The Spatial Dynamics of Parish Politics: Topographies of Tension in English Communities, c.1350-1640

This chapter focuses on two aspects of political imposture that span almost the entire spectrum of the governmental body in early modern England: bogus kings and officials. Common law and parliamentary legislation defined the duties of officials. Bogus officials existed at all levels of state organization and ranged from petty constables, bailiffs and watchmen to superior officers such as messengers and JPs. A great many of the officials such as the gentlemen of the privy chamber worked part-time and unpaid. At the local level, parish officers such as constables were essentially ordinary householders, serving without remuneration and usually for only one year. However, these regulations were not strict and handled very flexibly. The late fifteenth-century cases of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck are paradigms of royal impostures in English history that are both widely known and extensively covered in the recent historiography.