ABSTRACT

Now in its third edition, The Age of Reformation has been fully updated and extended, offering a comprehensive study of the relationships between religion, politics, and social change in the sixteenth century.

The book charts the new challenges and crises facing the English, Scottish, and Irish states in the early modern age as they contended with the spread of Protestantism and a powerful Tudor monarchy. Constructing a clear narrative of the events and actors of this era of reformations, both political and religious, the book provides an accessible entry point for studying a period of upheaval and transformation, synthesising key research and drawing unexpected connections. Each chapter of the third edition has been revised, with additions including expanded treatments of popular politics, the implementation of the Reformation in the parishes, and England’s global expansion and the Tudor roots of the ‘British empire’.

Accompanied by new maps and drawing on the latest research, this book is essential reading for all students of religion, reformation, and politics in early modern British history.

chapter 1|28 pages

The world of the parish

chapter 3|20 pages

The Renaissance

chapter 4|26 pages

Renaissance to Reformation

chapter 5|35 pages

Supreme head

Henry VIII's Reformation, 1527–47

chapter 6|28 pages

The English revolution

Edward VI, 1547–53

chapter 7|26 pages

Two restorations

Mary and Elizabeth, 1553–60

chapter 8|23 pages

Reformation on the battlefield

Scotland, 1542–73

chapter 9|26 pages

Gaping gulfs

Elizabethan England and the politics of fear

chapter 10|34 pages

Reforming the world of the parish

chapter 11|29 pages

Reformation and empire

chapter |3 pages

Epilogue

Electing a Monarch, 1603