The Tudor monarchy of counsel and the growth of reason of state

There is a curious paradox in scholarly understandings of counsel during the Tudor period. On the one hand, political counsel is widely recognized to have been one of the central, if not the central, political concern of the Tudor period, as evidenced by its significance in texts such as More’s Utopia, Elyot’s Boke Called the Governor, Bacon’s Essays and so on. ¹ On the other hand, the two longest reigning and best-known monarchs of the period, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, have a reputation – then and now – for being notoriously difficult to counsel, for refusing advice or being offended by the presentation of it. ² To add further complexity, both Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth were products of a humanist education which stressed the importance of counsel to a monarch, and went to great lengths to appear as if they were recipients of educated advice. ³