Conversations with Tyler Joanne Paul on Thomas More and the Tudor World
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Jun 24, 2026 
Joanne Paul, historian at the University of Sussex and author of Thomas More: A Life, blends scholarly rigor with public-facing Tudor expertise. She unpacks More and Utopia, Holbein’s portraits, Tudor social mobility and London’s self-government. The conversation also ranges over Shakespeare’s rise, the roots of early science, and why Britain feels stuck today.
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Man For All Seasons Projects Bolt's Values
- Man for All Seasons casts More as a conscience-hero reflecting playwright Robert Bolt's values about freedom of conscience.
- That portrayal conflicts with historical More, who distrusted individual conscience as potentially prideful and destabilizing.
Dramas Oversimplify Historical Complexity
- Historical dramas tend to flatten complexity into heroes and villains, falsely separating More and Cromwell into pure moral opposites.
- Joanne Paul stresses their decades-long acquaintance and shared traits that productions usually omit.
Education Growth Set Stage For Shakespeare
- The 16th century's expansion of grammar schools and humanist education primed England for Shakespeare's rhetorical artistry.
- Boys learned Latin authors like Cicero and Ovid, providing rhetorical tools visible in Shakespeare's neoclassical techniques.
