StartGroepenDiscussieMeerTijdgeest
Doorzoek de site
Onze site gebruikt cookies om diensten te leveren, prestaties te verbeteren, voor analyse en (indien je niet ingelogd bent) voor advertenties. Door LibraryThing te gebruiken erken je dat je onze Servicevoorwaarden en Privacybeleid gelezen en begrepen hebt. Je gebruik van de site en diensten is onderhevig aan dit beleid en deze voorwaarden.

Resultaten uit Google Boeken

Klik op een omslag om naar Google Boeken te gaan.

Bezig met laden...

England's Boy King: The Diary of Edward Vi, 1547-1553

door Jonathan North, Edward Tudor (Auteur)

LedenBesprekingenPopulariteitGemiddelde beoordelingAanhalingen
1111,711,848 (4.5)4
In January 1547 a nine-year-old boy was proclaimed king of England. The young, king, Edward VI, was the son of Henry VIII and all the power which that ruler had eagerly amassed found itself in the youthful hands of a frail and sickly child. That child, England's boy king, would last just six years on the throne before dying of tuberculosis and taking the hopes of many with him to the grave. Throughout Edward's short reign the young ruler kept a journal, a detailed diary recounting events in his kingdom. It is a fascinating record of Tudor England through the eyes of its monarch. The diary narrates all the momentous events in the young king's life but also observes the wider world, noting down news from England and keeping a watchful eye on Ireland, Scotland and mainland Europe. The diary makes for a wonderful chronicle of Tudor life. Edward reveals an increasing awareness as his reign progresses, showing an interest in religious reform, commerce and political machinations. He gleefully recounts the fate of traitors and rebels and ponders on the ups and downs of Scottish politics. But he also notes down items which have a personal interest for him - an earthquake in Croydon in May 1551, presents from France, jousting on boats on the Thames. Sometimes naive, sometimes astute and calculating, the diary is a faithful record of six years in English history. An age in which political and religious parties rushed to secure their influence over the boy king whilst still darker forces wait in the wings, with religious revolution and rebellion never being far away.… (meer)
Geen
Bezig met laden...

Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden.

Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.

» Zie ook 4 vermeldingen

Edward VI was lucky enough to live at a time when keeping documents was a matter of course. A lot got lost - but a lot managed to survive and his diary was one of those that managed to make it in tact to the late 1600s when it was first reprinted and though to our days (the complete manuscript is kept at the British Library). It had been reprinted often - sometimes in its full length, sometimes just as excerpts and had become of the best known primary documents both for the reign of Edward VI and for the history of the Reformation in England.

Knowing all that, one would expect a long diary - despite its writer's short life. And one would be surprised to learn that the whole manuscript is just 68 pages. It is more of a chronicle than a diary (at least in the way we use the word now) - its format is closer to the chronicles of the past than anything else. The (almost) daily records start in March 1550 and end in November 1553; before them are a summary of his life before that and of important events since he became king, split per year. Early in the diary, Edward refers to him as "the king" but as time progresses, he switches to "I" (although there are a few entries later on that revert to the third person).

The first part (before the daily entries start) reads like a story - and that's what it is - there is no glimpse of the boy behind the throne - Edward is just a chronicler. What he includes is as important as what he skips although it is unclear how much should be read into it - he writes these later after all and time changes anyone's perspective.

The daily records on the other hand are a lot more useful for that. Some are one-liners about domestic affairs and his movements. Some are long descriptions of battles and occurrences in court (and in Europe). As time progresses, we get more and more entries about wars in Europe and less about court games (although these never disappear completely). And the diary is not linear - Edwards backtracks to add a back-dated entry now and then. Most of these are about Europe or an action outside of the court so it is possible that he just wrote of them when he learned about them from the letters/ambassadors. But there are exceptions. Some may be things he did not think important but changed his mind later. Some may be just a tired boy forgetting to add something. And some are just unexplainable - the final fall of Somerset is in the diary but it is one of those back-dated entries. One would think that this would have been important enough to add on the day it happened but for one reason or another, it is added days later, after entries for later events.

This edition reprints the complete diary but not in its original form. North modernized the spelling, the punctuation and in some places the language. It made for a much easier read than this would have been - I was reading Skidmore's biography of Edward VI at the same time and comparing the cited passages there with the ones in this edition shows a lot of differences. North also adds notes when a weird name is used or when Edward made a mistake in a date or a name. Other from that, the reader is left to their own devices (Except for a short list of names and titles at the end of the book). If one does not know the history of these years, they won't learn it from this chronicle; if they do, it will add some color and some amusing anecdotes to the story. Edward's notes about his quarrel with Mary over religion and mass doctrines had been used by anyone studying the Reformation but here, seen in the context of his life, they shine in a way which is just not there when you pull them out on their own.

The book also contains quite a lot of images and a few letters written by Edward - none of them are really necessary but they take enough space for the book not to be too slim.

If you are interested in the period, it is a curiosity you may want to want to read. It is not critical though - historians had mined it for data for centuries so the important passages had been cited over and over. Although important and amusing are different things - there are things that may not matter much but they show the boy behind the king. Had some of that diary/chronicle been written under dictation? Possibly. Had there been influences over a young and inexperienced king? Sure. But the diary is still his own. And even if it is not a modern style diary, there is some personality in there.

PS: This book is almost impossible to find (unless you want to pay a lot). Libraries may be a good source (I got it via an ILL from my library). The diary had been reprinted lately as "Edward VI's Chronicle" with a different editor - the modernization (if any) will be different but the body of the diary is the same regardless of the edition. And of course a version of it is in the internet archive - its earlier publications are public domain after all - https://archive.org/details/cu31924091758312/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater for example (and that version has a lot of notes) ( )
  AnnieMod | Jan 10, 2022 |
geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe

» Andere auteurs toevoegen (5 mogelijk)

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
Jonathan Northprimaire auteuralle editiesberekend
Tudor, EdwardAuteurprimaire auteuralle editiesbevestigd
Je moet ingelogd zijn om Algemene Kennis te mogen bewerken.
Voor meer hulp zie de helppagina Algemene Kennis .
Gangbare titel
Oorspronkelijke titel
Alternatieve titels
Oorspronkelijk jaar van uitgave
Mensen/Personages
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Belangrijke plaatsen
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Belangrijke gebeurtenissen
Verwante films
Motto
Opdracht
Eerste woorden
Citaten
Laatste woorden
Ontwarringsbericht
Uitgevers redacteuren
Auteur van flaptekst/aanprijzing
Oorspronkelijke taal
Informatie afkomstig uit de Engelse Algemene Kennis. Bewerk om naar jouw taal over te brengen.
Gangbare DDC/MDS
Canonieke LCC

Verwijzingen naar dit werk in externe bronnen.

Wikipedia in het Engels

Geen

In January 1547 a nine-year-old boy was proclaimed king of England. The young, king, Edward VI, was the son of Henry VIII and all the power which that ruler had eagerly amassed found itself in the youthful hands of a frail and sickly child. That child, England's boy king, would last just six years on the throne before dying of tuberculosis and taking the hopes of many with him to the grave. Throughout Edward's short reign the young ruler kept a journal, a detailed diary recounting events in his kingdom. It is a fascinating record of Tudor England through the eyes of its monarch. The diary narrates all the momentous events in the young king's life but also observes the wider world, noting down news from England and keeping a watchful eye on Ireland, Scotland and mainland Europe. The diary makes for a wonderful chronicle of Tudor life. Edward reveals an increasing awareness as his reign progresses, showing an interest in religious reform, commerce and political machinations. He gleefully recounts the fate of traitors and rebels and ponders on the ups and downs of Scottish politics. But he also notes down items which have a personal interest for him - an earthquake in Croydon in May 1551, presents from France, jousting on boats on the Thames. Sometimes naive, sometimes astute and calculating, the diary is a faithful record of six years in English history. An age in which political and religious parties rushed to secure their influence over the boy king whilst still darker forces wait in the wings, with religious revolution and rebellion never being far away.

Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden.

Boekbeschrijving
Haiku samenvatting

Actuele discussies

Geen

Populaire omslagen

Snelkoppelingen

Waardering

Gemiddelde: (4.5)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5 1
5

Ben jij dit?

Word een LibraryThing Auteur.

 

Over | Contact | LibraryThing.com | Privacy/Voorwaarden | Help/Veelgestelde vragen | Blog | Winkel | APIs | TinyCat | Nagelaten Bibliotheken | Vroege Recensenten | Algemene kennis | 203,188,012 boeken! | Bovenbalk: Altijd zichtbaar