An intimate biography of the public and private life of Elizabeth I. Too many biographies of Elizabeth I perpetuate the flattery she enjoyed from her courtiers. Leading Tudor historian, Richard Rex, reflects more critically on her life and reign and highlights the contrary personality of a Queen who could both baffle and bedazzle her subjects.

Among the most popular novels in the early decades of the twentieth century were those published by Alice Muriel Williamson, whose novels were frequently attributed on their title pages to “C. N. and A. M. Williamson.” Although it is now known that “A. M.” never wrote any fiction by “C. N.” – her husband, Charles Norris Williamson, – the view erroneously persists that the married couple were joint authors. Preceding her fame as a novelist, Alice wrote a series of sensational stories that a...

This book discusses the eight novels by American expatriate author W. B. Trites, who, although highly praised by such contemporaries H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, W. B. Maxwell, Max Beerbohm, L. P. Hartley, and Frank Harris, among others, remains curiously unknown today. His spare style, which pre-dated Hemingway’s by several decades, did not impress publishers accustomed to more expansive prose. Worse still, his prospects suffered from the forbidden social he dared to explore in a less open...

An accessible biography of Henry VIII by one of the country's leading Tudor experts. The future Henry VIII was born on 29 June 1491, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. This talented, athletic and temperamental man might have proved something of a handful to his elder brother, Prince Arthur, the firstborn, had he survived to wear the crown. But Henry's life was changed forever when Arthur died in 1502 and the course of English history took a very unexpected turn.

Abandoning the traditional narrative approach to the subject, Richard Rex presents an analytical account which sets out the logic of Henry VIII's shortlived Reformation. Starting with the fundamental matter of the royal supremacy, Rex goes on to investigate the application of this principle to the English ecclesiastical establishment and to the traditional religion of the people. He then examines the extra impetus and the new direction which Henry's regime gave to the development of a vern...

The Tudor Age began in August 1485 when Henry Tudor landed with a small force at Milford Haven intent on snatching the English throne from Richard III. For more than a hundred years England was to be dominated by the personalities of the fi ve Tudor monarchs, ranging from the brilliance and brutality of Henry VIII to the shrewdness and vanity of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I.

Combining an expertise on the Tudor dynasty with an authoritative understanding of its religious and political make-up, A Short History of the Tudors provides a fresh and accessible perspective of one of the most formative periods of British history.Rex considers the ways in which the Tudors shaped the beginnings of modern England through the momentous break with Rome in a comprehensive yet balanced way. Close attention is also paid to the dismantling of the baronial system...

Reformations Compared presents a collection of comparative studies of the Reformation as it reverberated across Europe in the sixteenth century. Each chapter is focused on two or more comparable geographical spaces, isolating the variables that help explain how and why the Reformation unfolded as it did in each separate setting. Rejecting notions of insularity, the contributors seek out the connections and contrasts that shaped the experience of the Reformation, from the Baltic to the Medi...

Investing in a new metalworking lathe is a big step for any shop (especially home shops), where there’s usually no one around to help. Once the lathe is up and running, you should theoretically be able to make the special items you previously did without (or paid through the nose for), such as shafts, plain, tapered or threaded discs, bearings, and so on. But if you are new to this, you’ll want to know a lot more than you can learn from the salesman or the manual. Does the lathe

In most modern metal shops, you’ll find both a lathe and a vertical mill. Both machines function by removing material from a block of metal—the “workpiece.” The key difference between the two is how the workpiece is handled. On a lathe, the workpiece rotates, and is cut away by a knife tool. (Typical products of lathe work are “turned parts” such as spindles, bearings, screws, washers, and circular blanks for gears.)On a milling machine, it’s the cutter that rotates. The wo...

A major new account of the most intensely creative years of Luther's careerThe Making of Martin Luther takes a provocative look at the intellectual emergence of one of the most original and influential minds of the sixteenth century. Richard Rex traces how, in a concentrated burst of creative energy in the few years surrounding his excommunication by Pope Leo X in 1521, this lecturer at an obscure German university developed a startling new interpretation ...

The Tudor Period is regarded by many as England’s golden age, and still casts a spell over the public imagination. Whether it is the glittering rule of Elizabeth, the ruthless power of her father Henry VIII, or the bloody and radical reign of Mary, the Tudors remain the most fascinating English dynasty. Richard Rex looks at how the public and private lives of the Tudors were inextricably linked, and how each Tudor monarch exuded charisma and danger in equal measure. The visual culture of t...