Module Title Society and State, 1520-1642

Footprints of London Blog, 2017

An item from the Footprints of London blog which explores moments in 1538, the crisis year in Henry VIII's break with Rome. This item brings together moments in my guided tour 'A Question of Supremacy'.

History of European Ideas, 1994

Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 2018

The Historian, 1980

Miracles of Henry VI ernment to those around him who were strong enough to seize it. The early years of the reign were dominated by opposing political factions. Baronial quarreling over control of the government was an expected role of minorities, but instead of ceasing in 1436 when Henry reached majority, it intensified. This quarreling was at least partly due to a lamentable weakness in the King's reasoning powers. At best he displayed a less-than-adequate grasp of reality; at worst he was certified mad and a regency was proclaimed. The King's weak ness combined with an already-evident tendency to factionalism among the barons to produce a tense situation among the magnates in the 1450s. After smoldering for nearly a decade, war broke out in 1460. Caused in part by the struggle for control of the throne, the War of the Roses arose also from familial loyalty, personal jealousy, greed, and ambition among the barons. The Yorkist forces were soon suc cessful and Edward, Duke of York, was crowned king in 1461. Henry survived this defeat and returned to power for a brief period in 1470-71 after the Earl of Warwick had deposed Edward. However, Edward returned to England from exile in Burgundy, won the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and regained the crown. Henry VI was murdered in the Tower about the time that Edward IV made his triumphal reentry into London on May 21, 1471.2 Edward exhibited Henry's body at St. Paul's and Black Friars in London and then in terred it in the Lady Chapel at Chertsey Abbey in Berkshire. There the body remained until 1484 when Richard III had it disinterred and reburied it in the chapel at Windsor Castle. A pitiable cipher as a king, Henry's unquestioned piety helped to make him a viable candidate for canonization. John Blacman, a fifteenth-century Carthusian, described Henry's virtues: He was, like a second Job, a man simple and upright, altogether fearing the Lord God, and departing from Evil. He was a simple man, without any crook or craft or untruth, as is plain to all. With none did he deal craftily, nor ever would say an untrue word to any, but framed his speech always to speak truth. He was both upright and just, always keeping to the straight line of justice in his acts. Upon none would he wittingly inflict any injustice. To God and the Almighty he rendered most faithfully that which was His, for he took pains to pay in full the tithes and offerings due to God and the Church: and this he accompanied with most sedulous devotion, so that even when decked with the kingly ornaments and crowned with the royal 'Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was considered by many to have been the murderer

2018

For anyone with an interest in the strength of the English crown between the years 1399-1485, this may be useful as a brief outline of some of the main events that precede the Tudor dynasty as well as some basic information on the 'Wars of the Roses' and the political, economic and social factors that contributed to the decline in royal authority between the years of 1399 - 1485

The Historical Journal, 2014

ABSTRACTThis article takes issue with the influential recent interpretation of Henry VIII's religious position as consistently ‘Erasmian’. Bringing to the discussion not only a re-evaluation of much familiar evidence but also a considerable quantity of hitherto unknown or little-known material, it proposes instead that Henry's religious position, until the 1530s, sat squarely within the parameters of ‘traditional religion’ and that the subsequent changes in his attitudes to the cult of the saints, monasticism, and papal primacy were so significant as to be understood and described by Henry himself in terms of a veritable religious ‘conversion’. This conversion, which was very much sui generis, is not easily to be fitted within the confessional frameworks of other sixteenth-century religious movements (though it was by no means unaffected by them). It hinged upon Henry's new understanding of kingship as a supreme spiritual responsibility entrusted to kings by the Word of ...

Volume 1 of David Carpenter's biography of Henry III for the Yale English Monarchs Series ended on a cliffhanger. Despite all the peace and prosperity England has enjoyed under Henry's rule, the barons think they can do a better job and take control of the government. The king is shuffled off into a corner while their revolutionary regime enacts reforms that will end his favouritism to foreigners and bring justice to the people. It will also terminate his madcap scheme to make his youngest son the king of Sicily, which Carpenter calls the most ridiculous agreement ever made by an English monarch. But he's not surprised, as Henry has always been a woeful king. Lazy, naïve and easily manipulated, it was only a matter of time before far superior individuals intervened. They would put the affairs of the kingdom in order, help him be a king. This being England, it gets messy and the whole thing descends into war and chaos. Lucky for Henry, he's the simple fool that he is, because that's the only thing that saves him and his dynasty in the end. It's a revolution born and died of an idiot.