In 1544, Henry VIII led the largest army then ever raised by an English monarch to invade France. This book investigates the consequences of this action by examining the devastating impact of warfare on the native population, the methods the English used to impose their rule on the region (from the use of cartography to the construction of fortifications) and the development of English of colonial rule in France. As Murphy explores the significance of this major financial and military commitment by the Tudor monarchy, he situates the developments within the wider context of English actions in Ireland and Scotland during the mid-sixteenth century. Rather than consider the plantations established in the mid-sixteenth century Ireland as the 'laboratory' for a new form of empire, this book argues that they should be viewed along with the Boulogne venture as the English crown's final attempt to establish colonies through the use of state resources alone.

‘The author makes a strong case for the occupation of Boulogne as the wellspring for Tudor colonial policy and demonstrates the enduring importance of the idea of a cross-channel empire rather than the insular one described by some historians.'

D. R. Bisson Source: Choice

‘This is a satisfying specimen of the best sort of monograph, treating a bounded subject and, by its awareness of wider implications, altering our view of a whole period.’

Diarmaid MacCulloch Source: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History