Independence in the Early Modern World

The Puritans were zealous Protestant activists who emerged as some of the most radical thinkers in early modern England. From their first appearance they were led by Presbyterians who agitated for a popular form of church government and were suspected of political sedition. This suspicion was later confirmed to some minds by those puritans who opposed the crown during the English civil wars. The official suppression of leading Presbyterians from the early 1590s was followed by nearly a half century of silence until their public resurgence in the mid-seventeenth century. Unpublished manuscripts in the library of Trinity College Dublin reveal an entirely new trajectory for the development of Puritanism and radical claims to independence during these four 'lost' decades. The manuscripts themselves represent the 'hidden' archive of Walter Travers, a leading Elizabethan ideologue. Some of these manuscripts are written in cypher, requiring careful decoding. My project will explore these materials and publish them, initially as an open access online resource targeted both at an academic and at a more general audience, and subsequently as a 250,000 word book with OUP. It will also explore the development of puritan claims to independence outside of Britain with ramifications for the wider world of Protestantism across Europe and the emerging American colonies. It is intended to speak not only to historians but to those interested more generally in the history of religious and political dissent.

While this project has a range of academic beneficiaries, it also has a direct relevance to the public. The concept of independence is not only crucial to current understanding of individual liberty but to virtually all political relationships in today's global society. Although the concept of liberty and independence is studied in national contexts (eg North America), there are few sources available to the public which explore how the concept of independence developed in Europe, Britain and America.

Beneficiaries will therefore include:

(i) General Public: Research material emerging from this project will be made available to the public by a website devoted to the Independence Project. This will help to bridge the divide between academic and public knowledge of independence and liberty. It will provide a corrective to the lingering myth of American exceptionalism.

(ii) Public Sector: This project draws extensively from newly identified manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin. The PI will establish a partnership with TCD to exhibit the manuscripts in their collection in the Long Room.

(iii) Commercial: This fellowship will also involve a partnership with Michael Mendelsohn, CEO of Patriot Pictures, who believes such collaboration will be mutually beneficial. My initial meetings with the project partner have already proved fruitful and inspired a new module at UEA on 'Conspiracy and Crisis' which is related to the proposed research in this fellowship. The project partner has agreed to provide training in communicating this research to a public audience. He has also expressed interest in optioning the results for a feature film, commenting that the project has great commercial potential.