Acknowledgements

My previous book, England on Edge, dealt with two tumultuous years. This study covers half a millennium. I have tried, wherever possible, to base my work on primary sources, but have also found guidance in modern scholarship. The notes and bibliography acknowledge my debt. I am especially grateful to the following scholars, who have offered insights, suggestions, and corrections: Lloyd Bowen, Whitney Dirks-Schuster, Susan Doran, Lori Anne Ferrell, Steve Gunn, Tim Harris, Cynthia Herrup, Daniel Hobbins, Clive Holmes, Ian Gentles, Paulina Kewes, Newton Key, John Morrill, Christopher Otter, Geoffrey Parker, Nicholas Rogers, Buchanan Sharp, Keith Thomas, and Alison Wall.

I am extremely grateful to the Bogliasco Foundation for a residency at the Liguria Study Center, where much of this book was written. I am grateful to All Souls College, Oxford, where the award of a visiting fellowship allowed me to bring the work to completion. I am indebted, too, to the Department of History and College of Humanities at the Ohio State University for supporting this work with a seed grant in 2006 and two quarters of sabbatical leave in 2008. Appointment as the Town and Gown lecturer in the Division of Late Medieval and Reformation Studies at the University of Arizona in February 2008 allowed me to test some of this material on a public audience. Seminar discussions at the universities of Cambridge, London, and York helped me sharpen my argument. After-dinner discussion with the fellows of All Souls of ‘verba brigosa and crimes of the tongue in early Stuart Oxford and Cambridge’ extended my knowledge of law and language. Archivists and librarians in Britain and the United States have been unfailingly professional. Without their assistance this book could not have been written.

Valerie Cressy has listened to every word of this book and has made countless suggestions. I dedicate it to her.