Lorsque Henry VII monte sur le trône en 1485, il est loin d'être le successeur légitime. Bien qu'avoir gagné la bataille de Bosworth lui permette d'accroître celle-ci, ce n'est que sous ses descendants qu'elle sera totalement acquise. Les prérogatives royales, particulièrement les proclamations royales et le pardon, sont l'une des méthodes utilisées par cette dynastie pour asseoir leur pouvoir. Même si leur légitimité est de moins en moins en doute, ils doivent faire face à des révoltes pour différentes raisons, principalement politiques et religieuses. Les Tudors n'ont pas tous réagi de la même manière à cette contestation de leur autorité. Alors qu'Henry VII pardonne tous les Northern rebels lors de son ascension, Elizabeth procède à une forte répression lors de la rébellion des comtes. Le contexte joue en partie sur les décisions de répression, mais l'opinion publique y est également pour quelque chose. Bien que les proclamations royales aient été utilisées pour gouverner, l'utilisation du pardon et du châtiment dans celles-ci a certes été utile pour la construction de la légitimité, mais elle n'est pas seule à avoir servie [i.e. servi] le dessein des Tudors.

Cette thèse étudie le rôle de la reine Katherine Parr (c. 1512-1548) et de son proche entourage féminin dont l’aristocrate Elizabeth Tyrwhit (c. 1519-1578) dans l’instauration de la Réforme. En effet, la dernière épouse d’Henri VIII, auteur de deux manuels de dévotion et première reine anglaise à voir ses écrits publiés, s’entourait des Protestants de la cour. La situation confessionnelle complexe de la fin du règne d’Henri VIII fut marquée par un retour au catholicisme strict, avec des restrictions concernant les pratiques, notamment la lecture de la Bible. Cependant, un certain nombre de personnalités acquises aux idées de la Réforme parvinrent à rester en place. Alors que les femmes n’avaient qu’un accès très limité à la Bible (The Act for the Advancement of True Religion and for the Abolishment of the contrary de 1543 le leur interdisait, sauf si elles étaient de très haut rang), une jeune femme, Anne Askew (1521-1546), quitta le domicile familial et intégra les réseaux protestants de Londres où elle prêcha ce qui lui valut d’être condamnée pour hérésie. La faction conservatrice, la sachant en contact avec les dames de la cour, la tortura lors de son second interrogatoire dans le but d’obtenir des noms de Protestants mais elle resta silencieuse et fut condamnée à brûler vive en juillet 1546. Le règne d’Édouard VI permit au protestantisme de s’imposer comme religion d’État puis, après l’intermède catholique romain du règne de Marie Ière, Élisabeth Ière rétablit le Protestantisme ce qui permit à Elizabeth Tyrwhit de publier librement son manuel de dévotion en 1574. Ce travail explore les démarches des trois femmes, leurs témoignages de foi et leur influence auprès de leurs contemporains et au-delà. / This thesis examines the role of Queen Katherine Parr (c.1512-1548) and her close female entourage, including the aristocrat Elizabeth Tyrwhit (c.1519-1578) in the establishment of the Reformation. Indeed, Parr, Henry VIII’s last wife, author of two manuals of devotion and the first English queen to see her writings published, surrounded herself with the Protestants of the court. The complex confessional situation at the end of Henry VIII's reign was marked by a return to strict Catholicism, with restrictions on practices, including reading of the Bible. However, a certain number of courtiers already won over to the ideas of the Reformation managed to keep their positions at court. While women had very limited access to the Bible (the 1543 Act for the Advancement of True Religion and for the Abolishment of the contrary forbade them access to the Scriptures, unless they were of very high birth), a young woman, Anne Askew (1521-1546), left the family home and integrated the Protestant networks of London where she preached, which caused her to be condemned for heresy. The conservative faction, knowing she was in contact with the ladies of the court, tortured her during her second interrogation in order to obtain the names of Protestants but she remained silent and was condemned to burn alive in July 1546. The reign of Edward VI allowed Protestantism to establish itself as the official religion, and after the Roman Catholic interlude of Mary I, Elizabeth I re-established Protestantism, which enabled Elizabeth Tyrwhit to freely publish her devotional manual in 1574. This work explores the attitudes of the three women through their testimonies of faith and their influence with their contemporaries and beyond.

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English exploration in North America before Jamestown has been relatively neglected, except for Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony. This study is a survey of the contacts which the Tudor English, 1497-1603, made with North American natives.John Cabot and his young sons reached North America in 1497. He or one of his successors took three American aborigines to England. Henry VII showed concern for natives of North America and suggested that his explorers make rules designed to protect the aborigines. Henry VIII helped finance voyages to America and indirectly laid foundations for later English discovery and colonization, but his son, Edward VI, and his daughter Mary were little interested in furthering English activities in North America.Elizabeth the Protestant was enthusiastic about America and about Christianizing its natives. She was unlucky in backing Thomas Stuckley in the early 1560'x, but involved herself extensively in the three voyages of Martin Frobisher in the late 1570's. These voyages turned into a wild gold chase but his expeditions returned with much information, not appreciated at the time, of the Arctic regions of North America and its people. The Eskimos captured five of Frobisher's men, whom he was never able to recover. The captain seized several natives and took them to England where they aroused much curiosity. The Privy Council gave Frobisher specific instructions concerning his future contacts with the welfare of the aborigines. A minister, who accompanied Frobisher's third expedition, was to remain a year with a company of 100, serve them and convert the Eskimos. This colony did not remain, however.Sir Francis Drake made his global circumnavigation during the years Frobisher sailed with his three expeditions. The son of an Anglican rector and avid Protestant, Drake obviously had a real Christian interest in the Indians whom he encountered, especially in Nova Albion or California. He hoped to establish colonies in the Western Hemisphere which would be missions to the pagans. These colonies and their Christian Indians were intended to counter Spanish activities in the New World.Early in the 1580's Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed with an expedition to Newfoundland. His. leading associate, the pro-Catholic Sir George Peckham, wrote a tract to promote this expedition which was the first to argue extensively that England should colonize in America in order to Christianize and civilize the Indians.Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, was long involved in colonization efforts, in Christianizing the Indians, and extending the English empire.Captain John Davis followed Martin Frobisher a decade later to the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions. In the 1590'x, Davis wrote two books in which he praised the Eskimos as the most blessed of peoples, and asserted it was England's Christian responsibility to carry the Gospel to these pagans.The Reverend Richard Rakluyt was the younger cousin of the lawyer, Richard siakluyt; as leading geographers during Elizabethan times, they knew most of the great English captains and navigators. The minister was the compiler, editor and publisher of a mass of geographical information often described as the prose epic of the English nation.English Separatists during the 1590's made a colonizing thrust into the St. Lawrence Gulf, and after the turn of the century the English made two ploys into the New England area, where the Indians seemed friendly at first. In the south, one of the two voyages sent to look for the lost Roanoke Colony ended in tragedy just after Elizabeth died.By 1603 many of the Indians in the Chesapeake Bay and Roanoke areas were hostile to the English. Spaniards and Frenchmen, as well as Englishmen who had visited there earlier were in part responsible for this. Thus by the beginning of the Stuart period the English had secured a comprehensive knowledge of the eastern North American coast, but through their own efforts or those of others, had to some degree alienated its native inhabitants.

The aim of this thesis is to add to the growing body of knowledge about the effects of local and national events on the survival and fortunes of individual families and to explore the contribution of these families to the political scene. The dates, circa 1460 to 1560, were chosen partly because this was a.period of change and partly because it is a relatively neglected period; bridging as it does the Medieval and Early Modern divide. The first part explores the financial and political fortunes of ten families. All of them came to be residents of Northamptonshire during this period but this is not a closed county study, a consideration of their activities on a broader front is crucial to the arguments presented. Similarly they were all members of either the upper gentry or lower nobility, but this is not a study of one class or the other. Movement up and down the social scale is an important feature under consideration. The second part of the thesis uses the family evidence to explore behaviour patterns and relationships and attempts to draw conclusions on routes to success and the impact of outside factors. The multi-faceted approach adopted by most of the families makes these questions very complex. Law and sheep farming emerge as very significant features overall, but political allegiance is a more elusive issue. An examination of power structures reveals the extent to which the Crown was willing to overlook past behaviour if a family retained the confidence of its peers. The final question concerns the operation of these families as part of a broader 'county community'. The conclusion must be that while they did form local networks, these were not necessarily confined by county boundaries.

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This dissertation studies the office of the clerk of the Privy Council, including discussions of the office itself, and the nineteen men who held that office between its creation, in 1540, and 1603. The dual focus on the office and officers aims to provide greater understanding of both. Areas of study include the personal and professional backgrounds of the clerks, their careers, writings both political and personal, additional offices held and both social and financial concerns. This covers areas as diverse as knighthoods, land grants, election to the House of Commons, political treatises and university education. Additionally, the duties of the office, both standard and extraordinary, are discussed, as well as details regarding the creation and handling of the clerk’s primary concern, the Privy Council register. This includes details regarding signatures, meetings with ambassadors, examination of prisoners, Council meetings, salaries and fees, and attendance rotation. Ties between the clerks and clerkship and the Privy Council and its members are discussed throughout, as well as the role of patronage, education, foreign experience and personal motives. This study aims to provide a greater understanding of the clerks of the Privy Council and their office, knowing that one cannot be fully understood without the other.

The Elizabethan poor laws stand as a great work from a dynamic period. How and why they were formulated have been questions which historians have asked for centuries. The discussions of these questions have varied, depending on the personal values and biases which each historian brought to this study. It is generally agreed that a very important function of the historian is interpretation. The study of history is not only a study of the events, but a study of the historians and their differing interpretations of those events. In the past one hundred years, numerous historians have devoted themselves to studying the Elizabethan poor laws. Their interpretations varied considerably in some areas and very little in others. This essay examines some of those interpretations and attempts to find methodological and/or ideological differences which may account for the differing opinions. The study focuses upon four broad schools of historical thought-Whigs, legal historiains, economic historians, and social historians. The historians selected represent a wide range of interpretations. James A . Froude, C. J. Ribton-Turner, and George Nicholls represent the Whig interpretation. William Holdsworth and G. R. Elton represent the legal interpretation. William J. Ashley, R. H. Tawney, and Peter Ramsey were selected as the economic historians. E. M.Leonard, B. Kirkman Gray, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, A. L. Rowse, and W. K . Jordan are the social historians. Whig historians saw the poor laws as part of a continuing constitutional development. They interpreted them as representing the inevitable forward progress of the English system of government. Legal historians were concerned with the formulation of the law and with the machinery provided for its administration. Their interpretations focused on the law itself and its position in the legal system as a whole. Economic historians examined the factors behind the law and the economic factors in particular which they believed led to its passage. Thus, their interpretations centered upon discussions of the significance of such topics as enclosure, inflation, urbanization, and vagrancy. Social historians offered interpretations of the Elizabethan poor laws designed to explore the structural relationship between social classes.

Writing the history of Tudor women is a difficult task. "Women's lives from the 16th century can rarely be constructed except when these women have had influential connections with notable men.This is no less true for the court women of Tudor England than for other women of the time. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss some of the more memorable court women of Tudor England who served the queens of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, 2 and to determine what impact, if any, they had on their contemporary times and to evaluate their roles in Tudor history.