The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660

394 Pages·2008·4.52 MB·English

by  Alison Games

THE WEB OF EMPIRE
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T he Web of Empire
English Cosmopolitans in an
Age of Expansion
1560–1660
ALISON GAMES
1
2008
1
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Copyright © 2008 by Alison Games
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Games, Alison, 1963–
Th e web of empire : English cosmopolitans in an age of expansion, 1560–1660 / Alison Games.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-533554-5
1. Great Britain—Colonies—History. 2. Great Britain—Commerce—History—16th century.
3. Great Britain—Commerce—History—17th century. 4. Great Britain—Foreign relations—1558–1603.
5. Great Britain—Foreign relations—1603–1688. 6. Imperialism—History. 7. Great Britain—Civilization—
16th century. 8. Great Britain—Civilization—17th century. I. Title.
DA16.G36 2008
909'.0977124206—dc22 2007041087
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Doug
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I think every author must anticipate impatiently not only the completion of
a project but also the opportunity to thank the many people and institutions
who have helped out along the way. My research was consistently facilitated
by welcoming staff at numerous libraries, including the Huntington Library,
the John Carter Brown Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the
Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the National Archives
of Scotland, the Edinburgh University Library, the National Library of Scot-
land, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, the British Library, and
the Bodleian Library. The interlibrary loan office at Georgetown University’s
Lauinger Library is a marvel of efficiency and sleuthing. Stephen Tabor of
the Huntington Library, Bettina Smith of the Folger Shakespeare Library,
and Sara Rodger of Arundel Castle helped me obtain images, and I thank
them for their assistance and their efficiency.
My ability to do research in repositories on both sides of the Atlantic was
facilitated by the many public and private foundations that support scholarly
research. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities, to the
Mellon Foundation (which supported research fellowships at the John Carter
Brown Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Huntington
Library), and to the American Philosophical Society for a Franklin Research
Grant that supported research trips to the United Kingdom. Georgetown
University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences provided various research
grants over the years. Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Dean of Georgetown Col-
lege, is a great facilitator of faculty research, and I thank her and three suc-
cessive department chairs, Jo Ann Moran Cruz, Jim Collins, and John Tutino,
for helping make many semesters of research leave possible.
Stints in research libraries are always enhanced by the presence of col-
leagues. I was fortunate during a blissful year at the Huntington Library to
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
enjoy the company of Hal Barron, Lisa Bitel, Heidi Brayman Hackel, Steve
Hackel, Jean Howard, and Peter Mancall. Roy and Louise Ritchie were
generous hosts beyond the Huntington’s grounds. Julie Hardwick and Bob
Olwell were splendid companions during a semester at the John Carter Brown
Library, and I am also grateful to the JCB staff for their gracious welcome
during my time in Providence. I have presented portions of this research at
many diff erent conferences and seminars, and I thank those colleagues who
commented on aspects of my work for their time, assistance, and helpful
feedback, especially members of the Forum on European Expansion and
Global Interaction. I would also like to thank Dan Green for his advice and
expertise, Susan Ferber for her careful and helpful editing, Gwen Colvin for
her assistance in the book’s production, Bill Nelson for the maps, and two
anonymous readers for Oxford University Press for their thoughtful advice.
This book took me to parts of the world far beyond my area of expertise,
and time and again colleagues have shared their knowledge and research
with me. One of the delights of my work on this project has been the con-
stant reminder of what a pleasure it is to work within such a generous schol-
arly community. I am especially grateful in this regard to David Armitage,
David Hancock, Wim Klooster, Henriette de Bruyn Kops, Pier Larson, and
Philip J. Stern. I found similarly generous assistance in the cramped cor-
ridors of my department. Georgetown’s History Department justly prides
itself on its collegiality and on its international orientation. I have benefited
greatly from both. Several colleagues read all or part of the manuscript at
an especially busy time of year: for their reckless generosity, careful read-
ing, constructive feedback, and willingness to be pestered by my questions
on all sorts of topics, I would like to thank Osama Abi-Mershed, Tommaso
Astarita (polyglot friend and patient translator of Italian and Latin items),
Henriette de Bruyn Kops, Chandra Manning, Bryan McCann, Meredith
McKittrick, John McNeill, Jo Ann Moran Cruz, Adam Rothman, Jordan
Sand, Judith Tucker, and Aparna Vaidik. I would also like to thank Carol
Benedict, David Collins, Amy Leonard, Joe McCartin, Jim Millward, and
Aviel Roshwald. These attentive colleagues caught numerous mistakes and
misstatements; sadly, convention dictates that I must take responsibility for
those that remain. They have also provided good company over the years
and I feel fortunate indeed to work with such a fun and interesting c ollection
of people.
Extended research trips in the United Kingdom were facilitated by the
generous hospitality of Robin Lumsdaine, Julie Hardwick, Julie Edwards
and Stefano, Caterina, Carlo, and Angiolina Quadrio Curzio in London;
Jonathan and Katherine Clark in Oxford and at Callaly Castle in Northum-
berland; and Simon Newman and Marina Moskowitz in Glasgow. Simon
introduced me to the Wissahickon Wanderers, and I thank Simon, Tom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Humphrey, Susan Branson, and Dan and Sally Gordon for many miles of
camaraderie and some unusual runs featuring pumpkins, bagels, snow-
capped mountains, cows, a wedding, and a tiara. Jim Williams and Karin
Wulf have been my good friends since we met in Philadelphia many years
ago and it continues to be a joy to share with them both new projects and
new chapters in our lives. My family has always supported my academic
pursuits. My delightful nieces Emily, Margaux, and Lillian appeared on the
scene during the years I have been working on this project, and my world
is richer for their presence. Finally, I thank Doug Egerton for his steadfast
support, his copy-e diting, his good humor, and for all of the delectable Cos-
mopolitans that he has concocted for my consumption as I have labored to
make sense of the other cosmopolitans I wrote about in this book.