Author(s): Susan Doran

Medieval/Renaissance

The Tudor period (1485 to 1603) marks in the minds of many the emergence of an English national identity. Defined by the totemic figure of the virgin queen - Elizabeth I - it witnessed the end of the dynastic uncertainties of the Wars of the Roses, the creation and triumph of the Anglican Church; the successful repulsion of foreign invaders and the beginnings of the adventure of empire; the blossoming of a sublimely gifted generation of musical composers, including Thomas Tallis and William Byrd; and the flowering of English poetry and drama, culminating in the glories of Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. But it was also a period wracked by rebellion, invasion scares, sectarian strife, and - increasingly - by worries about dynastic succession."The Tudor Chronicles" is a compelling, year-by-year chronology of this tumultuous and critical period in the development of the modern English nation.