The Tudor Constitution

by G.R. Elton (editor)

Though the first edition of this book (1960) rapidly established itself as a sound collection of source material and a comprehensive analysis of the government of England in the sixteenth century, the astonishing amount of work done, by many hands including the author's, in the last twenty years has rendered a revision very necessary. The scope of these changes is indicated by the fact that in the list of books cited some 180 make a first appearance while some 70 have been discarded. In the upshot, no single section has remained unaltered and several (especially on the Church, on Parliament and on the Law) have had to be entirely rewritten. While there was room for the addition of only a few documents, they have been chosen with an eye to topics especially alive in the researches of the present day. One such issue – patronage and faction – while not amenable to documentation in a book of this kind has not been forgotten in the commentary.

Genres: History, Tudor Period

512 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton FBA (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg) was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and was the Regius Professor of Modern History there from 1983 to 1988.

An strong advocate of the primacy of political and administrative history, Elton was the pre-eminent Tudor historian of his day. He also made very significant contributions to the then current debate on the philosophy of historical practice, as well as having a powerful effect on the profession through, among other things, his presidency of the Royal Historical Society.

Reviews

[Alan Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I partially read this first edition (as reprinted with some corrections in 1965) for a graduate course in Tudor-Stuart history in the fall of 1968. It is a valuable reference for primary-source materials as well as commentary. It was superseded by a later edition, which I do not currently possess.