Starkey, Thomas

Starkey, Thomas

 

Born circa 1499 in Wrenbury, Cheshire; died in late August 1538 in London. English political thinker and humanist. Chaplain to Henry VIII in 1535–36.

In his treatises, Starkey defended the preservation of the English type of class structure and feudal monarchy. At the same time, however, his world view also displayed clearly bourgeois, pre-Puritan sentiments and elements of individualism, empiricism, and rationalism. Starkey supported the Reformation in England, the enclosure system, and mercantilism.

WORKS

A Dialogue Between Reginald Pole and Thomas Lupset. London, 1948.