Northampton : Patronage and Policy at the Court of James I

First published in 1982, Northampton is a modern study of Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, privy councillor to James I. Dr. Peck convincingly challenges the traditional eminence grise who stirred factional strife at court, undermined relations between king and parliament, and stopped at nothing, including murder, to secure his family’s advancement. Drawing extensively on Northampton’s papers, Dr. Peck offers a more balanced assessment of this important Jacobean courtier who shaped policy and pursued administrative reform as avidly as he sought his own patronage and profit. Unlike traditional biographies, this study is organized topically in order to examine larger issues of policy making and administration in the Jacobean period. This book will be of interest to specialists in Stuart studies, to historians of England, to social scientists concerned with development of early bureaucracy, and all those with a more general interest in Tudor Stuart history.