Court Factions in Early Modern England

Over the past generation, historians have increasingly come to see the royal Court as the most crucial center of power and politics in Tudor and Stuart England. 1 As recognition has grown that the actions of Parliament and of the formal institutions of government were often the consequences of informal power exercised at Court, greater attention has been directed to the workings of the Tudor and Stuart Court as a political arena. In the process, historians have devoted increasing and increasingly sophisticated -analysis to the roles played at Court by factions.2 Despite some vigorous debates, considerable consensus has emerged about the nature and importance of Court factions. Indeed, they more and more appear to be the dominant form of political organization in this era. The time therefore seems opportune to review and assess the recent work that has been done on early