During the last decade of Henry VIII's life, his Protestant subjects struggled to reconcile two loyalties: to their Gospel and to their king. This book tells the story of that struggle and describes ...how a radicalised English Protestantism emerged from it. Focusing on the critical but neglected period 1539–47, Dr Ryrie argues that these years were not the 'conservative reaction' of conventional historiography, but a time of political fluidity and ambiguity. Most evangelicals continued to hope that the king would favour their cause, and remained doctrinally moderate and politically conformist. The author examines this moderate reformism in a range of settings - in the book trade, in the universities, at court and in underground congregations. He also describes its gradual eclipse, as shifting royal policy and the dynamics of the evangelical movement itself pushed reformers towards the more radical, confrontational Protestantism which was to shape the English identity for centuries.
In 14th century BC, the Hittites became the supreme political and military power in the Near East. How did they achieve their supremacy? How successful were they in maintaining it? What brought about ...their collapse and disappearance? This book,which describes the Hittite kingdom, seeks to answer these questions. Hittitology is a relatively new discipline in the field of Near Eastern studies. Little more than a century ago, when important advances had already been and were continually being made in the study of the Bronze Age civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Hittites were regarded as no more than a small Canaanite tribe living somewhere in Palestine — an assumption based on a few scattered biblical references. We now know that Hatti, the kingdom of the Hittites, was one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age, rivalling and eventually surpassing in the 14th century its two most powerful contemporaries, the kingdoms of Mitanni and Egypt. From their capital Hattusa in central Anatolia, the kings of the Land of Hatti controlled a widespread network of vassal states, which at the height of Hittite political and military development in the 14th and 13th centuries extended from the Aegean coast of Anatolia in the west through northern Syria to Damascus in the south, to the western fringes of Mesopotamia in the east.
Henry VIII remains the most iconic and controversial of all English Kings. For over four-hundred years he has been lauded, reviled and mocked, but rarely ignored. In his many guises - model ...Renaissance prince, Defender of the Faith, rapacious plunderer of the Church, obese Bluebeard-- he has featured in numerous works of fact and faction, in books, magazines, paintings, theatre, film and television. Yet despite this perennial fascination with Henry the man and monarch, there has been little comprehensive exploration of his historiographic legacy. Therefore scholars will welcome this collection, which provides a systematic survey of Henry's reputation from his own age through to the present. Divided into three sections, the volume begins with an examination of Henry's reputation in the period between his death and the outbreak of the English Civil War, a time that was to create many of the tropes that would dominate his historical legacy. The second section deals with the further evolution of his reputation, from the Restoration to Edwardian era, a time when Catholic commentators and women writers began moving into the mainstream of English print culture. The final section covers the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, which witnessed an explosion of representations of Henry, both in print and on screen. Taken together these studies, by a distinguished group of international scholars, offer a lively and engaging overview of how Henry's reputation has been used, abused and manipulated in both academia and popular culture since the sixteenth century. They provide intriguing insights into how he has been reinvented at different times to reflect the cultural, political and religious demands of the moment; sometimes as hero, sometimes as villain, but always as an unmistakable and iconic figure in the historical landscape.
Contents: Introduction: all is true - Henry VIII in and out of history, Thomas Betteridge and Thomas S. Freeman; Harry's peregrinations: an Italianate defence of Henry VIII, Brett Foster; From perfect prince to 'wise and pollitike' king: Henry VIII in Edward Hall's chronicle, Scott Lucas; 'It is perilous stryvinge withe princes': Henry VIII in works by Pole, Roper and Harpsfield, Carolyn Colbert; Hands defiled with blood: Henry VIII in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, Thomas S. Freeman; Fallen Prince and Pretender of the Faith: Henry VIII as seen by Sander and Persons, Victor Houliston; 'It is unpossible to draw his picture well who hath severall countenances': Lord Herbert of Cherbury and The Life and Reign of King Henry VIII, Christine Jackson; Henry VIII in history: Gilbert Burnet's History of the Reformation (v.1), 1679, Andrew Starkie; 'Unblushing falsehood': the Strickland sisters and the domestic history of Henry VIII, Judith M. Richards; Ford Madox Ford's Fifth Queen and the modernity of Henry VIII, Anthony Monta and Susannah Brietz Monta; The 'sexual everyman'? Maxwell Anderson's Henry VIII, Glenn Richardson; Drama king: the portrayal of Henry VIII in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, Ruth Ahnert; 'Anne taught him how to be cruel': Henry VIII in modern historical fiction, Megan L. Hickerson; Booby, baby or classical monster? Henry VIII in the writings of G.R. Elton and J.J. Scarisbrick, Dale Hoak; Through the eyes of a fool: Henry VIII and Margaret George’s 1986 novel The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers, Kristen Post Walton; Index.
Thomas Betteridge, Oxford Brookes University, UK and Thomas S. Freeman, University of Essex, UK
Thomas More is a complex and controversial figure who has been regarded as both saint and persecutor, leading humanist and a representative of late medieval culture. His religious writings, with ...their stark and at times violent attacks on what More regarded as heresy, have been hotly debated. In Writing Faith and Telling Tales, Thomas Betteridge sets More's writings in a broad cultural and chronological context, compares them to important works of late fourteenth- and fifteenth-century vernacular theology, and makes a compelling argument for the revision of existing histories of Thomas More and his legacy. Betteridge focuses on four areas of More's writings: politics, philosophy, theology, and devotion. He examines More's History of King Richard III as a work of both history and political theory. He discusses Utopia and the ways in which its treatment of reason reflects More's Christian humanism. By exploring three of More's lesser known works, The Supplication of Souls, The Confutation, and The Apology, Betteridge demonstrates that More positioned his understanding of heresy within and against a long tradition of English anti- heretical writing, as represented in the works of Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Love. Finally, Betteridge focuses on two key concepts for understanding More's late devotional works: prayer and the book of Christ. In both cases, Betteridge claims, More seeks to develop a distinctive position that combines late medieval devotionalism with an Augustinian emphasis on the ethics of writing and reading. Writing Faith and Telling Tales poses important questions concerning periodization and confessionalization and will influence future work on the English Reformation and humanist writing in England.
An extraordinary court with late medieval roots in the
activities of the king's council, Star Chamber came into its own
over the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, before being
abolished in ...1641 by members of parliament for what they deemed
egregious abuses of royal power. Before its demise, the court heard
a wide range of disputes in cases framed as fraud, libel, riot, and
more. In so doing, it produced records of a sort that make its
archive invaluable to many researchers today for insights into both
the ordinary and extraordinary.
The chapters gathered here explore what we can learn about the
history of an age through both the practices of its courts and the
disputes of the people who came before them. With Star Chamber, we
view a court that came of age in an era of social, legal,
religious, and political transformation, and one that left an
exceptional wealth of documentation that will repay further
study.
Represents the most sustained as well as the most inclusive investigation to date of Wolsey's complex and highly contested legacy.
Remembering Wolseyseeks to contribute to our understanding of ...historical memory and memorialization by examining in detail the commemoration and representation of the life of Thomas Wolsey, the sixteenth-century cardinal, papal legate, and lord chancellor of England. Hornbeck surveys a wide range of representations of Cardinal Wolsey, from those contemporary with his death to recent mass-market appearances on television and historical fiction, to go beyond previous scholarship that has examined Wolsey only in an early modern context.
Remembering Wolseycontributes significantly to the ongoing reimagining of English church history in the years prior to the Reformation. Surveying chronicle accounts, pamphlets, plays, poems, historical fictions, works of historical scholarship, civic pageants and monuments, films, and television programs, the book shows how an extended sequence of authors have told widely varying stories about Wolsey's life, often through the lens of their own religious and ideological commitments and/or in response to the pressing concerns of their times.
The extraordinary success of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy (and its adaptations for the stage and the small screen) suggests that the educated public's appetite for stories from the reign of King Henry VIII has not abated in recent years.
Crossing the disciplines of religion, history, literature, and cultural studies, the book explores the many guises in which Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who served as lord chancellor of England from 1515 to 1529, has appeared in literary, historical, dramatic, and artistic works from the time of his death throughthe present day.
An extraordinary court with late medieval roots in the activities of the king’s council, Star Chamber came into its own over the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, before being abolished in ...1641 by members of parliament for what they deemed egregious abuses of royal power. Before its demise, the court heard a wide range of disputes in cases framed as fraud, libel, riot, and more. In so doing, it produced records of a sort that make its archive invaluable to many researchers today for insights into both the ordinary and extraordinary. The chapters gathered here explore what we can learn about the history of an age through both the practices of its courts and the disputes of the people who came before them. With Star Chamber, we view a court that came of age in an era of social, legal, religious, and political transformation, and one that left an exceptional wealth of documentation that will repay further study.
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.
