Nationalism among English Merchants in ХV century (on «Libel of English Policy» material)

Authors

  • Oleksii V. Cherednichenko Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 64/13 Volodimyrska Street, Kyiv 01601, Ukrainian

Keywords:

England, Middle Ages, merchants, nationalism, nation

Abstract

This article deals with a problem of nationalism among English merchants of ХV century. The objective which the research aims to achieve is to solve a question of existence of nationalist attitudes in this social stratum in Late Middle Ages. For the first time an anonymous political tract «Libel of English Policy» was used; this tract reflected the political interests of English merchants. The introduction is devoted to the general problem of the applicability of the term «nationalism» in the field of late medieval history. The author concluded that a perennialist approach allows a researcher to properly investigate the question at hand. In the main part of the paper the author remarks that the work contains views on such attributes of the nation as national territory, national history and mythology, traits of national mentality, othering in the context of the nationalist worldview, the feeling of national superiority; the importance of national literary language is also touched upon in the article. Summing up, the researcher comes to the conclusion that the nationalism existed among English merchants in ХV century. The results of this study could be applied not only in the studies in history of England, but also those of the history and theory of nations and nationalism as well as the history of late medieval Western Europe as a sui generis civilization.

Author Biography

  • Oleksii V. Cherednichenko, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, 64/13 Volodimyrska Street, Kyiv 01601, Ukrainian

    postgraduate student at the department of ancient world and middle ages, faculty of history

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Published

2017-06-30

How to Cite

[1]
Cherednichenko, O.V. 2017. Nationalism among English Merchants in ХV century (on «Libel of English Policy» material). Journal of the Belarusian State University. History. 2 (Jun. 2017), 62–68.