This book will delve into how the Tudors exerted their control over their empire and domains, stretching from the Old War to the colonies of the New.

The Tudors remain one of Britain’s most fascinating royal dynasties. Their thirst for control surged due to the family’s paranoid obsession about being interlopers who were never destined to be monarchs. Throughout the sixteenth century, the Tudors added more and more territories to their portfolio, but this growth came at a bloody cost. Each monarch attempted to expand their control of the kingdom: Henry VII consolidated his authority across the realm, Henry VIII had visions of a French empire, and Elizabeth I oversaw the travels and travails of the seadogs in the New World.

This book will delve into how the Tudors exerted their control over their empire and domains, stretching from the north of England, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, all the way to European possessions, as well as fresh colonies in the New World. It utilizes contemporary sources with further engagement in wider historical debate to provide an accessible introduction into this era for readers.

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 The Plantagenet Inheritance: The rise of the Tudors and their imperial domains
• Chapter 2 The Ghost of York: Henry VII’s consolidation of the North 1485–1489
• Chapter 3 The French Connection: The Breton Crisis and Henry VII’s French war
• Chapter 4 The Disturbed Land: Henry VII’s problems in Ireland in the 1490s
• Chapter 5 The Wild West: The Cornish rebellions of 1497
• Chapter 6 Brave New World: John Cabot and the early voyages to North America
• Chapter 7 Warrior King: Henry VIII’s arrival on the European stage
• Chapter 8 Peacemaker: Thomas Wolsey’s diplomatic direction
• Chapter 9 Expanding the ‘Imperiall Crowne’: The enlargement of Britain in the 1530s
• Chapter 10 The Rough Wooing: Henry VIII’s attempt to subjugate Scotland in the 1540s
• Chapter 11 An Anglo-Cornish War: A different perspective of the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion
• Chapter 12 Tudor Brexit: The imperial implications of losing Calais in 1558
• Chapter 13 ‘The Discovery of Russia’: England’s Russian connections and the Northeast Passage
• Chapter 14 The Birth of the English Slave Trade: The 1560s’ voyages of Sir John Hawkins
• Chapter 15 The King of California: Sir Francis Drake’s Claim to Nova Albion
• Chapter 16 American Dream: Elizabethan England heads out to North America
• Chapter 17 Day of the Dog: How the Spanish Armada almost ended the Tudors
• Chapter 18 The Search for the City of Gold: Sir Walter Raleigh’s quest to find El Dorado
• Chapter 19 Elizabethan Ireland: The training ground for the British Empire
• Chapter 20 The Tudor Inheritance: The passing of empire to the Stuart dynasty
• Bibliography
• Endnotes
• Plates