McEntegart, Rory

PERSONAL:

Education: London School of Economics, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—mcentegart@amcd.ie.

CAREER:

American College in Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, lecturer, 1993-2001, director of academic affairs, 2001—.

WRITINGS:

Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, Boydell Press (Rochester, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Rory McEntegart's book Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation concerns the English ruler's relationship with the League of Schmalkalden, an alliance of German Lutheran princes who were in political opposition to Spain's Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and which mustered an army to obtain land holdings and spread Lutheranism throughout former Catholic strongholds in Europe. Martin Luther himself was an active participant in the league's formation and hosted some meetings at his home. In McEntegart's book, Henry VIII, in plotting his own Reformation in England, is shown to be interested in adopting their theological positions as he went about forming the Church of England. This is in contrast to historical consensus that his dealings with the league were purely for his own diplomatic self-interest. Although Henry appears to be highly politically motivated, McEntegart offers a sympathetic view of a ruler who considered joining the league while brokering alliances and fighting wars, but "try convincing Katherine of Aragon or Anne Boleyn that Henry VIII cared," wrote Glyn Redworth in a review for Albion. Angered by the league's unwillingness to submit to his will, Henry refused to sign the Augsburg Confession and instead wrote the Act of Six Articles to expound his own religious ideas and severed his relations with the group. Despite a difference of opinion regarding Henry's character, Redworth credits McEntegart for "brilliantly [using] foreign-language sources to illuminate obscure aspects of English domestic politics" that is "a formidable piece of scholarship." "McEntegart's account of these negotiations is interesting," wrote Stanford Lehmberg in a review for the Renaissance Quarterly, and convinces readers that it "is a matter of considerable interest." Jeannine E. Olson in a review for Theological Studies called the book "lively and captivating."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Glyn Redworth, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, p. 107.

American Historical Review, December, 2003, Claire Cross, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, p. 1518.

Choice, March, 2003, R. Fritze, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, p. 1250.

Renaissance Quarterly, winter, 2003, Stanford Lehmberg, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, p. 1291.

Sixteenth Century Journal, winter, 2003, Andrew A. Chibi, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, pp. 1228-1230.

Theological Studies, June, 2004, Jeannine E. Olson, review of Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden, and the English Reformation, p. 432.