Who Ruled Tudor England: An Essay in the Paradoxes of Power, by G.W. Bernard

Abstract

Throughout the expansion and advancement of historical studies in the last half-century and more, Tudor England has retained its place on undergraduate programmes in the UK and beyond. We are even now witnessing something of a revival in histories of the period written through the traditional lens of politics and government. New and ongoing projects engage directly with the central archive, boosted by an abundance of digitised resources, and a ‘New Administrative History’ of governmental institutions is emerging. Consequently, we find ourselves turning back to the field’s most influential work: The Tudor Revolution in Government by Geoffrey Elton, published in 1953. This thesis has generated decades of debate among Tudor historians, shaped the historical narratives of scholars working on later periods, and even made its way into popular fiction. So, this new book, written by a historian with personal remembrances of Elton as well as a broad knowledge of the field, is a welcome and timely intervention. Not only can it help us to introduce students to the major topics and debates of the Tudor age, it may also help to sharpen our sense of what administrative and governmental history can still achieve.