Disease, Disaster and Death in Mid-Tudor England (Hardcover)

Presenting a new analysis of the population and mortality figures for this era, "Disease, Disaster and Death in Mid-Tudor England" examines the epidemic of 1556-60 which is the greatest, yet most under-examined disaster in English history since the Black Death. Looking at how England's population was reduced by about twenty percent by the two worst harvests of the sixteenth century, followed by a pandemic of influenza and typhus, John Moore uses a variety of historical sources, from taxation records, muster rolls and wills, parish registers, chantry certificates and the 1563 diocesan census to re-analyze the death-toll caused by disease. He examines how: the death of Queen Mary, Cardinal Pole and many of the Catholic bishops from influenza led to the accession of Elizabeth I to the throne and the Anglican religious settlement which she sponsored; the dramatic drop in population reduced the pressure for food on the countryside, allowing rural industries to grow and new agricultural methods to flourish; and, how Protestantism encouraged a sense of national identity which was increasingly focused against Catholic Spain, leading to new trading and colonial ventures and eventually to the first British empire. Including clearly tabulated statistical information, this is an essential book for any student of Tudor Britain.