The dawn of the Tudor regime is one of most recognisable periods of English history. This book sheds new light on the relationship between Crown and society by exploring the untouched archives for the Tudor monarchy's administration of justice, presenting a more holistic vision of politics and society in late medieval and early modern England.

"This series pushes the boundaries of knowledge and develops new trends in approach and understanding." ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW As is appropriate in a volume honouring the distinguished scholarship in this field of Dr Rowena E. Archer, wealthy and influential ladies, most notably Alice Chaucer, duchess of Suffolk, take centre stage, alongside successive queens consort of the period, whose councils helped to implement justice. Alice's almshouse at Ewelme provides a fine example of the many institutions which offered care for the elderly in late medieval England, a period when Henry VII placed great emphasis on the burials of his kinsfolk, particularly in Westminster abbey, to ensure that their memory would endure. Pretenders to the throne of that king and his successor, who included Alice's grandson, bring into focus the riots of 1487 near the borders of Wales and portraits dating from the 1520s. Other themes of language (how Henry V employed English in France), law (the development of the concept of the body corporate) and taxation (levies imposed on imported wine) are added to an intriguing comparison of relations between English administrators and the nobility of Gascony with British imperialists and the princes of India.

Using a wide range of legal, administrative and literary sources, this study explores the role of the royal pardon in the exercise and experience of authority in Tudor England. It examines such abstract intangibles as power, legitimacy, and the state by looking at concrete life-and-death decisions of the Tudor monarchs. Drawing upon the historiographies of law and society, political culture, and state formation, mercy is used as a lens through which to examine the nature and limits of participation in the early modern polity.

Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.

Traces the maritime expansion of England through descriptions of a multitude of sea voyages from 1480 through 1630. Analyzes exploration, trading enterprise ventures and piracy and reveals how the attempts to create British settlements overseas resulted in the founding of the first New World colonies.

Based on J.R. Tanner's Tudor constitutional documents.

This is the first encyclopedia to be devoted entirely to Tudor England. 700 entries by top scholars in every major field combine new modes of archival research with a detailed Tudor chronology and appendix of biographical essays. Entries include: * Edward Alleyn [actor/theatre manager] * Roger Ascham * Bible translation * cloth trade * Devereux family * Espionage * Family of Love * food and diet * James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell * inns * Ket's Rebellion * John Lyly * mapmaking * Frances Meres * miniature painting * Pavan * Pilgrimage of Grace * Revels Office * Ridolfi plot * Lady Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke * treason * and much more. Also includes an 8-page color insert.

Originally published: 5th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1956.

Explores the impact of legal ideas and legal consciousness on early modern English society and culture.