"Tudor Placemen and Statesmen: Select Case Histories studies the lives of four courtiers of the second rank to illustrate the operation of Tudor government contending with the declining yet influential feudal elites, on the one hand, and struggling to maintain order and bring about creative innovation in administration with a view to inspiring loyalty among the sovereigns' subjects on the other. Their lives also reveal their motives for joining the precarious but prestigious royal service.

This investigation thus seeks to examine the theory of the Tudor revolution in government advanced by the late Sir Geoffrey Elton and in so doing helps to highlight the human and personal dimensions of institutional history. An outcome of this changed perspective is that the privy chamber acquires a higher profile (following David Starkey's path-breaking revisionist research) than the privy council (as postulated by Elton) in the remarkable "revolutionary" decades of the sixteenth century.".

"This book brings into focus, for the first time, the careers of Thomas Heneage, Anthony Denny, John Gates, and William Herbert, four Tudor courtiers who contended with the multiple perils and lures of court life, not always with success, as Gates's odyssey demonstrates. This study also revises some traditional interpretations in respect of these men's religious persuasion, qualifications, and personal character in general.

Sil offers fresh perspectives on the political behaviors of these men who have hitherto been dismissed lightly by historians interested in weightier men and events of Tudor England. In particular, Sil's reassessment of Sir William Herbert's achievements exemplifies the usefulness of micro-studies of lesser known bureaucrats and statesmen for a critical understanding of the operation of Tudor government and administration."--BOOK JACKET.