More was a major figure of the English Renaissance who cared deeply about the moral and political responsibilities of individuals. He eventually rose to one of the highest offices in the land, and, as chancellor of England in , came up against his own king with disastrous consequences. He was convicted of treason and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
They continued to urge him to sign the oath, but he refused. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, or quartered, the usual punishment for traitors, but the king commuted this to execution by decapitation. The society depicted in Utopia differs from the European society that Thomas More was living in at the time, one rife with intrigue, corruption and mired by scandal.
Clearly dissatisfied with the world he was living in, More sought to create a different place altogether on the pageβa world free of the hierarchies that ultimately cost the author his life. In his work, he defined systems of punishment, social hierarchy, agriculture, and education, as well as customs for marriage and death.
More wrote in the 16th century, the time of the Reformation, which set out to reform the Catholic Church in Europe and resulted in the development of Protestantism.
Thomas More, the author who has also written himself as the primary character, runs into his old friend, Peter Giles, on a trip as an ambassador for England to Antwerp.
