Charles Oman was elected the Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford in 1905, in succession to Montagu Burrows. He was also elected to the FBA that year, and served as President of the Royal Historical Society (1917- 1921), the Numismatic Society and the Royal Archaeological Institute. Oman's academic career was interrupted by the First World War, during which he was employed by the government's Press Bureau and the Foreign Office. He became an honorary fellow of New College in 1936, and received the honorary degrees of DCL (Oxford, 1926) and LL.D (Edinburgh, 1911 and Cambridge, 1927). He died at Oxford aged 86. He was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1928.

• PrefaceChapter I On looking Forward and Looking BackwardChapter II Lost Illusions: The Papacy and The Holy Roman EmpireChapter III The End of the Fifteenth CenturyChapter IV Man and the Universe in the Sixteenth CenturyChapter V Tendencies and Individuals. The Popes and The King of FranceChapter VI Tendencies and Individuals. Charles V and Philip IIChapter VII Tendencies and Individuals. Henry VIII of EnglandChapter VIII Tendencies and Individuals. Gustavus Vasa and Scandinavian ProtestantismChapter IX The Opportunists Great and Small. Elizabeth and Catherine De Medici and OthersChapter X The Turkish Danger, 1520-71Chapter XI The Wars of the Sixteenth Century: (a) The Italian Wars, (b) The 'Wars of Religion'Chapter XII The Occult in the Sixteenth Century Index