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The English Court: From the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War
This pioneering work, the first serious analysis of the royal household between the middle ages and the eighteenth century, examines the internal workings of the court which was key to politics, and the personnel and organisation of the private royal apartments. It presents radical reinterpretation of the period as a whole, seeing the years from 1460 to 1640 as an essential unity - the age of personal court monarchy undivided by an imaginary 'revolution in government'.
273 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
David Starkey
133 books465 followersDavid Starkey is one of Britain's foremost historians, renowned for his commanding expertise on the Tudor period and the English monarchy. A Cambridge scholar, he established his academic reputation with rigorous work on the Tudor court, particularly Henry VIII's privy chamber and the role of faction in politics. His major works include Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII, Elizabeth: Apprenticeship, and Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity.
A gifted communicator, Starkey became a familiar television presence through documentaries including David Starkey's Monarchy and Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant. His style is unapologetically forthright, combining scholarly rigour with bold interpretive claims that challenge received wisdom. He was appointed CBE in 2007 for services to history.
A gifted communicator, Starkey became a familiar television presence through documentaries including David Starkey's Monarchy and Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant. His style is unapologetically forthright, combining scholarly rigour with bold interpretive claims that challenge received wisdom. He was appointed CBE in 2007 for services to history.
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August 20, 2012
Through no fault of the writers or editor, I found myself more interested in the conclusions Starkey draws at the beginning of the book than with all of the detail the individual historians bring to bear in describing the court in each period. All the writers demonstrate that politics could not be separated from the court and that each court was shaped by the personality of the ruling monarch. Starkey draws out the patterns as he describes them in this quote:
“In the perspective of the whole book we can now classify the political patterns on the same lines as the royal personalities. The politics of ‘distance’ were characterized by long ministerial tenures, stability, and the quiescence, even the elimination, of faction. The politics of ‘participation’, in contrast, were marked by the rapid rise and fall of councillors and favourites, repeated crises and more or less open faction war. The final cause of this was the royal personality; the efficient, the differing role of the Privy Chamber. The private apartments of a Henry VIII or a James I were both an alternative power centre to the Council Chamber and a hotbed of factional intrigue. Councillors and courtiers vied for supremacy and insecurity became both a fact of life and an instrument of royal policy. None of this was true under Henry VII, Elizabeth I or Charles I. Then Chamber//and Council went their separate ways; while far from being a ‘cockpit’ of faction the Privy Chamber became a ‘barrier’ against it.” 9-10
“In the perspective of the whole book we can now classify the political patterns on the same lines as the royal personalities. The politics of ‘distance’ were characterized by long ministerial tenures, stability, and the quiescence, even the elimination, of faction. The politics of ‘participation’, in contrast, were marked by the rapid rise and fall of councillors and favourites, repeated crises and more or less open faction war. The final cause of this was the royal personality; the efficient, the differing role of the Privy Chamber. The private apartments of a Henry VIII or a James I were both an alternative power centre to the Council Chamber and a hotbed of factional intrigue. Councillors and courtiers vied for supremacy and insecurity became both a fact of life and an instrument of royal policy. None of this was true under Henry VII, Elizabeth I or Charles I. Then Chamber//and Council went their separate ways; while far from being a ‘cockpit’ of faction the Privy Chamber became a ‘barrier’ against it.” 9-10
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