Tudor Empire: The Making of Early Modern Britain and the British Atlantic World, 1485-1603

418 Pages·2021·4.117 MB·English

by  Jessica S. Hower

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD
Tudor Empire
The Making of Early Modern Britain and
the British Atlantic World, 1485–1603
Jessica S. Hower
Britain and the World
Series Editors
Martin Farr
School of History
Newcastle University
Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Michelle D. Brock
Department of History
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, VA, USA
Eric G. E. Zuelow
Department of History
University of New England
Biddeford, ME, USA
Britain and the World is a series of books on ‘British world’ history. The
editors invite book proposals from historians of all ranks on the ways in
which Britain has interacted with other societies from the sixteenth cen-
tury to the present. The series is sponsored by the Britain and the World
society.
Britain and the World is made up of people from around the world who
share a common interest in Britain, its history, and its impact on the wider
world. The society serves to link the various intellectual communities
around the world that study Britain and its international influence from
the seventeenth century to the present. It explores the impact of Britain
on the world through this book series, an annual conference, and the
Britain and the World peer-reviewed journal.
Martin Farr ([email protected]) is General Series Editor for
the Britain and the World book series. Michelle D. Brock (brockm@wlu.
edu) is Series Editor for titles focusing on the pre-1800 period and Eric
G. E. Zuelow ([email protected]) is Series Editor for titles covering the
post-1800 period.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14795
Jessica S. Hower
Tudor Empire
The Making of Early Modern Britain and the British
Atlantic World, 1485–1603
Jessica S. Hower
History Department
Southwestern University History Department
Georgetown, TX, USA
Britain and the World
ISBN 978-3-030-62891-8 ISBN 978-3-030-62892-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62892-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
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A
cknowledgments
Research and writing are only solitary acts by the most superficial of
understandings; both endeavors require a great deal of help to be done
even moderately well and I have received more than I could have ever
reasonably expected. Conceived of and realized over the last fifteen years
or so (by a conservative estimate), this book simply would not have been
possible without the sage guidance and unflagging support of so many
others. Though any and all errors are entirely my own, I am enormously
grateful to those who contributed to this project, directly and indirectly,
and made what often seemed like an impossible feat into a finished prod-
uct. From 2006 to 2020, I received invaluable aid in the form of fellow-
ships and awards from Union College, Georgetown University, the
National Endowment for the Humanities, the McNeil Center for Early
American Studies, Southwestern University, the Sam Taylor Fund, and the
American Historical Association. Not only did these institutions and orga-
nizations bring me to archives, libraries, and conferences on both sides of
the Atlantic, they introduced me to brilliant scholars who have left an
indelible mark on me and my scholarship. In this vein, my deepest, most
sincere gratitude is reserved for John Cramsie and Alison Games, for stok-
ing, sustaining, and honing my interests in the British World through col-
lege and graduate school and for shepherding me and this project through
every stage of the process, including innumerable moments of great doubt
and unease. Without them, this book and, indeed, all that I do as a histo-
rian would not exist. They both know that I rarely if ever want for words,
yet I will never be able to find enough to thank them sufficiently. I am also
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
immensely grateful to Amy Leonard and Aparna Vaidik; Chandra Manning,
Jim Collins, and Carol Benedict; Dane Kennedy and Linda Levy Peck for
making my years in Washington, DC, so intellectually rich and for provid-
ing indispensable comments on this work and where it might bring me, at
various stages along the way. Equally, Mary Fuller, Daniel K. Richter, and
my fellow fellows at the NEH Summer Seminar for College and University
Teachers on “English Encounters with the Americas, 1550–1610” at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011 and the McNeill Center at
the University of Pennsylvania in 2012–2013 exposed me to fascinating
new ideas and new ways of thinking in Boston and Philadelphia, to great
effect. My path ultimately led from Georgetown University to Georgetown,
Texas, in August 2013, where Southwestern has allowed me to work as a
teacher-scholar in the best of liberal arts environments, practicing what I
have aspired to since my years at Union. My departmental colleagues, past
and present, are nothing short of magnificent and this book is immeasur-
ably better for them: Melissa K. Byrnes, Thomas V. McClendon, Steve
Davidson, and Jethro Hernandez Berrones. In addition, I have benefited
tremendously from the mentorship, encouragement, and collegiality of
those beyond our corner of the Mood-Bridwell Building hallway: Alisa
Gaunder, Eileen Cleere, Sandi Nenga, Emily Sydnor, Eric Selbin, Shannon
Mariotti, Kimberley Smith, Helene Meyers, Jim Kilfoyle, Melissa Johnson,
Alison Kafer, Brenda Sendejo, Michael Saenger, Sergio Costola, Patrick
Hajovsky, Erin Crockett, Joshua Long, Katherine Grooms, Debika Sihi,
John Ross, Tisha Temple Korkus, and Sarah Brackmann. Most of all, how-
ever, Southwestern has afforded me the opportunity to work with eight
years of the brightest, most talented students I have ever met—not least in
my seminars on the Tudors, British Isles, and British Empire. This book is
so much better for them.
When it came to turning this project from vision to reality, I was
afforded the honor and privilege of working in the most impressive
archives and libraries and alongside the most generous scholars and friends.
Many thanks to the National Archives at Kew, British Library, National
Archives of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Trinity College
Dublin, Cambridge University, Lambeth Palace Library, and Folger
Shakespeare Library for the opportunity to study your collections. It was
during these research trips and the conference presentations that went
along with them that I was fortunate enough to join several phenomenal
academic communities and maintain a host of vibrant networks with their
members. Valerie Schutte, Carole Levin, Charles Beem, Suzannah
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Lipscomb, Darcy Kern, Rachel B. Herrmann, and James Goodman, you
have inspired this project and its many offshoots at every turn; I am so
grateful for what your perspectives have added to them and to the future
trajectory of my research. Most of all, to the entire Britain and the World
contingent, led brilliantly by Martin Farr, and, especially, the wonderful
Michelle D. Brock, I am so appreciative of all that you have done for me
and my career since the moment we met, not least your unwavering cham-
pioning of this book and your efforts to make it as strong as it could pos-
sibly be. I am thankful too for the manuscript’s two anonymous peer
reviewers, whose comments, critiques, and suggestions have vastly
improved its substance and style, as well as the editorial team at Palgrave
Macmillan, in particular Molly Beck and Lucy Kidwell, for their hard
work, unending enthusiasm, and careful attention.
Finally, on a more personal note, I ultimately owe everything to my
family and, beyond all others, my fellow historian, departmental colleague,
and partner, Joseph E. Hower. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for
everything.
c
ontents
1 Introduction: “This Realme of Englond is an Impire” 1
2 “The direction which they look, and the distance they
sailed”: The Birth of an Imperial Dynasty, 1485–1509 33
3 “Ungracious Dogholes”: Experiments in Empire, Ca.
1513–1527 87
4 “More Fully Playnly and Clerely Set Fourth to All the
World”: England, Scotland, and “Thempire of Greate
Briteigne” in the 1530s and 1540s 149
5 “Recouer thyne aunciente bewtie”: Mid- Tudor Empire
over Mid-Tudor Crisis, 1550–1570 209
6 “The very path trodden by our ancestors”:
The Elizabethan Moment, 1570–1588 269
7 “Travelers or tinkers, conquerers or crounes”: Tudor
Empire in the Last Decade, 1588–1603 333
xi