Two Tudor Conspiracies

by David Loades

The reign of Mary Tudor was a period of exceptional tension and unrest in English history. Opposition to the Tudor monarchy reached its highest point at this time, when the government was weak and the country a pawn int he European struggle between France and Spain. Dr. Loades gives an account of two well-documented conspiracies, Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion in 1554 and the Dudley Conspiracy of 1556.

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 1965

About the author

David Michael Loades was a British historian who specialised in the Tudor era. After military service in the Royal Air Force from 1953 until 1955, Loades studied at the University of Cambridge. In the 1960s and 1970s he taught at the universities of St. Andrews and Durham. From 1980 until 1996 Loades was Professor of History at the University of Wales; after taking emeritus status, Loades served as Honorary Research Professor at the University of Sheffield from 1996 until 2008.

Reviews

[Susan Abernethy]

Pretty dry recounting of the Wyatt Rebellion and the Dudley Conspiracy during the reign of Queen Mary I of England. Lots of detail, including names, who was captured, who was punished, etc.

[Bill38silver]

There can be little doubt that this book was the outcome of very detailed research by an academic. This is not a rip-roaring yarn of two plots against Mary (nothing personal, but against her marriage to Philip "the Spanish match"). It is more like a dissertation bringing together anything and everything that can be mustered about the events mainly in 1554-56. It is an expose of the large number of people involved directly or indirectly in the two plots, their connections, their indictments, punishments, etc.

Pun intended, the text is overloaded with detail by the author such that frequently the interesting intrigues of the conspirators, and by court factions and several ambassadors, are subsumed by pages of references to a succession of named individuals about whom much is known but also many about which hardly anything is known except their name.

There are other more recent and readable narratives on Wyatts rebellion and the Dudley plot. If, however, you want to know which parish the Wyatt rebels came from, or the names of those arrested in the Dudley conspiracy, their dates of arrest, indictment, first examination, trial and date of execution or pardon, this book will be of particular interest.