This book of original scope and methodology consists of twelve interdisciplinary essays on the 'high' political culture of Tudor and early Stuart England. Through the exploitation of new manuscript material or hitherto untapped artistic sources - the plates reproduce over sixty contemporary images - the authors open up new perspectives on the ideas, institutions, and rituals of political society.

Drawing on the evidence of art and literature, and using the latest techniques for the discovery of lost mentalities, key aspects of Tudor political culture are explored, including royal iconography, funereal symbolism, parliamentary elections, political vocabularies, kinship and family at court and in the country, and the architecture of urban authority.

In his Introduction the editor uses the example of Henry VIII's historical break with Rome to suggest the seamless links between politics and political culture, how and why the revolution of the 1530s needs to be seen against the backdrop of early-Tudor memories of Henry V, the cult of chivalry and the invasion of France (1513), and the pre-Reformation imagery of 'imperial' kingship.