Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England

by David Cressy

Book Overview

From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the lifecycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the Protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198201680
• ISBN13: 9780198201687
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 658 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A must read

I actually had to read this for an MA class in history and it's definitely a textbook of the Tudor and Stuart time period but it wasn't as dry as I had expected it to be, thanks to Mr. Cressy's amazing writing ability. But it is thoroughly researched and offers up very important conclusions about the social life of the Tudor/Stuart period and anyone who wants the recent and best literature on the subject should read this book.

Social history at its best

I've just finished writing a series of books about life in Elizabethan England, and this book was invaluable to me in my research. It is full of interesting details about how people in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England approached and experienced the major transition points of the life cycle. I would have read and enjoyed Birth, Marriage, and Death even if I had not needed it as a reference, and I would heartily recommend it to any reader who wants to get a feel for this time period.

Great book!

Most historical books of this sort are amazingly dry; this one is not. Mr. Cressy has done a huge amount of research, and the text is peppered with primary source quotations. I now have a real feel for what these experiences were like in Tudor & Stuart England. I plan to buy whatever other material Mr. Cressy has written--I found him an easy, extremely informative read.