Tudor Court Culture

Appropriately, this collection of essays on the Tudor court came out of a conference held at Hampton Court in 2004. Betteridge (literature and drama, Oxford Brookes University) and Riehl (English, Auburn University) both edit and contribute to the work. The essays concentrate on the courts of Henry VIII and his daughter, Elizabeth I. The first essays investigate the influence of Humanist philosophers on the tone of the court and their mixed success at educating royal children. The ideal of courtly life and its reality are contrasted in literature designed to be read or staged at court seen against the actual behavior of courtiers. The influence of the court throughout the land is the subject of essays on the peregrinations of Elizabeth and the ways in which aristocratic women modeled their courts on hers. Authors look at the changes in the court over time and how its power waned somewhat by the end of the sixteenth century. The case of Walter Raleigh and his quest for financial patronage closes this study. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)