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This essay revisits the subject of my 1998 book, Padua and the Tudors: English Students in Italy, 1485-1603, and attempts to re-evaluate it in the context of recent developments in the field. Partly through new research it confirms the extent and importance of English student mobility in the sixteenth century, and it addresses the question of what this mobility can tell us about England's relationship with continental Europe, a theme which in recent years has undergone reassessment. The essay moves on to consider the ars apodemica and informal educational travel as areas of significance, albeit they were neglected or somewhat played down in Padua and the Tudors. I propose once more the significance of the student universities at Padua as training grounds for civic participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Henry VII's reaction to Charles VIII's 1494 invasion of Italy and conquest of Naples, and it examines the complex negotiations leading up to Henry's July 1496 entry into the Holy League of Venice, which had been formed seventeen months earlier to force the French from Italy. The article challenges the standard view that Henry was not concerned about the French conquest of Naples because he thought Italy too distant from England, and it refutes the idea of some historians that Henry encouraged Charles to invade. It also questions the view that Henry joined the Holy League only as a means to strengthen his political ties with leading European powers better to secure his dynasty, and only after he was exempted from the League's military and financial obligations. This article shows that Henry had a perceptive understanding of Italian affairs, and that he wanted a unified League that could counterbalance French power and deter another French invasion of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]