Overview

Sheriffs were among the most important local office-holders in early modern England. They were generalist officers of the king responsible for executing legal process, holding local courts, empanelling juries, making arrests, executing criminals, collecting royal revenue, holding parliamentary elections, and many other vital duties. Although sheriffs have a cameo role in virtually every book about early modern England, the precise nature of their work has remained something of a mystery.The Tudor Sheriff offers the first comprehensive analysis of the shrieval system between 1485 and 1603. It demonstrates that this system was not abandoned to decay in the Tudor period, but was effectively reformed to ensure its continued relevance. Jonathan McGovern shows that sheriffs were not in competition with other branches of local government, such as the Lords Lieutenant and justices of the peace, but rather cooperated effectively with them. Since the office of sheriff was closely related to every other branch of government, a study of the sheriff is also a study of English government at work.

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9780192848246

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McGovern has produced a valuable addition to the literature, based on extensive archival work in both national and local repositories, and one that is not only informative, but readable and even enjoyable. * Hannes Kleineke, History of Parliament, London, Parliamentary History * This could, like so much institutional history, have been a somewhat dry book, but McGovern has skilfully leavened his discussion with a plethora of colourful examples... McGovern has produced a valuable addition to the literature, based on extensive archival work in both national and local repositories, and one that is not only informative, but readable and even enjoyable. This is administrative history at its best, and a book that should be essential reading for anyone concerned with the government or politics of the long 16th century. * Hannes Kleineke, Parliamentary History * Anyone who has worked on the administrative history of Tudor England has glimpsed the sheriff, a key figure in regional governance. Dr McGovern's book offers the most comprehensive effort so far to survey and summarise the work of these officers... [A]n exhaustively detailed study... attests to the capacity for painstaking administrative reconstruction to be valuable in its own right * Laura Flannigan, Northern History *

This could, like so much institutional history, have been a somewhat dry book, but McGovern has skilfully leavened his discussion with a plethora of colourful examples... McGovern has produced a valuable addition to the literature, based on extensive archival work in both national and local repositories, and one that is not only informative, but readable and even enjoyable. This is administrative history at its best, and a book that should be essential reading for anyone concerned with the government or politics of the long 16th century. * Hannes Kleineke, Parliamentary History * Anyone who has worked on the administrative history of Tudor England has glimpsed the sheriff, a key figure in regional governance. Dr McGovern's book offers the most comprehensive effort so far to survey and summarise the work of these officers... [A]n exhaustively detailed study... attests to the capacity for painstaking administrative reconstruction to be valuable in its own right * Laura Flannigan, Northern History *

Anyone who has worked on the administrative history of Tudor England has glimpsed the sheriff, a key figure in regional governance. Dr McGovern's book offers the most comprehensive effort so far to survey and summarise the work of these officers... [A]n exhaustively detailed study... attests to the capacity for painstaking administrative reconstruction to be valuable in its own right * Laura Flannigan, Northern History *

Author Information

Jonathan McGovern holds BA and MSt degrees from the University of Oxford and a PhD from the University of York. His work has won a number of prizes, including the Parliamentary History Essay Prize (2019), the Sir John Neale Essay Prize (2018) and the Gordon Forster Essay Prize (2018). He has published widely on the history and literature of the sixteenth century, on themes ranging from allegory, sermons, and balladry to political and parliamentary history.

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