Examines the birth of a nation-state from the death throes of the Middle Ages in North-Wes Europe. John D. makes distinctive the establishment of a stable monarchy by the very competent henry VII, examines the means employed by him, and considers how far his monarchy can be described as "new." He also discusses the machinery by which the royal power was exercised and traces the effect of the concentration of lay accleciastical authority in the person of Wolsey, whose soaring ambition helped make possible the Caesaro-papalism of henry VIII.