ABSTRACT
In early 1582, at a crucial point in the reign of Elizabeth, Thomas Norton, the forward Protestant, and a good friend of John Foxe, wrote a survey of national history, entitled, in manuscript, "Of the v periodes of 500 yeares". In this work, Norton divides British history into five separate periods, each of which is terminated by some catastrophic event, which Norton calls an "alteration". First, there is the end, upon the death of Gorboduc, around 500 bce, of the Trojan dynasty, originally established by Brut. Second, the invasion of the Romans under Julius Caesar terminates British autonomy. The Roman period is followed by the Saxon invasions, and Saxon domination is ended in turn by the Norman Conquest. In the group who were connected with Foxe in the development of English Protestantism in the sixteenth century, Thomas Norton played a leading part.
