The Tudor Age

'The Tudor age' is worthwhile for its fascinating descriptions of daily life and anecdotes about the era's famous figures. It will be an informative and attractive addition to public library shelves.

From the arrival of Henry Tudor and his army, at Milford in 1485, to the death of the great Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, this was an astonishingly eventful and contradictory age. All the strands of Tudor life are gathered in a rich tapestry - London and the country, costumes, furniture and food, travel, medicine, sports and pastimes, grand tournaments and the great flowering of English drama, juxtaposed with the stultifying narrowness of peasant life, terrible roads, a vast underclass, the harsh treatment of heretics and traitors, and the misery of the Plague.

‘Anyone who writes about the Tudor century puts his head into a number of untamed lions’ mouths.’ G.R. Elton, Preface Geoffrey Elton (1921–1994) was one of the great historians of the Tudor period. England Under the Tudors is his major work and an outstanding history of a crucial and turbulent period in British and European history. Revised several times since its first publication in 1955, England Under the Tudors charts a historical period that witnessed monumental changes in religion, monarchy, and government – and one that continued to shape British history long after. Spanning the commencement of Henry VII's reign to the death of Elizabeth I, Elton’s magisterial account is populated by many colourful and influential characters, from Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas Cromwell to Henry VIII and Mary Queen of Scots. Elton also examines aspects of the Tudor period that had been previously overlooked, such as empire and commonwealth, agriculture and industry, seapower, and the role of the arts and literature. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

A picture of England of great beauty and violence, achievement and despair.

Ever since its first publication in 1953, James A. Williamson’s The Tudor Age has been lauded for its vivid and vigorous approach to the riches of its subject, the Tudor Age. The present volume is the second edition, originally published 1957, which contains an additional three-part appendix, and will appeal to students of the Tudor Age and general avid historians alike. “There are many things to admire in this volume...[Williamson] is to be congratulated upon his persistence in his declared intention of telling a story instead of describing the results of a post-mortem examination. After a brief introductory chapter in which he sets the early Tudor scene, he sustains his narrative throughout the entire book.”—S. T. Bindoff, History Today

Illustrated with contemporary artworks, photographs, and documents, The Tudors tells the public and private story of England's most famous royal family and the country they ruled. The Tudors reigned for just over a century (1485-1603), through one of the most colorful and tumultuous periods in English history, marked by tyranny, rebellion, religious fanaticism, and threat of invasion. No other dynasty has so impressed itself on our consciousness, for it was an era just as enthralling and notorious as its portrayal in fiction. Beginning on the bloody battlefield of Bosworth, when Henry Tudor seized the English crown and ended the Wars of the Roses, this book explores the monarchs who have fascinated readers for centuries--including Henry VIII, famous for his six marriages and for breaking from Rome; "Bloody Mary" and her attempt to return England to the Catholic fold; and Elizabeth I, "Gloriana," who ushered in a new era of discovery and innovation.

The turbulent Tudor Age never fails to capture the imagination. But what was it truly like to be a woman during this era? The Tudor period conjures up images of queens and noblewomen in elaborate court dress; of palace intrigue and dramatic politics. But if you were a woman, it was also a time when death during childbirth was rife; when marriage was usually a legal contract, not a matter for love, and the education you could hope to receive was minimal at best. Yet the Tudor century was also dominated by powerful and dynamic women in a way that no era had been before. Historian Elizabeth Norton explores the life cycle of the Tudor woman, from childhood to old age, through the diverging examples of women such as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII’s sister; Cecily Burbage, Elizabeth's wet nurse; Mary Howard, widowed but influential at court; Elizabeth Boleyn, mother of a controversial queen; and Elizabeth Barton, a peasant girl who would be lauded as a prophetess. Their stories are interwoven with studies of topics ranging from Tudor toys to contraception to witchcraft, painting a portrait of the lives of queens and serving maids, nuns and harlots, widows and chaperones. Norton brings this vibrant period to colorful life in an evocative and insightful social history.