Monday, January 04, 2010

Question from SarahAnne - Books with important Tudor documents

I am looking to purchase a book with the important Tudor documents, but don't want to purchase the wrong one! I would prefer not to buy tons of books, so I was wondering if there are any especially good compilations. Any suggestions?

I recently found one entitled "Tudor Constitutional Documents" by J.R. Tanner. It covers the years 1485-1603. Has anyone read this? Would this be a good book to start out with?

1 comment:

kb said...

'Important' is such a qualitative word. What's important to one person may not be important to another.

The long Tudor 'century' has many many documents that you may consider important. "Tudor Constitutional Documents" by J.R. Tanner is available to read online at http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030504322

You should look at it online before purchasing. The title is a bit of an oxymoron as technically there is no English Constitution. However, common law has developed through various documents that constitute the relationship of government to the governed.

You might want to look at works of G.R. Elton including "The Tudor Constitution" in which he publishes several relevant documents with commentary.

Many documents are now available digitally. Check the internet archive (above referenced link) where you cans search for several collections of printed primary sources from the era. Also check google books, the UK National Archives and the British Library both have significant documents available online.