Recommendations for properly meaty Tudor history

[PacificState]

Just finished Diarmaid MacCullough’s Cromwell, and want something that will give me a similar level of detail about the last ten years of Henry’s reign. Would also settle for the whole of Henry’s reign/transition to Edward VI/whole story of Tudors.

Not overly fond of Starkey, cannot stand Alison Weir. Already have Ackroyd, and find it’s a bit too Ackroyd-focused 😂 Haven’t read Elton, I fear it’s a bit too focused on administrative detail and it’s more than half a century old, but willing to change my mind.

I need something on the academic/popular boundary I think, but by someone who can actually write - something like Christopher Clark on Germany/Prussia. Any recommendations?

Oh meant to add - really enjoyed Thomas Penn on Henry VII, if that helps as a pointer.

You can find university reading lists online. Pick a university and Google something like university name Tudor history reading list.

I note Elton does appear on the list for my own university's Tudor module, so he is still recommended.
(He was Ben Elton's uncle, incidentally. Would like to know what he thought of Blackadder.)

If you're willing to include fiction, C.J. Sansom's Shardlake series is excellent. Gives a real insight into what it must have been like to be unwillingly caught up in the politics of the period.

That is a good tip, thank you. Will have a look. I did know that about Elton - only because I read Ben Elton’s autobiography last year though. What a family!

Hi, OP

I just started Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives, you can find second hand copies on ebay. So far, very detailed.

It sounds as if OP might want more 'academic', but I agree with you, in having liked the Shardlake books. I learned several things from his notes at the backs of the books e.g. the people of York being asked to 'clean up, the King's coming', and the massive entourage that Henry needed to accompany him when he travelled.

Heartly second this. It's not a book for the beginner but this is a scholar's life work.

The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy is wider in period, covering religion in England from 1400 to 1580. Again, it's not for the beginner but can recommend.

If you're open to fiction, try The Man on a Donkey by HFM Prescott-the book that inspired Hilary Mantel.

It's a huge tome but you won't regret the commitment.

Forgot one that might be just up your street:The Last Days of Henry V111 by Robert Hutchinson. Thoroughly researched and reads well.

Placemarking because I’d like this too.

I second Prescott's The Man on a Donkey (about the Pilgrimage of Grace) - it's a really absorbing read.

Ooh thanks for the Hutchinson recommendation, will have a look. Have read Ives and Man on a Donkey (really interesting)

I really enjoyed Man on a Donkey, heartily agree.

I love the Shardlske series.
C J Sansom is good on detail.

Elton’s Policy and Police is very interesting- it’s about the very many often quite ordinary people who fell foul of the new laws about treasonable talk- so about people who objected to the break with Rome, the dissolution, etc. and the people who shopped them

John Guy lives and breathes Henrician English air so well worth a try

I'm not sure how interested you are in social history, and these both cover a wider period than just the Tudors but I have a couple of books by Keith Thomas that are full of fascinating insights into how people thought in the Early Modern period:

Religion and the Decline of Magic (covers from the collapse of the medieval Church to about 1700).

Man and the Natural World; changing attitudes in England 1500 - 1800

Thank you - maybe I should read Elton! And John Guy is a name that resonates, will have a look. @cariadlet I read Religion and the Decline of Magic as an undergrad (a loooong time ago) and remember really enjoying it!

The recommendations for social history are interesting. It’s not my favourite, honestly. I know this makes me a bad historian (just one of the many reasons I didn’t do a PhD!) I think maybe part of the problem is that I’m falling on the wrong side of historiographical fashion - most talented modern historians are leaving the ‘great man’ stuff behind, but I do have a sneaking and shameful fondness for big, meaty accounts of monarchs and courts.

He's always good on In Our Time, along with Diarmid McCulloch one of my favourite guests on there.

I had to read Religion and the Decline of Magic at university, really interesting.

Aside from biogs of the key players (have you read much about the Scottish history of the period?), if you are averse to social history how about the courts of the European or global contemporaries? Some fascinating dynasties

@Mulledjuice yes, I’ve read a bit about the Medicis and I keep meaning to read the new(ish) one about the Burgundians. A big fat one about the late medieval French court would be good. (Found A Distant Mirror a bit of a slog, honestly.) And I have had a prejudice against Charles V since a disastrous tutorial over 30 years ago but maybe I should get over it…

You could be missing out, but then I am a social historian so not best placed to judge!

How about the Mings, the Mughals and the Safavids? Strong administrative angle given you like Cromwell.