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Tudor England
John Guy here provides the most complete narrative history of Tudor England in more than 30 years. A compelling account of political and religious developments from the advent of the Tudors in the 1460s to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, his authoritative study discusses the far-reaching changes in government and the Reformation of the Church under Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, and is enriched with illuminating character studies of the monarchs and politicians of the era. Taking into account new debates on the progress of the English Reformation and the strengths and weaknesses of Tudor Government at a local and national level, the book includes contextual analyses of the Tudor English economy, society, and political culture.
608 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 1988
About the author
John Guy
164 books228 followersJohn Guy is recognised as one of Britain's most exciting and scholarly historians, bringing the past to life with the written word and on the broadcast media with accomplished ease. He's a very modern face of history.
His ability for first class story-telling and books that read as thrillingly as a detective story makes John Guy a Chandleresque writer of the history world. Guy hunts down facts with forensic skill, he doesn't just recite historical moments as they stand; he brings names and faces to life in all their human achievements and weaknesses. He looks for the killer clues so we can see how history unfolded. Like a detective on the trail of a crime, he teases out what makes his subjects tick. With his intimate knowledge of the archives, his speciality is uncovering completely fresh lines of enquiry. He's never content to repeat what we already know but rather, he goes that extra step to solve history's riddles. He takes you on a journey to the heart of the matter. Forget notions of musty academics, when Guy takes hold of history the case he states is always utterly compelling. Whether it's Thomas More or Mary Queen of Scots, Guy makes these people so real you suddenly realize you are hearing them speak to you. You enter into their world. You feel you can almost reach out and touch them.
Born in Australia in 1949, John Guy grew up in England and by the age of 16 he knew he wanted to be a historian. In 2001 he made an accomplished debut as a presenter for the television programme Timewatch, on the life of Thomas More. Today he's turning history books on their head as he wins universal praise and the 2004 Whitbread Prize for biography for his thrilling account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
As well as presenting five documentaries for BBC 2 television, including the Timewatch film The King's Servant and the four-part Renaissance Secrets (Series 2), he has contributed to Meet the Ancestors (BBC 2), and to Channel 4's Time Team and Royal Deaths and Diseases. Wolsey's Lost Palace of Hampton Court was a short-listed finalist for the 2002 Channel 4 television awards.
John Guy also appears regularly on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC Scotland. In print he currently writes or reviews for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, BBC History Magazine and History Today.
His broadcast and journalism experience builds upon his impeccable CV as an academic and author.
Having read History under the supervision of Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, the pre-eminent Tudor scholar of the late-twentieth century, John Guy took a First and became a Research Fellow of Selwyn College in 1970. Awarded a Greene Cup by Clare College in 1970, he completed his PhD on Cardinal Wolsey in 1973 and won the Yorke Prize of the University of Cambridge in 1976.
John Guy has lectured extensively on Early Modern British History and Renaissance Political Thought in both Britain and the United States. He has published 16 books and numerous academic articles.
John Guy lives in North London. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he teaches part-time so he can devote more time to his writing and broadcasting career.
His ability for first class story-telling and books that read as thrillingly as a detective story makes John Guy a Chandleresque writer of the history world. Guy hunts down facts with forensic skill, he doesn't just recite historical moments as they stand; he brings names and faces to life in all their human achievements and weaknesses. He looks for the killer clues so we can see how history unfolded. Like a detective on the trail of a crime, he teases out what makes his subjects tick. With his intimate knowledge of the archives, his speciality is uncovering completely fresh lines of enquiry. He's never content to repeat what we already know but rather, he goes that extra step to solve history's riddles. He takes you on a journey to the heart of the matter. Forget notions of musty academics, when Guy takes hold of history the case he states is always utterly compelling. Whether it's Thomas More or Mary Queen of Scots, Guy makes these people so real you suddenly realize you are hearing them speak to you. You enter into their world. You feel you can almost reach out and touch them.
Born in Australia in 1949, John Guy grew up in England and by the age of 16 he knew he wanted to be a historian. In 2001 he made an accomplished debut as a presenter for the television programme Timewatch, on the life of Thomas More. Today he's turning history books on their head as he wins universal praise and the 2004 Whitbread Prize for biography for his thrilling account of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
As well as presenting five documentaries for BBC 2 television, including the Timewatch film The King's Servant and the four-part Renaissance Secrets (Series 2), he has contributed to Meet the Ancestors (BBC 2), and to Channel 4's Time Team and Royal Deaths and Diseases. Wolsey's Lost Palace of Hampton Court was a short-listed finalist for the 2002 Channel 4 television awards.
John Guy also appears regularly on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC World Service and BBC Scotland. In print he currently writes or reviews for The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Economist, the Times Literary Supplement, BBC History Magazine and History Today.
His broadcast and journalism experience builds upon his impeccable CV as an academic and author.
Having read History under the supervision of Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, the pre-eminent Tudor scholar of the late-twentieth century, John Guy took a First and became a Research Fellow of Selwyn College in 1970. Awarded a Greene Cup by Clare College in 1970, he completed his PhD on Cardinal Wolsey in 1973 and won the Yorke Prize of the University of Cambridge in 1976.
John Guy has lectured extensively on Early Modern British History and Renaissance Political Thought in both Britain and the United States. He has published 16 books and numerous academic articles.
John Guy lives in North London. He is a Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge, where he teaches part-time so he can devote more time to his writing and broadcasting career.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
January 19, 2024
thought it would be difficult to remember to rest and take breaks while studying. this book made it easy.
April 15, 2012
Not narrative or social history at all, but old-fashioned, top-down political history, with the emphasis on the institutions of governing and large-scale national patterns of economic activity. Not the book to go to if you want to get a sense of who any of the Tudors or others of the time were as people or of what daily life was like at any level of the social scale, nor the best book to start with if you don't already have a sense of the larger narrative of Tudor England, but a useful scholarly overview to fill in gaps.
August 26, 2023
Informative, grounded, and sound. Tudor England was a decent read and certainly does what it says on the tin. The only reason I've deducted a star is because it is not a particularly entertaining read yet this can be forgiven as it was obviously not designed to be by Guy. However, this is an essential read for anyone interested in or studying the Tudor period. It is unmatched in its field and is yet to be beaten as the definitive work on the Tudor period.
March 9, 2016
Holy minutiae, Batman! If you have a wild passion for Tudor history and a stomach for wearisome detail, this is your book. If not, start elsewhere.
May 28, 2024
An excellent scholarly overview of the Tudor period by British historian John Guy. In the book, Guy delves in meticulous detail thee various aspects of English life and society through political, economic, social, religious, and cultural history in order to give us as full a picture as possible of what life was like for the Tudor people, as well as the inner workings of governmental life in that period. We also see how England moved from a world that was still very much medieval at the beginning of the era under Henry VII, to one closely resembling the modern world by the time his granddaughter Elizabeth I assumed the throne. As I like to say, the Tudor portion of the wider Tudor-Stuart period was neither modern nor medieval; it was in-between. It was a transitional period. You had elements of modernity and medievalism throughout. Modernity would not come to pass (in my view) until the 1640s with the rise of Oliver Cromwell (a descendant of Henrician prime minister Thomas Cromwell) and the Civil War. I have some disagreements as to how Guy presents Mary. and some of the Puritans, but other than that, I have no major criticisms or disagreements. Plus, this book is a bit before what I study.
October 3, 2022
A masterly summation of what would now be called 'central government and administration' from 1485 to 1603; it's development and effectiveness, changes and personnel during the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Mary & Elizabeth I.
June 23, 2019
Long, boring book.
October 27, 2020
This book is a great read for those interested in Tudor England! It is easily followed and Guy's scholarly arguments are rich with consistent analysis.
April 18, 2021
most boring book i've ever read and Tudor history is actually kinda interesting
June 29, 2021
Has this book helped me with my history A-level? Yes. Do I like it? Fuck no it’s boring. Thanks John….I guess
(I read this for my Tudor History a-level)
(I read this for my Tudor History a-level)
September 12, 2023
I enjoyed the Elizabeth section of this novel the most. It provided me with a greater insight into the Tudors for my A-level exam.
January 1, 2024
read this for college
slightly better than the winter king but still so difficult to read
slightly better than the winter king but still so difficult to read
April 23, 2014
It's a good thing lovely Hillary Mantel didn't use this weighty tome as inspiration for Wolf Hall/Bring up the Bodies. At least I presume this isn't in her list of sources on the basis her novels are gripping, psychological studies of Tudor court populated by endlessly fascinating real-life characters, rather than two volumes of quite dull FACTS about the difference between the Privy Council and the Privy Chamber, numerous tables of information where the figures quoted don't have any context (107 what of all animal products in 1480-89?) and lots of people called 'Northumberland'. Also, people seem to 'ventilate' ideas rather than discussing them for some reason.
No wonder Mrs Barnes - whose A-Level text book this is, complete with underlinings and notes - has chosen to avoid this book like the (bubonic) plague for the last 20 years, and it stands in stark contrast to the more 'modern' style of history books, such as the Dan Jones' Plantagenets which are easier entry to knowledge, without sacrificing historical rigour.
I give it an 'F - requires more engaging ventilation of ideas'
No wonder Mrs Barnes - whose A-Level text book this is, complete with underlinings and notes - has chosen to avoid this book like the (bubonic) plague for the last 20 years, and it stands in stark contrast to the more 'modern' style of history books, such as the Dan Jones' Plantagenets which are easier entry to knowledge, without sacrificing historical rigour.
I give it an 'F - requires more engaging ventilation of ideas'
February 16, 2012
Phew! This book took me a long time to read - it's not easy but it has to be one of the best researched books for the Tudor period. It's just so incredibly detailed. It's not about personalities in the sense that we are used to reading about the movers and shakers of this period - their love lives and plotting and downfall etc. But more about their influence on the time, the religion and the law and the governance of the realm. For example, the account of Anne Boleyn is regarding her influence on the reformation of the church rather than her love life and relationship with Henry.
You also learn some really great words, such as recusancy, sacramentalisation etc etc
So if you are into stats and are interested in how many JP's and sherrifs were appointed in different Tudor reigns and how the labour market operated throughout the 15 and 16th Centuries, then this book is definitely for you. If you want to know about how many mistresses each Tudor king had, then this book isn't for you.
You also learn some really great words, such as recusancy, sacramentalisation etc etc
So if you are into stats and are interested in how many JP's and sherrifs were appointed in different Tudor reigns and how the labour market operated throughout the 15 and 16th Centuries, then this book is definitely for you. If you want to know about how many mistresses each Tudor king had, then this book isn't for you.
December 3, 2013
This book is an exhaustive study of the politics of Tudor England, starting with Henry VII, and ending with the death of Elizabeth I. On the positive side, it's extremely thorough and scholarly, and dauntingly researched. And I feel as if I learned a lot in reading it. On the less good side, it's a bit of a tedious slog, and is too focused on politics; what social history is there is presented as statistical summary. It's hard to get a sense of the people from this book. It also suffers a bit from being 25 years old--the style is a bit fussy. It's also written for an audience that likely knows a good deal about British history--I had to keep Googling names to find out who people were that the author obviously assumed the reader was familiar with. I read it for a 10-week learning-in-retirement class, and it really took me the entire 10 weeks to get through it.
Glad I read it, but it was REALLY HARD WORK!!
Glad I read it, but it was REALLY HARD WORK!!
March 5, 2009
This is not a riveting read. It is an academic history that contains one of the most irritating of Oxbridge traditions: it treats the reader as an expert on the subject. In other words, the author maintains an elitist tradition that should have died out years ago. Other than that it is well-researched and very detailed. The analysis is quite good in many areas, but also quite tame—in that the author seems to have no comprehension of what it must have been like to live in a land where one’s life hung on a thread. Despite the research, Tudor England still remains an alien place to this author.
May 30, 2015
Abandoned: I had this book hanging around for ages until one day I thought, 'I really fancy reading about the Tudors.' I only managed about 15 pages, it's dry, dull and torturous to read and it seems to be written for anyone who already knows everything about the subject.
If you want to relive the 'excitement' of reading an old school history textbook from the 1940s then read this book. We used to have books like this at school that were designed to kill off any spark of interest you could possibly have in the subject. Anyway, you get the idea, I didn't enjoy it.
If you want to relive the 'excitement' of reading an old school history textbook from the 1940s then read this book. We used to have books like this at school that were designed to kill off any spark of interest you could possibly have in the subject. Anyway, you get the idea, I didn't enjoy it.
June 12, 2007
The essential introduction to the Tudor era (16th century England).
March 23, 2012
The Tudor period is important in the formation of early and current England. This is the best book I have encountered on the era.
Read
December 27, 2012Used for History 332. Very dry & boring.
July 9, 2013
Read this for A-level many years ago.
September 29, 2014
Very informative, but also a touch dull. More duty and less pleasure than reading Elton, though I’m sure the scholarship is more reliable.
Read
September 28, 2015A really good introduction to the period with plenty of detailed analysis of the major events that occurred under the Tudor monarchs (Henry VIII-Elizabeth I)
June 8, 2019
Overall an excellently detailed account of Tudor history and enjoyable from start to finish.
September 21, 2012
Very difficult read. Need a road-map to follow who is who in the text.
September 6, 2013
Well, I had to read this book for lectures so not my choice. :P
April 28, 2016
Dense, but excellent
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews