# Researching Tudor England



## Gryffin (Sep 16, 2011)

I intend to write a novel set in Tudor/Elizabethan England. Do you have any suggestions of non-fiction books I may want to read to learn more about the time period? Thanks in advance for any recommendations.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Sep 16, 2011)

I was going to suggest a sort of Tudor Encyclopaedia, but the prices on Amazon are pretty high. There is this, which is free for Kindle (of which you can download a free app for PC or Mac somewhere, you don't need to use a Kindle device). I'm not sure how good it is, but it's free so you might as well check it out.

Other than that, I'm sure just something like this would be useful. It's called 'Life in Tudor England', and has illustrations if you're after something more visual than just text. Any book like that would work as a decent reference anyway (and this one is only Â£5.99).


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## Gryffin (Sep 17, 2011)

Johnny Cosmo said:


> I was going to suggest a sort of Tudor Encyclopaedia, but the prices on Amazon are pretty high. There is this, which is free for Kindle (of which you can download a free app for PC or Mac somewhere, you don't need to use a Kindle device). I'm not sure how good it is, but it's free so you might as well check it out.
> 
> Other than that, I'm sure just something like this would be useful. It's called 'Life in Tudor England', and has illustrations if you're after something more visual than just text. Any book like that would work as a decent reference anyway (and this one is only Â£5.99).



I really appreciate your suggestions, thank you! I think I will try and see if I can find an encyclopedia dealing specifically with Tudor England for a decent price but the alternative you suggested for the Kindle will be a good way for me to get started.


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## Cinder (Nov 21, 2011)

You could buy the showtime series "The Tudors." Whilst it's not 100% historically accurate, it's bloody amazing!


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## Shadoe (Nov 21, 2011)

There are a lot of sites about Tudor and Elizabethan England. Some of them are very, very extensive. What sort of character are you going to have? Peasant or someone on Henry's circles? (I've studied Henry extensively.)


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## Larkin (Dec 8, 2011)

Hi! I'm a Ph.D student focusing on late Elizabethan/early Jacobean drama. My knowledge starts a little later than your focus, but hopefully I can be of some help. I'll note that society changed dramatically during the sixteenth century, in many areas. Religion, science, politics, literature were all drastically different things in the late Elizabethan era than they were during the reign of Henry VIII.

As far as Tudor England after Henry, Antonia Fraser's biography _Mary, Queen of Scots_ is ancient but is still a great read. Fraser's book on the Gunpowder Plot, _Faith and Treason_, has a lot of material on the late Elizabethan era, although the Plot occurred after James took the throne. You might also want to look up biographies of famous figures -- Stephen Greenblatt's bio of Shakespeare, _Will in the World_, and Philip Nicholl's bio of Marlowe, _The Reckoning_, both contain a lot of information on the mid-to-late Elizabethan era.

When I'm not writing this paper on Southwell and Crashaw and have the chance to leave the armchair, I'll check on my shelves -- there's a book on the Tower of London (imaginatively called _The Tower_) that I know is particularly useful for a capsule summary of the time period too, but Amazon is unhelpful given the blandness of the title, so I can't give you the author's name. Stay tuned! *ETA:* The author of _The Tower_ is Derek Wilson.


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## cariadhe (Dec 13, 2011)

I can't tell you many details, but The-tudors.org.uk is a really good site to look on. There's a lot, but if you at least skim I'm sure you'll learn a lot. 

Just wondering, is your story fantasy-based? I know it probably is, since this is a site dedicated to fantasy in the first place, but just in case.  You've got me wondering now. I set the start of my story in the lost colony of Roanoke from when the Pilgrims were first settling in America, so I'm kind of curious about what yours is like. If you don't mind, of course.


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