In this study, Robert Tittler, an expert in Marian research, provides an important reappraisal of Mary's reign - often written off as a failure. He considers whether her reign can be so easily dismissed as an unproductive interruption of the Tudor dynasty, or whether Mary's reign played a more distinctive part in this period of history.
This famous series examines key themes in British, European and World history in short, succinct volumes. The text is supported by primary material in a Documents section, a full bibliography and an index; where appropriate there are maps, chronologies and glossaries. All the books in the series are written by experts in the field who are not only familiar with the latest research but have often contributed to it. Works of scholarship in their own right, the books also provide a survey of current historical interpretations. Longman has now inaugurated a major programme of renewal and expansion for Seminar Studies, with many new titles and new editions in the pipeline. Existing books are being re-presented in a larger, more reader-friendly format as they reprint; and new books and new editions are being reset into an entirely new page design.
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¿[a] highly competent survey of the way government functioned in the sixteenth century, which emphasises the role of institutions and the development of policy.....The chapter on the propaganda battles of the reign is a valuable introduction to a complicated subject¿.
History Today (of the First Edition)
First published in 1983, and then revised and reissued as a Second Edition in 1991, Professor Tittler¿s Seminar Study has established itself as arguably the best short introduction to the reign of Mary I (1553-58). The author, an expert in the mid-Tudor period, addresses the deceptively simple question of whether Mary¿s reign was really, as some historians claim, just ¿a sterile interlude¿ in Tudor history. It is a balanced account of the reign: Robert Tittler acknowledges the negative aspects of Mary¿s rule but he also points to its more positive features. He argues that some of these, particularly in religion, came to nothing because of Mary¿s untimely death; others were brought to fruition by Mary¿s successor, Elizabeth I, who claimed the credit.
The core of the text is devoted to the main themes and events of Mary¿s reign: the negotiations for a Spanish match, religion and the Catholic restoration, foreign affairs and the workings of Marian government. However, the reconstruction of historical events is balanced by the author¿s consideration of the history of ideas and social and economic conditions. The text is supplemented by three helpful genealogies and a glossary of specialist terms.
Robert Tittler is Professor of History at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Cover: Mary I by Master John, 1544. Reproduced courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
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