David Loades provides a masterful overview of this formative period of British history. Exploring the reign of each monarch within the framework of the dynasty, he unpacks the key questions surrounding the monarchy; the relationship between church and the state, development of government, war and foreign policy, the question of Ireland and the issue of succession in Tudor politics.

Loades considers the recent scholarship on the dynasty as a whole, paying particular attention to Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor. He also considers how recent revisionist history asks new questions of their political and personal lives. This places our understanding of the dynasty as a whole in a new light.