Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England

Although this book tends to be very expensive, it was well worth buying. It is an excellent guide to the traditions, rituals and superstition regarding birth, marriage and death in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and I'd highly recommend it to anyone studying the social history of the period.

info. As a fiction writer, I need to use what REALLY happened in the past as a buttress for writing in it. Chock full of great information.

Yes, it has many details about birth, marriage and death, but it's too informative, meaning that it shows too many records from old writings of those centuries that really just make the book too big and heavy and a little boring. If the author would've written the book more focused in the interesting things and leave out so many records, it would've been better.

I actually had to read this for an MA class in history and it's definitely a textbook of the Tudor and Stuart time period but it wasn't as dry as I had expected it to be, thanks to Mr. Cressy's amazing writing ability. But it is thoroughly researched and offers up very important conclusions about the social life of the Tudor/Stuart period and anyone who wants the recent and best literature on the subject should read this book.

I've just finished writing a series of books about life in Elizabethan England, and this book was invaluable to me in my research. It is full of interesting details about how people in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England approached and experienced the major transition points of the life cycle. I would have read and enjoyed Birth, Marriage, and Death even if I had not needed it as a reference, and I would heartily recommend it to any reader who wants to get a feel for this time period.

Most historical books of this sort are amazingly dry; this one is not. Mr. Cressy has done a huge amount of research, and the text is peppered with primary source quotations. I now have a real feel for what these experiences were like in Tudor & Stuart England. I plan to buy whatever other material Mr. Cressy has written--I found him an easy, extremely informative read.

Excellent account full of fascinating detail.

I first saw this book when I visited the local library and I found it absolutely fascinating. Being a vicar and a re-enactor I learn so much about the period from this book. Don't just take my word for it, read it I'm sure that you will get a lot from it as well.