Education In Tudor And Stuart England

This book discusses educational developments during a crucial period of English history in their social context, revising a long-standing interpretation of the effect of Reformation legislation. Tracing trends from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, it is in three parts. The first considers the pattern in the later maiddle ages and the conditions favouring the spread of humanist ideas which were to be adapted and applied at the Reformation. In Part II there is a detailed survey of measures takeen under Henry VIII and during the reign of Edward VI when state intervention to control the organisation and curriculum of schools and universities laid the foundations of the modern system of education. Finally, after a review of the relation between educational and social change, the focus is on three main aspects during the conservative Elizabethan age: consolidation of the school system, the pattern devised for the institution of the gentleman; the extension of the popular education fostered by the puritan ethic and the pressure of practical needs - forecasting the next major move for educational reform in the mid-seventeenth century.

Two centuries of dramatic change are covered by this exciting and richly illustrated work. Eighteen leading scholars explore the political, social, religious, and cultural history of the period when monarchs based in south-east England imperfectly attempted to extend their authority over thewhole of the British Isles. These centuries witnessed the Reformation, the civil wars, and two revolutions, in which two monarchs, two wives of a king, and two archbishops of Canterbury were tried and executed, and hundreds of men and women tortured and burned in the name of religion. Yet in the same period, an explosion ofliteracy and the printed word, transformations in landscapes and townscapes, new forms of wealth, new structures of power, and new forms of political participation freed minds and broadened horizons. These centuries marked the beginning of Britain's imperial power and its emergence as perhaps themost liberal and mature of European states. The integrated illustrations and maps form an essential part of the book, complementing all aspects of the text. It also contains a Chronology, Glossary, Family Trees of the monarchy, Further Reading, and an extensive Index.

In this exploration of the social context of reading and writing in pre-industrial England, David Cressy tackles important questions about the limits of participation in the mainstream of early modern society. To what extent could people at different social levels share in political, religious, literary and cultural life; how vital was the ability to read and write; and how widely distributed were these skills? Using a combination of humanist and social-scientific methods, Dr Cressy provides a detailed reconstruction of the profile of literacy in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, looking forward to the eighteenth century and also making comparisons with other European societies.

This book is a classic study of a disease which had a profound impact on the history of Tudor and Stuart England. Plague was both a personal affliction and a social calamity, regularly decimating urban populations. Slack vividly describes the stresses which plague imposed on individuals, families, and whole communities, and the ways in which people tried to explain, control, and come to terms with it.