What do you think?
Rate this book
The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485–1603
Now in its third edition, The Age of Reformation has been fully updated and extended, offering a comprehensive study of the relationships between religion, politics, and social change in the sixteenth century.
The book charts the new challenges and crises facing the English, Scottish, and Irish states in the early modern age as they contended with the spread of Protestantism and a powerful Tudor monarchy. Constructing a clear narrative of the events and actors of this era of reformations, both political and religious, the book provides an accessible entry point for studying a period of upheaval and transformation, synthesising key research and drawing unexpected connections. Each chapter of the third edition has been revised, with additions including expanded treatments of popular politics, the implementation of the Reformation in the parishes, and England’s global expansion and the Tudor roots of the ‘British empire’.
Accompanied by new maps and drawing on the latest research, this book is essential reading for all students of religion, reformation, and politics in early modern British history.
The book charts the new challenges and crises facing the English, Scottish, and Irish states in the early modern age as they contended with the spread of Protestantism and a powerful Tudor monarchy. Constructing a clear narrative of the events and actors of this era of reformations, both political and religious, the book provides an accessible entry point for studying a period of upheaval and transformation, synthesising key research and drawing unexpected connections. Each chapter of the third edition has been revised, with additions including expanded treatments of popular politics, the implementation of the Reformation in the parishes, and England’s global expansion and the Tudor roots of the ‘British empire’.
Accompanied by new maps and drawing on the latest research, this book is essential reading for all students of religion, reformation, and politics in early modern British history.
350 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 27, 2009
About the author
Alec Ryrie
33 books40 followersAlec Ryrie is a prize-winning historian of the Reformation and Protestantism. He is the author of Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt and Protestants: The Faith That Made the Modern World. Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University and Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 4, 2021
funny, thrilling
June 4, 2021
Ultimately a concise introduction to the politics and religious turmoil of Tudor Britain and Scotland under the Stewarts (From Bosworth to the accession of James I/James VI).
What Ryrie achieves in 292 pages is deliver an effective summary on how the continental Reformation affected British (and Irish) politics, with due diligence given to the slow mutation from Elective Monarchy to Hereditary Monarchy, which seems to be one of the book's main lines of analysis. British (England + Wales) affairs are thankfully not treated separately from those of Scotland or Ireland, but as an ensemble, which points towards the more 'unified' nature of the British Isles in the 17th century.
There is worthy praise for the treatment given to Scottish politics, highlighting the principal cultural differences, as well as shared history, with its southern neighbour. However, it would have been nice if Wales and Ireland had received this same level of attention (although this is acknowledged by Ryrie in the preface of this second edition).
On a personal note, the use of endnotes instead of footnotes is frustrating, as it is sometimes difficult to know which work from the bibliography is being referenced.
What Ryrie achieves in 292 pages is deliver an effective summary on how the continental Reformation affected British (and Irish) politics, with due diligence given to the slow mutation from Elective Monarchy to Hereditary Monarchy, which seems to be one of the book's main lines of analysis. British (England + Wales) affairs are thankfully not treated separately from those of Scotland or Ireland, but as an ensemble, which points towards the more 'unified' nature of the British Isles in the 17th century.
There is worthy praise for the treatment given to Scottish politics, highlighting the principal cultural differences, as well as shared history, with its southern neighbour. However, it would have been nice if Wales and Ireland had received this same level of attention (although this is acknowledged by Ryrie in the preface of this second edition).
On a personal note, the use of endnotes instead of footnotes is frustrating, as it is sometimes difficult to know which work from the bibliography is being referenced.
Read
February 15, 2022read in: sophomore year
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews