16th Century

Pirate Queen 15% off

Ronald, Susan Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £17.00 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

'Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.' - Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth I was originally dubbed 'the pirate queen' by Philip II of Spain and was acknowledged as such by the Pope. The ultimate icon of female power, Elizabeth was the first queen of England to rule in her own right. Without her foresight and determination, it is possible that not only England but also the English language would have been eclipsed by Spain and France. "Pirate Queen" puts her into context, showing how her leadership transformed England from a fringe player to a world power. It investigates the evolution of England's money supply and the birth of modern banking, and how this affected political policy and the man in the street as much then as it does now. Above all, it shows how human nature hasn't changed in 400 years, and that the Elizabethans were not as different as one might expect. It is an illuminating revisionist account of Queen Elizabeth I and her merchant-adventurers who terrorised the seas, extended the Empire and amassed great wealth for the throne.

Protestant Revolution 15% off

Naphy, William G. Normal price £19.99 — Discount price £16.99 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

When Martin Luther nailed 95 criticisms of the Catholic Church to the door of his local chapel in 1517, he set in train a process that not only changed the Catholic Church forever but had a profound effect on the world we live in today. This is the story of the Reformation and its lasting legacy - in effect how Protestantism created the modern world. It is a story of a revolution which has affected nearly every person in the West, and nearly every country in the world. It is a revolution which exists in every aspect of our everyday lives - influencing the very fabric of our existence: from what we do for a living, to who we vote for, from who we go to war with, to how we see ourselves as individuals and as a nation. It's impossible to underestimate the impact of the Reformation. "The Protestant Revolution", to accompany the BBC series of the same name, will explore the radical forces he unleashed and will examine the social impact of the Protestant Revolution, how it shaped family life, as well as the scientific, cultural, economic and political revolutions it brought about.

Out of the Storm 20% off

Wilson, Derek Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £16.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

On Halloween 1517, when Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church his 95 Theses in protest at papal indulgences he also 'nailed', in another sense, the concept of Western Christendom which had been a fundamental political given since the time of Charlemagne. It is one of the ironies of history that at the very moment when Charles V came to rule over a European empire which was, for the first time, as large as that controlled by his great namesake, a young Saxon monk irrevocably shattered its very raison d'etre. Luther's solitary stand against the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms in 1521 and his magnificent German translation of the Bible in the 1530s secured his place in history as one of the greatest religious thinkers of all time. His vast oeuvre (over 70 volumes) sprang from one idea - that believers are saved by faith alone and not works - and incited the world's biggest evangelical revival, provoking the rethinking of deep-seated ideas about Church and State, government and the individual, war and peace.

Thomas Cromwell 20% off

Hutchinson, Robert Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £16.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

Robert Hutchinson investigates the rise and fall of Henry VIII's most notorious minister. The son of a brewer, Cromwell rose from obscurity to become 'Earl of Essex, Vice-Regent and High Chamberlain of England, Keep of the Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Exchequer'. He manoeuvred his way to the top by intrigue, bribery and sheer force of personality in a court dominated by the malevolent King Henry.

Cromwell pursued the interests of the king with single-minded energy and no little subtlety. Tasked with engineering the judicial murder of Anne Boleyn when she had worn out her welcome in the royal chamber, he tortured her servants and relations, then organized a 'show trial' of Stalinist efficiency. He orchestrated the 'greatest act of privatisation in English history': the seizure of the monasteries. Their enormous wealth was used to cement the loyalty of the English nobility, and to enrich the crown. Cromwell made himself a fortune too, soliciting collosal bribes and binding the noble families to him with easy loans. He came home from court literally weighed down with gold.

King's Reformation 10% off

Bernard, G.W. Normal price £29.95 — Discount price £26.96 — You save £3.00  <convert> 

Henry VIII's reformation remains among the most crucial yet misunderstood events in English history. In this substantial new account Bernard presents the king as neither confused nor a pawn in the hands of manipulative factions. Henry, a monarch who ruled as well as reigned, is revealed instead as the determining mover of religious policy throughout this momentous period. In his crucial campaign to secure a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry's strategy, as Bernard shows, was more consistent and more radical than historians have allowed. Henry attempted to determine the pace of religious change, refusing to introduce Lutheranism, but rather harnessing the rhetoric of the continental reformation in support of his royal supremacy. Convinced that the church needed urgent reform, in particular the purging of superstition and idolatry. Henry's dissolution of the monasteries and the dismantling of the shrines were much more than a venal attempt to raise money. The King sought a middle way between Rome and Zurich, between Catholicism and its associated superstitions on one hand and the subversive radicalism of the reformers on the other.

Edward VI 20% off

Skidmore, Christopher Normal price £20.00 — Discount price £16.00 — You save £4.00  <convert> 

On the death of Henry VIII, the crown passed to his nine-year-old son, Edward. However, real power went to the Protector, Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset. The court had been a hotbed of intrigue since the last days of Henry VIII. Without an adult monarch, the stakes were even higher. The first challenger was the duke's own brother: he seduced Henry VIII's former queen, Katherine Parr; having married her, he pursued Princess Elizabeth and later was accused of trying to kidnap the boy king at gunpoint. He was beheaded. Somerset ultimately met the same fate, after a coup d'etat organized by the Duke of Warwick. Chris Skidmore reveals how the countrywide rebellions of 1549 were orchestrated by the plotters at court and were all connected to the (literally) burning issue of religion: Henry VIII had left England in religious limbo. Court intrigue, deceit and treason very nearly plunged the country into civil war.

The Oxford Shakespeare The Complete Works
30% off
this new paperback edition


Early Modern England A Social History, 1550-1760
15% off

Intrigue and Treason The Tudor Court, 1547-1558, David Loades

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