In the context of the years 1485 to 1603 to what extent was the government of England dysfunctional in the mid-Tudor period?
In the context of the years 1485 to 1603 to what extent was the government of England dysfunctional in the mid-Tudor period?
During the Tudor Dynasty it is easily thought that the years between 1547 and 1558 were ones of crisis. With the succession of a child and the first woman within England, people have assumed that the years between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were an unproductive interlude. The mid Tudor period is seen as negative years within the Tudor Dynasty. It is regarded that Henry VIII and Elizabeth I’s reputations were a factor in why historians such as A.F Pollard and S T Bindoff supported the ‘Mid Tudor Crisis’ . The ‘two little Tudors’, referring to Edward and Mary, seemed colourless in comparison to their surrounding successors, so much so that A Pollard says “Edward was portrayed as a sickly boy who, throughout his reign, was the pawn of two ‘regents’” while Mary was seen as an ‘intolerant, dogmatic and neurotic woman who failed to produce an heir’ . Therefore it could be seen that people believed the years of crisis were at their most dysfunctional between the years 1547-1558. W R D Jones argued that Edward and Mary’s reigns were a period of religious disruption, large scale disorder and rebellion alongside the inefficiency and sterility in government and administration, social and economic problems and disastrous foreign policy. This supports the description of the mid-Tudor period being dysfunctional. However there could be influence from the 16th Century writers such as John Foxe who was author to ‘Book of Martyrs’, which was written just after Marys death and depicted her as a monster . Foxe was responsible for a lasting picture of Mary as it fitted prejudices of a confident. Under these circumstances it was not surprising that the period 1547 – 1558 were marked by disasters. However historians such as David Loades, Jennifer Loach and Robert Tittler stress that there was much creativity in the period. Government under Duke of Northumberland
During the Tudor Dynasty it is easily thought that the years between 1547 and 1558 were ones of crisis. With the succession of a child and the first woman within England, people have assumed that the years between Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were an unproductive interlude. The mid Tudor period is seen as negative years within the Tudor Dynasty. It is regarded that Henry VIII and Elizabeth I’s reputations were a factor in why historians such as A.F Pollard and S T Bindoff supported the ‘Mid Tudor Crisis’ . The ‘two little Tudors’, referring to Edward and Mary, seemed colourless in comparison to their surrounding successors, so much so that A Pollard says “Edward was portrayed as a sickly boy who, throughout his reign, was the pawn of two ‘regents’” while Mary was seen as an ‘intolerant, dogmatic and neurotic woman who failed to produce an heir’ . Therefore it could be seen that people believed the years of crisis were at their most dysfunctional between the years 1547-1558. W R D Jones argued that Edward and Mary’s reigns were a period of religious disruption, large scale disorder and rebellion alongside the inefficiency and sterility in government and administration, social and economic problems and disastrous foreign policy. This supports the description of the mid-Tudor period being dysfunctional. However there could be influence from the 16th Century writers such as John Foxe who was author to ‘Book of Martyrs’, which was written just after Marys death and depicted her as a monster . Foxe was responsible for a lasting picture of Mary as it fitted prejudices of a confident. Under these circumstances it was not surprising that the period 1547 – 1558 were marked by disasters. However historians such as David Loades, Jennifer Loach and Robert Tittler stress that there was much creativity in the period. Government under Duke of Northumberland
Bibliography: 1. ‘England 1485-1603’, Flagship History- (Collins Educational of Harper Collins Publishers) 2002 2. A.F Pollard, The History of England - a Study in Political Evolution (New York, H Holt, 1912) 3. J. Foxe, the Book of Martyrs, 1563 4. A.G.R Smith, the Emergence of a Nation State (London 1984) 5. M Hutchings, History Review: “Mary Tudor re-assessed”. March 1999 6. J. Guy, Tudor England (Oxford 1988) 7. D. Starkey, ‘Edward and Mary: The Unknown Tudors”, BBC Television, 2002. 8. D .Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government and Religion in England, 1553-58, (2nd Ed), (1995)