The ten weeks of the Winter Quarter of "History of England" are dominated by the Tudor family. From the moment that Henry Tudor (1457-1509) triumphed on the battlefield at Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485, the story of early modern England became fatefully married to the story of the Tudors. Two of the Tudor monarchs, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I dominated almost a whole century of English history. But the other two Tudors, Edward VI and Mary I, make significant contributions to English constitutional history as well. And beyond the questions of constitutions and laws, there is the fascinating story of one of the most colorful families in all of history.
Week 11: "The Tudors" Wednesday January 5, 2011
The Tudors: A New Dynasty
A new modern government.
England in 1500.
Henry VII.
Henry VIII.MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
RECOMMENDED READING:
The Tudor period of English history has received considerable attention from the historians and therefore you will find the selection of possible reading during our weeks on Henry VII and his family a bit daunting. You may want one book to help you sort through all the many interesting issues of the age and here is that book.
The Ridley book is a total pleasure to read and sensible in its organization. Ridley packs his 303 pages with immense learning and wit.
Week 12: "Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII" Wednesday Jan 12, 2011
The marriage of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII is one of the most extraordinary royal pairings in all of history. Each of the two were unique, well educated, attractive, independent and accustomed to power. At first they lived a fable of young love. Later their clash changed a whole nation. In this evening dedicated to the Tudor monarchy we want to discuss these two dynastic stars and their marriage and the case of annulment that King Henry brought before Pope Clement VII.
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
RECOMMENDED READING:
CATHERINE OF ARAGON:
Garrett Mattingly wrote the greatest biography ever written about Catherine of Aragon. There seems to be a new edition in print: Catherine of Aragon, Garrett Mattingly, 0404201695. Amazon says it came out in February 2006. Amazon offers many used copies also. And we have a beautiful copy in our library. I think that reading the Mattingly book gives you a perspective that you never get when studying the divorce from Henry's point of view. Mattingly was a brilliant historian and a brilliant writer and I consider his book on Catherine to be one of the greatest biographies ever written. Just open it and read the first page and you will not put it down. And if you read it, you will never forget Catherine of Aragon. She will remind you of Isabella. She was so much like her mother.
HENRY VIII:
There is one classic biography of Henry VIII by J. J. Scarisbrick from University of California Press, 1968, ISBN 0520011309. It is still, after thirty years, the most complete. It was written by an academic for the professional world of historians, and therefore Scarisbrick makes no attempt to create a "popular" book on Henry. The Scarisbrick biography is scholarly and a masterful job of using the original documents to write good history.
Amazon Review:
Contemporary observers described the young king in glowing terms. At over six feet tall, with rich auburn hair, clear skin, and a slender waist, he was, to many, "the handsomest prince ever seen." From this starting point in Henry VIII, the King and His Court, biographer extraordinare Alison Weir reveals a Henry VIII far different from the obese, turkey-leg gnawing, womanizing tyrant who has gone down in history. Henry embodied the Renaissance ideal of a man of many talents--musician, composer, linguist, scholar, sportsman, warrior--indeed, the Dutch humanist Erasmus (not a man inclined to flattery) declared him a "universal genius." In scholarly yet readable style, Weir brings Henry and his court to life in meticulous, but never tedious, detail. Weir describes everything from courtly fashions to political factions and elaborate meals to tournament etiquette. Along the way she offers up charming--if all too brief--glimpses of Henry's court: tiny Princess Mary, still a very young girl, at her betrothal ceremony saying to the proxy, "Are you the Dauphin of France? If you are, I want to kiss you"; Henry weeping with joy as he held his long-awaited son and heir for the first time; Henry showing off his legs to the Venetian ambassador ("Look here! I have also a good calf to my leg"); Henry's courtiers dressing in heavily padded clothes to emulate--and flatter--their increasingly stout monarch. She also reveals some surprises, for example, that Henry and Katherine were still hunting together as late as 1530, even though Henry was desperately trying to have their marriage annulled. Weir also describes surprisingly happier times in their relationship; Henry loved to dress up in costume, and "was especially fond of bursting in upon Queen Katherine and her ladies in the Queen's Chambers.... Henry took a boyish delight in these disguisings and Katherine seemingly never tired of feigning astonishment that it was her husband who had surprised her." Henry's queens receive relatively little attention here (for them, see Weir's excellent Six Wives of Henry VIII), but this book is fascinating and a joy to read. Alison Weir has done it again. --Sunny Delaney
Week 13: "Thomas Cromwell and the Tudor Government" Wed Jan 19, 2011
G. R. Elton and the Tudor Revolution in Government.
The Elton Thesis: Lecture by William FredlundFrom Wikipedia article on Sir Geoffrey Elton:
"Elton focused primarily on the life of Henry VIII, but made significant contributions to the study of Queen Elizabeth I. Elton was most famous for arguing in his 1953 book The Tudor Revolution in Government that Thomas Cromwell was the author of modern, bureaucratic government which replaced medieval, household government. This change took place in the 1530s and must be regarded as part of a planned revolution. In essence, Elton was arguing that before Cromwell the realm could be viewed as the King's private estate writ large and that most administration was done by the King's household servants rather than separate state offices. Cromwell, who was Henry VIII's chief minister from 1532 to 1540, introduced reforms into the administration that delineated the King's household from the state and created a modern bureaucratic government. He shone Tudor light into the darker corners of the Realm and radically altered the role of Parliament and the competence of Statute. By master-minding these reforms, Cromwell was said to have laid the foundations of England's future stability and success. Elton elaborated on these ideas in his 1955 work, the best-selling England under the Tudors, which went through three editions after its first appearance, and his Wiles Lectures, which he published in 1973 as Reform and Renewal: Thomas Cromwell and the Common Weal. His thesis has been widely challenged by Tudor historians and can no longer be regarded as an orthodoxy, but Elton's contribution to the debate has profoundly influenced subsequent discussion of Tudor government, in particular concerning the role of Cromwell."
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
RECOMMENDED READING:
From Publishers Weekly:
Henry VIII's challenge to the church's power with his desire to divorce his queen and marry Anne Boleyn set off a tidal wave of religious, political and societal turmoil that reverberated throughout 16th-century Europe. Mantel boldly attempts to capture the sweeping internecine machinations of the times from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, the lowborn man who became one of Henry's closest advisers. Cromwell's actual beginnings are historically ambiguous, and Mantel admirably fills in the blanks, portraying Cromwell as an oft-beaten son who fled his father's home, fought for the French, studied law and was fluent in French, Latin and Italian. Mixing fiction with fact, Mantel captures the atmosphere of the times and brings to life the important players: Henry VIII; his wife, Katherine of Aragon; the bewitching Boleyn sisters; and the difficult Thomas More, who opposes the king. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post Reviewed by Wendy Smith:
Henry VIII's quest to make Anne Boleyn his queen has inspired reams of historical fiction, much of it trashy and most of it trite. Yet from this seemingly shopworn material, Hilary Mantel has created a novel both fresh and finely wrought: a brilliant portrait of a society in the throes of disorienting change, anchored by a penetrating character study of Henry's formidable adviser, Thomas Cromwell. It's no wonder that her masterful book won the Man Booker Prize last week. Mantel's choice of protagonist signals her intelligence and artistic ambition. Cromwell was the quintessential 16th-century New Man, the son of a blacksmith who rose through Cardinal Wolsey's patronage and survived the cardinal's downfall to become the most powerful civil servant in Tudor England. Historians have long acknowledged Cromwell as the administrative genius who transformed a medieval fiefdom into a modern nation-state, but only an exceedingly bold novelist could envision this odyssey as the stuff of gripping fiction. From the moment we see young Thomas knocked to the ground by his brutal father to the grim final scene at the execution of his enemy Thomas More in 1535, readers are intimately engaged in Cromwell's emotions and calculations. Mantel puts us inside the head of this secretive, complicated man, illuminating motives often misunderstood by others. Convincing Henry that only he can deliver the marriage and the absolute authority the king wants is a means to an end; Cromwell intends to make England a better place for the common people among whom he was born by destroying the corrupt Catholic clergy he despises and limiting the power of the entrenched aristocrats who despise him. He plans to get very rich along the way. Cromwell understands this better than anyone else in the novel. He observes, evaluates and makes his moves, but never shows his hand. He's a committed, albeit covert Protestant who runs uncharacteristic risks to protect the new movement's more militant adherents from the heretic-burning More (acidly depicted as a cruel, sanctimonious egomaniac nothing like the saintly hero of "A Man for All Seasons"). But Cromwell realizes that Henry, who would happily remain Catholic if the pope would just give him what he wants, can only be led to the Reformation through his desire for Anne Boleyn. And though Cromwell respects Anne, a fellow upstart on the make, he's not staking his career on her ability to arrest the king's roving eye. "Any little girl can hold the key to the future," he thinks as he chats with mousy young lady-in-waiting Jane Seymour. The Seymour family estate, Wolf Hall, gives the novel its title; the scandalous goings-on there -- Jane's father has been caught in flagrante with his son's wife -- serve as a metaphor for the licentious, overprivileged society through which Cromwell adroitly maneuvers. Alone among the self-absorbed plotters at Henry's court, he sees that this society is increasingly irrelevant. Listening to a disgruntled earl pontificate about "ancient rights," Cromwell wonders how he can explain real life to this clueless nobleman. "The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from his border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he has never imagined . . . not from castle walls, but from countinghouses, not by the call of a bugle but by the click of the abacus." Mantel's prose is as plain as her protagonist (who's sensitive about his looks), but also (like Cromwell) extraordinarily flexible, subtle and shrewd. Enfolding cogent insights into the human soul within a lucid analysis of the social, economic and personal interactions that drive political developments, Mantel has built on her previous impressive achievements to write her best novel yet. Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
Week 14: "Thomas More and the Renaissance in England" Wed Jan 26, 2011
Most of us have studied the Renaissance together in a previous year when we studied the creation of a whole new vision of human life on this planet as it was conceived first in Florence and then in Rome and Venice. The next step in the expansion of Renaissance values was the movement of these values out of Italy into Spain, France, Germany and England. It was because of England that Renaissance values were transported to the United States and influenced our own culture (For example: the passion of the Founding Fathers for the culture of Rome). One part of the English Renaissance was the new power of the English universities especially Cambridge and Oxford. These renewed and expanded universities influenced the nature of Tudor England not only by enriching the English intellectual achievement but also in having an enormous social impact. This impact has been studied by a number of scholars (J. H. Hexter, Lawrence Stone) and we want to discuss both this educational and sociological revolution brought about by newly rich and powerful universities.
MATERIAL ON THE WEBSITE:
You can visit the University of Cambridge and enjoy wonderful tours of the campus with fine maps and other visual aids. Each college has its own website and therefore I have linked you to one such site, the website for Trinity College. The page you are linked to provides you with an opening short history and offers a virtual tour. Take the tour. It is like visiting the college.
Trinity College, University of Cambridge website
.
DVD in Class
One of the greatest films of all time is "A Man for All Seasons" with Paul Scofield playing Thomas More, Robert Shaw playing Henry VIII, and Orson Wells playing Archbishop Wolsey. We will see a one-hour presentation that will enable you to see these brilliant actors in this magnificent historically-based film. Purchasing the dvd is not required, but here is the information for those interested:
Week 15: "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation" Wed Feb 2, 2011
The English Reformation is a totally different thing than the Reformation in Germany. The Lutheran movement was led by a radical Roman Catholic professor. The English Reformation was led by the King of England. The English Reformation is therefore highly political and entwined with royal policy and international politics. The hero of the Reformation in England is not the king, but rather the courageous and brilliant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.
The English Reformation.
The Reformation and the Divorce.
The Reformation and radical politics.
Thomas Cromwell (Don't mix him up with Oliver Cromwell of the 17th century.)
RECOMMENDED READING:
1. The finest history of the English Reformation ever written is still in print:
2. Also from A. G. Dickens is his excellent book on the role of Thomas Cromwell in the Reformation. Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation. This book is out of print but there are used copies available.
A. G. Dickens,
Thomas Cromwell and the English Reformation,
Harper & Row,
ASIN B0007DFGD6
3. In addition to the two fine books from A.G. Dickens, there is a spectacular giant of a book which provides us with a great biography of Thomas Cranmer. Thomas Cranmer: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch, published by Yale University Press, Paperback, 704 pages, (February 17, 1998), ISBN: 0300074484.
Here is a selection of commentary on the MacCulloch book:
From Amazon: "Don't go confusing your Thomas Cranmer with your Thomas More; now there is a Tudor faux-pas if ever there was one. Cranmer made the divorce happen, More lost his head over it. Cranmer wrote the Book of Common Prayer, More was the author of Utopia. And it was More who was canonized a saint, while Cranmer was executed by "Bloody" Mary Tudor for his fiendish plotting on behalf of Lady Jane Grey as well as for his embracing an evangelical brand of Protestantism the Catholic queen found wholly disagreeable. In this highly readable biography, we get the first new treatment of Cranmer in three decades, bolstered by recent scholarship and new sources. Think this stuff is remote? Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury, crafted two editions of the English Book of Common Prayer. The success of this book had an enormous impact on the English language, loading terms with meaning and influencing the rhetoric of power for the next two centuries".
From The New York Times Book Review, Allen D. Boyer: "... lucidly written, deeply researched and surprisingly accessible ... In his life, Thomas Cranmer may have lacked the virtues of Thomas ... Becket or Sir Thomas More ... his death showed something of their martyr's grace."
Week 16: "Edward VI" Wednesday February 9, 2011
Upon the death of Henry VIII he left three possible heirs: his son Edward VI who ascended to the throne without challenge; his eldest daughter Mary who followed her half-brother to the throne; and another daughter born to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth. All three children had grown up under different mothers, different tutors, different religious advisors and in their diversity they reflected the possible directions of the English public in religious affairs. Although Edward VI had a short life, his reign was extremely important since he was a true Protestant, he knew what the Lutheran reformation meant, and he agreed with it. So for a few years England became part of the larger Protestant movement. One very important person in his life was his dear friend Lady Jane Grey. Her tragic story will also be part of this evening.
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
RECOMMENDED READING:
There is a very good new biography of Edward VII: The Boy King Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation, Diarmaid Macculloch, University of California Press paperback edition 2002, ISBN: 0520234022.
DVD in Class
We have a big surprise DVD for tonight. Wait and see.
Week 17: "Queen Mary I" Wednesday February 16, 2011
Henry VIII's will had made the succession very plain. First Edward, then Mary as the elder daughter, then Elizabeth. When Edward died on July 6, 1553, his successor was his half-sister Mary. Her accession was filled with public dispute most of it centered on her publicly proclaimed adherence to Roman Catholicism. And this meant that the whole nation was going to go through a massive religious reorientation after having just labored through six years of clear Protestant leadership.
MATERIAL ON THE WEB:
RECOMMENDED READING:
There is an exellent new biography of Queen Mary: Mary Tudor, the Tragical HIstory of the First Queen of England, David Loades, National Archives Press, England, 2006, ISBN 1903365988
Week 18: "Queen Elizabeth I" Wednesday February 23, 2011
Queen Elizabeth I.
Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, inherited a nation close to collapse. The revolutionary nature of her father's reign, the Protestant years of her brother Edward, and the Roman Catholic years of her sister Mary, had destroyed the unity of the nation. Enemies waited on all sides to strike at the weakened island state. In Rome, the international papal alliance of nations and church leaders plotted to keep England in the Roman Catholic camp. Spain, led by the widower of Queen Mary, plotted to stop the creation of a Protestant England. Within England, dozens of nobles plotted to take power out of the hands of a young woman. English Protestants returning from a Dutch exile now plotted to force the new Queen to purify the nation and bring it back to Protestant orthodoxy. Any political observer would have predicted disaster for the youthful, untried woman who inherited the leadership of Europe's most troubled nation. During the next forty five years she proved them all wrong.REQUIRED READING:
RECOMMENDED READING:
Among the thousands of books available to us on Elizabeth I want to recommend two biographies of Elizabeth:.
1. The Neale biography of Elizabeth is the classic. Prof. Neale was Astor Professor of English History at the University of London for many years. His biography of Elizabeth was first published in 1934 and it is still in print and still praised as the first perfect one in English. All other biographers of Elizabeth acknowledge their debt to Neale.
From an Amazon reviewer:
As someone with years of interest in Elizabeth I, a facinating and complex monarch at a time when monarchs were really responsible for their countries, I have read almost every biography published in the last thirty years. This book clearly labels speculation as speculation and states as facts only information obtained from written material. It probably provides the clearest account of what actually occurred that we can obtain from this distance in time.2. For a newer biography of Elizabeth you may enjoy Anne Somerset, Elizabeth I.
Some reviews:
"The most comprehensive, the most reliable and the most readable biography of Elizabeth." The New York Times Book Review
"This is my favorite among the biographies of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Somerset presents a convincing as well as complex character at the center of her lucid narrative. She breathes new life into old sources so that we live the story again and see it afresh." Antonia Fraser
"An ample, stylish, and eloquent life of the queen." Washington Post Book World
"Finely crafted, abundantly detailed. . . . Few biographies have explored the depth found here." San Francisco Chronicle
"An excellent book. . . . Somerset is in some respects the most balanced and impartial of all Elizabeth's biographers." Sunday Times (London)
"I am completely captivated by [Somerset's] Elizabeth I. . . . The writing . . . is a delight." Peter Gwyn, Weekend TelegraphRECOMMENDED VIEWING:
Week 19: "Queen Elizabeth I, Part Two" Wednesday March 2, 2011
During our second evening discussing Elizabeth I we will turn to a collection of documents pertaining to her life and reign and we will have the opportunity to evaluate her character as a ruler and as a woman.
REQUIRED READING:
RECOMMENDED READING:
Editorial Reviews from Publishers Weekly:
"Picard's latest historical guided tour, of 16th-century London, entertainingly rounds out her trilogy (with Dr. Johnson's London and Restoration London) revisiting the great city's past. Although Elizabethan London boasts no single great diarist like Samuel Pepys or James Boswell, Picard ably sifts through an enormous variety of records, letters, books and other accounts to re-create the urban expanse. Starting with topography and architecture, Picard takes her readers across the Thames and through the neighborhoods of the emergent metropolis, noting the housing and development boom touched off by Henry VIII's appropriation of papal real estate. Her tour continues through every aspect of Elizabethan life, from clothes and food to family and education, from crime and law to jobs and welfare. In such a wide-ranging scheme, the theater, along with other entertainments, is only one aspect of a flourishing society. Picard's discursive, conversational tone prevents even the topic of the water supply, with its newly engineered pipes, from seeming too dry, and her eye for facts (and factoids) can spot intriguing details in even immigrant census data. Despite the book's comprehensive structure, Picard's impressionistic style leads to the occasional oversight. Her section on religion is comparatively brief (though still interesting) for the era's most important politi?al and social issue. Although she discusses the endemic smallpox, which scarred even the queen, she hardly touches on "the French pox," i.e. syphilis, which had been recently introduced. Nonetheless, this vibrant social history makes the city of five centuries ago seem as alive as today's, if not more. 32 pages of color photos, maps. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Booklist:
"This is the story of what Picard calls "ordinary people," Londoners during Queen Elizabeth's reign, 1558 to 1603. Much of the author's monumental research is based on John Stow's Survey of London (1598), William Harrison's Description of England (1587), and diaries kept by people whom she describes as "moderately prosperous men." Picard examines life on the Thames, London's main streets, its water supply and sewerage, its buildings and their interiors and furniture, and its gardens and churchyards. But most of the book describes the people: their health, illnesses, medicine, clothes, jewels, cosmetics, food, and drinks. Picard also chronicles their sexual customs, marriage, family life, death, education, and amusements. There are chapters on crime and punishment, the poor and the welfare system, and religion. An appendix explains Elizabethan words and pronunciation; another gives examples of its^B currency, wages, and prices; and there are 45 illustrations. All this amounts to an astonishing book in scope and imagery--certainly one of the most detailed accounts of life in that era ever written." George Cohen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Week 20: "The Puritans" Wednesday March 9, 2011
As we begin our Spring Quarter of our year-long study of the History of England we will take up the subject of the Puritans. This group had been forming for decades during the Elizabethan era, and they were already a problem for the government of the Virgin Queen. But it was in the Stuart era that this extremely energetic and cohesive group came to prominence and evolved into a political as well as a religious force. In order for us all to enter in to the world of English Puritans, I have assigned Paul Seaver's brilliant book Wallington's World. There is nothing better in all the literature of Puritanism. Paul Seaver was my professor at Stanford for Tudor-Stuart History and thus he is the guiding light behind our plan for these two Tudor-Stuart quarters of our course. Paul is not only a brilliant historian and fine writer, but he is also one of the finest human beings I have ever known. His kindness to me and to Bruce Thompson when we were both at Stanford working on our Ph.D.s (we both did Tudor-Stuart History as our secondary fields) changed our whole grad school experience. As Bruce and I listened to other History grad students complaining about their life and their advisors and all their problems, we would smile as we realized that our grad school experience was rather pleasant thanks to Paul Seaver. I will never forget the thoughtfulness that Paul showed to me as I approached the terrifying experience of Ph.D. orals. I can remember him saying to me: "You will get through this." It was all I needed to hear in order to keep going. And he was right; I got through it.
REQUIRED READING:
A review from Library Journal:
"Nehemiah Wallington (1598-1658) was a simple and firmly Puritan member of the Turners Guild in London. In extraordinary compliance with the Puritan dictum to lead a disciplined and examined life, he filled a number of notebooks with personal memoirs, political observations, and religious advice. Using this material and other relevant sources, Seaver has produced a richly documented reconstruction of Wallington's world view. The result is a look at the turbulent early Stuart era through the eyes of a common man. Since Wallington was an urban layperson, this book complements the rural and clerical viewpoint of Alan MacFarlane's The Family Life of Ralph Josselin: a seventeenth-century clergyman (1970)."A reader's review (V. Phin on Amazon.com)
"A better book on the Puritain worldview I have not read, and I've read quite a few. Seaver takes the copious diaries of a single London artisan and converts it into a cornucopia of knowledge about the godly movement that it impossible to put down. This book holds enough speculation about Wallington and his motivations to fulfill any desire of a biography-reader. He has bouts of melancholy which make him human. Those of us who have had to deal with depression, panic disorder, or other mental illnesses will be heartened by the fact that people in the past were just as we. Wallington leads the self-examined life, which may be foreign to some, but will strike others as very typical of medieval Catholic monasticism, the English godly movement (Puritans), and Ming-Qing neo-Confucists like Li Gong. For those who prefer a short read, Wallington's World has very few pages. For those who are tired of the scholarly establishment's contempt of Christians of the past, look no further. Saylor treats his subject with delicacy and understanding, carefully separating modern prejudices from historical worldviews. Even if you-- like myself-- aren't into reading about England during the Stuart revolutions, this book will fascinate you. A treasure I'd guarantee fit to read for anyone."Spring Vacation - March 14 to March 25, 2011
Vacation.
No class the week of March 16 and March 23.
First class of Spring Quarter is March 30, 2011.
