ABSTRACT

‘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.

chapter I|18 pages

The Tudor Problem

chapter II|25 pages

Henry VII: Securing The Dynasty

chapter III|29 pages

Henry VII: Restoration Of Government

chapter IV|28 pages

The Great Cardinal

chapter V|30 pages

The King’s Great Matter

chapter VI|33 pages

Thomas Cromwell and The Break with Rome

chapter VII|33 pages

The Tudor Revolution: Empire and Commonwealth

chapter VIII|31 pages

The Crisis Of the Tudors, 1540–58

chapter IX|38 pages

England During the Price Revolution

chapter X|33 pages

The Elizabethan Settlement, 1558–68

chapter XI|35 pages

The Growing Conflict, 1568–85

chapter XII|27 pages

Seapower

chapter XIII|37 pages

War, 1585–1603

chapter XIV|36 pages

The Structure of the Age: Conservatism

chapter XV|26 pages

The Structure of The Age: Renaissance

chapter XVI|21 pages

The Last Years

chapter XVII|16 pages

Revisions (1990)