Thomas More A Very Short Introduction

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Thomas More is an enduringly fascinating and profoundly controversial figure. A brilliant scholar, his Utopia of 1516 dared to imagine how society might be completely reordered. At the same time, his hatred of the Reformation caused him to advocate, and seek to implement, the death penalty for heretics. A friend and advisor to Henry VIII, More's refusal to support Henry's break with Rome led to his execution in 1535, and the start of a long argument about his legacy.

This Very Short Introduction assesses More's life, writings and achievements, and examines changing views of his character, in both historical interpretation and various works of fiction.


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Peter Marshall, Professor of History, University of Warwick

Peter Marshall is Professor of History at the University of Warwick, where he has taught since 1994. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and Fellow of the British Academy. Between 2013 and 2022 he co-edited English Historical Review, and in 2023-4 was President of the Ecclesiastical History Society. He is a two-time winner of the Harold J. Grimm Prize for Reformation scholarship, and in 2018 won the Wolfson History Prize for Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation. His most recent work, Storm's Edge, was a 2024 Book of the Year for the TLS and Wall Street Journal.

List of illustrations1. Lives2. Utopia3. Politics4. Families5. Heresy6. MartyrTimelineFurther readingIndex