THE DAVENANT PRESS

1485 saw the defeat of Richard III at Bosworth Field and the victory of Henry Tudor who sits uncomfortably between Medieval and early modern history; The author examines the early years of Henry Tudor taking the period to 1487. He moves on to international diplomacy and the threat of Perkin Warbeck. The discussion moves on to administration and government considering Council, parliament finance, law and justice. An equally important section covers the relationship between Henry VII and the nobility, the royal household and the king’s final years. The conclusion considers the concept of Henry VII and ‘New Monarchy.

David Grummitt has written extensively on warfare and government in the Tudor period as well as on the Wars of the Roses and the Lancastrian period 1399-1461. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and the LSE and worked on the History of Parliament Trust. He is currently Head of Humanities at the University of Kent, Canterbury.

Sir Francis Walsingham is best known as Elizabeth I's Spymaster General and for the ruthless efficiency with which he carried out that role. Elizabeth did not like him but she valued him and he saw his duty as paramount, however awkward she could be. He was consistently in favour of defending protestants and tracking down catholic conspirators. As Elizabeth's ambassador Walsingham was in France at the time of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572 and it was that experience which gave him a lasting hatred of the Catholic Church.

Thomas Cranmer was the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. He was consecrated in 1533 and burnt at the stake in Oxford in March 1556. His death, along with Latimer and Ridley is marked by a monument in the city centre. He was not a saint or even great theologian but at a chance meeting with Edward Foxe and Stephen Gardiner both close to Henry VIII that Cranmer put forward an opinion on the King’s ‘great matter’ – how to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn.. His views led to his elevation to Canterbury on the death of William Warham.. He remained archbishop under Edward VI and in 1548-9 introduced the First Book of Common Prayer though it was probably the second Prayer Book of 152 which better reflected his views. It was the early death of Edward and accession of the Catholic Mary I which led to his martyrdom. Between 1530-1540 Cranmer created an ecclesiastical polity which suited Tudor monarchy. After Mary’s death she re-established Cranmer’s polity and it was her longevity which guaranteed its security.

View contents & blurb

Wolsey was a great man. He was Henry VIII’s agent but never his friend. He was thirty-seven when Henry became king and fifty-eight when he himself died at Leicester. Wolsey was not original in that foreign policy was that of the king. He loved ostentation but always claimed that it was important to reflect the magnificence of the monarch. Hampton Court and Christ Church, Oxford are examples and both were appropriated by Henry VIII. Wolsey failed the king because he was unable to solve Henry’s marital problems based on the need for a legitimate heir which needed a new and younger queen able to produce the much-needed male heir. But he did indeed solve it by employing and training Thomas Cromwell who was unencumbered by religious attachments and solely concerned to solve ‘the King’s Great Matter’ and introduce practical solutions. Wolsey was despised as ‘low-born’ – ‘a butcher’s son from Ipswich’ by the aristocracy for whom he was easy prey.

View contents & blurb

It was not until the reign of Henry VIII that the necessary reforms were made to the Welsh Church. The response was largely muted and the Act of Supremacy accepted. But if there was little opposition to Henry VIII the response to the changes under Edward VI was different. And it was William Salesbury who was chiefly concerned to ensure that the Welsh language should underpin the changes. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth that Whitgift’s encouragement of William Morgan’s Welsh Bible that the language and culture of Wales were preserved.

Before the Act of Union Wales was a land of fragmented authority and weakened by the power of the lords and officials in the Principality and the Marches. Some of these issues were dealt with by Rowland Lee who saw the changes made by Thomas Cromwell as potentially dangerous. The changes are usually seen as essential in the light of the Royal Supremacy. New administrative boundaries were created along with coherent law. It was declared that ‘since the happy incorporation of the Welsh with the English, the history of both nations as well as the people is united’

Glanmor Williams died in 2005. He was a leading figure in the public life of Wales but was also widely regarded as the leading authority of its early modern period on which he published extensively. After graduating from Aberystwyth he was appointed to University of Wales, Swansea. In 1957 he was elected Professor of History and held that post until early retirement in 1982.

In 1571 Convocation decreed that the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe (often referred to now as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) should be placed in every cathedral church and the houses of cathedral clergy. William Cecil also arranged for it to be placed in every chamber at court. Thus it entered the culture of England and only the English Bible exercised a comparable influence. Foxe was born in Boston Lincolnshire and had strong connections with Magdalen and Brasenose Colleges at Oxford. He may well have been offered the Deanery of Christ Church. He held the Prebendary of Shipton-under-Wychwood near Burford in Oxfordshire. His most powerful patrons were the Dukes of Norfolk.

These essays cover three themes. The first demonstrates the manner in which the aristocracy was weaned away from its military preoccupation to become a civilian and service class. The second deals with the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell and his relationship with Henry VIII. The third essays starts with Henry VII and shows how Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I used the Royal Supremacy to establish secular control over the church in contrast with the earlier period.

In the opening years of the sixteenth century relations between the English crown and Rome were calm and amicable. Henry VII was conventionally pious and the papacy was anxious for his political support. But the need for an end to Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon, the reforms and changes during the1530s and especially the Royal Supremacy and end to taxes paid to Rome changed everything. Regnans in Excelsis under Elizabeth was a declaration of war. The papacy pursued two conflicting policies: support and encouragement for the remaining and often secret supporters on the one hand and ill-conceived schemes for forcible re-conversion, political assassination and foreign invasion on the other. Hope continued into the seventeenth century but the fate of James II convinced Rome that the day was lost.

Edward Seymour (1500-1552) is known as Protector Somerset. He was created Earl of Hertford in 1537 And on the death of Henry VIII he became Lord Protector to the young Edward VI and Duke of Somerset. He owed much to his sister Jane being Henry’s third queen and therefore uncle to the new king. As Protector he attracted problems in his dealings with John Dudley (the future Duke of Northumberland and perhaps the man most responsible for Somerset’s fall from power and subsequent execution) and from his own brother Thomas Seymour who was executed. Religious and economic grievances fuelled rebellions. Whatever these issues Somerset’s determination to rule with his own circle rather than with the Council was the real cause for his downfall. Jennifer Loach offers a re-assessment of the Duke of Somerset.

John Dudley was an efficient, ruthless administrator who struck a sensible balance in England’s foreign policy and did much to remedy the financial crisis which Protector Somerset had left in October 1549. Dudley was ambitious and may well have been responsible for Somerset’s downfall. Although he sought to extend his influence with Edward VI he did not seek the crown matrimonial for his son Guildford through the marriage to Jane Grey. That plan was Edward’s but it was seen as heavily influenced by Dudley and that led to him being seen as a traitor. Dudley’s mistake was to misjudge the mood of the country. Mary was the rightful successor. Dudley wanted to rule through Edward and when Edward died through Jane but that ambition does not justify his reputation as evil.

The Wyatt Rebellion was the most serious challenge to Mary I in her five-year reign. The author discusses the motivation of the rebels and their expectations of success. It explains why Wyatt was able to lead 3,000 men to London and why he was thwarted. He was attacked by the Earl of Pembroke’s forces and forced to surrender. Ostensible the whole movement was against Mary’s Spanish marriage and placing Elizabeth on the throne. Investigations were concerned with implicating Elizabeth but there was no evidence. Nevertheless she was imprisoned in the Tower and Wyatt was executed.

After her failed pregnancy Mary I’s political position was vulnerable. without an heir the succession went to Elizabeth. The Protestants in Germany, Switzerland and the Rhineland were unequivocal towards Mary regarding her a s a divinely imposed affliction whose ungodly regime could only be endured or evaded. Mary had won the crown by law and Elizabeth could succeed by the same laws and Mary could not disinherit by the same law. David Loades examines the political position in and the motives of Henry Dudley who led implied by Neale and Elton the conspirators. If Elizabeth was secretly encouraging Dudley there was little sign and she was unlikely to encourage those who opposed a rightful queen. What the conspiracy does tell us is that Philip’s position was always contentious.

The failed attempt to place the Protestant Lady Jane Grey on the throne, Mary Tudor barrier. Having established her government, Mary had two priorities- to define her legal position and to seek a suitable marriage. A husband needed to be of royal blood and irreproachable Catholicism. There were three possible candidates. Mary put the choice in in the hands of the Emperor Charles V and it was decided she should marry Philip. The terms of the treaty which settled the marriage enraged Philip and both he and his courtiers were horrified by the powerless and dishonourable position agreed. His first meeting with Mary was at their wedding in Winchester. He spoke no English. He facilitated the return of Cardinal Pole. The burnings started.. Philip was nevertheless in a difficult position. Much depended on the birth of an heir and Mary claimed to be pregnant. The failure of that pregnancy and Mary’s age weakened his position. His practical help was needed in the Netherlands and against advice, Mary gave him armed assistance. All failed and Mary lost Calais. The Marriage could have been a success but Mary’s attitude to |Philip was one of wifely subservience and wilful defiance. Her death was probably a relief to him.

The author examines the historiography of the concept of a ‘mid-Tudor crisis’ first implied by Neale and Elton and crystallised by Whitney Jones in 1973. She suggests that the mid-Tudor period was one of continuity rather than change. The revolts of 1549 were not caused by starving peasants but economic circumstances or reflected the resistance to religious change. She suggests that the attempt to alter the succession in favour of Jane Grey was a blip, that Foxe’s assessment of Mary’s reign was not reliable and that Mary’s failed pregnancy frustrated Philip’s ambition. Thus the Tudor Monarchy moved with ease from Henry VIII through to Elizabeth.

Jennifer Loach died in 1995 shortly before her fiftieth birthday. She was Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and University Lecturer She also wrote Protector Somerset for Headstart History/Davenant Press. Reprinting both received the support of Jennifer’s husband Alan Loach.

When Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 Hungary was a buffer between Christendom and the Infidel but Hungary was virtually destroyed at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. In addition the power of Venice in the Adriatic also declined leaving Italy vulnerable to Muslim attacks. The French alliance with the Ottomans in the 1540s allowed the fleets access to Marseilles and threatened Imperial security. Warfare in the Mediterranean became the responsibility of Philip II who had a great victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto under the command of Don John of Austria. The victory was ‘more famous than decisive and David Loades shows that in the confrontation between Christendom and the Ottomans in the sixteenth century, the Ottomans won on points.

The Levellers was one of many radical groups produced by the ferment of the English Civil War. Under a Leveller government there would have been no established church, no tithes and no agreed statement of doctrine which in the seventeenth century would have led to chaos. Their ideas were radical, imprecisely formulated and occasionally contradictory. They were feared by the New Model Army for their election of Agitators – shop stewards! But their success laid with the army and it was the army at the time of the Putney Debates that their strength emerged.. The real test of their strength came when the Levellers in the New Model Arm mutinied so normal military discipline was put to the test.. The significance of the skirmish at Burford, Oxfordshire when 400 were captured and imprisoned in the church and three of the were executed and buried in the churchyard. 800 escaped and disappeared into the countryside. Normal discipline had stood that test.

The 1640s and 50s were among the most turbulent decades in English History. A civil war which divided families and saw the death of thousands, poor harvests and land reforms which took many to the brink of starvation, the removal of longstanding institutions such as the House of Lords and the Established Church and even the execution of the king, Charles I. It is not surprising that people thought that the world was turned upside down. This study looks at the main groups that emerged as people such as the Fifth Monarchists and Muggletonians scarcely remembered today whilst the Diggers and Levellers are still in the public mind. The period also saw flourishing religious movements such as the Baptists and Quakers who rejected the Anglican church and the Ranters who rejected the idea of sin and lived accordingly.