Before the Black Legend: Sources of Anti-Spanish Sentiment in England, 1553-1558

Although not in itself a historiographic study, this dissertation proceeds from a historiographic point of departure. An introduction reviews the peculiar manner in which elements of anti-Spanish sentiment recognizeable to the modern student as facets of the literary and historiographic prejudice known as the "Black Legend" were incorporated into the writings of English historians from the late 17th to the early 20th century. Beginning with the premise that such historians viewed opposition to Mary Tudor's Spanish marriage in 1553 as proof of the existence, in 16th-century England, of an established fund of hostility toward Spain, the initial chapter of the present work states the purpose of the thesis as that of examining those expressions of anti-Spanish sentiment that appeared during the Marian period. This reconsideration of evidence seeks to suggest that such anti-Spanish feeling as was present in England throughout these years was more diverse and less spontaneous in origin than early English historians have customarily asserted.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Thomas, Joan Marie

• History, European

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8409841

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/70488