Memory and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Early Modern England

The dissolution of the monasteries was recalled by individuals and communities alike as a seismic rupture in the religious, cultural, and socio-economic fabric of early modern England. It was also profoundly important in shaping contemporary historical consciousness, the topographical imagination, and local tradition. Memory and the Dissolution is a book about the dissolution of the monasteries after the dissolution. Harriet Lyon argues that our understanding of this historical moment is enriched by taking a long chronological view of the suppression, by exploring how it was remembered to those who witnessed it and how this memory evolved in subsequent generations. Exposing and repudiating the assumptions of a conventional historiography that has long been coloured by Henrician narratives and sources, this book reveals that the fall of the religious houses was remembered as one of the most profound and controversial transformations of the entire English Reformation.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. 'No news but the abbeys shall be down': reform, surrender, and suppression in the 1530s and 1540s; 2. 'Worthy of lasting memory': the dissolution in the early modern historical imagination; 3. 'Raised out of the ruins': monastic sites in the early modern topographical imagination; 4. 'Many pretty odd tales': monks, monasteries, and the sin of sacrilege in local tradition; Conclusion.

About the author

Harriet Lyon is a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. She has published articles in the Historical Journal, the Sixteenth Century Journal, and Reformation.

Product details

• Authors: Harriet Lyon, Harriet (University of Cambridge) Lyon
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.11.2023
• EAN: 9781009014236
• ISBN: 978-1-009-01423-6
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 228 mm x 17 mm
• Weight: 460 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, RELIGION / History, c 1500 onwards to present day, History of Religion, Modern Period, C 1500 Onwards