The Tudors

The Tudors

HENRY VIII

1509

ELIZABETH I

EDWARD VI

1558-1603

1547

HENRY VII

1485

MARY I

1553

HENRY VII

FOREIGN POLICY

• Founder of the Tudor dynasty
• Supported explorations (John Cabot)
• Supported scholars (Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More) - Humanism

He arranged marriages for political gain:

• his son and heir to Catherine of Aragon
• his daughter to the king of France
• his other daughter to the king of Scotland

HENRY VIII

• He married his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon
• Poetry, theology, sport and music
• 1517: Martin Luther nailed his anti-catholic theses to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church SO Henry VIII attacked him and was appointed DEFENDER OF THE FAITH

BUT

• H. VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon (no male heir, a daughter Mary)
• The POPE refused
• Henry VIII --> ACT OF SUPREMACY 1534 --> he crowned himself "HEAD OF THE NEW PROTESTANT CHURCH OF ENGLAND" --> REFORMATION
• Thomas Cromwell, the king's cousellor, suppressed monasteries and confiscated their lands and money --> Those lands were then sold to the rising middle class
• Anne Boleyn gave him another daughter, Elizabeth I

• Anne Boleyn was imprisoned and executed for treason
• Jane Seymour gave him a heir, Edward

EDWARD VI

• 9 years old
• Religious services were held in English
• 1549 ACT OF UNIFORMITY -> he took the reformation forward by imposing "The Book of Common Prayer" to replace the old Catholic practices

MARY I

• Henry VIII's daughter crowned herself queen and aimed to restore Catholicism In England
• She got married to Philip II of Spain (vs France)
• COUNTER-REFORMATION
• period of persecution -> Bloody Mary
• Once ill, she left the throne to her sister Elizabeth I

ELIZABETH I, the Virgin Queen

• ENGLAND'S GOLDEN AGE (1558-1603)
• Political stability: unity and peace
• Religious tolerance: 1559 ACT OF SUPREMACY and UNIFORMITY
• Victory at sea: 1588 VS Philip II's Spanish Armada to restore Catholicism
• Encouraged sea explorers (Walter Raleigh, John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake) - powerful fleet + overseas trade
• Time of feasting and theatre
• In 1603 Elizabeth I died and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland, who united the thrones of Scotland and England, thus becoming the first Stuart monarch, James I

DANGER FROM SCOTLAND

• Mary Queen of Scots
• Elizabeth's cousin had a claim to the English throne. She had a son and when she abdicated in his favor she fled to England
• She was found guilty of treason, arrested and executed (Catholic threat)

THE CHAIN OF BEING

• The Tudors received a general idea of order from the Middle Ages, when the universe was seen as a chain of being.
• Outside the chain, are the concepts of nothingness, chaos, madness, and evil
• The chain of being consisted of fixed rings based on the hierarchy of existence
• The whole universe was governed by divine will --> social hierarchy was believed to be decreed by God, SO the belief in the Chain of Being meant that a monarchical government was ordained by God and inherent in the very structure of the universe.
• Man bound together all the levels of being

HUMANISM

• During the English Renaissance explorations were encouraged: new theories and beliefs -> sense of doubt and uncertainty
• Interest in the individual as the creator of one's destiny
• Humanism (Erasmus of Rotterdam -> Oxford and Cambridge) -> human reason and knowledge
• The traditional Great Chain of Being (derived from Plato and Aristotle and further developed during the Middle Ages) saw humanity as a fixed link between angels and animals. HUMANISM, however, focused on human capacity for self-determination through free will. Pico della Mirandola, for example, argued that humans, unlike other beings, were not created with a fixed nature and could choose their own path.
• Modern English, history and literature, classical studies

THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE

• Later than in other European countries (from the late 15th to early 17th century)
• Greatly influenced by Italian culture and literature
• Wish to break with the old sources
• Literature and music instead of visual arts
• Distinctive features
• Protestant basis
• rejected balance and order in favor of a vivid language and baroque exuberance
• humanism (a more optimistic outlook on humanity)