This entirely fresh narrative of the "British Reformations" focuses on the emotional as well as the material experience of living through the reformations in Britain during the sixteenth century. The Protestant reformations that took place in England and Scotland during the sixteenth century were, even by the standards of the period, unusually and uniquely fractious and complicated. By combining politics, theology, and culture – and by complementing its narrative with key documents from the period – this book arms readers to study, explore, and understand the British Reformations in new ways. More importantly, it considers this fascinating period in the round, understanding the reformations as a religious and cultural movement that had impacts upon politics, society, and individuals which combined to profound and lasting effects. Above all, it shows how an empathetic study of sixteenth-century religious and cultural history can expand our understanding of the past – and of how identities can form and be altered by powerful ideas and inspired individuals as well as mighty princes. Aided by a Who’s Who and Chronology, The Reformations in Britain is an invaluable resource for all students who study the religious and cultural history of sixteenth-century Britain.

List of figures -- Chronology -- Who's who -- Introduction -- Chapter One: Politics -- Chapter Two: Theologies -- Chapter Three: Culture -- Documents -- Bibliography -- Index.

This book explores (mis)representations of two female claimants to the Tudor throne, Lady Jane Grey and Mary I of England. It places Jane's attempted accession and Mary I's successful accession and reign in comparative perspective, and illustrates how the two are fundamentally linked to one another, and to broader questions of female kingship, precedent, and legitimacy. Through ten original essays, this book considers the nature and meaning of mid-Tudor queenship as it took shape, functioned, and was construed in the sixteenth century as well as its memory down to the twenty-first, in literary, musical, artistic, theatrical, and other cultural forms. Offering unique comparative insights into Jane and Mary, this volume is a key resource for researchers and students interested in the Tudor period, queenship, and historical memory.

Praise for the series:‘Perhaps the most important historical undertaking of our age... one of the most valuable historical works ever produced.’ Times Literary Supplement‘A landmark in the field of historical endeavour... the most admirable collection of sources on English history that exists.’ American Historical Review English Historical Documents is the most ambitious, impressive and comprehensive collection of primary documents on English history ever published. The volumes have each become landmark publications in their own fields. This long awaited volume covers 1558-1603, the reign of Elizabeth I, when government, culture, religion and foreign policy all underwent profound change. This volume includes informative introductory pieces for the parts and sections and editorial comment is directed towards making sources intelligible rather than drawing conclusions from them. Opening with an introductory section which contextualises the accession of Elizabeth to the throne, the volume covers all key aspects of the Elizabethan period, including:InstitutionsSocial and economic structuresThe marriage question and the problem of the successionFamily and householdCultural lifeThe Church and religious affairsElizabethan warsOverseas trade and explorationCrime and disorderThe format of the series has been updated and the documents gathered here encompass the most up to date approaches to the material.

In Faith and Fraternity Laura Branch provides the first sustained comparative analysis of London’s livery companies during the Reformation. Focussing on the Grocers and the Drapers, this book challenges the view that merchants were zealous early Protestants and that the companies to which they belonged adapted to the Reformation by secularising their ethos. Rather, the rhetoric of Christianity, particularly appeals to brotherly love, punctuated the language of corporate governance throughout the century, and helped the liveries retain a spiritual culture. These institutions comprised a spectrum of religious identities yet members managed to coexist relatively peacefully; in this way the liveries help us to understand better how the transition from a Catholic to a Protestant society was negotiated.

The theme chosen for the seventh conference of Dutch and British historians - relations between Church and State in the two countries since the Reformation - cannot pretend to any originality. A subject so germane to the history of Europe, and indeed of those parts of the world colonized by Europeans and evangelized by the Christian churches, has naturally attracted the attention of numerous scholars. The particular attraction of this study of the action and reaction of Church and State in Britain and the Netherlands lies in the scope it offers historians and political scientists for making comparisons be tween two states, both of which endorsed the Protestant Reformation while rejecting absolutism. But the dissimilarities are quite as striking. In the Netherlands the Reformed Church came to hold a curiously equivocal position, being neither an established Church in the English sense nor an independent sect. Yet even after the formal separation of Church and State in 1796 and the rise to political prominence of Dutch Catholicism, ties of sentiment continued to link the Dutch nation and the Reformed Church for some time to come. Within England the Anglican Church maintained its constitutional standing as the established Church and its social position as the Church of the 'Establishment', though it had to recognize a non-episcopal estab lished Church of Scotland and accept its disestablishment in Ireland and Wales.

This book provides fascinating studies of English religious men and women through their reading and writing during the turbulent period of the Dissolution.