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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Historians accept that the personality of Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, was of central importance in determining the nature and objectives of his regime from 1547 to 1549. Unfortunately, they disagree about many aspects of that elusive character; it is therefore important to eradicate misapprehensions about Somerset's views from historical discussion. Vain, insensitive and lacking judgement in personal and political relationships, he yet retains the reputation of a politician concerned for the commonweal, whether from the motives of political calculation suggested by Michael Bush or the influence of Christian humanism detected by Brendan Bradshaw. Charlatan or Christian, the reputation of ‘the good duke’ shows astonishing resilience despite the quantities of cold water poured upon it by Sir Geoffrey Elton. To complicate matters, a misleading interpretation of Somerset's views on higher education, a central concern of the ‘commonwealth’ programme, appears to have become the accepted orthodoxy, making it even more difficult to discover Somerset's true character. This paper examines the origins, development and significance of that error and traces it to its source in a preoccupation typical of Tudor Protestantism.
1 Bush, M. L., The Government Policy of Protector Somerset, London 1975, 5, 55, 83Google Scholar; Bradshaw, B., ‘The Tudor commonwealth: reform and revision’, The Historical Journal (hereinafter cited as HJ) xxii (1979), 455–76 at pp. 469–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Elton, G. R., ‘The Good Duke’, in idem, Studies in Tudor and Stuart Politics and Government, 3 vols, Cambridge 1974–1983, i. 231–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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5 Bush, Policy, 4–6, 23–5, 38–9, 48, 55, 83. Hurstfield, J., reviewing the book in EHR xciii (1978), 613–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar, disagrees that Somerset's utterances were merely an insincere exercise in public relations.
6 Bush, op. cit. 81.
7 Bradshaw, ‘Tudor commonwealth’, 470–2.
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9 1 Edward vi, c. 14, in The Statutes of the Realm (hereinafter cited as SR), 11 vols, London 1810–18, iv. 28; Lord's Journal, i. 308, 313.
10 37 Henry vm, c. 4, SR iii. 988.
11 SR, iv. 24. The admission by the Privy Council that the Commons had agreed to give chantry revenues to the Crown ‘that they might thereby be releved of the continuall charge of taxes, contribucions, lones and subsidies’ extracted for Henry's wars says little about government motives, Acts of the Privy Council of England, ed. J. R. Dasent, NS ii, London 1890, 185.
12 T. Lever, A fruitfull sermon made in Poults churche at London in the shroudes the seconde day of February... 1550, J. Daie and W. Seres, London 1550, sigs B7V-C1V, A Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad (hereinafter cited as STC), ed. A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, London 1926, 15543.
13 27 Henry vii c. 42, amending 26 Henry viii c. 3, in SR, iii. 990.
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16 Con. Parker, 35–6; cf. The Description of England by William Harrison, cd. G. Edelen, Ithaca, NY 1968,80–1.
17 Simon, Education and Society, 215 n. 2; Jordan, Edward VI, 327 n. 3, relying on C. H. Cooper and T. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigiensis, 2 vols, Cambridge 1858–61, ii. 163–4, which confused our William Harrison with the author of Latin verses contributed to the university collection mourning the deaths of the dukes of Suffolk in 1551. The revised STC exorcised this ghost, but F. J. Furnivall followed the Coopers in his DNB article on Harrison.
18 Parry, G. J. R., A Protestant Vision: William Harrison and the reformation of Elizabethan England, Cambridge 1987, 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Dewar, M., Sir Thomas Smith. A Tudor intellectual in office, London 1964, 24–8Google Scholar. Apart from Smith, George Brooke, ninth Lord Cobham, William Brooke, tenth Lord Cobham, Sir Thomas Wroth, William Turner and Robert Recorde, all connected Harrison with Somerset's era, but any transmission of information seems purely conjectural. See Parry, op. cit. 143–5, 280.
20 Dewar, op. cit. 40–2; Bush, Policy, 54–5, and sec n. 88.
21 Parry, G. J. R., ‘William Harrison and Holinshed's Chronicles’, HJ xxvii (1984), 789–810, 802–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22 Description, 152; Parry, art. cit. 809–10. Smith spent some of his last months revising his early works, A discourse of the commonweal of this realm of England, ed. M. Dewar, Charlottesville, Va. 1969, pp. xv, xxvi; sec also Parry, art. cit. 803.
23 Ibid. 793–800.
24 Ibid. 796–8, 800.
25 Parry, A Protestant Vision, ii and vi; Morgan, J., Godly Learning. Puritan attitudes Inwards reason, learning and education, 1560–1640, Cambridge 1986Google Scholar. discusses some aspects of Protestant attitudes to learning but confusingly describes them as ‘puritan’.
26 Trinity College, Dublin, MS 165, fo. 186r.
27 Ibid, fos 194v–5r.
28 See Description, 281–2, 256–9, 39–41, for some instances where Harrison considered England had degenerated from scriptural standards.
29 Ibid. 81.
30 Elton, G. R., The Parliament of England, 1559–81, Cambridge 1986, 220–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am indebted to Professor Elton for drawing my attention to these parliamentary activities.
31 Parry, A Protestant Vision, 262–3.
32 Description, 226. Harrison's ‘Chronology’ frequently cited the Chronicle of Ralph of Diss in St Paul's Library, now Lambeth Palace Library, MS 8. On the destruction of the library building see Dugdale, W., The History of St Paul's Cathedral in London, London 1658, 132Google Scholar, and Simpson, W. S., St Paul's Cathedral Library: a catalogue, London 1893, p. xvGoogle Scholar. Cf. Harrison's possessive reference with that of Somerset's devoted servant, Norton, Thomas, Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, ed. Robinson, H. (Parker Society, 1846), 340Google Scholar.
33 Description, 99.
34 Parry, op. cit. 241–2, 255, 261–5 for more on this.
35 Davis, J. C., Fear, Myth and History. The Ranters and the historians, Cambridge 1986, 111–16Google Scholar, discusses other uses of this strategy.
34 Parry, op. cit. 184–7, 192.
37 Pollard, A. F., England under Protector Somerset, London 1900, repr. New York 1966Google Scholar.
