Tudor monarchy

Natalie Mears

University of Durham

Introduction

• Historiography

• Reigns of the Tudor monarchs

• Reading list

1. Historiography

• Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton

• Modern, institutional, bureaucratic

• The Tudor Revolution in Government (1953)

1. Historiography

• 1970s: Starkey – people

• 1990s: Guy – ‘New Tudor Political History’

• Institutions, people, ideas

1. Historiography

• Political thought not a disembodied discourse

• Put in context

• Real issues = problem to debate

• Writers examine these issues

• Give people range of solutions

1. Historiography

• Institutions, people, ideas

e.g. Lord Burghley (Stephen Alford)

• Problems

1. Historiography

i) Nature of monarchy

• Henry VIII: ‘imperial monarchy’

• Edward VI: minority

• Mary and Elizabeth: gender/queenship

1. Historiography

ii) Institutions

• Privy council

• Parliament

iii) People

• Classical humanism

• Citizenship

e.g. Burghley

1. Historiography

iv) Realm as whole

e.g. Elizabethan realm

• Vulnerable and paranoid

• Foreign invasion + domestic insurgence

• Quasi-republican ideas

• 1590s: authoritarian, economic and social problems, war.

2. Tudor Monarchs: Henry VII

• Least studied

• Source material

• Different debates

• Existing literature

2. Tudor Monarchs: Henry VII

• Steve Gunn and Margaret Condon

• Council Attendant

• Not modern and bureaucratic

• Comparable to Edward IV

• French influence

• Magnificent court

2. Tudor Monarchs: Henry VIII

‘Trench warfare’

i) How he governed

• Elton vs. Starkey

2. Tudor Monarchs: Henry VIII

ii) Factionalism

• Elton, Starkey, Ives: YES

• Bernard: NO

• Gunn, Guy: types of group; sometimes

iii) Was Henry easy to persuade or manipulate?

2. Tudor Monarchs: Edward VI

i) Role of Edward, ‘King Josiah’

ii) Challenges of minority government

• ‘Good duke’ Somerset?

• ‘Evil Machiavell’ Northumberland?

2. Tudor Monarchs: Mary I

• Not well served

• Religion

• Gender/ Queenship

2. Tudor Monarchs: Elizabeth I

i) Queenship

• Mary, Elizabeth, Mary Stuart, Mary of Guise, Catherine de Medici

• John Knox, The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women (Geneva, 1558)

• John Aylmer, An harborowe for faithful and trewe subiects (Strasburg, 1559)

2. Tudor Monarchs: Elizabeth I

a) Knox

b) Aylmer:

• Bible

• Exceptions

• ‘Mixed polity’

e.g. Christopher St German (‘king-in-parliament’)

• Significance

2. Tudor Monarchs: Elizabeth I

i) Mary: unwieldy council? Guy: inner ring inc Cardinal Pole

ii) Elizabeth: differing views

• Alford: privy council

• Me: ‘probouleutic group’ + ad hoc counselling (Throckmorton, Hunsdon)

iii) Tensions between Elizabeth and counsellors: gender or religion?

iv) Classical humanism and citizenship

2. Tudor Monarchs: Elizabeth I

ii) Succession + iii) Religion

• Mary Queen of Scots

• Marriage

• Nominate a successor

• Control Mary

2. Tudor Monarchs: Elizabeth I

• Strategic launchpads

Scotland

The Netherlands

France

Ireland

• Fifth Column