Этносы и «нации» в Западной Европе в Средние века и раннее Новое время

The Burgundian state under the Valois dukes was composed of different regions which had been parts of others states before or even had constituted independent duchies, counties etc. The needs for legitimation of the dukes' power over those territories and for centralization of their state caused the attempts to represent the dukes of Burgundy as legal and natural successors of the previous dynasties. The official propaganda insisted on peaceful unification of all regions into the Burgundian state and on legal succession. Along with historical arguments this concept seems to have contributed to the formation of Burgundian identity. The representation of the French kingdom and in particular the French king as natural enemies of the Burgundians was another way to consolidate all subjects around the Burgundian dynasty. The duke of Burgundy was represented as the only protector of «la chose publique» and the subjects were requested to help him by paying taxes in return for their welfare. The disaster at Nancy in 1477 demonstrated that the urban community and small nobility rather than aristocracy («Noblesse debilite» according to Jean Molinet) was the support of the heiress of Charles the Bold. Nonetheless, this Burgundian identity in the XVth century does not appear to be national, but dynastic.

II.III. ETHNIC SELF-IDENTIFICATION AND HISTORICAL MYTH IN POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY FRANCE

The study deals with formation and development of concept of national identity in French political thought and historiography. The author analyzes different aspects of that concept such as a problem of ethnogenesis in its basic evolution and an attempt to represent a new model of national identity based on synthesis of Germanic, Celtic, Roman, and Greek elements during the formation of the French. The named theory was constructed by French historians and jurists in order to defend their own concept of the state. Analysis of that theory shows not only the great role of cultural and historical myths in that process but also a certain difference in points of view due to political convictions of theoreticians as well as more general reflection of Troyan myth, particularly in Ronsard’s poetry.

II.IV THE EARLY MODERN BRITISH IDENTITY AND COMPOSITE MONARCHY

Inspired by debates over the strength and depth of the pre-modern roots of nationalism, this study attempts to revaluate the status of British identities in an era whose dominant modes of political argument were based on so called epochalist and essentialist discourses designed with confessional, institutional and juridical terms. Making departure from the widely shared belief that the whole world had been peopled by the outsprings of the biblical «nations», the article probes inconsistencies in national myths of origin and ancient constitutional claims, and considers points of contact which existed in the early modern era between ethnic identities that were viewed traditionally as antithetical, including those of Celts and Saxons.

II.V SELF IDENTITY OF THE ENGLISH NATION IN THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XVI – BEGINNING OF THE XVII CENTURY

The article focuses on the significance of the parliamentary debates for the formation of the national identity of the English people. The author examines the common places of the parliamentary political language related to the images of England and the English nation. The basic elements of official representation of the Englishmen in the ritualized speeches of the leading Elizabethan statesmen were the professing of the true faith, readiness to sacrifice their lives and goods for their struggle against tyranny of the Pope and the King of Spain. Much attention is also paid to the ideas of uniqueness of the English political system and law, as well as the concept of the liberties pertaining to the freeborn Englishmen.

II.VI. CORPORATE IDENTITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY: ENGLISH LEGAL CORPORATIONS AND POLEMICS ON COMPOSITE MONARCHY IN THE EARLY STUART ENGLAND