England and Europe in the Sixteenth Century

'In a series featuring such distinguished early modern studies as David Loades's The Mid-Tudor Crisis and Ann Hughes's The Causes of the English Civil War, Susan Doran's thematically organized book provides a brief but welcome synthesis of revisionist work on England's international relations...These arguments are laid out in an excellent introduction and elaborated in separate chapters on honour and reputation, security and defense, religion and commerce.' - Michael Rogers, Sixteenth Century Journal

This book provides a thematic survey of English foreign policy in the sixteenth century, focusing on the influence of the concept of honour, security concerns, religious ideology and commercial interests on the making of policy.This book provides a thematic survey of English foreign policy in the sixteenth century, focusing on the influence of the concept of honour, security concerns, religious ideology and commercial interests on the making of policy. It draws attention to aspects of continuity with the late-medieval past but argues, too, that the European Reformation brought new challenges which forced a rethinking of policy. Far from treating the sixteenth century as the period when England began its rise as a Great Power, the author emphasises the structural weaknesses of the English armed forces and demonstrates that dangers and insecurities did more to mould foreign policy than the energy and confidence of the Tudor rulers.