The Age of Reformation: The Tudor and Stewart Realms 1485-1603

Now in its third edition, The Age of Reformation has been fully updated and extended, offering a comprehensive study of the relationships between religion, politics, and social change in the sixteenth century.The book charts the new challenges and crises facing the English, Scottish, and Irish states in the early modern age as they contended with the spread of Protestantism and a powerful Tudor monarchy. Constructing a clear narrative of the events and actors of this era of reformations, both political and religious, the book provides an accessible entry point for studying a period of upheaval and transformation, synthesising key research and drawing unexpected connections. Each chapter of the third edition has been revised, with additions including expanded treatments of popular politics, the implementation of the Reformation in the parishes, and England’s global expansion and the Tudor roots of the ‘British empire’.Accompanied by new maps and drawing on the latest research, this book is essential reading for all students of religion, reformation, and politics in early modern British history.

About the Author

Alec Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity at Durham University, emeritus Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London and a Fellow of the British Academy. His publications on the history of the Reformation and of Protestantism include Being Protestant in Reformation Britain (2013), Protestants (2017), Unbelievers: An Emotional History of Doubt (2019), and The World’s Reformation (2025).