Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores literary attempts to imagine Britain at three crucial moments in the island's political history. It examines the representation of England as an island in two texts written towards the reign of Elizabeth I — a queen who ruled over less territory than any other monarch since 1066, in spite of the imperial rhetoric that characterized her reign. The chapter focuses on Shakespeare's John of Gaunt's notorious celebration of 'England' as 'this sceptred isle' alongside a similar trope in Anne Dowriche's The French Historie, placed this time in the mouth of a French Protestant refugee. It explores questions that go to the heart of the problem of national identity in the archipelago — and further afield. The chapter shows how archipelagic identities were formed and transformed through contact with the 'less happier lands' that lay beyond John of Gaunt's 'silver sea'.