The author sets the scene with a picture of the England of the late 15th century and examines the utterly different personalities and achievements of Henry VII and his flamboyant son Henry VIII. Subsequent chapters provide accounts of the great crisis over the succession and papal supremacy, the religious revolution and counter-revolution under Edward VI and Mary and the dawn of Elizabethan England. Although great events like the conflict with Mary Queen of Scots, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada are described in detail, this book never neglects the deeper issues, indeed, its stress on the underlying social, commercial and institutional developments makes clear just how far the foundations of modern Britain were laid in the 16th century.