Just Finished Reading: A Brief History of The Tudor Age by Jasper Ridley (FP: 1998) [303pp] 

The Tudor dynasty is an endlessly fascinating period in our country's history. Not only was it a period of significant change but it was also the start of what would (briefly) become the British domination of the globe and we can still see echoes of this age almost everywhere we look – not just in castles (and ruins) but in beliefs and much else.  

Starting with a fast romp through the Tudor monarchy, the author covers a LOT of ground here. Looking at their impact on London, which wasn’t exactly a world class city when they began their reign, we move swiftly on to transport and the road system, the landed estates of the rich and shameless, house building in general, food, fashion and sport. The era was a turbulent one – to say the least! - so much attention is paid to changes in the political and religious landscape. To be honest I don’t know how people didn’t get philosophical whiplash over the changes in direction depending on who was in power – from Catholic, to Protestant, back to Catholic and then back to Protestant again. It does make the modern (or at least THIS modern) head swim. How did people keep up? Did people get confused about what they were supposed to believe on any particular day? I know that some people refused to change, or change back, which inevitably led to trials, sentences and deaths in various horrible ways. It was NOT a good time to hold firmly held and public views on almost anything without having a ‘flight bag’ pre-packed and a fast horse ready to take you to the nearest port. 

One of the things that did rather surprise me was the number and detail of the regulations of everyday life. Not only were people told who and how to worship but rules – enforced! - around where people could live, how and if they could travel, what they could wear and even how long they could have their hair where on the statute books for years or even generations. Apparently, people just accepted it and got on with their lives. Looking back 5-600 years this seems quite bizarre. But, of course, it was still in the age of the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ which was pretty hard to argue with. 

Although this book had some impressive breadth and that I learnt quite a lot of interesting details of life under various Tudors, I did find this book rather dry overall. It also irritated me at times when the author seemed to cover parts of the subject by essentially translating parts of the Tudor legal codes into modern English with little comment, expansion or explanation. I certainly intend reading (much) more about this period so I’m hoping/expecting that more modern historical works will be more readable and enjoyable. A generally good overview of the period and worth reading if you can source a copy. More to come..