The conditions prevalent during the latter part of the sixteenth century in England might have spelt the end for ancient prophecy as an influential political language and set of traditions. There were some attacks upon it, and especially upon some of the broader ideas which helped to support it. There were also potentially significant challenges from other ways of understanding the future and its relationship to the past such as astrology and biblical prophecy. These challenges to ancient prophecy, and the alternatives that became increasingly attractive, did not in fact destroy ancient prophecy; in some ways, in fact, a synergy emerged from which ancient prophecy benefited. But they did change the way it was viewed, and they undermined some of the most important of the traditions of the previous century. This chapter analyses these challenges, especially as they affected Merlin, and changes, in particular the rise of the Mother Shipton tradition.

The main challenge to ancient prophecy was not explicitly a challenge to prophecy but to the historical context which was so often its foundation. This was, specifically, the challenge to the British history, the historiography which explained Arthur and Merlin and their importance in the European past. Since prophecies attributed to Merlin had been so important to the whole of ancient prophecy until at least the middle of the century, his declining credibility as an historical figure might be expected to have had an impact.