Machiavellian Encounters in Tudor and Stuart England - Literary and Political Influences from Elizabeth I to the Restoration

This book therefore analyses both the political and literary issues hanging upon the circulation of Machiavelli’s works in England, widening the scope of the research to Machiavelli’s other works apart from the Prince, and marking the passage from Elizabethan to Jacobean to Republican attitudes. In a way, the Florentine writer becomes a litmus test: the reactions his works triggered allow us to gauge the role of theories of statecraft in two of the most turbulent centuries of English history. A form of continuity is suggested between the fragmented and often isolated reactions occurring during the reign of Henry VIII and the more systematic response during the Stuart era, the Commonwealth and the early years of the Restoration. The volume highlights how topics and ideas stemming from Machiavelli’s books created a multifaceted corpus of themes in early modern England, which strongly influenced contemporary political debate.