From Tudor to Stuart is a scholarly 2024 book.
Professor Susan Doran quotes mainly from the primary sources. These sources use the old English spelling and while they provide quaint authenticity they can disrupt one’s reading.
The indexing is poor and insufficient. The endnote references have been abbreviated to save paper leading to some confusion if one wants to follow up.
The book starts from the death of Elizabeth I to the transition of the English throne to James VI of Scotland as James I of England. It ends after the first decade of his reign.
From the narrative presented, one gets the impression that the throne ‘ fell’ to an outsider as the Virgin Queen in order to prevent any challenge to her reign deliberately left the succession issue unresolved on her death.
This is obviously not in the interest of the nation and the people as an empty throne can lead to war by various factions fighting for the vacant throne.
Fortunately, the Privy Council then was helmed by outstanding leaders like Cecil and Lord Howard who had reached out earlier to the future King James and steadied the nation till James took charge.
The transition and the changes implemented by James are explained in detail. That said, it’s a pity the translation of the King James Bible, a major achievement of James in my view, is covered in a mere few paragraphs.
Lwh@ E and O hotel Penang
27- 29 Sep 2024.