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Jowitt, Claire 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5232-7003
(2022)
The last voyage of the Gloucester (1682): The politics of a royal shipwreck.
English Historical Review, 137 (586).
728–762.
ISSN 0013-8266
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Abstract
The significance of the wreck of the Gloucester on 6 May 1682 with James Stuart, duke of York, later James II and VII, enroute to Scotland is poorly understood. Based on new archival research, this article places the event in its political, cultural and naval contexts to re-evaluate its importance to British history and to correct a number of inaccuracies in recent historiography. The wreck occurred at a sensitive political moment as, within the maelstrom of the Exclusion Crisis (1679−81), the Duke was more hopeful of securing his place in the succession but, due in part to the cultural vigour of the ship of state trope, the disaster risked James being regarded as a pilot and commander unable to steer the nation’s future. Since his political enemies could use the shipwreck as propaganda to undermine his position as heir to the throne, the ways the event in general, and especially the Duke’s behaviour, were reported and memorialised became popular topics which were debated and contested from Whig and Tory viewpoints. Since the tragedy occurred at sea, one arm of early modern state apparatus that was especially responsive was the English navy, which was itself in the midst of a power struggle between Crown and admiralty for control over future direction. The article sheds new light on the far-reaching implications for James’s reign of the sinking of the Gloucester and argues afresh for the centrality of maritime history to Restoration political history.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding: This work was supported by the award of a Leverhulme Trust Project Grant RPG-2021-025 (2021–24) for ‘The Wreck of the Gloucester: The Life and Times of a Seventeenth-Century Third-Rate Warship’. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | history,4*,4* ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1202 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Area Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Medieval History Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Medieval and Early Modern Research Group |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2022 12:30 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jun 2023 07:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/85507 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ehr/ceac127 |
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