Providence and Propaganda: Messages of Religious Persuasion in 17th-century “Warrior Men”
Matthew Jewell
In an effort to better understand the cultural contexts and themes of the Warrior Women ballads found within the Dugaw catalogue, this essay will examine 17th– century street literature which predominantly features or targets an audience of “Warrior Men.” For the purposes of this project, “Warrior Men” will encapsulate soldiers who are not identified as women: combatants who are acknowledged as male as well as those who are not explicitly gendered but fall under the male-oriented umbrella term “soldier.” While the Warrior Woman often cross-dresses as a means of following her lover or husband to war, the Warrior Man is trapped in his own paradoxical state: he possesses and exudes a robust nationalistic desire to serve his home country by fighting for its domestic and foreign interests, but he is beleaguered by a crisis of faith regarding his mortality. In response, the Warrior Man ballad assumes a special propagandic task of reassurance, often appealing to soldiers on a religious basis to serve for the glory of God and country. Broaching themes of the Protestant Reformation and Catholic counter-reformation, several ballads argue that a religiously reformed England has incurred God’s favor, that God has ordained Britain’s fight against “the Papists” because it is the seat of the “true religion.” This message of encouragement (specifically, that England’s success on the battlefield is all but assured under the eyes of a sympathetic and just God) provides a compelling revelation about 17th-century British culture: that men were aware of the trials and dangers of early modern warfare and may have needed the persuasion of religious propaganda to fight.