Seventeenth-century England was a time of instability and disobedience. The political battle between the Crown and Parliament, as both strove to consolidate power over the nation, allowed for a debate to arise regarding the terminology of crimes, with the most notable examples of sedition and treason. This thesis explores this debate between warring factions to examine how these two terminologies changed and adapted between the period of 1625-1660. This has been done by focusing on the language used by seventeenth-century contemporaries, through a wide range of primary documentation, to establish how these two terms were defined in their early Stuart contexts. Overall, this thesis suggests that the concepts of treason and sedition did not follow their prescribed definitions set out in legislation, but instead were malleable tools that could be utilised by the political elite of early Stuart England, to secure their political ambitions of wielding executive power over England
| Date of Award | 13 Feb 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Sarah Bastow (Main Supervisor) |
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