Selling the Tudor Monarchy Authority and Image in Sixteenth-Century England Kevin Sharpe

The management of image in the service of power is a familiar tool of twenty-first century politics. Here a leading historian reveals how, from even before the Reformation, the Tudors sought to sustain and enhance their authority by representing themselves to their people through the media of building, print, art, material culture and speech. Deploying what we might now describe as 'spin', Tudor rulers worked actively as patrons and popularisers to present themselves to the best advantage.Familiarity, however, brought risk. The art of royal representation was a delicate balance between mystification and popularisation, and those rulers who most used it - notably Henry VIII and Elizabeth I - enjoyed the longest reigns and, at most times, wide support. Yet even in Elizabeth's case successful image-making tended to surrender her authority to popular construction. By the end of the sixteenth century, the Tudors had survived reformations and rebellions, strengthened the crown and imprinted themselves on the imaginations and lives of their subjects. Yet relentless promotion of the royal image had desacralised it, leaving a difficult legacy to their Stuart successors.This first sustained analysis of the verbal and visual representations of Tudor power embraces art history, literary studies and the history of consumption and material culture. It reflects years of study of the texts, images, modes and forms of representation which circulated images of authority to a public increasingly eager to acquire them.

Kevin Sharpe is Professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. His books include The Personal Rule of Charles I and Reading Revolutions, both published by Yale.

Kevin Sharpe’s, Selling the Tudor Monarchy: Authority and Image in Sixteenth-Century England is winner of the 2011 Historians of British Art Book Prize in the British Art Pre 1800 category.

“Sharpe’s reading of select contemporary texts is often fresh and often brilliantly insightful. Methodologically, he has written a ground-breaking study of the Tudor monarchy, one likely to be consulted for many years to come.”—Dale Hoak, Literature & History

"This is a wonderful book about the 'media folk' of Tudor England - artists and writers employed by a succession of monarchs to propagate an image of the sovereign. Breathtaking in its scope and a real revelation about Tudor 'spin'" -Derek Wilson, "Writers Read" blog

"Exploiting a dazzling array of materials, from pots, spoons and carpets to paintings and pageantry, Sharpe captures the multi-layered magnificence of Tudor monarchy and its audiences, contemporary and historical … Written by a scholar who has worked at the forefront of historical enquiry for almost three decades, the book establishes an agenda for the next generation … Thought-provoking, at times contentious, this book is written with a contagious enthusiasm that will engage general and specialist readers alike. We can look forward to its sequels with considerable anticipation." –Janet Dickinson, History Today

"This is a bold undertaking, but this first volume suggests that it is one very much suited to Kevin Sharpe’s strengths. The prose is fluent and accessible, the ideas striking, the argument assertive and wide-ranging, based on a vast array of different sources … this book is immensely valuable … Selling the Tudor Monarchy is a huge achievement. … an important, thought-provoking and richly rewarding book which should be required reading for every early modern scholar. Its eagerness to engage with the central questions of historical method, its passionate insistence on an interdisciplinary approach, its vast scope and its grand ideas are a great addition to the scholarship of the Tudor period … We look forward to the next two volumes." -Lucy Wooding, Reviews in History

"Sharpe’s writing is vigorous and his overall picture convincing and informative. He is judiciously sceptical where he needs to be … and his keen eye ranges over a rich variety of sources, both visual and literary." -Diarmaid MacCulloch, London Review of Books

"The book will stand as the first point of reference on its subject ... [Sharpe's] achievement demands attention and respect." -Anthony Fletcher, Times Literary Supplement

"Deeply researched ... I certainly learnt a lot." -Peter Gwyn, Times Higher Education

"... a convincing argument ... allows us to look anew at the Tudor period and ... so provides plenty to ruminate on."  -Richard Woulfe, Tribune

"[A] magisterial study of Tudor image-making ... hugely ambitious ... [and] full of brilliant insights and suggestions." -Greg Walker, Art Newspaper