PREFACE

There have been countless books on the Tudors published in the last century and, in whatever form publishing develops over the next century, there will doubtless be countless more: biographies, histories and textbooks; monographs on specialised aspects of politics, social life, religion, economics and culture; collections and editions of original sources. Nobody could even hope to read them all. Yet while the Tudors are among the most familiar, they are also among the most interesting of England’s ruling dynasties, and an author is therefore entitled to hope that another book on the Tudors can be added to the heap without much special pleading. That said, there have not been many books like this one, and this one will certainly be rather different from previous books of the same kind.

For this is not a history of Tudor England. Still less is it an attempt to conform to current historical fashion as a history of ‘Tudor Britain’: as the kingdoms and lordships of the British Isles were neither all ‘Britain’ nor all ‘Tudor’, it is difficult even to describe, let alone to write, a history of the entire British Isles in this period. Worthwhile though both those endeavours certainly are, this book simply has a different scope. It aspires to retell a familiar story in an unfamiliar way. It sets out to explore the reigns of the five Tudor monarchs very much from the royal perspective. This might sound a little old-fashioned - but the point is precisely to avoid the old-fashioned confusion between the history of kings and the history of their kingdoms. This book is meant as a series of essays in brief political biography, a study of the public lives, rather than of the ‘private lives’, of the Tudors. Indeed, one might say that, as monarchs, the Tudors did not have private lives. The monarch was, as such, a public person, and the most intimate details of his or her life were matters of acute public interest. So the emphasis in these pages is on the politics of personal monarchy. The idea is to give a brief narrative of the politics of England from the point of view of the central character in the political system, the monarch, and to show how the personal character and concerns and beliefs of the monarchs affected the ways in which they acted within contemporary institutions and interacted with other political figures.

It is customary to preface a book with long lists of names of those who have helped or advised the author along the way, a secular litany at times as remorseless as the thanks at an awards ceremony. Large numbers of scholars have contributed to this book through their publications on Tudor history, which have shaped my own understanding of the period. As this book is meant for readers rather than for scholars, and has been written rather than ‘researched’, I have dispensed with the traditional array of footnotes and bibliographical references. Most of the factual information is common knowledge. Uncommon knowledge is mostly derived from my own work, but where I am conscious of depending on the findings and insights of others, I have tried to acknowledge my debts in a general way in the guide to further reading at the end of the book. But that aside, the book is a solo effort, so the usual polite reminder that ‘all the mistakes are my own’ is hardly worth making. I have no one else to blame.

Nevertheless, I should like to thank three people who have contributed to the writing of this book in more general ways. First of all, I should like to thank David Starkey for reminding us that, whatever else history might be, it is about people and it is for people. Here it is. I hope people enjoy reading it. Secondly I should like to thank my son Henry for his constant encouragement (‘Good luck with the Tudors!’, ‘Have you finished the Tudors yet, Dad?’). Yes, I’ve finished. Sorry it took so long. And finally I should like to thank my father, Peter Rex, himself a historian, for... for too many things really, but perhaps these will do: interesting me in the past, and teaching me two of the things every historian needs to learn - when to believe, and when to doubt. Thank you.