A Newe Ffundacion of is Crowne: Monarchy in the Age of Henry VII

This volume offers an important new interpretation of a reign pivotal to English historiography, the recent interpretative debate around which is encapsulated in its elusive central figure. Was Henry the mean-minded and anti-noble bureaucrat who signed his accounts himself, or the lavish patron of the arts living in a splendid court? Was he a `new' or a traditional monarch? Many of the fourteen essays here amplify the recent trend towards seeing Henry in the latter context, amidst his churches and building projects, the stained glass he commissioned for them, his books, courtiers and even the music sung for him. Yet they also go beyond the public face: we are enabled to get closer to Henry the man, his family and the atmosphere of his court through piety, poetry and iconography, which reveal a sombre tone alongside the public splendour. Indeed both suggest a reign of constant paranoia and endemic insecurity, which negated the achievements of some of its medieval predecessors. Nevertheless, the reign may have inadvertently laid the foundations for a new monarchy after all.