Persuasive fictions
Subtitle: faction, faith, and political culture in the reign of Henry VIII
By: Greg Walker.
Publisher: Scolar Press; Ashgate Pub. Co.
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Aldershot, England; Brookfield, Vt., USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 213
Subjects: Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547.; English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism.; Politics and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century.; Political parties -- Great Britain -- History -- 16th century.; Persuasion (Rhetoric) -- History -- 16th century.; Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1509-1547.; Great Britain -- History -- Henry VIII, 1509-1547.; Great Britain -- Church history -- 16th century.
Description: This important new study constitutes an attempt to understand the means by which crucial aspects of the political process were conducted in the reign of Henry VIII. To this end, Greg Walker adopts a variety of approaches, from the straightforward historical narrative to an analysis of courtly iconography.

He considers a broad range of evidence, from the trial records of a convicted heretic to the murals on palace walls; from the despatches of ambassadors and military commanders to the fictional creations of poets and prose writers.

But the study is united by a central concern and purpose, namely to get beyond the orthodoxies of historians and literary scholars to the ways in which contemporaries experienced and expressed their political and religious beliefs and ambitions, and thus to appreciate how that most enigmatic of notions 'political culture' was constituted in the period.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.