Henry VII and the Early Tudors
The Institute of Historical Research have published a very helpful review essay on their website by Professor Christine Carpenter of Steven Gunn’s book, Henry VII’s New Men and the Making of Tudor England (OUP, 2106) and you can find it HERE …
The core of the five-page essay is a discussion of the structure and conclusions of Steven Gunn’s book but in addition A level teachers and their students will be helped by Professor Carpenter’s summary of changing interpretations since the 1980s of Henry VII and his reign and of how these changes relate to the perspectives of historians – whether they are approaching the reign from the understandings gained in research on fifteenth century politics and society or from work on the sixteenth century. There’s much else here too (some of which is relevant to later Tudor history too) but I’ll leave you to read it for yourselves! It’s also worth following the links on the first page to other book reviews on this period.
And while on Henry VII, www.tudorchamberbooks.org is a website in development that will be very useful.
The site will publish the content of the expense and receipt books of the King’s Chamber covering 1485 to 1521. You can follow progress and see items from these records on their twitter feed @tudorkingship and their Facebook page. Initial discussions are under way to develop teaching material linked to these resources.
For further information on this project see How did Henry VII spend his money? by Dr James Ross HERE …
New to teaching Henry VII?
For anyone new to teaching about Henry VII the following may well be useful:
Dictionary of National Biography On-line – available free to holders of local library cards if your local authority has a subscription, which many or most seem to do. The articles are excellent and lengthy (Steven Gunn on Henry VII runs to 18 A4 pages) and by leading historians HERE …
Sean Cunningham, Henry VII, Routledge, 2007 – 315 pages. The most authoritative recent biography HERE …
Also keep an eye out for Sean Cunningham’s book on Henry in the Penguin English Monarchs series, due out in Spring 2018 – this will suit students as well as teachers.
Other detailed books worth reading:
Steven Gunn, Early Tudor Government, 1995.
Christine Carpenter, The Wars of the Roses, 1997 – chapter 11 on Henry VII.
Ian Arthurson, The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy 1491-1499, 1994.
Ralph Griffiths and Roger Thomas, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty, 1985.
Thomas Penn, Winter King, 2011 – I really must read this again! I didn’t get on with it at all first time round, probably because I was expecting a different kind of book with much more on Henry’s early life to contextualize his reign.
And finally, if you haven’t found them yet, there’s a range of teaching resources on Henry VII and much else on this website HERE …