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An acclaimed biography of Elizabeth I and an examination of the politics and intrigues of her Tudor court.Elizabeth I ruled England in defiance of convention, exercising supreme authority in a man's world. With courage, brilliance and style, she reigned for nearly forty-five years. Anne Somerset's penetrating biography of this complex and uniquely gifted woman is unrivalled in its analysis of both Elizabeth's personal life and her career as leader.

How do we resolve conflicts when fundamental sources of knowledge and belief-such as science and theology-are involved? In God's Two Books, Kenneth Howell offers a historical analysis of how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century astronomers and theologians in Northern Protestant Europe used science and religion to challenge and support one another. Howell reveals that the cosmological schemes developed during this era remain monumental solutions to the enduring problem of how theological interpreta...

Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640 integrates social history, politics and literary culture as part of a ground-breaking study that provides revealing insights into early modern English society. Susan D. Amussen and David E. Underdown examine political scandals and familiar characters—including scolds, cuckolds and witches—to show how their behaviour turned the ordered world around them upside down in very specific, gendered ways. Using case studies from theatre, civic ritual...

A comparative survey of the emergence and development of Parliaments in Catholic Christendom from the thirteenth century, the chief focus of this work is the period between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries,when Europe was dramatically changed by the Renaissance, the Reformation and the growth of composite monarchies which brought together diverse territories under their rule. European Parliaments experienced a variety of challenges, fortunes and fates: some survived, even flourished, but...

The struggle between the fecund Stewarts and the barren Tudors is generally seen only in terms of the relationship between Elizabeth I and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. But very little has been said about the background to their intense rivalry. Here, Linda Porter examines the ancient and intractable power struggle between England and Scotland, a struggle intensified during the reigns of Elizabeth and Mary's grandfathers. Henry VII aimed to provide stability when he married his daughter, Marg...

The Cheese and the Worms is a study of the popular culture in the sixteenth century as seen through the eyes of one man, a miller brought to trial during the Inquisition. Carlo Ginzburg uses the trial records of Domenico Scandella, a miller also known as Menocchio, to show how one person responded to the confusing political and religious conditions of his time. For a common miller, Menocchio was surprisingly literate. In his trial testimony he made references to more than a dozen books, includin...

Focusing on the early 19th century, when British occupants inflicted a reign of terror on the island's black population, V.S. Naipaul's recreation of the history of Trinidad exposes the barbaric cruelties of slavery and torture and their consequences on all strata of society - from the idealist to the reactionary - in an account which penetrates aspects of a complex society.

British Slaves and Barbary Corsairs is the first comprehensive study of the thousands of Britons captured and enslaved in North Africa in the early modern period, an issue of intense contemporary concern but almost wholly overlooked in modern histories of Britain. The study charts the course of victims' lives from capture to eventual liberation, death in Barbary, or, for a lucky few, escape. After sketching the outlines of Barbary's government and society, and the world of the corsairs, it descr...

These are chiefly ‘State Papers’ in the narrow sense of records of the English Secretary of State, but include other English government documents from the Public Record Office and the British Museum. Vol II August to December 1588. In appendices Vol.II prints a list of the English fleet; letters of Captain Thomas Cely from a Spanish prison in 1579; a proposal to increase seamen’s wages in 1585; a translation of Medina Sidonia’s narrative as printed in Fernandez Duro’s La Armada Invencible; and...

"Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History", with a tradition of scholarly excellence established in 27 previous annual issues, springs forward under the auspices of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Its new editors will preserve the journal's high quality in all aspects of medieval and early-modern history and, to that end, invite contributions that treat the history of any theme during the chronological period 400-1700. "SMRH" provides an ideal venue for the presentati...

Volume XXIX/2 of History of Universities contains the customary mix of learned articles and book reviews which makes this publication such an indispensable tool for the historian of higher education. This special issue, guest edited by Alexander Broadie, particularly focuses on Seventeenth-Century Scottish Philosophers and their Philosophy. The volume is, as always, a lively combination of original research and invaluable reference material.

The Reformation is one of the most important events in world history. It sparked changes in beliefs that set off a chain of devastating wars in Europe, created the United States and still shapes the modern world, even in secular countries where Christians are in the minority. Yet it had relatively low-key beginnings: in 1517 a German monk, Martin Luther, thought there was room for improvement in the Roman Catholic Church to which he belonged. Instead, he discovered he had founded a new religion,...

Der 31. Oktober 1517 galt schon bald nach dem Tod Martin Luthers als die Geburtsstunde der Reformation. Aus diesem Wissen entwickelte sich im spAten 16. Jahrhundert die Tradition des ReformationsgedAchtnisses. Der 200. Jahrestag des Thesenanschlags wurde im gesamten europAischen Luthertum aufwendig gefeiert.Harm Cordes untersucht die geschichtlichen HintergrA"nde der GedAchtnisfeier von 1717 im lutherischen Deutschland und beschreibt am Beispiel der lutherischen UniversitAten Verlauf und Gestalt...

The new edition of this important, wide-ranging and extremely useful textbook has been extensively re-written and expanded. Rab Houston explores the importance of education, literacy and popular culture in Europe during the period of transition from mass illiteracy to mass literacy. He draws his examples for all over the continent; and concentrates on the experience of ordinary men and women, rather than just privileged and exceptional elites.

For thousands of years, humans have found themselves vulnerable to plagues of desert locusts. Some fifty countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have been ravaged, at one time or another, by huge, devouring swarms of locusts. With the consequent, often total, destruction of crops and grazing, widespread hunger and starvation ensued. Colin Everard's book takes as its geographical focus the Horn of Africa, an area which throughout history has suffered catastrophically from locust plagues. Ba...

The changes associated with the Reformation were particularly abrupt and far-reaching in John Calvin's Geneva, in large part owing to Calvin himself. This text makes two major contributions to the understanding of this particular period. The first is to the history of divorce, whilst the second is in illustrating the operations of the Consistory of Geneva - an institution designed to control in all its variety the behaviour of the entire population - which was established at Calvin's insistence...

This series aims to provide both an understanding of political, economic and social developments on the one hand with an appraisal of the individual's role on the other. In this book the author aims to examine Queen Elizabeth I in terms of her power rather than her policies, and does so through an exploration of her relations with other politicians and with the institutions of 16th century political life.

This is a survey of martyrs over the past five hundred years with an emphasis on their 'last words.' Some of the trial statements or gallows speeches are remarkable for their eloquence under the circumstances. The approach of the book is chronological, from the burning at the stake of Joan of Arc in Rouen 1431 to the assassination of Yitzak Rabin in Tel Aviv in 1995.