historical project of bringing past and present into a coherent relationship, one productive of a sense of collective identity, was at the heart of the contest over legitimacy.

Shakespeare's play offers several links to the reign of the deceased Richard I. Most important as far as John's...

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1. Introduction
2. "By Will Bequeath'D": The Monarch's Power To Fix The Succession By Will
3. "Stranger Blood": The Capacity Of A Foreigner To Inherit Land Or Crown
4. "Speak, Citizens, For England": The Process Of Determining The Successor
5. Copyright