Blunting lances and razing towers : masculine performance and early Tudor reforms
Burt, Jacob
Master of Arts, History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2006)
Abstract
This study examines the effects of early Tudor reforms on the traditional models of masculinity of the sixteenth-century English nobility. It traces the origins of those models of proper manhood in literature and chronicle accounts, and then examines how those models were subtly refigured by the attempts of Henry VII and Henry VIII to control tournaments and castle building, two stages upon which nobles could perform their masculinity. The study finds that by stressing opulence over martiality in both cases, and by restricting the use of martial imagery to no other person but the crown, the Tudor kings contributed to an environment of change that allowed new models of masculinity, and in particular that of the polite gentleman, to develop.
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