This is the first study to explore the Stuart history play. Writing in the shadow of Shakespeare, Stuart playwrights have traditionally been evaluated through the aesthetic and political concerns of the sixteenth century. Ivo Kamps' study traces the development of Stuart drama in the radically different environment of the seventeenth century. A new consciousness of what history entailed, he claims, emerged during this period, materially affecting the structure of historical drama. Stuart drama used this new interest in historiography to undermine inherited forms of political and literary authority.