Taking into consideration the political and literary issues hanging upon the circulation of Machiavelli's works in England, this volume highlights how topics and ideas stemming from Machiavelli's books - including but not limited to the Prince - strongly influenced contemporary political debate. Overall, contributors put Machiavelli's image in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England into perspective, analysing his role and influence within courtly and prudential politics.

Alessandra Petrina is associate professor of English Literature at the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy. She has written on late-medieval and Renaissance comparative literature and intellectual history. Alessandro Arienzo is senior lecturer in Political Philosophy at the University of Naples 'Federico II', Italy. He has published on early modern reason of state and on contemporary political governance.

Introduction, AlessandraPetrina, AlessandroArienzo; Chapter 1 Reginald Pole and the Reception of the Principe in Henrician England, AlessandraPetrina; Chapter 2 Stolen Words to Train a Boy King:, MariaGrazia Dongu; Chapter 3 Machiavelli in The Quintesence of Wit and his English Military Readers, ValentinaLepri; Chapter 4 Sir Walter Raleigh's Machiavelli, Ioannis D.Evrigenis; Chapter 5 Machiavellianism in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, EnricoStanic; Chapter 6 When Pretence Rules over Essence:, ConnyLoder; Chapter 7 Henry V and the Just War:, RosannaCamerlingo; Chapter 8 Republicanism and Religious Dissent:, DiegoPirillo; Chapter 9 From Machiavellian Policy to Parliamentary Reason of State:, AlessandroArienzo; Chapter 10 Order, Conflict and Liberty:, MarcoBarducci; Chapter 11 Machiavelli's Discorsi and Hobbes's Leviathan:, FabioRaimondi; Chapter 101 Epilogue:, JacobSoll;