Tudor Empire, 1st ed. 2020
The Making of Early Modern Britain and the British Atlantic World, 1485-1603
Britain and the World Series

This book recasts one of the most well-studied and popularly-beloved eras in history: the tumultuous span from the 1485 accession of Henry VII to the 1603 death of Elizabeth I. Though many have gravitated toward this period for its high drama and national importance, the book offers a new narrative by focusing on another facet of the British past that has exercised an equally powerful grip on audiences: imperialism. It argues that the sixteenth century was pivotal to the making of both Britain and the British Empire. Unearthing over a century of theorizing about and probing into the world beyond England?s borders, Tudor Empire shows that foreign enterprise at once mirrored, responded to, and provoked domestic politics and culture, while decisively shaping the Atlantic World. Demonstrating that territorial expansion abroad and national consolidation and identity formation at home were concurrent, intertwined, and mutually reinforcing, the author examines some of the earliest ventures undertaken by the crown and its subjects in France, Scotland, Ireland, and the Americas. Tudor Empire is a thought-provoking, essential read for those interested in the Tudors and the British Empire that they helped create.

1 Introduction: “This Realme of Englond is an Impire”

2 “The direction which they look, and the distance they sailed”: The Birth of an Imperial Dynasty, 1485–1509

3 “Ungracious Dogholes”: Experiments in Empire, Ca. 1513–1527

4 “More Fully Playnly and Clerely Set Fourth to All the World”: England, Scotland, and “Thempire of Greate Briteigne” in the 1530s and 1540s

5 “Recouer thyne aunciente bewtie”: Mid-Tudor Empire over Mid-Tudor Crisis, 1550–1570