A Young King’s Political Papers

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31345, 15 April 1967, Page 4

A Young King’s Political Papers

The Chronicle and Political Papera of King Edward VL Edited by W. K. Jordan. Allen and Unwin. 247 PP.

This book, of carefullyedited documents contains the text of seven political papers written by Edward VI, the Tudor king who died before he was 16 years of age. At first, one might reasonably suspect that so young a man could scarcely be expected to write State papers of lasting interest and importance. Nevertheless, the further the reader goes with his study of these writings the more he must come to respect the general ability and political acumen of the young monarch.

The editor, W. K. Jordan, professor of History and Political Science at Harvard University, supplies a very useful introduction which explains many points otherwise inexplicable to all but the specialist. For example, he comments on the quality and depth of the young King’s education and indicates how much of the "Chronicle,” the major item in this collection, was composed for the scrutiny and criticism of the tutors, Cox and Cheke. Professor Jordan is convinced, however, that some time in 1550 Edward VI felt himself to be sufficiently mature to proceed with his writing on his own initiative and for his own purposes. Internal evidence does suggest that the

"Chronide” was started as a written exercise for his teachers but that later on it was continued by Edward as a political or State diary in which he set down items of historical importance and notes on policy and administration. For the period 1550 to 1552 this document is of considerable value as a record of the young King’s interests and of some of the matters which seemed significant at the time. It reveals undoubted literary promise as well as giving, as Professor Jordan has put it, a "clear and moving record of the shaping and maturing of a precocious mind and temperament” The other “Political Papers” include such statements as the “Discourse on the Reform of Abuses in Church and State” and the well-argued “Reasons for Establishing a Mart in England" (March 9, 1552) which presents the economic and military case for strengthening England by the establishment of a cloth and general European market in the south of the country. Edward argued strongly that Southhampton was a better port than Antwerp and would make an ideal “common market” for Spaniards, Bretons, Lombards, Genoese and other Italians. Danes, Swedes and Norwegians, on the other hand, might, he held, find it more convenient to go to Hull than to Antwerp. Even at that stage, the degree to winch England had to trade with Europeans was a matter of real concern to the monarch. The editor has supplied a

series of short but extremely useful footnotes as well as a good bibliography. White this to primarily a book for students of Tudor history, many of its pages could be read with interest by more general readers.

Blurb writers’ banquets have always been a bit indigestible, but you need castiron tubes to stomach Seeker and Warburg on John Barth’s ‘Giles Goatboy” (out next month): “Take elements of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ and ‘1984,’ mix with infusions of ‘Alice in Wonderland* and the best of Kafka, add a taste of ’Gulliver’s Travels,’ the whole to stew in the rich casserole dish of Mr Barth’s talent” Free Eno's with every copy.— from the “Miscellany” column of the “Guardian” Manchester.