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

Reprint. Pb, 262 pp., statistics, bibliography. The book has been reprinted in 1979, 1988 and 1991.
Commenting on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which he includes in a chapter titled 'The Plunder of the Church' he says, 'In these matters the only true god is Mammon. The sixteenth century showed it abundantly in every decade. Catholic or Protestant, what did it matter when Mammon was sitting in the seat of power?' (p. 131)

From the Preface:

'There has been no lack of apologists for the enrichment of the rich at the expense of the rest of the community. (...) The most common defense is that the historian must not judge the doings of those in power, the Establishment, in the sixteenth century by the standards of the twentieth. I do not accept this argument. The plunderers under Henry VIII well knew what they were doing. It was the naked use of power.'

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This is an excellent study of farming, industry, trade, work, land ownership, corruption, taxation, etc. during the reign of Henry VIII.

For reference:
Erasmus 1466-1536
Thomas More 1478-1535
Martin Luther 1483-1546
Ulrich Zwingli 1484-1531
Thomas Cromwell 1485-1540
Thomas Cranmer 1489-1556
Henry VIII 1491-1547; king 1509-1547
Anna Boleyn 1501-1536
Jean Calvin 1509-1564
Mary Tudor 1516-1558; queen 1553-1558
Elisabeth I 1533-1603; queen 1558-1603
Act of Supremacy 1534
Valor Ecclesiasticus compiled 1535
Act of Union: annexation Wales 1536
Dissolution of the Monasteries 1536-1540
Pilgrimage of Grace 1536-1537