Composite of edited images: the Galeón Andalucía, photo courtesy of Fundacion Nao Victoria, over map “Novissima totius terrarum orbis tabula” by John Seller (fl. 1658-98). 1 map : hand col. 2 hemispheres each 27 cm in diam., on sheet 52 x 59 cm. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection.
How did the Tudor dynasty — from Henry VIII’s accession in 1509 to the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 — transform England from a peripheral kingdom on the edge of Europe to an imperial and commercial player poised to enter the global stage by the early 17th century? In this talk Jerry Brotton will reassess the transformation in the Tudor polity through the rise of the joint stock companies focused on trade and by extension diplomatic alliances with the Islamic world — in Russia, Persia, North Africa, Persia and most significantly the Ottoman Empire — in the face of Elizabeth I’s theological ‘Brexit’ —her excommunication from the Catholic Church in 1570. Drawing on his forthcoming exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Brotton will assess a range of visual and material culture to show how these primarily commercial activities transformed Tudor England and influenced policies of military settlement and plantation in Ireland and then the Americas. It will also reveal how Tudor connections went even further, reaching India, China and Japan by the early years of the 17th century, and will end by reflecting on the significance of writing and exhibiting such revisionist history in the wake of the recent intensification of xenophobia and ethnic nationalism in the UK.
Jerry Brotton is a writer, broadcaster and curator. He is a professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London. His many books include The Sale of the Late King’s Goods (2006), the bestselling A History of the World in Twelve Maps (2012) and This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World (2016). He is a BBC TV and radio presenter, podcaster, and curator of exhibitions including “Talking Maps” (2019-2020), and a Tudor exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum (forthcoming 2028-29). His latest book is Four Points of the Compass (2024).
At Princeton, Brotton will serve as a Class of 1932 Short-Term Visiting Fellow in the Humanities Council and the Department of English.
Photo: Orlando Gili
