This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England
Trinity Term Global Early Modern Conversations I
12 May, 5.15–7.15pm
T S Eliot Lecture Theatre, Merton College
Join Professor Nandini Das in conversation with Professor Wes Williams (French) and Professor Bart Van Es (English) on Nandini Das’s new book, This Little World: A New History of Tudor and Stuart England (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Das’s is a ‘revelatory global story of Tudor and Stuart England - told through the merchants, migrants, sailors, travellers and spies who helped forge a nation.’
‘The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries forged a powerful image of England – Shakespeare's 'scepter'd isle', proud and apart, defined by royal spectacle and myth. But . . . England at this time was far from insular. Travelling in and out of the country were Venetian glassmakers with English wives, African innkeepers and Native American envoys. There were people like the Flemish artist Levina Teerlinc, probably the only painter to be employed by four English monarchs. There was William Adams, a Kentish navigator who became Japan's first English samurai. And there was Elizabeth Key, daughter of an enslaved mother in the colony in Virginia, who battled in the courts for herself and her son.’
Come and hear the conversation! All are welcome. Refreshments provided.
