For those captivated by the intricate power dynamics and compelling personalities of Wolf Hall, these essential reads delve into the real histories which inspired Hilary Mantel’s novels and the acclaimed television adaptation.
The Rise of Thomas Cromwell
Michael Everett
How much does the Thomas Cromwell of popular novels and television series resemble the real Cromwell? This meticulous study of Cromwell’s early political career expands and revises what has been understood concerning the life and talents of Henry VIII’s chief minister.
Tudor England
Lucy Wooding
Lucy Wooding explores not just how monarchs ruled but also how men and women thought, wrote, lived, and died. We see a monarchy under strain, religion in crisis, a population contending with war, rebellion, plague, and poverty.
The Stripping of the Altars
Eamon Duffy
This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition.
Heretics and Believers
Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall argues that 16th-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of “reform”. Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform Reformation, but his actions opened a Pandora’s Box from which pluralism and diversity flowed and rooted themselves in English life.
Women and the Reformations
Merry Wiesner-Hanks
The Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic, have long been told as stories of men. But women were central to the transformations that took place in Europe and beyond. Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks explores how their actions and ideas shaped Christianity and influenced societies around the world.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
James Clark
James Clark explores the little-known lives of the last men and women who lived in England’s monasteries before the Reformation. This rich, vivid history brings back into focus the prominent place of abbeys, priories, and friaries in the lives of the English people.
Henry VIII
J. J. Scarisbrick
Henry VIII’s forceful personality dominated his age and continues to fascinate our own. In few other reigns have there been developments of such magnitude, that have so radically affected succeeding generations. J. J. Scarisbrick’s Henry VIII remains the standard account, a thorough exploration of the documentary sources, stylishly written and highly readable
Anne Boleyn
G.W. Bernard
G. W. Bernard offers a fresh portrait of one of England’s most captivating queens. Through a wide-ranging forensic examination of sixteenth-century sources, Bernard reconsiders Boleyn’s girlhood, her experience at the French court, the nature of her relationship with Henry, and the authenticity of her evangelical sympathies.
Thomas Cranmer
Diarmaid MacCulloch
Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, was the archbishop of Canterbury who guided England through the early Reformation—and Henry VIII through the minefields of divorce. From this vivid account Cranmer emerges a more sharply focused figure than before.
