The Age of Plunder: The England of Henry VIII, 1500-47

I received a free copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Originally published in 1976, this is a reissue from Saper Books available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. You can tell from reading how history books have evolved over the past 44 years to a more narrative and people driven style as this is quite a serious academic book driven by meticulously researched statistics. This can be quite dry for the casual reader but would provide an invaluable resource for people looking to complete a history course or research a particular area of the country, especially as Hoskins provides a comprehensive list of all the books and articles he used along with excellent footnotes. Some fascinating points raised about the living standards of the period. Hoskins contrasts the reigns of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, finding Henry VIII very much to be a selfish profligate obsessed with building expensive palaces and fighting useless wars, driving the country into poverty and wasting the lives of the male population sent overseas to fight. I give it 4 stars overall for the research.