Author: Nathanael Bendix

Free Choice Book Report: The Making of Oliver Cromwell by Ronald Hutton

Oliver Cromwell is one of the most fascinating British historical figures in its history. A commoner who became the ruler of his land, Cromwell has been hated, admired, and everything in between for nearly four hundred years, there have been many, many books about the man, his life and his impact on history. One of these books attempts to take a different approach to the life of Oliver Cromwell. Ronald Hutton in his book The Making of Oliver Cromwell, Sutton calls Cromwell “the greatest commoner of all time”. Sutton also touches upon how extraordinary Cromwel’s life was. Sutton stars his book by acknowledging the many numbers of biographies that have been about Oliver Cronwell. But Sutton says that his own biography will be different than the rest. Many books either worship Cromwell or look at him through a less heroic Lense. Hutton tries to read through it all and find a balanced narrative despite the historiography that tends to either fully hate or fully love the man Hutton  writes about, Oliver Cromwell.

The Making of Oliver Cromwell covers the first forty-eight years of Cronwell’s life. From birth, to 1647. Sutton notes that there is a lack of knowledge of Cromwell’s early life. We know his locations around this time, but as for actual personal information about Cromwell, it is severely lacking. That is why Sutton spends little time on Oliver’s childhood. We go from his birth, to him attending Cambridge at age seventeen in just a few paragraphs. What I like about Sutton is that when he needs to, he makes reasoned interpretation based on what we know of Cromwell.

Hutton concludes that “it has been clear to most of Cromwell’s biographers that the informing and defining experience of his life was his conversion to a passionate, Puritan, religiosity… Until then he seems a genuinely undistinguished and unambitious provincial minor gentleman.”(421). Usually when there are little to no historical knowledge on the early life of a figure, it can be hard to assume what events in that person’s life shaped why acted the way they did. For Oliver, thankfully despite a lack of evidence of early life, we do know that his conversion really shaped him into being who he became as a person.

Sutton writes “Can any more flesh be put onto these scraps of archival bone? Do we have any sense of what the young Cromwell was like as a person? Here there is an obvious problem with the early biographies of him: that, naturally, enough, the sycophantic accounts produced just after his death represented him as a paragon of sagacity, repairing for a great future, and those written later by political enemies make him an exemplar of most follies and vices…All or none of these portraits and accounts may be true. We are on safer ground when both the admiring nd hostile accounts agree on occasional detail.”(42-43). This could be one of Sutton’s purposes for writing The Making of Oliver Cromwell. Many biographies choose a side, they worship Cromwell, or they villainize him. Sutton is taking the middle ground, weaving through the biased sources that either adored Cromwell or detested him.

An example of Sutton’s balanced narrative is how he doesn’t make Cromwell perfect. Cromwell was far from perfect, but biographers can pick and choose what characteristics to highlight and some to leave under the table. Sutton brings up Cromwell’s constant self-promotion. For example, his rise in parliament, Sutton credits to when he defended John Lilburn. Cromwell had never met Lilburn before, but John was a “celebrated victim of the crackdown on Puritanism instituted by Charles I’s Personal Rule. It was doubtless conducted, as has been said, with passionate sincerity, but it also immediately brought Cromwell to the attention of the House of Commons in a context which could reasonably be expected to win him sympathy and regard, and so it did.”(423). Oliver tended to leave all the glory to himself. The only names that he would be mentioned as deserving of praise is God. Hutton remarks that Cromwell remains modest while also taking all the glory. (424). Cromwell is not a comic book villain. We see how capable he is in battle. For example, Cromwell was a capable cavalry leader at both Marston Moor and Naseby. A author looking to demean Cromwell would have belittle these achievements which Sutton does not do. Ronald Sutton walks the fine line between praising Cromwell but keeps himself from deifying Cromwell’s memory.

I always appreciated it when authors actually flesh out characters and don’t just treat them like a name on a page. Sutton does this with important historical figures such as Sir Thomas Fairfax, Prince Rupert and King Charles among many others. Cromwell is the main focal point of this story, but Hutton does not forget the other important people in Cromwell’s life.  Another thing I appreaicted is that It is easier to understand Oliver Cromwell and his actions if you are able to fiully comprehend the historical and political context of the world in which Cromwell emerged. For this, I thought Sutton did a capable effort of relaying what tensions were during this period without turning it into a different book altogether.

In conclusion, in his book The Making of Oliver Cromwell, Hutton intentionally tries to take a balanced look at the man’s life. Going into reading this book, I knew a little about Oliver Cromwell’s life. I watched the film Cromwell but other than that, I didn’t know too much about the man. Hutton really does paint a balanced picture of a man who had good and bad qualities. Hutton doesn’t portray Cromwell as a evil villain or a misunderstood hero. Here, Oliver Cromwell is first and foremost, a human being.

Book Review: Freedom Seekers: Escaping From Slavery In Restoration London by Simon P. Newman.

This week’s reading for our Early Modern England history class was Simon P. Newman’s Freedom Seekers: Escaping From Slavery In Restoration London, published in 2022. The book covers the history of enslaved people during Restoration London. When you think of slavery, you normally think of it as happening across the Atlantic, but Simon Newman provides evidence that it happened in London as well. If you think about Great Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, do you picture people of color on the streets as well? Simon Newman uses the intimate stories of enslaved people to inform the reader of racial slavery in Restoration England, a time and setting in which slavery is not commonly associated with. The main idea that Newman is presenting in Freedom Seekers is that the people who owned slaves in Restoration London were contributed to the construction of racial slavery. The sources that he uses are newspapers, slave advertisements, church records,etc. Despite the limited historical research upon this topic, Newman uses reasoned interpretation to draw historically sound conclusions to determine that.

Simon P. Newman structures his book into three parts. The first part, Restoration London and the enslaved, is Newman plunging the reader into the world in which the book takes places. The reader is introduced to the workings of Restoration London and how slavery fit into this world. The second part is called The freedom Seekers, this part is 12 shorter chapters that all are about a different enslaved person/person. The third and final part is Freedom seekers in the colonies. This final part touches upon the laws passed in the colonies that effected enslaved people. These chapters are meant to explore what life was like in Restoration London for the enslaved person and it proves that main idea that the enslavers contributed to the construction of racial slavery.

What is Freedom Seekers trying to say? In his introduction, Simon P. Newman writes “Given that surviving records tell us rather more about enslavers and the community than about the enslaved, this book also seeks to illuminate how those who owned bound people of colour in Restoration London were constructing and defending racial slavery in the metropole.” (xxviii). Despite records to the contrary, one of Newman’s arguments is that the owners of enslaved people of color in London were connected to the creation of racial slavery. How does Newman illustrate this point? Newman writes” Londoners who claimed ownership of these people were themselves part of the vast imperial project and their dedication to the expansion and preservation of the slave trade and slavery included the development of a system for the recapture of any enslaved or bound person of colour who dared to reject their subordination by attempting to escape”(37). This quote proves Newman’s main point that the enslavers contributed to the construction of the racial slavery system.

One of the things I liked about this book was how immersive it was. That first chapter about London really submerges you into Restoration London. This is important because in order to understand what life as a slave in Restoration London, firstly you must understand what London was like in this period.  Newman really paints a picture complete with sailors, coffee houses. The topic is also quite niche but interesting. Slaves in Restoration London is not exactly something many people know about or think about. This shows the quality of Newman’s research because he makes such a detailed book from a topic that has received few, if any attention.

The sources used by Newman are both similar and different to sources used in previous works we have read before. For example. Newman discusses a historian who used church court depositions (p.9) This kind of source is similar to the sources used in books such as A People’s Reformation, or The Dissolution of the Monasteries. But Newman also goes into his usage of wanted posters for runaway slaves. While these posters contain valuable insight on the period, Newman also points out that “.‘Runaway slave’ advertisements rendered the very people they described as property and as criminally fugitive: by their very nature, these advertisements became part of the process of the commodification and depersonalization of enslaved people. Historians today who collate and analyze these advertisements engage in an act of remediation that risks continuing the datafication of enslaved people.” The use of these sources helps prove Newman’s main idea of enslavers in Restoration London contributing to the construction of the racial slave system.

The runaway slave poster, which many of us see as just a piece of paper, Newman describes as “This mechanism for the recovery of enslaved people who had escaped would eventually create and largest and richest resource for the study of resistance of escape in England’s colonies and then in the United States”(218).Newman also writes “During the seventeenth century Londoners made use of newspaper advertisements in constructing the idea of the runaway slave and the practice of broadcasting information designed to secure freedom seekers, while English colonists responded to runaway in a more forceful and comprehensive manner by creating new laws and practices that were unprecedented in English law.”(196). Newman uses these sources and analyzes in a way that doesn’t devalue the enslaved person that is portrayed. But Newman sees them as a human rather than property.

“Can a historian imagine London’s enslaved in a manner that transcends an archival record constructed by their enslavers? Perhaps the best we can do, treading carefully as we go, is to build from archival research to hint at possibilities, encouraging readers to imagine real people who remembered, who suffered, who are, who slept, who laughed, who sang and who danced.” (xxv). This is what Newman does for Part 2 of his book, The freedom seekers. This is 12 chapters, each revolving around one or more enslaved persons. As the quote above mentioned, because there is not as much primary sources or scholarly evidence alone, Newman must use archival research to build what could have happened in a historically plausible way. I believe this is called reasoned interpretation which Newman uses. Each chapter uses one enslaved person to explore a specific particle of life in Restoration London for an enslaved person. For example, the Pompey chapter goes into the kind of shackles that was put upon a enslaved person. The Jack chapter goes into what young, enslaved boys experienced. These chapters all contribute to Newman’s main idea which is that the enslavers of Restoration London helped build the racial slavery system. We see this in the chapters and through Newman’s detailed research.

What I liked About Simon P. Newman’s Freedom Hunters is that for a book about a topic that does not cross most people’s mind, it is well-researched, and provides a perspective rarely seen in historical works today. I was particularly interested in the mention of South-Asian enslaved people which you rarely hear about, or at least I rarely heard about it. Freedom Seekers is a well-researched book that touches upon how the slavery system was constructed In Restoration England. He uses reasoned interpretation to infer conclusions to story that we simply don’t have all the details to. This was a good book on a topic I admittedly knew nothing about. It was very informative.

by Nathanael Bendix

The United Kingdom underwent a great transition in 1603 when their mighty Queen Elizabeth I passed away. As Elizabeth had no children, the closest living relative was her cousin, the King of Scotland, James I. This transition of power and the aftermath of it is covered in Susan Doran’s book From Tudor to Stuart. Doran begins with the death of Elizabeth and the ascension of King James and ends in 1612 with the death of James’s heir, Henry and James’s closest advisor, Robert Cecil in 1612. Despite only chronicling nine years, the book is very detailed and takes it’s time explaining the history to the reader. One can interpret the purpose of Doran’s From Tudor to Stuart as an examination of the shift that England undertook when James I took the throne and an examination of the monarch himself.

Doran structures the book into three parts. Part One tells the tale of James I’s succession to the throne and “explains when, how, and why he became the unchallenged ruler of what was to become the new entity of Great Britain.” (3). Part Two explores the intricacies of James’s government. “I address this question in Parts 2 and 3, enquiring how far the establishment of a new Stuart dynasty resulted in fresh personnel at the center of power, alterations in monarchical institutions, shifts in political culture, and a different direction in governmental policies.” (3.). Doran writes “Part 3 of this book provides a study of James’s policies during the first decade of his reign, assessing their novelty, popularity (or otherwise). And impact.” (5). Doran wants to present a different side of James than what is normally accepted by the public. “Wrongly depicted as careless about his majesty, James too projected an image of legitimacy and power: court ceremonial, visual displays, ad in his case his writings.” (5). Doran also wishes to show that the Jacobean era was just as interesting as the Elizabethan Era that preceded it. Doran doesn’t write a standard biography of James I, but rather an examination of the Jacobean Era through the eyes of its namesake monarch.

                        The book begins with the death of Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudor line. Because she has no living successor, she is succeeded by James I of Scotland. The first part of Doran’s book,” Succession and Ascension “establishes the pace of the book. Susan Doran, the author, is well versed in this period of history as she is a professor of Early Modern English History at the University of Oxford. The book does mention James’s early life but that is more of context to a bigger picture rather than a full-scale biography. This helps the book from not getting bogged down and allowing the pacing to flow better.  I thought that the book was well-written. Was it long? Of course. But my complaint was not that the book was overly long. I did like the detailed look into this period of history.

            The next part of the book is “People and Institutions” and, you guessed it, it is mainly about the important people and institutions in the Jacobean era. We see important figures such as James’s wife Anne or Anna of Denmark, James’s eldest son and heir Henry. I believed that the main idea of the book was that James was a more complex character than original thought of. How is this seen in Part 2? Well, I thought it was interesting how Doran explained James’s relationship with his wife Anna. Royal monarchs are often associated with their spouses, but James is a rare exception, so it was intriguing to get a more complex description of James’s relationship with his wife.

Something that I picked up on was the way that the chapters were organized in the Part 2 and Part 3. The chapters were always ____ and ____. For example, Chapter Seven is “Queen Consort and Royal Children” (, Chapter Nine is “Privy Councilor and Councilors”. Part 3 continues this trend. I thought that this was a straight to the point to quicjly sum up what the chapter is about. A clear example would be that the chapter title “Queen Consort and Royal Children” is about the Queen Consort and her children. Part One does not share this same organization all the way through, but I thought it was an interesting way to name a majority of the chapters and explain the basic running theme of each chapter in 3-5 words.

            Doran also touches upon matters across the pond such as the creation of Jamestown in Part 3 of the book” Religion and Politics”. Part three goes into more of the international scene of the day, along with other important events such as the King James Bible.  Doran writes” Although James I’s accession launched and moulded many of the initiatives described here, as his attempts to unify his territories continued a process of state formation and integration that had long predated his inheritance of the English crown and was occurring in other European states.” (429). This supports the main idea that King James I was more complex than originally implied to be.

            My only critique might be nit-picky, but I didn’t like the title. While I understand From Tudor to Stuart is an interesting title and an accurate one when concerning England’s change under the switching of royal houses, from the Tudors to the Stuarts, I felt that this book was more of a biography of James rather than an exploration of England’s change. Maybe I have read too much social history to enjoy a biography. Doran’s From Tudor to Stuart is a noteworthy contribution to the field of Early Modern England history because of its analysis of the Jacobean era. Also, this book is not chronological but rather one of those books that goes by theme rather than by timeline. I personally prefer chronological books, but I can see that it would have made more effective writing if Doran followed the timeline that she did rather than a strictly chronological one.

Something that I noticed throughout the book was the consistent comparison of Elizabeth I to James I. A part of the book that focuses on it particularly is Doran’s conclusion to From Tudor to Stuart.  . In the conclusion, Doran spends a lot of time comparing James and Elizabeth and how historians focused on their differences “Most notably, Elizabeth was frugal, James profligate: Elizabeth’s speeches were terse, James’ orations longwinded. In their devotional live, Elizabeth favored private prayer, and James public sermons.”(465). But Doran makes sure to include how similar the two monarchs were to the other and how James kept many relics of Elizabethan culture alive, something not often discussed by historians. “Visitors to James’s court would have found many similarities in its culture to the previous reign.” (472). The comparisons are not just limited to the conclusion but the entire book as Doran frequently makes comparisons of James to the late Queen Elizabeth. James I is not normally thought of as a monarch in the same vein as Elizabeth I so that’s what makes Doran’s approach to this book so interesting.

            In conclusion, Susan Doran’s from Tudor to Stuart: the regime changes from Elizabeth I to James I is a compelling read about a time in England’s history that is properly explored and broken down in a compelling and understandable manner. The book does feel like a biography of King James but even if that is the point of the book, it’s still a good read and anyone who reads it is sure to learn something from Susan Doran.

A People’s Reformation

            A People’s Reformation: Building the English Church in the Elizabethan Parish by Lucy Moffat Kaufman covers that period of English history where England was transitioning from Catholicism into Protestantism. Kaufman shows that it wasn’t a simple, easy switch from Catholicism to Protestantism. But a hard, back and forth, decades long process. At the end of her preface, Kaufman writes “This story is thus neither dirge nor paean. It is, instead, an exploration of the strategies, the decisions, and the priorities of English men and women in the face of massive change. It is, in the end, the story of a People’s Reformation, and the church they built, together.” (xvi). This sets the tone for the rest of Kaufman’s book as Kaufman will not be downcast and entirely negative about this era. But she will not be singing it’s praises wholeheartedly. The preface promises the reader that they will get a balanced view of the era that Kaufman is covering in A People’s Reformation.

But what is Kaufman’s main idea? In her introduction, Kaufman writes “This book investigates that reknitting of religion and society in the Elizabethan years. It asks, at its core, how society was able to rebuild after an episode of massive, even violent, change.” (12). I believe that a way this is being shown is through the organizations of the chapters which all share a common theme: the parish. Since this book is an examination of the Parish and the English reformation, I wouldn’t think that it is too much of a stretch. Just look at the five chapter names. “Bounding the Parish”, “Policing the Parish”,” Funding the Parish”, “Taxing the Parish”, and “Receiving in the Parish”. All these play a part in Kaufman’s main question about how society was able to come together again after massive change. Kaufman finishes her introduction by saying that “In the end, this is a story about the decisions made in the face of constraints: the demands of the state, the shifts in the economy and demography, the doctrine of the church, and above all, the long legacy of the Reformation.” (22).

            In Chapter 1,” Bounding the Parish”, Kauffman writes” This chapter will explore the new efforts by the Elizabethan state church to define and enforce the boundaries of parochial life.” (26). The first chapter introduces us to the world of Elizabethan England parish life. We are introduced to the power of the church in everyday life such as ecclesiastical courts which had as much power if not more than regular courts. “By and large, the secular courts relied on the passive response of local officials in the implementation of justice, while the spiritual courts had an active program of investigation. This chapter sets the pace for the rest of the book.

            In the Second chapter” Policing the Parish”, Kauffman writes about a figure of the church that is seldom talked about. The churchwarden was very impactful in Reformation politics. “Without the churchwarden, we have a Reformation by fiat, enacted by an invisible hand of change. In other words, to understand religious change in England, we need a real understanding of its churchwardens, the agents of the state church, and the face of power within the parish.” (54). It is important for the churchwardens to be discusses because of their real responsibility and power that they held in England at this time. It is they who are policing the Parish. This chapter plays into Kaufman’s theme because without understanding who the churchwardens are, it would be hard to understand the English Reformation.

            The third chapter of the book is called “Funding the Parish”, and it discusses…. funding. Now what does Kaufman mean by funding. “To understand the financing of a church is, in a sense, to understand the church itself. From massive land sales to ha’penny tithe on eggs, the Elizabethan church raised enormous sums to power twin undertakings of doctrinal ministry and socio-political stability”. (90).  Here, Kaufmann looks at the mundane documents to get a closer feel of what life in the Elizabethan age was really like. Kaufman writes, “A closer look at the accounts, and indeed parish finances as a whole, from across England reveals the complex logistics of cultivating a Reformation in the late sixteenth century. It is in the anodyne records of the churchwardens…that we find the lifeblood of the Elizabethan Reformation.” (90). Money was and is very important to keeping a church open and churches In Elizabethan England were no exception. “Maintaining the parish church to the specifications and standards required was manifestly an expensive business.” (115).  As we have seen in the chapter, Funding the Parish is done by the church for the church.

            The fourth chapter of A People’s Reformation, “Taxing the Parish” analyses…taxing the parish. Stay with me now. Kaufman opens the chapter with the story of the dispute between Sir Ralph Ellerker, a landowner, and the new rector of Rowley, James Gayton. How does this conflict add meaning to the rest of the chapter? Well, it’s because this conflict ties into tithing. James Gayton took Sir Ralph to court because Gayton wasn’t paid tithe the way he wanted (he wanted animals and wool, but Sir Ralph wanted to give him cash). This plays into the rest of the chapter because of the role that tithing plays in taxing the parish. Kaufman discusses this in more detail. ”Thus, the payment of tithes generated lay expectations of clerical service. They created a contractual relationship between minister and parishioner, with the latter expecting the services of the former.” (164). Kaufman paints a picture of how Taxing the Parish comes through religion and the example of Sir Ralph and James Gayton illustrates how society was changing.

            The final Parish chapter of Kaufman’s A People’s Reformation is “Receiving in the Parish”. What does Receiving mean in this context? Well, judging from the opening anecdote regarding taking communion, I would assume it would be about receiving communion. Kaufman writes “This chapter approaches the question of the eucharist from two different, equally important, angles.” (183). These angles are the “pace and shape of sacramental conformity” (183) and “the lived experience of the sacrament in Elizabethan England”. (183). These angles show why these changes to the Eucharist were so important. People were willing to fight and die over the Eucharist which shows how important it was to the people of England at this time.

            Are there any critiques of Kaufman’s A People’s Reformation? Well, every chapter is organized thematically rather than chronologically. Aside from that, I liked the book. It examines the situation and historical context without flattening the historical characters see throughout the book.

            I thought this was a unique and interesting take on the English Reformation.  A bottom-up history looking at different parishes. Like James G. Clark’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, this book follows themes rather than a chronological timeline. Besides that, Lucy Moffat Kaufman does a fine job of communicating the period, the landscape and the turmoil of life in an English parish in the Age of Elizabeth I.

Book Review

In his book, The Dissolution of the Monasteries, James G. Clark discusses what he calls “a study of the end of the monasteries in England and Wales”.(19). What Clark is discussing is the Dissolution of the Monasteries, an event in history in which King Henry VIII dissolved over 850 religious houses in England by 1540. This event, a seismic shift in religion in England, is the focus on the book, The Dissolution of the Monasteries by James G. Clark. Clark covers the event from the perspective of the men and women affected by it, not just the perspective of King Henry VIII. Clark, A professor at the University of Exeter who has written a lot of material regarding monasteries, is the right author for this book due to his extensive knowledge about the subject at hand and his unique take on it. This book would have been much different if it had been viewed through Henry’s point of view. It is a very dense book with a lot of information, but the author is clearly educated on the topic that he is covering.

            Clark separates his book into three parts. Part One goes over how important monasteries were in Tudor society. Part two covers what kind of relationship the Tudors had with monasteries. Part Three is about “ the early consequences of the extinction of regular religion” (20). Over the course of the book, Clark shows the place of the monastery in English society, the actions of King Henry and his administration against these monasteries, and the consequences thereafter.

            The book begins with Clark recounting the place of the Monastery in English society in the 16^th century. Monasteries had a sense of fascination among the English people. For example, Clark recounts that because many people believed in the spiritual power of certain objects, the monasteries that took care of these objects would become famous. (45). Clark also describes an old anecdote where people say that “fat men were said to have abbot faces” and how nuns and priests were not always beloved by the public. (50). This first part of the book illustrates for the reader the role and fascination the everyday Englishmen had with their monastery.

            Part Two goes into the actual Dissolution of the Monasteries. First, Clark gives us historical context, discussing the English Reformation and the events leading up to the Dissolution of the Monasteries. A part I found interesting was that Clark writes that “The aims of the regime were abstract and ambitious, and hence they were often not readily understood either by those called upon to carry them out or by those who confronted them.”(316). Putting this into perspective, Clark shows the reader that the purpose behind the Dissolution of the Monasteries was not even clearly seen by those serving the King and those who were against the act. This shows the complexities and political chaos of the time. Part Two also includes the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion lead by Sir Robert Aske in response to the Dissolution of Monasteries. The Dissolution of Monasteries was so divisive that it caused a rebellion, albeit a quickly crushed rebellion. The second part of Clark’s Dissolution of the Monasteries

            Part Three examines the aftermath of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Fittingly, Clark begins this part with a story of the destruction of a church in Lewes, its destruction is a fitting metaphor for the Dissolution of Monasteries (379-380).  Clark writes that “Historians have found it difficult to look on the years after 1540, the last years of Henry’s reign and those of his children, Edward and Mary, without the impression of new worlds being cut rapidly anf roughly from the old.”(470). This quote stands out because the Dissolution of the Monasteries’ impact was so great that the 1540s and the 1530s seemed to be from different worlds.

In the introduction to his book, Clark writes “The dissolution in England is the most visible drama of the Tudor reformations and stands in sharp relief on a European stage, and yet it is the least well-documented of all.” (9). This statement is important for understanding the book because of this fact. Because this event has not been well-documented, in a way, it causes historians to fall back on certain perspectives such as the perspective of Henry VIII. Despite Clark saying earlier that this was one of the least documented events, Clark uses a plethora of sources, from regular townspeople to scholars like Hugh Latimer and John Foxe. I am not contesting that what Clark say isn’t true. But, for a moment in history which is not very well documented, there is a lot of evidence.

One critique to be had of The Dissolution of the Monasteries is its length. The book is very dense. While a book’s length does not automatically mean it is a slog, to say that James G. Clark was not being a little indulgent would be fibbing. He is an expert on monasteries and It is not a crime to say that a book is very long. But, Clark’s knowledge helps rather than hinders.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries could have just been a book about that one act Henry VIII signed in 1536. It could have just covered a basic understanding of the English monastic life, why Henry did what he did, the closing of the monasteries and the aftermath. But, this would have been very different than the book James G. Clark would come to write. You see, the main character of the book is not King Henry. The main character is the monastery. Clark spends a large amount of time on these monasteries. Because Clark’s specialty is monasteries, it works (though it can slip into indulgence occasionally).

If you ask someone who is the main character or actor in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, many will say Henry VIII, some might mention Sir Thomas Cromwell, even say Sir Robert Aske who led the Pilgrimage of Grace in response to this. But the correct answer is that the main character of the Dissolution of the Monasteries were the monasteries and those that lived in them. They were the ones most effected by the closing of the monasteries. James G. Clark captures this quite well in his sprawling book about the Dissolution of the Monasteries.