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Between the first English ‘Merchant Adventurers’ who voyaged to the New World opened up by European mariners such as Columbus and Vespucci, and the early 1700s, when British sea power was seen as the bastion of national liberty, stability and prosperity, this richly illustrated volume explores a formative period in our maritime history. Published to mark the opening of the ‘Tudor and Stuart Seafarers’ gallery at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, the book draws on the Museum’s unparalleled collections and comprises essays by 13 eminent historians.

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As Elizabethan England’s only major export was wool, a group of merchants formed a groundbreaking joint-stock company and set out to source new goods and markets. Initially they looked to the East, but their willingness to back Atlantic crossings opened more opportunities. This history follows their endeavours, and those of later seafarers including Gilbert, Drake and Ralegh, and shows how their trade fundamentally shaped Britain and the USA.

Charles I was a loving father, but what became of his children after his execution in 1649? This history recounts the fortunes of the Stuart princes and princesses in exile and after: Elizabeth, imprisoned during the Civil War; the dashing Henry, who died within months of his brother Charles's restoration to the throne; James, Charles's ill-fated successor; Mary, child bride of the Prince of Orange; and Henrietta Anne, the youngest, who married Philippe d'Orléan.

A Victorian military writer’s classic accounts of Renaissance warfare in the British Isles are reproduced here, together with the engravings that illustrated them, detailing skirmishes from the Battle of Flodden in 1513 to the Battle of Newburn Ford in 1640.

From medieval Christian mappa mundi, which bear little resemblance to modern maps, to the familiar Mercator projection of Van Keulen’s World Map (1682), this study of how Europeans depicted the world explores the changing purpose of maps, who used them and how they were made over a period of 1,000 years. Marjo Nurminen decodes the visual metaphors and reveals the cultural information embedded in maps, portolan charts, nautical maps and globes, and illustrates and comments on over 200 examples. Slightly off-mint.

After the victory at Bosworth Field, the reign of Henry VII brought peace and stability following decades of civil war in England – at least, according to the Tudors’ own chroniclers. In fact, the early years of Henry’s reign were threatened by conspiracies and intrigue. In this much-acclaimed account, Nathen Amin describes the first Tudor monarch’s fight for survival against Yorkist plots and the claims of three pretenders: Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck and Edward of Warwick.

By the turn of the 17th century the ramifications of conflict between Spain and the Dutch Republic were being felt around the world. Professor Israel’s collection of 15 studies presents his research into government policy, military strategy and diplomacy during the long struggle between these two maritime empires, as well as the important role played by Sephardic Jews. Slightly off-mint

After starting amid the horse-trading and blatant bribery of the College of Cardinals’ conclave that elected Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (1431–1503) as Pope Alexander VI in 1492, Paul Strathern goes back to Rodrigo’s early years in Xàtiva, near Valencia in the Kingdom of Aragon. He follows Borgia from Spain and describes his rise to power, his reign in the Vatican and the fortunes of his offspring, Cesare and Lucretia, in a new portrait and assessment of Renaissance Italy’s most infamous family.

Dealing with the period between 1500 and 1700, this study documents the unprecedented growth in road travel by all sections of society, from paupers to princes; the increasing volume of wheeled vehicles on the highways; and the radical changes in the means of conveying correspondence, both within England and beyond its borders.

Originally published in 1981, this volume of five essays opens with Ivan Roots's ground-breaking study of the British dimension of the civil war and Interregnum, 'Union and Disunion in the British Isles, 1637–1660'. Revised edition. Slightly off-mint.

Radical Protestants strongly opposed James I’s 1617 declaration licensing certain traditional revels on Sundays. This book highlights its role in the creation of profound divisions in English society, which would eventually lead to civil war.

From the Gauls’ siege of the Capitoline Hill in 387 BCE to the city’s occupation by the Nazis in 1943, Kneale tells the story of Rome by focusing on pivotal moments when the arrival of an enemy army set it on a new course. In each case he explains who the attackers were, describes the city they encountered and examines how their actions transformed it.

Charles II was obsessed by women, and his conquests ranged across the classes, from the actress Nell Gwyn to the aristocrat Barbara Villiers. For the first time, this revealing book places the king’s compulsive philandering at the centre of an account of his reign. Taking us behind the scenes, it introduces a colourful cast of court favourites, politicians and a parade of mistresses fighting for influence over a king ruled – and ruined – by his passions.

Roxelana, the 16th-century slave girl who became an Ottoman queen, is depicted as a woman who dealt with her situation with great common sense, ingenuity and ambition in this detailed social history. As Hurrem Sultan, consort and wife to Suleiman the Magnificent, she had to navigate the complexities of the harem, court life, and domestic and international rivalries, strengthening the role of women in Ottoman society in the process.

Guy Fawkes is among British history’s most recognizable figures, burned in effigy every November to celebrate the Gunpowder Plot’s failure. His early life is less familiar though, and so this biography focuses on his youth as a Protestant in York and the motivations that led him to fight as a mercenary and to plan mass murder for the Catholic cause, asking whether he was ‘a fanatic, a fool, or a freedom fighter’.

Melanie Clegg offers a detailed biography of the youngest daughter of Charles I. Her prestige enhanced by her dramatic escape from parliamentary forces during the Civil War, the infant Henrietta Anne was cherished by the court in her mother's native France. As a young woman, her flirtatious reputation belied her political acumen, but the part she played in negotiating the Secret Treaty of Dover in 1670 was a notable high point in her short, at times controversial, life.

In a ‘perceptive and intelligent’ study of Britain’s cultural identities, Cramsie uses the first-hand accounts of Tudor and Stuart travellers to reveal how the complex diversity of the island’s peoples was interpreted long before post-colonial migration.

This multi-disciplinary collection of eight essays reassesses the career of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674), a figure of major importance in 17th-century British politics, constitutional history and literature, and the author of the History of the Rebellion (1702–04).

Tracing the development of antiquarian taste in France during the reigns of François I and Henri II, this study begins in the decades before the French took an interest in Italian antiquities, between 1500 and 1530, and includes chapters on French diplomats in Italy and how antiquarian art and artefacts were received at court and by artists and writers.

In a collection of 12 articles written between 1996 and 2014, Professor Minnich begins by asking ‘what is a ecumenical council?’ He goes on to examine the legitimacy of Lateran V, the role the popes played within the council, its agenda, the decrees it issued and the extent to which they were implemented.

Examining the experience of charity and the complex motivations that prompted charitable endeavour in the period c.1100 to 1650, this volume of 13 essays includes case studies relating to England, France and the Low Countries. The topics under discussion include charity towards lepers; bequests for the poor in 15th-century Norwich wills; monastic poor relief in late medieval England; and Huguenot charity in London.

Over the course of the 16th century, the House of Guise rose from a provincial power to a dominant political player in France and other parts of Europe. In nine essays, this volume explores the most prominent of the Dukes of Guise, particularly Henry of Lorraine, and the ambition that drove them to make claims on the thrones of Jerusalem and Naples.

Illuminating tensions that lurked within the religious culture of a remote and unremarkable town, this book examines the events that provoked the friary trial of Körmend, when the Augustinian friars of the town were accused of drunkenness, sexual abuse and liturgical negligence, then driven out and replaced by Franciscans in the name of ‘cloister reform’.

Robert J Knect, the biographer of Francis I, extends his study of the French king with this collection of 17 essays, seeking to illuminate certain major aspects of the reign (1515–47), including the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the early Reformation in France, and the king’s favourite residence, Fontainebleau. Linen covers. No jacket.

In 1546, at a crucial point in the history of the navy, Anthony Anthony, an officer of the ordnance, compiled a complete visual record of the royal ships in three separate rolls. In this volume, all 58 ship illustrations are reproduced in colour, with their accompanying texts on the facing pages. There is also a full transcript of an inventory of the King’s ships from 1514 and essays on topics including Anthony’s artworks and the Ordnance.

With case studies ranging from alchemist John Dee at the Elizabethan Court to popular pamphlets describing witches’ sexual behaviour, this interdisciplinary collection explores how early modern ideas about the supernatural threatened authority but were also used to reinforce social norms.

Part of the landmark Routledge Histories series, this volume covers a wide range of topics in 24 scholarly essays, among them studies of Renaissance philosophy and humanism; the interest in Roman antiquity; war, entrepreneurship and politics; and women’s agency and networks of exchange.

Forming an overview of ecclesiastical history in West Wales, the contributions in this volume cover not only the religious movements and controversies associated with St Davids but also the Church’s role in education and the revival of Welsh cultural identity.

Jeremy Black’s study throws new light on both foreign policy and domestic politics during a period in which royal authority was giving way to cabinet government and Britain was becoming a global sea power, but also experiencing the trauma of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion and fighting Spain as part of the Quadruple Alliance.

The religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries led to changes in the design, furnishings and uses of parish churches, which nonetheless remained at the heart of local communities. The essays in this interdisciplinary collection examine the evolution of such buildings across different confessions, both in Europe and in the global colonial context, especially Asia and the Americas.

In two parts, on the pre- and post-Reformation chapel, this volume of 26 essays discusses the organization of the chapel within the university; worship; architecture and fittings, including medieval bells and misericords; and the later monuments, stained glass and sundial.

The mid-18th century was a testing time for the British government, with a series of military and diplomatic failures abroad and Jacobite rebellion at home. Black charts the period’s significant political changes and their links to foreign policy developments.

Drawing on primary sources, from newspaper reports and novels to legal documents and parliamentary debates, this study explores how piracy was perceived and debated in British society during the ‘Golden Age’ of the pirate, roughly 1680 to 1730.

Offering a dispassionate and evidence-based study of the British Empire as a form of government, an economic system and a method of engagement with the world, Professor Black presents an overview of the Empire across the centuries, considering it from both British and colonial perspectives. His history is accompanied by a commentary on the public historiography of empire and the politically charged character of much discussion of that history.

Professor Hunter, the leading expert on Robert Boyle (1627–1691), presents a collection of papers exploring aspects of Boyle’s life and thought, including his early intellectual evolution, his attitude to secrecy, his interest in supernatural phenomena, and the Anglo-Irish intellectual scene in the late 17th century.

Although the War of the League of Augsburg was mostly fought in northern Europe it was the Italian front that William of Orange, leader of the Grand Alliance against the French, regarded as crucial. This book explains the political background, profiles the protagonists, and follows the course of the war. Historic portraits, maps and prints are supplemented by eight specially commissioned colour plates illustrating the combatants’ uniforms and flags.

In 1553, 17-year-old Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen of England to prevent the accession of Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter Mary. Thirteen days later she was imprisoned in the Tower, and in February 1554 she was beheaded. This narrative history draws on previously overlooked sources to create a vivid and engaging portrait of an intelligent, charismatic and deeply religious girl caught up in the power politics of her age, whose courage shone through her final, harrowing ordeal.

A proud, indomitable, absolutist monarch, Francis I (1494–1547) ‘was the king that his country needed, if not the one it might have wished for’, and despite his achievements – in unifying and glorifying France and as the patron of art and architecture who recruited Leonardo da Vinci to his court and built Fontainebleau – Francis is remembered, if at all, for his failings. In this biography, Leonie Frieda offers a rigorous reassessment of the ‘Maker of Modern France’.

Although familiar from Hilary Mantel’s fictional Wolf Hall, Thomas Cromwell (c.1485–1540) has proved an elusive subject to biographers. With this magisterial study, MacCulloch presents ‘the true Thomas Cromwell of history’, based on a meticulous study of his surviving papers. The biography pays particular attention to Cromwell’s early years and his rapid rise to power in 1532, the importance of his religious agenda and his efforts conceal that motivation, and the dynastic ambitions that contributed significantly to his fall. Slightly off-mint with felt tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

A proud, indomitable, absolutist monarch, Francis I (1494–1547) ‘was the king that his country needed, if not the one it might have wished for’, and despite his achievements – in unifying and glorifying France and as the patron of art and architecture who recruited Leonardo da Vinci to his court and built Fontainebleau – Francis is remembered, if at all, for his failings. In this biography, Leonie Frieda offers a rigorous reassessment of the ‘Maker of Modern France’. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

As the Ottoman Empire reached its apogee and feudal Europe developed into national states, four dynamic rulers each shaped their domains – the English and French kings, the Holy Roman Emperor and the Sultan. With his characteristically colourful approach, Norwich discusses the achievements of these men and weaves their stories together to reveal how their relationships changed the continent. ‘Sometimes friends, more often enemies, always rivals, the four of them held Europe in the hollow of their hands.’

Anne Boleyn was educated in France but in her early twenties she became a member of Henry VIII's court, which led to their ill-fated marriage and her imprisonment in the Tower. Lissa Chapman focuses on Anne's complex role in London society, as a fashion icon and arts patron who was fully engaged in religious and intellectual debates. Examining her contemporary reputation and image, the author casts a light on everyday life, gossip and politics in Tudor London.

Dr Don Matzat, a Lutheran pastor, offers a theological perspective on the life and faith of Katherine Parr (c.1512–1548), the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. He argues that she was at first an opportunist, who married the king to enjoy a royal lifestyle, but her life changed dramatically after she was converted by the teachings of the Protestant Reformation. The book includes the full text of Katherine’s devotional work, The Lamentation of the Sinner (1547).

When Henry VIII and Francis I met in northern France in June 1520, the emphasis was on entertainment rather than politics, yet the sheer extravagance of the event was a statement of power. Amy Licence offers a fresh perspective on that fortnight of fabulous costumes, golden tents, jousting and dancing, looking at political aims and results but also at the astonishing logistics of the operation and how ‘The ideal of perfect chivalry and friendship, as unsustainable as the summer, had been realised’.

A highly respected poet and editor, Mick Imlah (1956–2009) was noted for his critical pieces, whether writing on canonical figures, such as Anthony Trollope and WB Yeats, or in response to fellow poets and contemporaries. This volume brings together his essays on 40 writers, plus eight book reviews on topics as diverse as aviation and the social history of drink, and an interview from Oxford Poetry in 1983.

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The rapid rise of Charles Brandon to become Henry VIII’s most trusted and influential advisor alarmed his contemporaries and has puzzled historians. Reviewing the scant surviving evidence, this biography provides a chronological account of the career of this elusive figure. He held a succession of powerful offices, despite his controversial marriage to the king’s sister, disappointing military campaigns and suspicion that he spied for the French, and retained Henry’s favour to the last. Off-mint.

In 1621 the near-bankrupt Virginia Company of London made a profit by shipping across the Atlantic 56 young women who had been hand-picked as brides for the planters of its new colony. Using archival sources including the company’s own records, Potter gives voice to these women, asking why they agreed to make the dangerous journey, how they adapted to their new lives, how they chose their husbands and what happened to them in the end.

Even before James I’s death in 1625, rumours spread that he was being poisoned by a court favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, who had been cultivating the heir to the throne. Historians have long dismissed the charge, but in a detailed reassessment of contemporary sources the authors trace how this scandalous claim was widely published, believed and debated in Britain and beyond. They also examine how it both reflected and shaped political conflicts that would eventually lead to civil war.

In a scholarly, richly illustrated study of the mid-17th-century Neapolitan art world, Marshall charts the links between the artisans, painters and dealers of this bustling city and its wealthy patrons and consumers of art. Among the topics examined are the working lives of artists, the process of buying and selling cabinet pictures, the rise of the exhibition, and the careers of successful artists such as Luca Giordano, Jusepe de Ribera and Massimo Stanzione.

Launched in 1678, the Anne was one of the ‘Thirty Ships of War’ constructed to double the strength of Charles II’s Navy. Having been lost at the Battle of Beachy Head in 1690, it is now one of the most important wrecks on England’s south coast. In this volume the ship’s technical historian explains Anne’s construction and specifications, follows its 1687 mission to the Mediterranean and discusses efforts to survey and preserve the wreck.

From the order of ceremony for James’s baptism in 1633 to a prayer written by the exiled king in 1698, 20 documents, mostly in his own hand, accompany this short, illustrated life of James II from the English Monarchs: Treasures from the National Archive series.

The most significant Scottish politician of the late Stewart age and a man of great learning and ability, John Maitland (1616–1682), ‘King Lauderdale’, served on the Westminster Assembly and the Committee of Both Kingdoms and became Secretary of State for Scotland and a member of Charles II's 'Cabal'. Paterson’s study is both a balanced portrayal of Maitland and a lucid analysis of late 17th-century political life. Off-mint.

When Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII in 1485 his mother, Margaret Beaufort (1443–1509), became the most powerful woman in England. Margaret was 13 years old when Henry was born, shortly after the death of her husband, Edmund Tudor, and in the midst of war. It was an inauspicious beginning but her ambition, skill and determination won through to found a dynasty. Nicola Tallis’s new biography dispels the myths about Margaret and shows her life to be more remarkable than the many fictions it has inspired.

A dynasty that originated in 1372 with the birth of John Beaufort, the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt, the Beauforts were loyal supporters of the Lancastrian monarchs. They amassed authority during the 15th century and ultimately claimed the English throne with the victory of Lady Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor, at Bosworth. The Beaufort earls, duke and cardinals were ‘highly visible in the stories of others’; this study focuses on the rise and fall and rise again of this intriguing family.

In chapters devoted to each monarch – Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I – this is a narrative account of the Tudor period, told through 42 letters and documents in the British Library’s collections. From Henry VII and Elizabeth of York’s autograph inscriptions in a prayer book, to a letter from Elizabeth I to James VI of Scotland in 1603, each item is illustrated in colour, fully transcribed and accompanied by a commentary setting it in historical context.

John Hall explores the myths and controversies surrounding Italian nobleman Theodore Paleologus, heir apparent to the throne of Byzantium, who in 1597 arrived in England to murder a traitorous compatriot, then remained in the pay of the Earl of Lincoln to sow misery among the English aristocracy until his death in 1636. The biography also scrutinizes Paleologus’s offspring, who fought one another in the English Civil War, and backs their father’s long-dismissed claim to the imperial throne.

Reared in a dangerous world, Margaret of York was one of history’s great survivors. This biography tells how, from her Burgundian exile, she sought to avenge the overthrow of the House of York by sending pretenders to contest the throne of Henry Tudor. Slightly off-mint.

The letters of the Glaswegian minister Robert Baillie (1620–1662) are a common source for the history of Scotland during the violent years 1637–1660. This first biography of Baillie establishes his significance as a polemicist, theologian and contemporary historian.

Born Anna von der Mark, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, in 1515, Anna of Cleves married Henry VIII and became Queen Consort of England in 1540. British history remembers her as the ‘Flanders Mare’: looking from a German perspective, this biography reveals a very different figure. Heather Darsie describes Anna’s life in Cleves before leaving for England; examines her marriage to Henry, her role as stepmother to his two daughters, and her status as ‘political refugee’ after the divorce.

Reviled as a tyrant and canonized as a martyr, Charles I remains one of the most controversial of English monarchs. Basing her research on previously unseen royal correspondence, Leanda de Lisle follows the tragic career of a flawed king, sets the Civil War in the context of the wider European conflict of the Thirty Years' War, and highlights the crucial and often underestimated role of Charles’s wife Henrietta Maria.

Napoleon Bonaparte was not the first exile to end his days on St Helena. In the 16th century, the Portuguese conquistador Fernão Lopes set out to invade India, only to defect to the Muslim side and fight his own countrymen. This biography tells the story of how he was captured and tortured before jumping ship en route to his homeland to live as a hermit on the uninhabited island for 30 years.

Excommunicated in 1570, Queen Elizabeth I found the key markets of Catholic Europe closed to English merchants; instead, she reached out to the Shah of Iran, the King of Morocco and the Ottoman Sultan. This history reveals how English merchants, sailors and diplomats plied their trade with the Muslim world, creating a fashion for the Orient in London that was reflected in the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare. Off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

This biography of Henry VIII’s fifth wife, who was queen consort for just 16 months, sheds new light on her story by describing the world that surrounded her both above and below stairs, and includes maps, charts and colour illustrations.

A muse to poets and descendant of royalty, the golden-haired Penelope Devereux was celebrated in the court of her godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, for being as quick-witted as she was beautiful. This biography charts Devereux’s political ascendancy in the court, her unhappy marriage to nobleman Robert Rich, her involvement in the rebellion to overthrow Elizabeth, led by her brother, the Earl of Essex, and her doomed love affair with Charles Blount, which ultimately led to her downfall.

The Acts of Succession (1536 and 1544) allowed Henry VIII to nominate his successors in his will: the result was one of the most intriguing and contested documents in British history. Lipscomb re-opens the debate about its intended meaning, authenticity and validity. Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

From curses to strategically timed bows that could signal disdain rather than deference, and outright violence exhibited across the social classes, Ruth Goodman explores the language and actions considered rude in the 15th and 16th centuries. With anecdotes and examples from contemporary manuals, court cases and sermons, she demonstrates how unconventional behaviour can reveal as much about society as its norms, whether a subtle faux pas born of ignorance or a defiant snubbing of etiquette.

Annotated woodcuts of historical duels and methodical swordplay illustrate this classic guide to resolving a gentlemen’s disagreement in Elizabethan England. Honour, pride and shame were at the heart of most duels, and Italian fencing master Vincentio Saviolo’s prose, which has been subtly updated for the modern reader, suggests ways for both challenger and defender to navigate the labyrinth of etiquette without resort to the rapier, his favoured weapon of combat.

Showing what buildings looked like and how they developed in the Tudor age, this set of ten A3 double-sided posters includes artworks and photographs of different types of structure along with an explanatory illustrated booklet.

Historians trawl through documentary records to reveal how people lived in the past, but few actually experience it first-hand. Ruth Goodman, presenter of the BBC TV series Tudor Monastery Farm, has done just that, eating, sleeping, working, dressing and dancing like a Tudor. Drawing on these adventures with characteristic wit and humour, she describes a day in the life of an ordinary person, from dawn to dusk, during one of the most vibrant periods of English history.

Debora Shuger offers a new approach to the history of early modern English censorship. Attempting to recover the system of beliefs and values ‘that made the regulation of language, including state censorship, seem like a good idea’, the study deals with issues that remain relevant today: the rhetoric of ideological extremism, the use of defamation to ruin political opponents, and the grounding of law in theological ethics.

Charles I was a loving father, but what became of his children after his execution in 1649? This history recounts the fortunes of the Stuart princes and princesses in exile and after: Elizabeth, imprisoned during the Civil War; the dashing Henry, who died within months of his brother Charles's restoration to the throne; James, Charles's ill-fated successor; Mary, child bride of the Prince of Orange; and Henrietta Anne, the youngest, who married Philippe d'Orléans.

Samuel Pepys was born in London in 1633 and died there in 1703, having lived through revolution and Restoration, the Dutch raid, notable scientific advances, plague and fire. All of this he recorded in his diary and letters. The National Maritime Museum exhibition in 2015 presented 158 objects and paintings, and with essays by contributing scholars, this accompanying volume explores Pepys’s career and varied interests while illuminating aspects of 17th-century London life ranging from surgical procedures to Stuart portraiture.

Had the first-born son of Henry VII lived into adulthood, the crown would not have passed to his younger brother: Arthur Tudor, rather than Henry VIII, would have ruled and England’s subsequent history would have been quite different. This study of Arthur (1486-1502) describes the life of a prince royally matched to Catherine of Aragon, groomed and destined for the throne; and it shows how, when Arthur died, Henry inherited his brother’s wife, but not his careful preparation for kingship.

By the autumn of 1536 Henry VIII had broken with Rome and was eyeing the wealth of the monasteries. In the north of England, 30,000 men loyal to the Catholic Church took arms against him in the uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. Using the rebels' own testimony, this history examines their motives and beliefs, traces the course of the ill-fated insurrection, and describes the rhetoric, bribery and retribution employed by Henry's minister Thomas Cromwell to overcome them.