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Reconstructs the lives of Henry VII's new men-low-born ministers with legal, financial, political, and military skills who enforced the king's will as he sought to strengthen government after the Wars of the Roses, examining how they exercised power, gained wealth, and spent it to sustain their new-found status.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Part I: New Men
- 1: Caitiffs and villains of simple birth
- 2: Principles and talents
- Part II: Service
- 3: Council, Court, and Parliament
- 4: Justice
- 5: Finance
- 6: Borderlands, war, and diplomacy
- Part III: Power
- 7: Towns and stewardships
- 8: Followers
- 9: Church and churchmen
- 10: Law and power
- 11: Families and friends
- Part IV: Wealth
- 12: The profits of power
- 13: The land market
- 14: Landlordship
- 15: Expenditure and status
- Part V: Survival
- 16: The new reign
- 17: Faith and fortune
- 18: The making of Tudor England
- Bibliography
About the author
Steven Gunn studied at Merton College, Oxford. He has held research fellowships there and at the University of Newcastle, and is now Fellow and Tutor in History at Merton College and Professor of Early Modern History at Oxford. His books include Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c.1484-1545 (1988), Early Tudor Government 1485-1558 (1995), and, with David Grummitt and Hans Cools, War, State, and Society in England and the Netherlands, 1477-1559 (2007).
Summary
Reconstructs the lives of Henry VII's new men—low-born ministers with legal, financial, political, and military skills who enforced the king's will as he sought to strengthen government after the Wars of the Roses, examining how they exercised power, gained wealth, and spent it to sustain their new-found status.
Additional text
The long-awaited publication of Professor Gunn's masterful study will prompt many historians to re-think what the phrase extensive research might entail. Gunn offers a tour-de-force of the historians art of persistent archival digging and also the science of processing that historical evidence into a compelling study [] Gunn matches his own existing high standards and leaves a difficult trail for others to follow.
