John Foxe

John Foxe (c. 1516-1587) was one of the most important early historians of Britain and the author of Actes and Monuments (traditionally known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs), which appeared in several different editions during and after his lifetime. He was tossed around by the changing nature of the Reformation in England, spending Mary I's reign in exile. He returned to England once it was clear that Elizabeth I had embraced Protestantism, and continued to work on his gigantic work, begun some years earlier, and now incorporating the persecution of members of the True Church from the Roman Empire to the burning of Protestants under Mary. Its first publication in 1563, as a book of 1,800 pages, was a sensation. Thomas Freeman (introducer) is a lecturer in History at the University of Essex. He is a leading expert on John Foxe and on the English Reformation more broadly.