The Tudors: History of a Dynasty by David Loades

The Tudors: History of a Dynasty by David Loades
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Category: History
Reviewer: John Van der Kiste
Summary: A largely thematic, as opposed to biographical, account of the Tudor dynasty, with the main emphasis being of specific aspects of their government, diplomatic relations with other powers, religious policies and the hierarchy of contempoary society.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 235	Date: March 2012
Publisher: Continuum
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1441136909
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For several years David Loades has written and published extensively about the Tudors, individually and collectively, from almost every angle possible. This title is not a chronological biography or history of the five monarchs whose reigns gave their name to the era. As he and his publisher make clear in the preface, it is rather a study of Tudor policies.

The first three chapters fit a biographical template, being devoted to a concise account of the family from the secret marriage of Henry V’s widow Katherine of Valois to Owen Tudor in or around 1430 and their status as allies of the Lancastrians during the Wars of the Roses, to the victory at Bosworth and subsequent events, culminating in the death of Elizabeth in 1603. The various episodes such as the Yorkist pretenders to the throne, the ever-familiar saga of Henry VIII’s six wives, the break with Rome and his problems with establishing the succession, and Mary’s phantom pregnancies, are all dealt with in turn. Those who wish to read about these in further detail will need to look elsewhere, but thanks to Loades’ other titles, plus the works of Alison Weir, Chris Skidmore and David Starkey to name but three, there is no shortage of appropriate material readily available.

The greater part of the book is given over to individual chapters on specific aspects of 16th-century England. One looks at the sovereigns’ relations with Parliament, which in the simplest of terms if nothing else was a useful body to ask for more money in order to fight the next war. There is an analysis of the functions of Parliament itself and of the King’s Council, a body which existed to carry out decisions rather than make them. Another examines the status of the medieval nobleman, and especially the manner in which the crown reduced once-mighty magnates to the status of subjects, who now saw their chief honour in service to the crown.

Moving on, England’s status as a somewhat lesser power at the end of the middle ages is seen in the light of the humiliating defeats which had brought the Hundred Years’ War with France to an ignominious close after the victories at Crecy and Agincourt, followed by the conflicts between Lancaster and York. With peace restored, the way was clear for England to reassert her position of importance overseas with Henry VIII’s work towards the Treaty of London in 1518, seen as the zenith of his international reputation - even if the good intentions of inviting other continental countries to pledge themselves to universal and perpetual peace would prove to be of short duration.

Similarly, chapters on trade and the economy, on the hierarchy of society from the nobility downwards, and on ‘spin’, or the selling of the monarchy and the projection of image, lead to the culmination of Loades’ asking in the last few pages of “What did the Tudors do for us?” He concludes that the King or Queen was both Head of State and Chief Executive, or in other terms the contemporary equivalent of a hereditary president who was not answerable to his or her subjects, but only to God. (It was a principle which served them well enough, although the crown’s luck ran out disastrously with Charles I).

He also sums up the dynasty’s achievements in such diverse aspects as creating the Admiralty, overseeing the development of English as a literary language, and no less importantly for creating a cultural climate in which educational patronage could flourish, rather than the monarchs being great patrons in their own right. Although Britain only began to become a democracy in 1832 with the passing of the Great Reform Bill, the constitution it had by that time was robust enough to stand the strain, largely thanks to the achievements of the Tudors. Although nobody could argue that they were democrats by any stretch of the imagination, they were adept at building partnerships with church and state which can with hindsight be seen as laying the foundations of modern Britain.

Although it is not a lengthy text, a little less than 200 pages, this book is not necessarily a light read. Rather than trawling through the oft-told tales of Bluff King Hal and his six wives, or of the Virgin Queen offering her hand in marriage as a prize for the most eligible suitor while playing hard-to-get, it looks more at the parallel issues and aspects of the time. One might almost argue that the title and sub-title are slightly misleading, and that it would be too easy to assume otherwise. Nevertheless it will prove a valuable text for the reader wishing to study the period, rather than immersing themselves merely in the personalities and events of the age.

For further reading, may we recommend Edward VI: The Lost King of England by Chris Skidmore; Elizabeth's Women: The story of the Virgin Queen by Tracy Borman and The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir

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