Tudor frontiers and noble power : the making of the British state /
This work examines the Tudor government and the formation of the British state from the perspective of the borderlands which made up over half of English territory. It proposes that it was the frontiers, not lowland England, which provided the real test of Tudor statesmanship.
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Language Notes: | English. |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Clarendon Press,
1995.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | This work examines the Tudor government and the formation of the British state from the perspective of the borderlands which made up over half of English territory. It proposes that it was the frontiers, not lowland England, which provided the real test of Tudor statesmanship. This controversial book offers a novel perspective on Tudor government and British state formation. It argues that traditional studies focusing on lowland England as 'the normal context of government' exaggerate the regime's successes by marginalizing the borderlands. Frontiers were normal in early-modern Europe, however, and central to the problem of state formation. Steve Ellis argues that England's peripheries were more extensive than the core and provide the real yardstick by which the effectiveness of government can be measured. He demonstrates their importance by means of a detailed comparative study of two marches - Cumbria and Ireland - and their ruling magnates. He exposes the flaws in early Tudor policy - characterized by long periods of neglect, interspersed with sporadic attempts to adapt, at minimal cost, a centralized administrative system geared to lowland England for the government of outlying regions which had very different social structures. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxi, 303 pages) : 5 maps |
| Format: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0585182612 9780585182612 9780191674853 0191674850 |