Failure and Success? Mary, Elizabeth and the Printing Industry in England, 1553-1568

My work on the history of government printing activities in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth questions traditional assumptions that the Marian regime was incapable and inefficient in its uses of the press and that the Elizabethan regime, by contrast, enjoyed unqualified success in this area. Historiography of this period has often portrayed English governmental use of the press solely as part of the domestic Catholic-versus-Protestant religious strife. Yet these regimes could not separate religious from political concerns even as they faced challenges in the press on both the domestic and international front. Scant financial resources, lack of an organized bureaucracy and lack of regulations to deal with the comparatively new printing industry ensured that both regimes would have to feel their way through the development of pragmatic solutions in dealing with the press.