Alice and Jane More
William Yates
HST 423: The Tudor Monarchy
MWF 10:30-11:20
9/20/2012
Slyvester, Richard S. and Davis P. Harding, eds. Two Tudor Lives: The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish. The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1990.
Warnicke, Retha M. Wicked Women of Tudor England: Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
While much is known about Sir Thomas More and his accomplishments, less is known pertaining to his wives and their stories. A lot of what is known and accepted has come from various biographers of Sir Thomas More’s life, as well as different letters and writings from More and his various acquaintances. More recent biographies have begun to clean the names of Jane and Alice More. Renaissance biographers like William Roper and Nicholas Harpsfield criticized Alice More in their biographies, while biographers from the early twentieth century like Percy Allen have criticized both Jane and Alice More for being disobedient and shrewish towards Sir Thomas More. Recent historians like Retha Warnicke have sought out to distinguish the facts from these earlier sources in order to clear these two women from their early misconceptions. William Roper and Nicholas Harpsfield were one of the first biographers of Thomas More and they gave a negative viewpoint on Alice More, Thomas More’s second wife. Roper’s biography portrayed More as a saintly figure, praising him at every opportunity. This in turn gave a negative viewpoint towards Alice More since she disagreed with Thomas on various issues in his political career. One example of this was when More was being held in the Tower of London, where she visited him and told him to agree with the others in order to regain his freedom. Roper looked down upon this action since Alice was trying to convince Thomas to go against his own views in order to please the masses. This distaste towards her is
HST 423: The Tudor Monarchy
MWF 10:30-11:20
9/20/2012
Slyvester, Richard S. and Davis P. Harding, eds. Two Tudor Lives: The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish. The Life of Sir Thomas More by William Roper. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1990.
Warnicke, Retha M. Wicked Women of Tudor England: Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
While much is known about Sir Thomas More and his accomplishments, less is known pertaining to his wives and their stories. A lot of what is known and accepted has come from various biographers of Sir Thomas More’s life, as well as different letters and writings from More and his various acquaintances. More recent biographies have begun to clean the names of Jane and Alice More. Renaissance biographers like William Roper and Nicholas Harpsfield criticized Alice More in their biographies, while biographers from the early twentieth century like Percy Allen have criticized both Jane and Alice More for being disobedient and shrewish towards Sir Thomas More. Recent historians like Retha Warnicke have sought out to distinguish the facts from these earlier sources in order to clear these two women from their early misconceptions. William Roper and Nicholas Harpsfield were one of the first biographers of Thomas More and they gave a negative viewpoint on Alice More, Thomas More’s second wife. Roper’s biography portrayed More as a saintly figure, praising him at every opportunity. This in turn gave a negative viewpoint towards Alice More since she disagreed with Thomas on various issues in his political career. One example of this was when More was being held in the Tower of London, where she visited him and told him to agree with the others in order to regain his freedom. Roper looked down upon this action since Alice was trying to convince Thomas to go against his own views in order to please the masses. This distaste towards her is