Table of Contents

Aims and Acknowledgements

Quoting from Early Modern Texts

Illustrations

England’s Rulers From Richard II to Charles II

Timeline of Key Events

1 An Overview of Early Modern England

2 The Back-Story of the Tudor Dynasty: From Richard II to Henry VII

3 Henry VII, Henry VIII, and the Henrician Era (1509–47)

4 Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary I (1547–53)

5 The Elizabethan Era (1558–1603)

6 The Reign of King James VI/I (1603–25)

7 Charles I (1625–42): from Accession to the Beginning of the Civil Wars

8 The Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, and the Early Restoration (1642–71)

Index

A Short History of Early
Modern England

This edition first published 2011
© 2011 Peter C. Herman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Herman, Peter C., 1958–

A short history of early modern England : subjects, rulers and rebels / Peter C. Herman.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4051-9560-7 (hardback)

1. Great Britain–History–Tudors, 1485–1603. 2. Great Britain–History–Stuarts, 1603–1714. 3. English literature–Early modern, 1500–1700. I. Title.

DA315.H44 2011

942.05–dc22

2010051057

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs 9781444394979; Wiley Online Library 9781444395006; ePub 9781444394993

Aims and Acknowledgements

A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context has a very simple purpose: to provide a survey of the backgrounds necessary to study the literature produced in early modern England. While editing two volumes for the Modern Language Association’s Approaches to Teaching series, I came across numerous complaints that students arrive in our classrooms innocent of the basic facts of the Tudor–Stuart era, a phenomenon backed up by much anecdotal evidence and studies illustrating the generally parlous state of historical knowledge. This book aims to help remedy this problem by providing a clear narrative of the period’s political history along with explanations of the age’s religious conflicts. A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context aims to answer such basic questions as who ruled when, what was the English Reformation, what exactly are the differences between Catholicism and Protestantism and between the various subdivisions among Protestants, what are the Wars of the Roses, why were the Elizabethans so obsessed with it, what happened between 1640 and 1660, and why does this period go by so many names? While any number of studies and guides place early modern literature in its historical contexts, these books all assume a fair amount of background knowledge on the reader’s part. A Short History of Early Modern England: British Literature in Context aims to provide that knowledge.

I have tried to stick to the facts, balancing narrative with quotations from primary sources. When I depart from convention, such as my decision to eschew the term, “Puritan,” I have made my decisions explicit. I also give brief explanations of the controversies among historians and why they are relevant to students of literature. Periodization is always tricky, since history does not proceed in easily definable segments, and I have been guided by what I hope would be most useful to a literature student. Consequently, the book begins with the deposition of Richard II and the consequences following that act (i.e. the Wars of the Roses), both because the events of this period are so important to the Tudor–Stuart era, and because they are dramatized by William Shakespeare in some of his most popular plays. I have chosen the publication of Milton’s final poetic works in 1674 as the endpoint, since that is when most classes in early modern literature conclude.

One point, however, deserves to be explained before going further: this book is largely “history from above” rather than “history from below.” My reason for this approach is not that I disagree with the latter or consider the history of working or illiterate people less worthy of note than the doings of kings and parliaments. Rather, I base my approach on my sense that wherever one rests on the social ladder, the monarch constituted the center of the political universe. When, for example, the Elizabethan pamphleteer and proto-novelist, Thomas Deloney, challenges the fundamental social organization of England, he does not imagine doing away with the monarchy altogether, but by having the monarch recognize the superiority of working people over the aristocracy. For a relatively brief period, the Interregnum (1649–60), a few tried to imagine England without a monarchy, but ultimately the experiment failed, and it failed even before the Restoration because Cromwell had to fend off numerous attempts to make him king. To write “history from below” without first taking into account the basic facts of “history from above” would, I think, lead to a warped view of the period’s literature.

Three tools have aided the research for this book immeasurably. First, Early English Books Online allows students access to nearly every book, pamphlet, proclamation, and newsbook printed in England between 1485 and 1700. Whenever possible, I have gone back to the original sources rather than relying on quotations in contemporary historians. Second, as a cursory glance at my notes will quickly indicate, I have relied heavily on The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, an extraordinary resource whose articles provide up-to-date, deeply scholarly, and yet entirely accessible biographies that are essential reading for anyone seeking to understand British history. The third source came as a surprise: Google Books and Archive.org. As most people know, Google decided some years ago to try to create a universal library by scanning I do not know how many out-of-print volumes from the major research libraries in North America. Consequently, such essential primary source resources such as Sir John Harington’s Nugae Antiquae (1804), and John Rushworth’s Historical Collections of Private Passages of State (1689) are now available to everyone with a web connection.

Finally, I have personal debts that I eagerly and gratefully acknowledge. Heidi Brayman Hackel, Anne Lake Prescott, and Johann P. Sommerville answered what must have seemed like a never-ending stream of queries with patience and learning. Peter Platt, Elizabeth Sauer, and Ronald Simon read and commented on each chapter as I finished it. I am also exceedingly grateful to the advice, enthusiasm, and patience provided by Emma Bennett, Isobel Bainton, and Ben Thatcher. Gillian Andrews was the ideal copy-editor. Finally, I gratefully thank the College of Arts and Letters at San Diego State University for a grant that helped pay for the illustrations. If this book has any merit, they deserve the praise. I gladly accept the blame.

Illustrations

England’s Rulers From Richard II to Charles II

Timeline of Key Events