Law politics and society in early modern England English history and the history of English law 1485 1642 Courts lawyers and legal thought under the early Tudors The initiatives of the crown and the break from Rome Political realities and legal discourse in the later sixteenth century The politics of jurisdiction I: the liberty of the subject and the ecclesiastical polity 1560 c. 1610 The politics of jurisdiction II: multiple kingdoms and questions about royal authority The absoluta potestas of a sovereign and the liberty of the subject: law and political controversy in the 1620s The degeneration of civil society into a state of war 1629 1642 Law and community The aristocracy the gentry and the rule of law Economic and tenurial relationships The household and its members The person the community and the state