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In Our Name: pragmatics, materiality and ideologies of power and nation in the correspondence of James V and Henry VIII, 1513–1542.

For Scotland and England, royal correspondence has shaped the political and social lives of both nations as much as any battlefield. Letters were the primary means of diplomacy, of information exchange, and of signalling a sovereign’s royal authority. This project examines the vernacular letters written between 1513-42 of James V and Henry VIII, taking a new perspective on their ideological import. It considers how such letters were written, and the ways these choices represent royal power and shape national views of kingship. By analysing the use of Scots and English, how the royals refer to themselves and to their recipients, how they express their intentions and commands, and the properties of the paper, the handwriting, and the signature, we explore how the discourses of a King of Scotland or England can be differentiated, and how these choices relate to the changing social and political conflicts of their time.