The aim of this study of Up holland in Lancashire is to investigate the late-medieval and Tudor community, to understand the landscape in which this community operated and to assess the impact of marginality on society and economy. Upholland lay within the agricultural fringe in respect of its soils and straddled the geographical interface between lowland wetlands on the Lancashire plain and elevated land on the Billinge-Parbold ridge. It was a peripheral place, too, as regards its positions on the western edge of Wig an parish and on the eastern border of West Derby hundred. Despite its undoubted marginality, there are indications for great stability in its boundary, for ancient settlement patterns and for clearance levels remaining fairly constant between the Iron Age and the early-modern period. Because several tracts of ancient woodland survived into Tudor times and as most soils in this township were wet and/or infertile, farming life was based on the wood-pasture economy. Upholland farmers made the best possible use of their resources and diversified into rural crafts, such as tanning, carpentry, and the ferrous metal industry. There is a particularly early example of a water-powered bloomery in the demesne. Upholland was arguably part of a multiple estate in the pre-Conquest period. It was held in thegnage in 1066. Under the later manorial system the township had powerful lords in the de Holands, the Lords Lovell and the Earls of Derby. Only the former, however, were resident. Their status symbols included a castle, two large parks, a warren and a priory. Despite this emergence of power, tenants enjoyed autonomy and security of tenure. Their dispersed homesteads lay amidst enclosed fields and there was an absence of communal organisation in agriculture. Many copyhold families were long established by the sixteenth century and well aware of their ancient rights. When the second Earl of Derby tried to impose more-stringent tenurial conditions, several copyholders took their case to the Court of Star Chamber. Tenant independence is also seen in local government. Although this institution was presided over by the lord's steward, community regulation was effectively in the hands of a tenant elite. Tenant holdings tended to be small although disparkment and shrinkage of population after the Black Death made way for the creation of larger allotments. Population recovery by the mid-sixteenth century led to expansion by 1600, an increase largely due to the growth of leasehold properties in the former parks and in the waste. Upholland lay within a part of Lancashire that was relatively rich by the 1540s. Growing commercialisation is evident in the trading centre present by 1599. This study demonstrates how independence and skilful use of the environment can turn marginality into advantage. It shows, too, how the fringe can provide quality of life.

This thesis analyses the means by which items of Italian material culture came into the possession of the Tudor monarchs. The different modes of acquisition provide the structure for an investigation into Anglo-Italian relations during the sixteenth century. Although the items that came to England took many forms a synthesising approach is made possible by the fact that the 'biographies' of the objects which have been selected all share a common element - they reached England and were owned by the Tudor monarchs as a result of direct contact with Italian individuals. As a result, disparate items such as glass, armour, books, textiles and horses can be discussed as part of a broader whole in which elements of one culture travelled to another. This is not a discussion of the developing dominance of Italian culture over Western Europe during the sixteenth century, for, although the adjective 'Italian' carried clear connotations in late sixteenth-century England it appears to have been rarely used in relation to material culture. Instead it is a study of the appreciation of technical skill and the attempts that were made to appropriate it, which in turn provides a point of access to the life histories of the Italians who came to England in the sixteenth century and the way in which their interaction with the highest levels of the court played a role in shaping the idea of Italy and the Italian in England.

Laurence Humphrey was acknowledged in his own day as a leading Protestant intellectual, Oxford pedagogue, and Latinist. In posterity however, he has been predominantly defined by his involvement in the ‘vestiarian controversy’ of the 1560s. This thesis proposes a revised view, which takes into account the significant educational contexts and concerns with which Humphrey was engaged before, during and after his Marian exile in Zurich and Basel. The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One presents the fruits of new biographical research into Humphrey’s education and early adult life, his grounding in Protestant ideology, and the circumstances of his exile up until 1559. Relocated amongst the Rhineland’s finest scholar-printers, Humphrey immerses himself in the dual currents of European humanism and religion, a context that characterizes his earliest works. Chapter Two argues that Humphrey’s 1559 Interpretatio Linguarum evidences an international network of reformed scholars using Graeco-Latin translation theory to inform the development of vernacular literary culture. In discussing contemporary writers and their translations, Humphrey’s Latin work reveals itself as an intellectually central text of English vernacular culture. Chapter Three analyses the 1560 Optimates as an exposition of the pedagogical concept of the vir bonus, which Humphrey refashions for a new Elizabethan generation of English Protestant gentry. Chapter Four reprises the biographical narrative by following Humphrey’s return to the educational environment of early Elizabethan Oxford. The period from 1560 to the mid-1570s sees the consolidation of Humphrey’s reputation as one of the leading reformist educators of his generation. Chapter Five looks at the 1573 Vita Iuelli. Referencing a range of literary traditions, Humphrey presents Bishop John Jewel as the fulfilment of the ideals of reformed humanist education. This thesis re-introduces Humphrey as an important figure in the merged intellectual, multi-lingual, reforming currents of humanism and religion that characterize the mid-Tudor moment.

English Abstract Tudor court gives support completely to the cultural activities, and court¡¦s members have qualification for musical accomplishment that produced an effect on the whole surroundings. It builds close relations between the development of instrumental ensemble music and ceremonies, entertainment, and the living requirement. Therefore, the thesis intends to study the relationship between the court entertainment at early Tudor and its instrumental ensemble music. The content consists of four chapters, in addition to the introduction. Chapter one is the general discussions about the contemporary polity, economy, society, religion, and cultural context from the end of the fifteenth-century to the early of the sixteenth-century. In the second chapter contains the details of the court entertainment, the third chapter focuses on the thirty-five pieces from Henry ¢À¡¦s Book, which are the absence of text , and the fourth draws a conclusion. From Middle Ages to Renaissance, the situation in England changes from variety aspects such as politics, economy, society, religion, and culture, But it provides a favorable atmosphere with the instrumental ensemble. The music is indispensable to the court environment of the early Tudor. The minstrel¡¦s number and ability represent the status of the employer. Moreover, the instrumental ensemble what musical type is proper for the ceremonies, entertainment, and performance. The thirty-five pieces are considered as embryonic form that pieces for instrument, and differed in length and style. They are classified in three: one is ¡§puzzle canon¡¨, another is ¡§consort¡¨, and the rest is arrangement of the voice or the special technique pieces. Because most of which are simple chord style, it is demonstrated that new noblemen are fond of the pieces. However, the simple style of the early instrumental ensemble music is distinct from the polyphonic style of the consort afterwards. The style¡¦s change attributes to the rising new nobility, the Reformation, the trend of Renaissance thought, the patron of the Royal, and the import of the foreign music, player, and instrument. In a word, the musical phenomenon that is the variety of the style reflects the changes in the society of the Tudor.

The term "Psychological ballet" has been used in reference to Antony Tudor's ballets dating from John Martin's January 16, 1940, review of "Lilac Garden" in The New York Times. Until this thesis, the psychological ballet as a genre has been overlooked and left undefined. The Psychological Ballet can be defined by: (1) using Antony Tudor's "Pillar of Fire" as a model example and (2) analyzing the term "psychological ballet" into its two components "Psychological," and "Ballet," respectively. The contribution of drama, with attention to character, is explored. Those dance works which do not fall under the category of Psychological Ballet but are works whose themes "have mental origin or are affected by mental conflicts and/or states" will be defined as Psychogenic Works.

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In this thesis, I analyse four historical fiction novels as recharacterizations of Elizabeth I’s agency, to argue for the merit of fictionalized narratives of history. These narratives address the conflict between Elizabeth’s political and natural bodies, which I investigate in view of Ernst Kantorowicz’s concept of kingship, while emphasizing her learned experience and perseverance as responsible for her success. In doing so, historical fiction novels represent the motivations of the contemporary author and reader while also asserting the agency and capability of female rulers like Elizabeth, retroactively. In her own time, Elizabeth’s female body was a point of contention in patriarchal England, and early modern authors highlighted her chastity to represent the queen as beyond the rest of humanity, particularly women. In this thesis, I assess how contemporary authors respond to such history, to represent Elizabeth as a fallible woman in a novel way. Elizabeth’s fallibility in these texts represents the capabilities of women in power, credited to their female experience rather than the supernatural status or divine appointment of the early modern ruler. While there is a breadth of research available pertaining to historical depictions of Elizabeth, fewer critics focus upon contemporary accounts. Elizabeth’s legacy in film is represented in such research, but few critics have analysed her presence in historical fiction, though she is a popular heroine of the genre. This thesis examines the prioritization of Elizabeth’s female body in her youth in Robin Maxwell’s Virgin: Prelude to the Throne (2001), her experiences as an unwed queen in Alison Weir’s The Marriage Game (2014) and Susan Kay’s Legacy (1985), and her role as a mother figure in Anne Clinard-Barnhill’s Queen Elizabeth’s Daughter (2014). These authors assert Elizabeth’s agency and demonstrate the value of historical fiction as a genre, rewriting history to reflect female experience as an asset. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, authors depicted Elizabeth I as an extraordinary ruler appointed by God and an extraordinarily chaste woman. Such authors acknowledge Elizabeth’s flawed, natural body, as mortal and female, but praise her incomparable chastity as surpassing other women and ensuring a strong political body or government. While contemporary fiction authors also assess a separation between the political and private, they prioritize individual interiority and female capability as they construct Elizabeth’s navigation of a patriarchal court as a woman in power. This thesis investigates historical fiction, in four novels, as a valuable space for authors to rewrite the agency of Elizabeth I through narratives in which she demonstrates her own decision making and emotional complexity. In this thesis, I assess agency in Robin Maxwell’s Virgin: Prelude to the Throne (2001), Alison Weir’s The Marriage Game (2014), Susan Kay’s Legacy, and Anne Clinard Barnhill’s Queen Elizabeth’s Daughter (2014).

The period between 1527 and 1534 in England was a period of transition. King Henry VIII up until this time period had been faithfully served by his chief minister Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. The English nobility had increasingly become unsatisfied and jealous of the absolute power Wolsey had commanded for so many years. Wolsey had done a good job solidifying his position as well as maintaining his monopoly over the ears of the King. A faction against Wolsey emerges at a crucial juncture for Henry, his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The faction is successful in removing Wolsey from notoriety and influence. However, the ineptitude and lack of skill in administration that existed from those that had removed Wolsey paved the way for a new single chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. The intent of this thesis is to examine the transition from Wolsey to Cromwell. Using various primary sources including letters, parliamentary records, and observations of foreign ambassadors in addition to various secondary sources, the thesis follows the coming together of the faction against Wolsey to the collapse of that faction and the rise of Cromwell. Through analysis of these numerous sources it is shown that the failures of the anti-Wolsey faction to satisfy the King's greatest desire in addition to their overall weakness in governance paved the way for Cromwell.

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