G. R. Elton – författare

Though the first edition of this book (1960) rapidly established itself as a sound collection of source material and a comprehensive analysis of the government of England in the sixteenth century, the astonishing amount of work done, by many hands including the author's, in the last twenty years has rendered a revision very necessary. The scope of these changes is indicated by the fact that in the list of books cited some 180 make a first appearance while some 70 have been discarded. In the upshot, no single section has remained unaltered and several (especially on the Church, on Parliament and on the Law) have had to be entirely rewritten. While there was room for the addition of only a few documents, they have been chosen with an eye to topics especially alive in the researches of the present day. One such issue - patronage and faction - while not amenable to documentation in a book of this kind has not been forgotten in the commentary.

In the year 1200, the English Government initiated regular series of record-archives; in 1640, the fall of Charles I's personal government led to the abolition of several central offices and their archives. These events, which both profoundly altered the state of the evidence for the historian, therefore set the limits of this book. For though those 450 years must be studied from a great variety of sources, to the historian they constitute above all the period for which he depends overwhelmingly on official records of all kinds. The core of this book, therefore, is an analysis and description of such materials - their origin, present state and usefulness. However, other materials are not ignored, from the chronicles which provide the main outline of the history that can be known, through the records of the law, private letters (almost non-existent before 1450, suddenly plentiful after 1550) and estate documents, to less familiar historical sources like books, buildings and landscape, and the contribution of the archaeologist.

G. R. Elton's Policy and Police, first published in 1972, has since acquired classic status in the literature on the government of sixteenth-century England. The book examines what actually happened during Henry VIII's break with Rome, the widespread resistance which necessitated constant vigilance on the part of the government, and the role of Thomas Cromwell, whose surviving correspondence permits a detailed insight both into the purposes of government and the manner in which it was experienced by the people.

This is the second, amended and enlarged edition of a familiar standard work, first published in 1958. Like its predecessor, it describes the open conflicts of the Reformation from Luther's first challenge to the uneasy peace of the 1560's. Reforming movements in all the principal countries are discussed, against the background of constitutional development and the political struggles of the ruling dynasties. Europe's relations with the outside world are given due prominence. The second edition incorporates the results of some thirty years of further research and fills some of the gaps, especially in the history of central Europe, which beset the first edition. All chapters which remain from 1958 have been revised, some very substantially.

This is a comprehensive account of the parliament of early modern England at work, written by the leading authority on sixteenth-century English, constitutional and political history. Professor Elton explains how parliament dealt with bills and acts, discusses the many various matters that came to notice there, and investigates its role in political matters. In the process he proves that the prevailing doctrine, developed by the work of Sir John Neale, is wrong, that parliament did not acquire a major role in politics; that the notion of a consistent, body of puritan agitators in opposition to the government is mere fiction and, although the Commons processed more bills than the House of Lords, the Lords occupied the more important and influential role. Parliament's fundamental function in the government of the realm lay rather in the granting of taxes and the making of laws. The latter were promoted by a great variety of interests - the Crown, the Privy Council, the bishops, and particularly by innumerable private initiators. A very large number of bills failed, most commonly for lack of time but also because agreement between the three partners (Queen, Lords and Commons) could not be reached.

This collection features the publication of Sir Geoffrey Elton's articles and reviews, published between 1982 and 1990, in continuation of three previous volumes. Volume IV contains a group of pieces on sixteenth-century government and politics, and more especially on aspects of the Reformation, on the continent as well as in England, with some attention to Martin Luther and an essay on Lancelot Andrewes. Several pieces deal with parliament under the Tudors. A second group, 'on Historians', reprints an appraisal of Sir Herbert Butterfield and three substantial reviews on historiographical problems.

This volume continues the publication of Professor Elton's collected papers on topics in the history of Tudor and Stuart England. All appeared between 1973 and 1981. As before, they are reprinted exactly as originally published, with corrections and additions in footnotes. They include the author's four presidential addresses to the Royal Historical Society and bring together his preliminary findings in the history of Parliament and its records. Several of them, which appeared in various collections and Festschriften, have been difficult to find, and some are taken from locations in Germany and the United States unfamiliar to English readers. The eight lengthy reviews here republished examine some of the major questions in the history of the age and throw light on the principles of investigation which underlie the author's own research.

This collection features the publication of Sir Geoffrey Elton's articles and reviews, published between 1982 and 1990, in continuation of three previous volumes. Volume IV contains a group of pieces on sixteenth-century government and politics, and more especially on aspects of the Reformation, on the continent as well as in England, with some attention to Martin Luther and an essay on Lancelot Andrewes. Several pieces deal with parliament under the Tudors. A second group, 'on Historians', reprints an appraisal of Sir Herbert Butterfield and three substantial reviews on historiographical problems.

The papers collected in these volumes revolve around the political, constitutional and personal problems of the English government between the end of the fifteenth-century civil wars and the beginning of those of the seventeenth century. Previously published in a great variety of places, none of them appeared in book form before. They are arranged in four groups (Tudor Politics and Tudor Government in Volume I, Parliament and Political Thought in Volume II) but these groups interlock. Though written in the course of some two decades, all the pieces bear variously on the same body of major issues and often illuminate details only touched upon in Professor Elton's books. Several investigate the received preconceptions of historians and suggest new ways of approaching familiar subjects. They are reprinted unaltered, but some new footnotes have been added to correct errors and draw attention to later developments.