This marvellous new book sets the developments in the government of England under the early Tudors in the context of recent work on the fifteenth century and on continental Europe.
This classic volume in the renowned Oxford History of England series examines the birth of a nation-state from the death throes of the Middle Ages in North-West Europe. John D. Mackie describes the establishment of a stable monarchy by the very competent Henry VII, examines the means employed by him, and considers how far his monarchy can be described as "new." He also discusses the machinery by which the royal power was exercised and traces the effect of the concentration of lay and eccleciastical authority in the person of Wolsey, whose soaring ambition helped make possible the Caesaro-Papalism of Henry VIII.
Here, six prominent Tudor historians reconsider the widley-held view that the 1530s witnessed a "revolution" in government and administration. This revisionist work not only offers a radical critique of established orthodoxy, but also presents important new interpretations of the history of the royal household, the council, parliament, and financial administration in the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition to the editors, contributors to the volume are J. D. Alsop, J. A. Guy, Dale Hoak, and Jennifer Loach.
Annotation This volume reconstructs the lives of Henry VII's new men - low-born ministers with legal, financial, political, and military skills who enforced the king's will as he sought to strengthen government after the Wars of the Roses, examining how they exercised power, gained wealth, and spent it to sustain their new-found status.
This book offers a fresh understanding of the substance behind the rhetoric of English Renaissance monarchy. Propaganda is identified as a key factor in the intensification of the English state. The Tudor royal image is pursued in all its forms: in print and prayer, in iconography andarchitecture. The monarchy surrounded itself with the trappings of majesty at court, but in the shires it relied on different strategies of persuasion to uphold its authority. The Reformation placed the provincial pulpit at the disposal of the crown, and the church became the main conduit of royalpropaganda. Sermons taught the duty of obedience, and parish prayer was redirected from local saints towards the sovereign as the symbolic core of the nation.Dr Cooper examines the relationship between the Tudor monarchy and its subjects in Cornwall and Devon, and the complex interaction between local and national political culture. These were years of social and religious upheaval, during which the western peninsula witnessed three major rebellions,and many more riots and affrays. A vibrant popular religion was devastated by the Protestant Reformation, and foreign invasion was a frequent threat. Cornwall remained recognizably different from England in its ancient language and traditions. Yet in the midst of all this, popular allegiance tomonarchy and nation survived and prospered. The Tudors were mourned and celebrated in towns and parish churches. Loyalty was fostered by the Duchy of Cornwall and the stannaries. Regional difference, far from undermining the power of the crown, was fundamental to its success in the westcountry.This is a study of government at the dangerous edges of Tudor England, and a testament to the unifying power of propaganda.
This authoritative A–Z encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses provides accurate and concise descriptions of the major battles and events and the principal historical figures and issues involved. For centuries, historians agreed about the Wars of the Roses, seeing them as four decades of medieval darkness and chaos, when the royal family and the nobility destroyed themselves fighting for control of the royal government. Even Shakespeare got into the act, dramatizing, popularizing, and darkening this viewpoint in eight plays. Today, based on new research, this has become one of the most hotly controversial periods in English history. Historians disagree on fundamental issues, such as dates and facts, as well as interpretation. Most argue that the effects of the wars were not as widespread as once thought, and some see the traditional view of the era as merely Tudor propaganda. A few even claim that England during the late 15th century was "a society organized for peace." Historian John A. Wagner brings readers up to date on the latest research and thinking about this crucial period of England's history.
How much does the Thomas Cromwell of popular novels and television series resemble the real Cromwell? This meticulous study of Cromwell’s early political career expands and revises what has been understood concerning the life and talents of Henry VIII’s chief minister. Michael Everett provides a new and enlightening account of Cromwell’s rise to power, his influence on the king, his role in the Reformation, and his impact on the future of the nation. Controversially, Everett depicts Cromwell not as the fervent evangelical, Machiavellian politician, or the revolutionary administrator that earlier historians have perceived. Instead he reveals Cromwell as a highly capable and efficient servant of the Crown, rising to power not by masterminding Henry VIII’s split with Rome but rather by dint of exceptional skills as an administrator.
This new edition of Lucy Wooding’s Henry VIII is fully revised and updated to provide an insightful and original portrait of one of England’s most unforgettable monarchs and the many paradoxes of his character and reign. Henry was a Renaissance prince whose Court dazzled with artistic display, yet he was also a savage adversary, who ruthlessly crushed all those who opposed him. Five centuries after his reign, he continues to fascinate, always evading easy characterization. Wooding locates Henry VIII firmly in the context of the English Renaissance and the fierce currents of religious change that characterized the early Reformation, as well as exploring the historiographical debates that have surrounded him and his reign. This new edition takes into account significant advances in recent research, particularly following the five hundredth anniversary of his accession in 2009, to put forward a distinctive interpretation of Henry’s personality and remarkable style of kingship. It gives a fresh portrayal of Henry VIII, cutting away the misleading mythology that surrounds him in order to provide a vivid account of this passionate, wilful, intelligent and destructive king. This compelling biography will be essential reading for all early modern students.
Thomas Cromwell, chief architect of the English Reformation, served as minister of Henry VIII from 1531 to 1540, the period during which more political and religious reform was accomplished than at any other time in Henry's thirty-seven-year reign. Thus the momentous events of the 1530s are generally (but not universally) attributed to Cromwell's agency. Cromwell has been the subject of close and continuous attention for the last half century, with positive appraisal of his work and achievements as the scholarly norm. In this classroom biography--the first in a generation and the only one now in print--that judgment is largely accepted, though it is combined with earlier and more critical assessments that view Cromwell as a disciple of Machiavelli. One distinguishing feature of this study is its overview of Machiavellian thought, along with its overview of Marsilian thought. Marsilius of Padua, fourteenth-century political philosopher and author of Defensor Pacis, is widely recognized as the source of Cromwell's reformation ideas; but nowhere is Marsilius explicated. The same is true of Machiavelli--never explicated though said to be (by Reginald Pole, cousin of Henry and cardinal of the church) the source of Cromwell's ideas on statecraft. A second distinguishing feature of the book is its inclusion of an introductory chapter that situates Cromwell in the sixteenth century and shows his connection to important events, characters, and ideas. Thus, while the book is a biography, its focus is broader and its uses more various.