The Ruling Elite of Cambridgeshire, England, c. 1520-1603.(Book Review)

Eugene J. Bourgeois II. The Ruling Elite of Cambridgeshire, England, c. 1520-1603. Lewiston, N. Y.: Edwin Mellon Press. 2003. Pp. vi, 377. $119.95. ISBN 0-7734-6655-X.

Bourgeois's study of the magistrates who ruled about two-thirds of Cambridgeshire (i.e. excluding the Isle of Ely) in the sixteenth century bears the hallmarks of its origin. A slightly-revised version of the author's 1988 Cambridge Ph.D, it demonstrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and ideology of the late Sir Geoffrey Elton. Within its own restricted terms, it is a workmanlike job; a ...