More's Prison Literature

Why would Sir Thomas More write a letter to Alice Alington under the name of Margaret More Roper? To answer this controversial question, I examine the political and familial circumstances of the letter’s composition, its artfully concealed designed of forensic oratory, and use of indirect argument. In the Alington letter, from More’s position as an imprisoned, former Chancellor of England, he revised civic humanism’s call for political engagement into a powerful statement of defiance against King Henry VIII. Read more, here.