THE BATTLEMENT GARDEN

BRITAIN FROM THE WAR OF THE ROSES TO THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE

(C. WALTER HODGES)

A garden paradise, protected by a castle wall from invasion by the wild and ruthless world outside; that was how William Shakespeare imagined the England of his day, towards the end of the Tudor century.

How did the Tudors do it?  When Henry VII, the first Tudor king, came to the throne in 1485 he found himself ruler of a land that had been the victim of civil war for thirty years.  When his grand-daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, died in 1603, she left a country at peace with itself, strong abroad, and rich in literature, painting, architecture, and music.  A country that could boast of great dramatists such as Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, of poets like Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney, of the painter Hilliard, and of William Byrd, among the greatest of English composers.

Walter Hodges, in tracing the astonishing flowering of the Tudor period, lays emphasis on two events, both of which took place in 1485.  First, the printer William Caxton published Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur, and second, the Battle of Bosworth brought Henry VII to the throne.  The civil wars were ended, prosperity was possible, and the English could dream, with Malory, of the ideal past of Arthurian England, a past their new confidence made them sure they could re-establish, even surpass.

This book has nearly sixty black and white illustrations and eight pages of full colour.

ISBN 0233 96938 1

This 1979 1^st edition hardback publication is in very good overall condition.  The pages are tightly bound and are free from tears, creases, and significant marks.  The dustjacket displays some rubbing and light knocks to the edges and corners (see photograph) together with a scuff mark to the spine.  The book runs to 144 pages (23cm x 16cm) is well indexed, well-illustrated throughout the text, and has an additional 8 pages of colour plates.