This is primarily a study of the role of Court drama in the political history of the reign of Henry VIII. It is not a study of early Tudor drama which employs political history as its point of entry into the literature. This may appear to be a difference simply of critical emphasis rather than of methodology, but it nonetheless determines the nature of the chapters which follow. These examine Henrician drama chiefly with regard to its political implications rather than any of its many other linguistic, dramaturgical, philosophical or moral significances.

First in general terms and then through a series of case studies of individual plays, this study explores the interaction of drama and politics in the reign of the second Tudor king. It is designed to address a number of inter-related questions. Most obviously, what do we mean by the term ‘political drama’? In the broadest sense all drama and all literature can be said to be political in as much as it concerns human relationships and social conditions. But so undiscriminating a definition conceals the important distinctions between types of drama which will be considered below. If, however, we are to adopt a more specific definition, what prescriptive criteria should we employ? What of those plays which, like John Heywood's Play of Love, are not primarily concerned with political issues, yet contain passing allusions to political events or eminent individuals?