The Tudor Dynasty: Religious Reformation and the Struggle for Power (A Six-Part History of England)

The six-volume History of England series is the signature work of historian Peter Ackroyd. It comprises Empire, The Tudors, Rebellion, Revolution, Dominion, and Innovation. With sweeping prose, it tells the story of this legendary nation’s history: how a once-isolated island nation, through the Reformation, parliamentary government, revolutions in technology and thought, and the expansion of trade and colonialism, gradually became an empire on which the sun never set; and how, as the empire declined, it found a new place in the postwar world order and continued to influence the world. Ackroyd’s writing conveys his deep affection for a nation that once stood at the pinnacle of human civilization. The result is both a history of a great power’s rise through perseverance and innovation, and a magnificent national epic. The Tudors is the second volume in Ackroyd’s History of England series. It covers the period from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, when England was ruled mainly by the Tudor dynasty. The book focuses on the Reformation sparked by Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Church, and the struggles over the succession of the state religion that shaped the English monarchy. In Ackroyd’s captivating prose, the dramatic lives of the Tudor monarchs come vividly to life: the unyielding Henry VIII, the short-lived Edward VI, “Bloody Mary,” who tried to restore Catholicism, and Elizabeth I, who ushered in the “Golden Age.”