A Tudor Revolution in Government?
General works on Tudor England
There is no outstanding recent one-volume history of Tudor England, though
there are several that are reasonably useful. So if you want an overall survey,
it may be best to look at two older works, and at one highly perceptive study
that covers part of our period:-
 G. R.Elton, England under the Tudors (3rd ed.1991)
C. Russell, The Crisis of Parliaments: English History 1509-1660 (1971)
 C.S.L. Davies, Peace, Print and Protestantism: England 1471-1558
(1976).
Printed sources are available in G.R. Elton, The Tudor Constitution (2nd ed.,
1983) and in C.H. Williams, ed., English Historical Documents vol. v. 14851558 (1967).
On the theme of government that is our central concern, there is an
excellent study:
 P. Williams, The Tudor Regime (1979). See C. Haigh’s review in Social
History, vi (1981), pp. 373-76.
There are useful studies of part of our period:
 S.J. Gunn, Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558 (1995).
 A.G.R. Smith, The Government of Elizabethan England (1967).
A. Wall, Power and Protest in England 1525-1640 (2000) is the most recent
survey;
On the Tudor Revolution in Government, see:
G.R. Elton, The Tudor Revolution in Government (1953). There is a
very useful summary of his conclusions in G.R. Elton, England under the
Tudors, (1955, 2nd. ed, 1974, 3rd. ed 1989), ch. vii. For Elton's last thoughts
on the subject, see the central chapters of his The English (1991).
An important review soon appeared: by R.B. Wernham, review in
English Historical Review, lxxi (1956), pp. 92-95.
There was then a vigorous debate in Past and Present: G.L. Harriss and
P.H. Williams, xxiv (1964), pp. 3-58, xxix (1964), Elton’s reply, pp. 26-49,
Harriss and Williams’s counter, xxxi (1965) pp. 87-96; Elton again, xxxii
(1965), pp. 103-9.
C. Coleman and D.R. Starkey, eds., Revolution Reassessed: revisions
in the history of Tudor Government and Administration (1986); cf. reviews
by B. Dietz, History, lxxii (1987), pp. 337-8 and G.W. Bernard, 'Politics and
Government in Tudor England', Historical Journal, xxxi (1988), pp. 159-82.
For a rounded discussion of 'The Eltonian Legacy', see the essays in
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, vii (1997) by C.S.L.
Davies, 'The Cromwellian Decade: Authority and Consent', pp. 177-96; R.W.
Hoyle, 'Place and Public Finance', pp. 197-216; 'The parliament of England',
pp. 217-34; C. Russell, 'Thomas Cromwell's Doctrine of Parliamentary
Sovereignty', pp. 235-46; S. Adams, 'Politics', pp. 247-66; C. Holmes, 'G.R.
Elton as a Legal Historian', pp. 267-280; C. Haigh, 'Religion', pp. 281-300.
G.W. Bernard, ‘Elton’s Cromwell’, History, lxxxiii (1998), pp. 587607, reprinted in G.W. Bernard, Power and Politics in Tudor England
(2000), pp. 108-28.
For Elton's approach to history in general, see his The Practice of
History (1967) and Political History (1970); Q. Skinner, 'Sir Geoffrey Elton
and the Practice of History', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th
series, vii (1997), pp. 301-16; G.W. Bernard, 'History and Postmodernism', in
G.W. Bernard, Power and Politics in Tudor England (2000), pp. 217-230; P.
Collinson, 'Sir Geoffrey Elton', Proceedings of the British Academy (1997).
LECTURE WEEK ONE
SEMINAR WEEK TWO
KINGSHIP
For the seminar in week two, consider the characters and abilities of the
monarchs of Tudor England. The students named below will be asked to
start the discussions going with brief introductions.
(1) HENRY VII (Adrian Howells)
S.B. Chrimes, Henry VII (1972, reiussed 1999 with foreward by G.W.
Bernard): my foreword and the final chapter may be most helpful on Henry
VII himself.
A. Grant, Henry VII (1985), a useful short pamphlet.
C.S.L. Davies, ‘Henry Tudor and Henry VII’, History Sixth (now History
Review), i (1987), pp. 2-6.
(2) HENRY VIII (Richard Palmer)
J.J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (1968, reissued with new preface 1996) is a fine
biography.
D. Starkey, Henry VIII: personalities and politics (1985, reissued 2001) is a
readable presentation: but it is controversial – see my review, ‘Politics and
Government in Tudor England’, Historical Journal, (1988),
E.W. Ives, Henry the Great, Historian (1994)
G.W. Bernard, ‘Introduction’, Power and Politics in Tudor England (2000),
pp. 1-19.
(3) EDWARD VI and MARY (Adam Snell)
J. Loach, Edward VI (1999)
E. Russell, ‘Mary Tudor and Mr Jorkins’, Historical Research, lxiii (1990).
(4) ELIZABETH (Nick Curtis)
C. Haigh, Elizabeth I (1988, 2nd. ed. 1999)
S. Doran, Monarchy and Matrimony: the courtships of Elizabeth I (1996).
S. Adams, ‘Eliza enthroned? The court and its policies’, in C. Haigh., ed.,
The reign of Elizabeth I (1985), pp. 55-77.
On the royal court see:
D. Starkey, The English Court from the War of the Roses to the Civil War
(1987).
G.R. Elton, `Tudor Government: The Points of Contact: III. The Court',
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, xxvi 1976),
reprinted in G.R. Elton, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and
Government (4 vols., 1974-92), iii.
G.R. Elton, ‘Tudor Government’, Historical Journal, xxxi (1998), pp. 42534; D. Starkey, ‘Tudor Government the facts’, Historical Journal, xxxi
(1998), pp. 921-31; G.W. Bernard, ‘Court and Government’, in G.W.
Bernard, Power and Politics in Tudor England (2000), pp. 129-33.
LECTURE WEEK TWO SEMINAR WEEK THREE
THE NOBILITY IN TUDOR GOVERNMENT
For the seminar in week three, we shall consider four (over-lapping) aspects
of noble power (names of students asked to prepare brief reports in
brackets):(1) Noblemen and war (Melanie Adams)
(2) Noblemen and local governement (Jennifer Bell)
(3) Noblemen and the court (Charlotte Bratt)
(4) The fortunes of the nobility (Laura Clements)
P. Williams, The Tudor Regime (1979) is very helpful on the nobility.
For a fuller elaboration of the arguments in my lecture, see G.W. Bernard,
‘The continuing power of the Tudor nobility’, in G.W. Bernard, ed., Power
and Politics in Tudor England (2000), pp. 20-50, a reworking of the
‘Introduction’ in G.W. Bernard, ed., The Tudor Nobility (1992), pp. 1-48.
G.W. Bernard, The Power of the Early Tudor Nobility: the fourth and fifth
earls of Shrewsbury (1985) offers case-studies on noblemen in war, at court
and in the localities.
For rather different approaches see S.J. Gunn, ‘Off with their heads: the
Tudor nobility 1485-1603’, in J.S. Moore, ed., The House of Lords: a
thousand years of British tradition (1994), pp. 52-65; M.E. James, Society,
Politics and Culture (1986), which reprints influential essays on the role of
the northern nobility; S.G. Ellis ‘A crisis of the aristocracy? Frontiers and
noble power in the early Tudor state’, in J.A. Guy, ed., The Tudor
Monarchy (1997), pp. 330-40; R.W. Hoyle, ‘Faction, feud and
reconciliation amongst the northern English nobility 1525-1569’, History,
lxxxiv (1999), pp. 590-613.
It is worth following the lives and fortunes of successive generations of a
noble family through the Tudor decades. Choose a noble family – eg the
Percies earls of Northumberland, or the Howards dukes of Norfolk, or the
Stanleys earls of Derby. Look them up in G.E. Cockayne, The Complete
Peerage, which gives brief factual biographies of all noblemen, and in the
Dictionary of National Biography, which is also useful for basic
information.
LECTURE WEEK THREE SEMINAR WEEK FOUR
PARLIAMENT
(1) Who was represented in Tudor parliaments? (Emma Paul)_
(2) Why did Tudor monarchs call parliaments? (Georgina Kirk)
(3) Was the making of laws the most important function of Tudor
parliaments? (Holly Cleverley)
(4) Did the role of parliaments change in the Tudor period? (Amanda
More)
The best guide is J. Loach, Parliament under the Tudors (1991). See also
M. Graves, The Tudor Parliaments (1985) and M. Graves, Elizabethan
Parliaments 1559-1601. There are many perceptive observations on
parliaments in P. Williams, The Tudor Regime (1979), eg pp. 399-402, 4657.
Sir Geoffrey Elton’s most significant writing on parliament was his The
Parliament of England 1559-1581 (1986), the arguments of which are
summarised in his paper in Historical Journal (1979), reprinted in his
Studies in Tudor and Stuart Government, iii. ch. 35, and in his
‘Parliament’, in C. Haigh, ed., The Reign of Elizabeth I (1985), pp. 79-100.
The entries under Parliament in G.R. Elton, The Tudor Constitution (2nd
ed., 1983) are useful too. There is a useful assessment by P. Croft, ‘The
Parliament of England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th
series, vii (1997), pp. 217-34.
It is well worth dipping into J.E. Neale, Elizabeth and her Parliaments; J.E,
Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons is a classic structural study. It
is also worth dipping into the biographical entries for individual MPs to be
found in S.T. Bindoff and P. Hasler, eds., The History of Parliament: 14851547; 1547-1603
LECTURE WEEK FOUR SEMINAR WEEK FIVE
FINANCE AND TAXATION
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
How significant was the introduction and development of the
subsidy under Henry VIII? (Rob Mitchell)
Why did the dissolution of the monasteries not lead to a lasting
enrichment of the English monarchy? (Mark Wood)
Was war the most important category of government
expenditure under the Tudors? (Mary Jones)
Did Queen Elizabeth leave her successors a failing financial
system? (Emma Rogerson)
The best introduction is P. Williams, The Tudor Regime (1979), pp. 55-80.
There are several excellent studies by R.W. Hoyle: ‘War and Public
Finance’, in D. MacCulloch, ed., The Tudor Regime (1995), pp. 75-100;
‘Place and Public Finance, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th
series, vii (1997), pp. 197-216 (which emphasises the failings of the
Elizabethan regime); ‘Taxation and the mid-Tudor crisis’, Economic
History Review, li (1998), pp. 649-75. There is a fascinating analysis of the
local impact of taxation: I.W. Archer, ‘The burden of taxation of sixteenthcentury London’, Historical Journal, xliv (2001), pp. 599-627.
G.W. Bernard, War, Taxation and Rebellion in early Tudor England:
Henry VIII, Wolsey and the Amicable Grant of 1525 (1986) examines
attempt to raise a non-parliamentary grant and sets it in the context of earlier
demands and the development of the subsidy. See also P. Gwyn, The King’s
Cardinal (1990), pp. 360-3, 369-77.
P.K. O’Brien and P.A. Hunt, ‘The rise of a fiscal state in England 14851815’, Historical Research, lxvi (1993), are highly critical of Tudor
governments’ failure to raise greater levels of taxation.
LECTURE WEEK FIVE SEMINAR WEEK SIX
MILITARY POWER
There is, as always, a very useful survey in P. Williams, The Tudor Regime
(1979), ch. iv pp. 109-35.
J. Goring, 'Social change and military decline in Tudor England', History, lx
(1975), pp. 185-97 is a helpful sketch. J.J. Goring, 'The general proscription of
1522', English Historical Review, lxxxvi (1971), pp. 681-705, examines
Henry VIII's and Wolsey's efforts at reform. C.S.L. Davies, 'Provisions for
armies 1509-1550: a study in the effectiveness of early Tudor government',
Economic History Review, 2nd series, xvii (1964) is a wide-ranging analysis
of military administration. C.S.L. Davies, 'The English people and war in the
early sixteenth century', in Britain and the Netherlands, vol. vi. War and
Society (1978), pp. 1-18 assess the impact of war. M.J. Braddick, State
Formation in early modern England c. 1550-1700 (2000), ch. 5 pp. 180-232,
includes reflections on military and naval organisation under Queen Elizabeth.
(1) How were armies raised and led in Tudor England? (Josie Grew)
(2) How efficiently were armies supplied in this period? (Charlotte Dunn)
(3) How did wars affect English people and English society to 1558? (Adrian
Porter)
(4) How did wars affect English people and English society 1558-1603?
(Colette O’Neill).