THE TUDOR AGE
How the much-discussed dynasty helped to reshape England
Author: Susan Brigden Publisher: The Folio Society Price: £85 Released: Out now
With few topics in history being as wellcovered as the Tudors, offering insight and analysis that’s truly original is a real challenge. That Susan Brigden’s work, originally published in 2000, continues to feel fresh and groundbreaking in its approach is in itself an achievement. This new Folio edition brings it to life in a new way, giving it the premium treatment it rightly deserves.
Originally titled New Worlds, Lost Words when it was first released, The Tudor Age looks to tell the story of the 118-year rule of the Tudor dynasty. Whereas books that focus on the singular rule of Henry VIII or Mary I might give us great individual depth, Brigden’s approach allows for threads to be woven over generations, picked up and examined by new courts and new monarchs. With this wider lens we get to see how the Reformation and Renaissance, already well under way on mainland Europe, were at the heart of Tudor concerns.
And for the most part, as Brigden explains, the Tudor monarchs rode the wave of these movements very well by placing themselves at their vanguard. Save for Mary I, who looked to overturn the religious reforms of her father, the Tudor Age appears one of continued growth, change and enlightenment by comparison to earlier times. In religion, art, entertainment and politics, the Tudors were pushing at new boundaries into figurative new worlds, not always successfully or peacefully, but ever moving forward. Ultimately, the Elizabethan age would also fully embrace the New World in a literal sense through the exploration of the Americas.
But there were also the lost worlds of Brigden’s original title, which in this case refers to the lost traditions and beliefs of medieval England that most of the population would have felt connected to. While much of the book is focused on the higher echelons of society, no small amount of space is devoted to the lives of common English,
Irish and Welsh subjects of the crown and their experiences. The tumult of the back and forth between Mary I rejecting the Reformation and Elizabeth I re-embracing it is particularly important here. But we are also reminded of the economic challenges, of famine and plague, and of the (perhaps connected) superstitious terrors such as the fear of witches that would sweep through the countryside.
While Brigden’s prose can be a little dense and academic at times, there is such a wealth of information here that it remains an excellent text for those looking to get a solid grasp of the importance of the Tudor dynasty to English history. Historians might often remark that it is an over-discussed period in some sense, but this kind of examination helps to remind us just why that has been the case, not just for its scandal and turmoil but for the changes that it brought that resonated through the centuries that followed.