If historians of the fifteenth century have tended to see the politics of the nobility as an articulating, even centralising, force which would override local distinctiveness, this chapter responds to an even more distinctive historiography of centralisation, as a key tenet of ‘Tudor’ policy – by citing the relative lack of centralising initiatives of Henry VII and his son, for example in the continued absence of the Channel Islands from parliament and from involvement in the common law courts at Westminster. There was instead an increased role for the equity courts, but it was not one which faced no resistance or question. This period also saw the successful appearance of local elites from the islands on the wider English stage. The chapter therefore allows for an examination of whether this represents effective centralisation by attraction to the court, or centralisation at local instance, developing ‘national’ institutions and involvements for local ends. It argues that this emphasis on centralisation itself is misleading. The implications of a continued English interest in Normandy and France are especially important here. They are exhibited most dramatically in the Reformation – as impacting on a Coutances diocese which was still relatively coherent geographically, with local religious practice strong and not yet fissuring internally as reform arrived in Normandy, and from England.

If we begin with religion in the decades before the English king broke with Rome, it is now well established that jurisdictionally the islands were subject to Coutances and this relationship was a lasting one.