Personal Religion During the Reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I

Personal Religion during the Reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I offers a major reappraisal of the English Reformation through the language of individual religious expression. Drawing on 1,624 wills from Kent and Gloucestershire, it examines how men and women articulated belief, conformity, uncertainty, and confessional change during two of the most decisive reigns of Tudor England. Moving beyond conventional readings of testamentary formulae, the book analyses preambles, committals, royal titles, and patterns of religious vocabulary to uncover traces of personal piety preserved within legal documents. In doing so, it demonstrates that religious change was not simply imposed through statute, injunction, or royal policy, but was also negotiated and expressed within the spiritual lives of the laity. Combining close textual analysis with extensive archival research, this study sheds new light on the restoration and consolidation of Protestantism and makes a significant contribution to debates on belief, identity, and the evidentiary value of wills in early modern England.

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