History Of England Vol II Tudors

Rich in detail and atmosphere, and told in vivid prose, Tudors, the second vollume in Peter Ackroyd's magisterial six-volume history of England, recounts the transformation of England from a settled Catholic country to a Protestant superpower.

It is the story of Henry VIII's cataclysmic break with Rome and his six mariages; of how the brief reign of the teenage king, Edward VI, gave way to the violent reimposition of Catholicism and the stench of bonfires under 'Bloody Mary'; and of the long reign of Elizabeth I, which, though marked by turbulance, finally brought stability.

But it is the story of the English Reformation that provides the backdrop to Peter Ackroyd's masterful narrative. During the sixteenth century, England developed from a largely feudal country, which looked to Rome for direction, to a country where good governance was the duty of the state, not the church. Now men and women began to look to themselves for answers, rather than to those who ruled them.