The Elizabethan Invention of Anglo-Saxon England

Laurence Nowell (1530-c.1570) author of the first dictionary of Old English and William Lambarde (1536-1601) Nowell's protégé and eventually the first editor of the Old English Laws are key figures in Elizabethan historical discourses and in its political and literary society; through their work the period between the Germanic migrations and the Norman Conquest came to be regarded as a foundational time for Elizabethan England overlapping with and contributing to contemporary debates on the shape of Elizabethan English language. Their studies took different strategies in demonstrating the role of early medieval history in Elizabethan national -- even imperial -- identity while in Lambarde's legal writings Old English law codes become identical with the ancient laws that underpinned contemporary common law. Their efforts contradict the assumption that Anglo-Saxon studies did not effectively participate in Tudor nationalism outside of Protestant polemic; instead it was a vital part of making history English. Their work furthers our understanding of both the history of medieval studies and the importance of early Anglo-Saxon studies to Tudor nationalism.