This volume brings together the work of leading American, British, and Dutch scholars who present a series of interpretive case studies on a wide variety of political, economic, religious, and cultural issues surrounding the "Glorious Revolution".

The complicated personality and dramatic reign of England's King Henry VIII - visionary, tyrant, monarch, bully, defender of the faith, destroyer of monasteries, lover and libertine - have been immortalized (and fictionalized) in literature, on stage, and in film by leading writers of their generations. This catalogue to the Grolier Club exhibition Vivat Rex! (March 3-May 2, 2009) brings the real Henry, his life, reign, and times, to life through books, manuscripts, handwritten letters, and prints. Many of the works described and illustrated are unique in themselves, or belonged to Henry himself, to his family, or to members of his court.

This book of original scope and methodology consists of twelve interdisciplinary essays on the ideas, images and rituals of Tudor and early Stuart society. Through the exploitation of new manuscript material, or hitherto untapped artistic sources, the authors open up new perspectives on the ideas, institutions and rituals of political society. Key aspects of Tudor political culture are explored, including royal iconography, funereal symbolism, parliamentary elections, political vocabularies, kinship and family at court and in the country, and the architecture of urban authority.