ELMs disease? Corporatism, stewardship and citizenship in the English countryside

Varying concepts of citizenship, implicit within policy providing countryside access opportunities in England and the sometimes contrasting political rhetoric concerning citizenship, are evaluated here. The focus for this paper surrounds the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and, generically, the access elements of Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) and the implications of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in this context. Policy formulation in respect of countryside access may not be prepared considering the philosophical implications for citizens rights or property rights constructions. However, it is hypothesized that particular modes of regulation and commodification (of certain countryside goods) are imbued with certain values which reflect a neo-Liberal political philosophy. This view is contextualized within present theoretical debates concerning rural society.

Entre histoire et fiction: la représentation du règne d'Arthur dans le manuscrit enluminé du Brut en prose, Londres, Lambeth Palace 6 (c. 1480)

The manuscript London, Lambeth Palace 6, contains the Middle English prose Brut, a text which benefited from a great popularity throughout the fifteenth century. It was copied by an English scribe and richly illuminated by the Master of Edward IV and his assistants at Bruges around 1480. This article studies the representation and integration of the reign of Arthur in the historical framework of the Brut or Chronicles of England, including its fictional aspects: Arthur emerges as a historical character but also as a chivalric and mythical figure. The analysis covers the miniatures ranging from the plot leading to the conception of Arthur to the end of his reign (fols. 36-66). The textual and iconographic choices of the prose Bruts are highlighted by comparisons with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, Wace’s Brut, and later prose rewritings in the Lancelot-Grail romance cycle, especially Merlin and its Vulgate Sequel. They show the continuous interest raised by Arthur in the aristocratic and royal circles of late fifteenth century England and the relationship be¬tween continental and insular historiographical, literary and artistic traditions.