During early 17th century England, Elizabeth I died and was succeeded by James VI of
Scotland who inherited a mostly autonomous government at age 37 in 1603. King James developed many favourites throughout his reign with the most infamous being Thomas Overbury, due to his murder in 1613. In his book, “The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England News Culture and The Overbury Affair, 1603 – 1660,” Alastair Bellany discuses many aspects of James’ interpersonal relationships throughout his early reign. The initial focus of the text is directed towards the rise and fall of Sir Thomas Overbury as well as the rise of James’ next favourite, Robert
Carr. Later the impact that the media had on people’s perception of the affair is explored. The book is divided into six …show more content…
However, on average each page has a minimum of four sources, which begs the question of how much this number of sources actually does to further the authors ideas.
Overall, this text does an effective job at delving deep into the many influences that the
Overbury scandal had on court politics and how this event shaped the opinions of those who lived at the time as well as now on how Jacobean justice was viewed to be carried out. However, it is a very dense read and is saturated with endless quotes and excerpts that sometimes obscure the intended outcome by the author on the readers understanding of the text. When a piece of evidence must be introduced, quoted, analyzed and then related back to the main topic four times in one page it is easy to see that the flow of the text breaks down very quickly and leads the reader to confusion which puts the author in a position of appearing to be disorganized. As previously mentioned, the detour that the narrative took throughout chapter three and four was filled with rich accounts of the rampant rumors in the realm, but does not do much to further the
Scotland who inherited a mostly autonomous government at age 37 in 1603. King James developed many favourites throughout his reign with the most infamous being Thomas Overbury, due to his murder in 1613. In his book, “The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England News Culture and The Overbury Affair, 1603 – 1660,” Alastair Bellany discuses many aspects of James’ interpersonal relationships throughout his early reign. The initial focus of the text is directed towards the rise and fall of Sir Thomas Overbury as well as the rise of James’ next favourite, Robert
Carr. Later the impact that the media had on people’s perception of the affair is explored. The book is divided into six …show more content…
However, on average each page has a minimum of four sources, which begs the question of how much this number of sources actually does to further the authors ideas.
Overall, this text does an effective job at delving deep into the many influences that the
Overbury scandal had on court politics and how this event shaped the opinions of those who lived at the time as well as now on how Jacobean justice was viewed to be carried out. However, it is a very dense read and is saturated with endless quotes and excerpts that sometimes obscure the intended outcome by the author on the readers understanding of the text. When a piece of evidence must be introduced, quoted, analyzed and then related back to the main topic four times in one page it is easy to see that the flow of the text breaks down very quickly and leads the reader to confusion which puts the author in a position of appearing to be disorganized. As previously mentioned, the detour that the narrative took throughout chapter three and four was filled with rich accounts of the rampant rumors in the realm, but does not do much to further the