Description

Liberal education taught Tudor and Stuart monarchs to wield pens like swords and transformed political culture in early modern Britain. Liberal education transformed the political and religious culture of early modern Britain. Rather than pursue vainglorious warfare, humanists taught monarchs, including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James VI, and Charles I, to wield their pens like swords to extend their imperial authority over church and state. Liberal education transformed the political and religious culture of early modern Britain. Rather than pursue vainglorious warfare, humanists taught monarchs, including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, James VI, and Charles I, to wield their pens like swords to extend their imperial authority over church and state. In the sixteenth century, Erasmus of Rotterdam led a humanist campaign to deter European princes from vainglorious warfare by giving them liberal educations. His prescriptions for the study of classical authors and scripture transformed the upbringing of Tudor and Stuart royal children. Rather than emphasising the sword, the educations of Henry VIII, James VI and I, and their successors prioritised the pen. In a period of succession crises, female sovereignty, and minority rulers, liberal education played a hitherto unappreciated role in reshaping the political and religious thought and culture of early modern Britain. This book explores how a humanist curriculum gave princes the rhetorical skills, biblical knowledge, and political impetus to assert the royal supremacy over their subjects' souls. Liberal education was meant to prevent over-mighty monarchy but in practice it taught kings and queens how to extend their authority over church and state. Introduction; 1. 'Thys boke is myne': how humanism changed the English royal schoolroom, 1422–1509; 2. Chivalry, ambition, and bonae litterae, 1509–33; 3. Erasmus' Christian prince and Henry VIII's royal supremacy; 4. Educating Edward VI: from Erasmus and godly kingship to Machiavelli; 5. Fortune's wheel and the education of early modern British queens; 6. Education and royal resistance: George Buchanan and James VI and I; 7. Britain's lost Renaissance? The Stuart princes; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index. 'This highly original and beautifully written book explores the liberal education received by royal children in Tudor and Stuart Britain … It succeeds admirably in demonstrating the wider significance of princes' education by drawing connections between childhood learning and royal policies in later life during a stormy and eventful period. This rich and deeply textured book is certain to provoke interest and debate for many years to come.' Judges, 2016 Whitfield Prize, Royal Historical Society