New Worlds, Lost Worlds

No period in British history today retains more resonance and mystery than the sixteenth century. The leading figures of the time have become almost mythical, and the terrors and grandeurs of Tudor Britain form an essential background of even the least historically minded readers. New Worlds, Lost Worlds is a startlingly atmospheric tour de force. Matchlessly well written and authoritative, this book gives its readers a quite remarkable sense of both the atmosphere of a great era and its epochal events.Above all, Brigden sees the key to the Tudor world as religion - the new world of Protestantism and its battle with the the old world of uniform Catholicism. This great religious rent in the faic of English society underlies the savage violence and turbulence of the period - from Henry VIII's break with Rome to the overwhelming threat of the Spanish Armada. Full attention too is paid to Ireland and the critical role it played in determining English affairs.