LETTERATURA INGLESE

THE EARLY TUDORS

Tudor England marked the end of the medieval system and the rise of the modern age.

The most important innovations were the Humanism, the English reformation, the development of
the city of London and the development of overseas commerce trade.
Henry VII Tudor was a diplomatic, cruel when necessary, but he understood his people and had the
opportunity to discover how disloyal the nobles could be. For this reason he suppressed the custom
among great families to keep of private soldiers and used the services of clergy and lawyers, who
had a university education.

To challenge the supremacy of Spain and Portugal, Henry VII promoter the expeditions of Cabots
to North America. The king tried grow his position in Europe by marrying his eldest son, Arthur, to
Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the king of Spain, and his daughter Margaret to James IV of
Scotland.

Henry VIII succeeded his father in 1509. He was the ideal renaissance monarch, poet, musician and
sportsman. The most important event of his reign was the breach with Rome and he was induced to
separate church for political and personal reasons. After his brother Arthur’s death he had married
his brother’s widow, Catherine, who had borne him daughter, Mary. But Henry wanted a male
successor. He had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, a lady in waiting of the queen. Consequently on
the pretext that his marriage was illegal as Catherine was his sister in law, he asked the pope to
declare it void. Pope Clément VII refused, the king didn’t accept the pope’s authority and decided
to solve the question through the English clergy and the English parliament, that declared the king’s
first marriage void and Henry married Anne Boleyn.

Another act of the parliament was the Act of Supremacy, declared the king only supreme head on
earth of the church of England. Henry VIII gave England a fighting fleet consisted of modern
vessels  longer with heavy cannons at the portholes.
Edward VI was the son of Henry VIII. When he ascended the throne he was only nine years old.
Because of Edward’s youth, his uncle duke of Somerset was appointed protector. He was tolerant in
church and state but this tolerance led to numerous uprisings for which he was sentenced to death.
Somerset was replaced by ambitious duke Northumberland. Edward fell ill and Northumberland,
knowing the king, feared a catholic reaction, persuaded him to sign a will. The plot was
unsuccessful and Mary was recognized queen of England.

HENRY VII

Thanks to Henry VII England started to become a strong nation inside Europe.
Henry VII Henry VII During the reign of Henry VII monarchy became really important.

England became a modern state, with a new modern mentality. Henry VII avoided war, because it
was too expensive. For this he became popular among the town middle classes and the country
gentry (little owner). In fact he chose his ministers and servants among these classes. During his
reign he summoned the parliament just six times, to pass laws against the nobility. Henry VII
foreign politic aimed at making England trading position stronger. Were made trade agreements
with: Flanders Denmark Scotland Spain With Scotland and Spain an understanding was achieved
by dynastic marriages. He founded English naval power, spending money on the building of ships.
So England could have its own merchant fleet. This increased its military strength. When he died, in
1509, the Tudor monarchy was popular and England held an important role in the world power.
Henry VIII, the son of Henry VII, succeded him.

—
The internal situation of England was terrible and the king was obliged to solve some problems to
introduce high taxes and to ban novels from raising their own army. Novels, bacasse of this civil
war, everyone was the most important member of society so they created provate armies. Henry vii
wanted to create a new strong kingdom and decided that he had to introduce high taxes and to
reduce the power of noble men, because he was the king. In England there were other plots. Henry
was a lanchestrer and a lot of Yorkist wanted him to die.
Thanks to Henry vii greta Britain started to become a strong nation inside Europe, because after 100
year war and civil war the internal situation was terrible.
Henry vii was a man of letter and during his reign Erasmus of Rotterdam and he studied latin.
Thomas more was the author of Utopia, is something that it’s unreal but it’s about equality.

HENRY VIII (6 WIVES)

Henry VII and the Restoration Henry was born on 28 June 1491 in the palace of Greenwich, near
London.

He was the second son of the king Henry VII, the first sovereign of the Tudor dynasty. In 1509
when his father died he ascended the throne, when he was only seventeen. In the same year he
married his brother's widow, a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, with a special permission. He
was quite unlike his father. He was cruel, wasteful with money and interested only in pleasing
himself. The first period of his reign was concerned with foreign affairs, wars and diplomacy during
which he wanted to be an important influence in European politics. He reinforced the authority of
the State and, understanding the importance of sea-power to England, built a strong Royal Navy for
the first time in British history.

But the leading event in Henry VIII reign was the breach with Rome and the establishment of the
Anglican Church. As a young king, Henry defended the Church against the new ideas of Martin
Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Gineva. Indeed, he had written a book criticizing Luther's
teaching and the Pope gave him the title of Fidei Defensor, Defender of the Faith. The letters "FD"
are still to be found on every British coin. However, it was the king himself who began the English
Reformation, even if it was also the religious manifestation of an insular nationalism which had
long been emerging in the country. Henry had been married with Catherine for 20 years but she was
older than him and had given him no sons. He tried to persuade the Pope Clement VII to allow him
to divorce Catherine. As the Pope would not give his consent, Henry privately married his new
love, Anne Boleyn, and some months later Thomas Cromwell, who had been made Archbishop of
Canterbury, annulled Henry's marriage to Catherine. The Pope prepared a Bull of Excommunication
against the king. Henry proceeded on his way and by the Act of Supremacy made himself Supreme
Head of the Church of England. He closed monasteries and other religious houses, seized church
property, and imprisoned or killed all those who opposed him. One of the most famous oppositor
was Thomas More, a scholar and writer and former Lord Chancellor, who was committed to the
Tower of London, accused of treason and beheaded in 1535. The following year Anne Boleyn was
excuted and the king married another four times. He died in 1547, at 55 years old. The crown
passed to Elizabeth I the only daughter had with Anne Boleyn
EDWARD VI

Edward VI succeeded his father and imposed that the religious services were in English instead of
Latin, he also introduced the Book of Common Prayer and when he dead his successor Lady Jane
Grey was captured by a Catholic plot.

BLOODY MARY I
Mary I was the first female queen in England, she received the title “Bloody Mary” for her
persecution of Protestants, in fact she wanted to restore Catholicism and because of this
condemned many infidels to death. Mary married Philip II of Spain, an ally against France. When
she became ill, her sister Elizabeth succeeded her. Mary I died childless.

ELIZABETH I

She was very clever because it was very dangerous for a nation to have internal clashes or a civil
war and Mary had a wrong politics in persecuting the Chatlics, on the contrary when Elizabeth
became queen she decided to be tolerant, she was anglican just like her father but she was open
towards the Chatlics and she wanted stability in England. She started creating a very strong nation
and thats why historians they define their reign a GOLDEN AGE. Just like the movie Elizabeth by
Kate Blanchard: the Golden age. Just to make her known all over the country, Elizabeth decided to
travel to London all around her kingdom to show herself and that’s why her subjects loved her,
because she wanted to be close to her people, there was no detachment it was not like she was he
queen so no one had to see her. She had also a series of beautiful portraits in order to be very
famous all over the kingdom. But as usual there was a great problem during Elizabeth reign and the
problem came from Scotland. Elizabeth had a cousin and her name was Mary Stewart. She
belonged to another dynasty. In that period there were 2 separate crowns. There was the Crown of
Scotland and the Crown of England.. and we have to wait to 1707 to have the unification of the two
crown. Mary Stewart was a treat for Elizabeth because after she lost her husband she married for the
second time and she had a male air, James, so Elizabeth was worried about the fact that the Stewart
dynasty could claim the kingdom and so she kept this cousin in prison for many years until she
decided to execute her, the story of Mary Stewart is very famous and there are a lot of legends
around her. The problem was that Elizabeth died childless and as a result James became king
himself so he had 2 crowns: the crown Scotland and the crown England. He became king in 1603
when Elizabeth died. Elizabeth was worried about a strong chatolic presence in Europe: this
problem was Philppe, who went on treating Elizabeth, saying that he wanted to restore chatolicsim,
there was a great fight and the invincible armeda was defeated and this victory in 1588 made queen
Elizabeth reign stronger and stronger. Although the Spanish had strong ships but the problem was
that they were very slow. On the contrary the English fleet was made up of very light and long ships
which were very fast, and so the English defeated the Spanish. Queen Elizabeth reign became one
of the most important period in history: the golden age.

HUMANISM

Man is at the center of universe but of course he must be respectful and responsible. from this idea
we can develop another important concept, the “free-will”. but he must use it in a proper way. we
speak about rebirth of classical studies and classical at hours who started to be important again after
the mediaval age. humanism and reinassance have the same basis, but it is a different period.
This system of beliefs was used to control a dynamic and changing world. The English Renaissance
witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents; the old order of ideas was seriously
questioned by cultural influences, such as the theories of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543).
Copernicus created a new heliocentric model of the solar system in which the earth no longer held
the central place it had in the Ptolemaic system. The contrast between old and new ideas created a
sense of doubt and ambiguity. There was a new interest in the individual as the maker of his own
destiny, in the ideal of self-development through action and pragmatism. The greatest influence on
the new literature was Humanism. The term derives from the Latin studia humanitatis, a course of
classical studies including grammar, poetry, rhetoric, history and moral philosophy which aimed at
improving man through knowledge. At the beginning of the 16th century the Dutch scholar
Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) had emphasised the importance of studying Greek and Latin for
the Christian student. The ‘New Learning’, as Humanism was also called in England, was
established in grammar schools all over the country and in the two universities of Oxford and
Cambridge.

Humanism encouraged confidence in the power of human reason to interpret man and nature, in the
value of literature as an instrument of reason and in the dignity of modern English as a literary
medium. In fact, English Humanists used English instead of Latin in their writings, improving its
vocabulary and syntax.

The English Renaissance

The English Renaissance developed later than its European equivalents and had its own distinctive
features. If on the one hand the influence of Italy was immense in every sphere, from literature to
fashion, on the other hand England tried to get free from this foreign force that was identified with
Rome and the papacy. The first thing to characterise the movement wasits strong Protestant, and in
some aspects, Puritan basis, influenced by the Reformation. The English literature of the period
lacked the pagan serenity of the Italian Renaissance and was less committed to the visual arts. This
explains the baroque exuberance of the powerful speeches ofMarlowe’s (1564-93) and
Shakespeare’s plays, or in Donne’s poetry.