THE EARLY TUDORS AND THE REFORMATION

Henry 7 (1485- 1509)

Character of the king:
Never caught the popular imagination
He engendered respect in his subjects
Frugal and meticulous in keeping financial accounts
Was industrious and had an infinite capacity for detail
He was the best businessman to serve as king

Consolidation of power:
By heredity (john of gaunt, younger son of Edward 3)
By conquest.
He married Elizabeth of York (joined the 2 rival houses of York and Lancaster) [Acá estaría bueno hacer una breve
explicación sobre las houses]

Livery and maintenance:

It was the right of nobles to retain a private, uniformed retinue of soldiers
Legislation reduced their power
Many of the old nobility had died or been defeated in recent wars and their lands had gone to the king, which meant
that he had more power and more money than earlier kings. He forbade anyone, except himself, to keep armed
men.

Court of star chamber:

Revived the jurisdiction of his Council over all cases of livery and maintenance, bribery, and civil disorder (reduced all
this)
Court acted impartially and fairly
It was under henry’s direct influence

Rival claimants:
Domestic and foreign enemies supported various pretenders to the throne
The king acted calm and wisely
Never seriously threatened after 1497

Domestic administration:
External peace and internal order were dependent upon a prosperous and secure country
Taxation: he didn’t want to raise taxes to antagonize his subjects or concede royal prerogatives (privileges), he
reduced expenditures, personally checked the account books, encouraged foreign commerce, restarted many rights,
imposed expensive fines in court, took the property of outlawed nobles and filled the royal coffers
His aim was to make the crown financially independent. He acquired money through the lands and the fines he took
from the old nobility and raised taxes for wars he then didn’t fight
Commerce: he increased trade and encourage English shipping by treaties and monopolies, like the navigation act of
1485 (to prevent the carriage of certain imported goods in foreign ships. The acts forbade English merchants from
exporting their goods using foreign ships if English ships were available) and the intercursus magnus treaty of 1497
(granted reciprocal trade privileges to English and Flemings and established fixed duties)
Decline of the guilds: were already in decline. Wealthy masters were so exclusive so journeymen left the cities to
avoid the strict regulations of the guilds. The king accelerated their decline by the act of 1504 which forbade any new
guild from being bind. Also, the domestic system was replacing them (capitalistic merchants became middlemen
between the producer and the consumer and supplied the worker in his home with raw materials and bought his
finished product)
Parliament and council: the king governed through the king’s council with fewer lords and more members of the
lower social ranks who were selected for their abilities and loyalty.
Foreign policy:
He wanted peace and security and didn’t want unnecessary wars. He preferred political marriages
Marriage alliances: Arthur (eldest son, then he dies)  Catherine (alliance with spain)
Henry 8 (13yo 2nd son)  Catherine (to save the alliance and dowry)
Margaret (daughter)  king james 4th of Scotland (united the two kingdoms)
Mary (youngest daughter)  charles of castile (large loan and alliance with Austria)
Continental policy: through the teaty of etaples of 1492, henry was provided with a large annual subside, he ended
up with successful Spanish and Hapsburg alliances and avoided becoming embroiled in an Italian empire.
Scottish policy: james 4th invaded England, threatened Scotland with invasion, and gave his support to a rival
claimant to the Scottish throne. Henry preferred diplomacy. The anglo-scottish treaty of 1499 promised peace
between the two countries and sealed the marriage between james and Margaret
Irish policy: because of the pretenders to the English throne, henry sent sir Edward poynings to Ireland to act as lord
deputy and to reassert English authority. He passed laws which made the irish parliament subordinate to the English
crown, so no irish laws could operate without the approval of the crown.

English society:
The enclosure movement (fencing off former common lands) increased greatly. The victims were the peasants who
became unemployed vagrants. This transformed the social classes. The gentry, yeomen and merchants grew
influential at the expense of the old nobility and the peasants. The great baronial families were replaced by the rising
country gentlemen or squires, they were the new landed aristocracy because they were based on wealth or service
to the king than on birth. They built attractive country houses and became the nucleus of the leisure and governing
classes.

The literary renaissance:

It reached England in the latter part of the 15th century. The curricula of the humanities were introduced in English
schools. Oxford was the center of this literary and educational revival.
The oxford humanists: the Christian humanists restored intellectual vigor to the roman catholic church through
education and classical scholarship.

Final:
He died in 1509.
He only spent money on building ships for merchant fleet.

Henry 8 (1509- 1547)

Legacy: a secure monarchy, a full treasury, a nation with increased stature in the diplomacy of Europe.
France was more powerful than England and Spain was even more powerful because it was united with the holy
roman emperor. Henry wanted to hold the balance of power between these two giants.

Character of the king:

17 years old, well educated, intelligent, captivating personality, good athlete, knowledgeable in theology, music, and
literature, and a born leader. He was also exceedingly vain, ambitious, and glutton. Ruthless and frivolous, he gained
the affection of his subjects. He executed two ministers who were responsible for his father’s legal extortions. Selfish
and egotistical.
He was the prototypical “renaissance man” at his prime. tall, good looking, confident, educated, intelligent, spoke 4
languages (latin, French, Spanish, Greek), athletic, good horseman, musician, composer, strong fighter. He loved art
and culture and brought many of the top artists, writers, and philosophers from mainland Europe to his court.
He was being raised to enter the church. When he was 10, his brother died and henry was name the crown prince.

Cardinal wolsey:
The king delegated almost complete authority to Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey became the king’s closest advisor and
managed England for 15 years, especially in the area of foreign diplomacy. He was hard worker and competent. He
was also greedy, ruthless and intolerably arrogant to all but the king.
Foreign policy:
Wolsey organized and directed all but one of the king’s wars. He was diplomatic, he would join with lesser powers
against the most powerful.
Italian-spanish politics: Italy was the battleground of Europe because it was easy to plunder. England joined the
pope’s holy league in 1511 to drive the French out of Italy.
The Spanish alliance: henry married Catherine (spain), thus, reaffirmed the alliance a month after accessing to the
throne. An English expedition against the French and planned by Ferdinand (catherine’s father) failed and so, henry
landed on France, defeated them at the battle of the spurs and captured two cities. Ferdinand deserted henry and
joined the French. Wolsey arranged a peace with France by the marriage of Mary to king louis 12 and gave England
money. In 1518 a treaty of peace was arranged, England returned one of the cities to France in return of money.
England and the franco-spanish rivalry: the major dynastic struggle in Europe was between France, spain and the
holy roman emperor. England was with spain. There was a war against France and it failed and they lost money. So
wolsey asked for money to pay for the war and imposed a 20 percent property tax, which angered parliament and
the citizens of London.
Pro-french policy: spain defeated the french, sacked rome and made the pope its prisoner. This forced wolsey to
change sides and seek peace with France but he couldn’t. Moreover, he lost influence with the king because he
failed to become pope and give him the divorce. Also, France and spain signed a treaty without even consulting
wolsey.
Scottish policy: the scots invaded England, but failed. They had many border battles but also failed. The king died and
the throne was left to mary Stuart (1 week old). Henry wanted to marry Mary to Edward but the scots then married
Mary to the heir to the French throne
Wales: wales was fully incorporated with England by the act of union in 1536. Another act meshed the legal and
administrative procedures of the two regions
Ireland: in 1541 henry assumed the titles of king of Ireland and head of the irish church. Ireland was temporarily
subdued but the settlement was completely unacceptable to the irish

The fall of wolsey:

When he was unable to win from the pope the annulment of henry’s marriage. He was stripped of his offices and
arrested for high treason and died en route to London.
Thomas more took his place as chancellor

KING AND CHURCH: BREACH WITH ROME (renaissance)

Background events:
1- influence of religious reformers martin luther / William Tyndale, one of his converts, translated the New
Testament into English / henry wrote a tract against luther and received from the pope the title of defender of the
faith (FD still found on every british coin)
2- religious reformers in England wanted the church to reform and to curtail its lavish wealth.
3- rising nationalism made people hostile to any foreign allegiance
4- deteriorating relation with spain
5- the conflict with rome came to a head when henry couldn’t get the marriage annulment

Divorce proceedings:
Catherine of aragon = mary
He was worried he wouldn’t have a male heir to the throne
He had obtained a papal dispensation to bypass canon law forbidding marriage to a sister-in-law and now began to
claim that his conscience was troubled by the irregularity of the marriage. Also, he wanted to marry anne Boleyn, the
lady-in-waiting
Wolsey had to obtain the annulment from the pope, but the pope was a prisoner of Charles 5 (holy roman emperor
and king of spain), who was the nephew of Catherine. So, the king dismissed wolsey and took matters into his own
hands
He pressured the English clergy into recognizing him as the supreme head of the church of England (broke with
rome). This was established by the act of supremacy. No change of creed took place
Anne Boleyn was pregnant in 1533
Cranmer was the new archbishop of canterbury and the English ecclesiastical court gave henry his annulment
He married anne publicly and Elizabeth was born

The reformation parliament, 1529-1536:

Thomas Cromwell (prime minister 1532-1540) used parliament to carry out royal policy. Parliament passed 137
statutes, 32 of them relating to the church:
Act of annates: halted the payment to rome of the first year’s income from new occupants of church benefices
Act of appeals: forbade all appeals to rome
Dispensation act: cut off all payments to rome
Supremacy act: made official the independence of the English church
Treason act: prohibited any other religious allegiance among englishmen
Oath of supremacy: it was required and those who refused publicly were executed
Act of succession: it secured the crown for Elizabeth and declared mary illegitimate. Then it was altered: Edward,
mary, Elizabeth
Through the acts, England became politically a protestant country, though the popular religion was still catholic.

The dissolution of the monasteries:

Parliament gave henry statutes, but little money. So, Cromwell built up a case against the monasteries based on
superstitious practices, excessive wealth and immoral practices within religious communities. Parliament abolished
376 religious houses and the larger ones were also confiscated.
Political consequences: this cut in half the number of ecclesiastical lords and changed the complexion of the house of
lords from a predominantly clerical to a predominantly lay group. There was a revolt because of the conservative
catholic resentment, the enclosures and the increasing taxes, but it was squelched and it resulted in the
establishment of the council of the north, as a branch of the privy council
Social and economic consequences: henry spent almost all the money in a costly war with France at the end of his
reign. He sold 2/3 of the land to his friends which laid the foundation for the rise of new, influential families. The
poor gained nothing, and lost social services. The new landlords accelerated the enclosure of land which produced
unsettling social consequences for displaced peasants. Monks and nuns became almost unknown, and it came a

destruction of church property and the loss of books and medieval art ☹

Character of the church:

Henry’s quarrel was with the pope, not with catholic doctrine, but he demanded people to obey. So, those who
dissented, were burned at the stake. Most of the English clergy and laity accepted their king’s version of the church.
Church practices: English replaced latin in the church services, coverdale’s translation of the bible was adopted
Church doctrine: the king didn’t want to change the creed and the 6 articles of 1539 reverted to full catholic doctrine
by upholding oral confession, transubstantiation, clerical celibacy and prayers for the dead.

Last years of henry:

Thomas Cromwell was executed because of his poor choice in selecting the king a new wife and the king didn’t
employ a chief minister anymore, but relied on a privy council. His last years were marked with a series of marriages,
an inflationary economy, an expensive war with France, and a bloated and sickly body. The king’s authority over the
church and the state was supreme
Henry’s 6 wives: Catherine of aragon (mary) divorce
Anne Boleyn – executed for adultery (Elizabeth)
Jane Seymour – (Edward) – died giving birth
Anne of Cleves – divorced and Cromwell executed
Catherine howard – lost her head for adultery
Katherine parr – lived
Debasement of the coinage: 1542-1547, prices jumped sharply and rents rose to catch up with the price spiral. Only
the king and the cloth export trade prospered. Gold and silver from newly discovered America added to economic
inflation, one way of getting money was by reducing the amount of silver used in coins. It worked but it rapidly led to
a rise in prices.
Significance of henry’s reign:
It was remarkably stable and he was largely successful in his objectives. Parliament became an essential part of the
machinery of government
Death: he died in 1547 (55). He suffered a leg wound in a jousting accident in 1536 and he couldn’t move about. He
became extremely overweight and his skin was covered with painful infections called boils.

Edward 6 and the protestant reaction (1547-1553)

The council of regency:
Edward was 10 years old, precocious, serious and sick.
Situation of the country: social and economic problems, war with Scotland, financial difficulties inherited from his
father. Henry had set up a regency council of 16 of conservatives and reformers (more powerful) and the king’s
uncle, Edward Seymour duke of somerset, assumed full authority as lord protector.

The protectorship of somerset 1547-1549:

He was ambitious, well meaning, unschooled in political maneuvering and in administration, a moderate reformer in
religion, encourage religion toleration, and a move to protestant doctrines
Religious change: somerset, through parliament, repealed the treason and heresy acts, the first book of common
prayer was issued which had to be used in all public worship as established the act of uniformity, the six articles
were repealed, there was a protest for this, and at the same time, radical protestants repudiated all catholic
customs, smashed cathedral windows and destroyed religious statuary. Somerset removed catholic sympathizers
from the council.
Scotland: somerset invaded Scotland to hurry the arrange for the marriage of may stuart to Edward, but they sent
Mary to France to marry the heir to the French throne instead
Social unrest: because of the enclosures, the inflation, the confiscation and plunder of churches and the
dispossession of the guilds, there was the kett’s rebellion which was put down by john Dudley, earl of warwick
The fall of somerset: the earl of warwick (duke of nurthumberland) ousted somerset in 1549 because he was unable
to ameliorate the economic distress and because he antagonized the propertied classes with his ideas on social
reforms, cause he cared about the poor. Later, he was arrested for high treason and executed

The protectorship of Northumberland 1549-1553:

He was an opportunist, and favored a more radical Protestantism for political purposes
Religious developments: cranmer repudiated the doctrine of transubstantiation in the holy communion / many
Lutheran and Calvinistic refugees and professors arrived / clergy were allowed to marry/ catholic bishops were
replaced by aggressive reformers / the second act of uniformity authorized the second book of common prayer
which made holy communion an act of remembrance and ended oral confession / the 42 articles of faith defined the
faith of the church of England (Lutheran [justification by faith] and Calvinistic [symbolic interpretation of the
sacraments] influence)
Succession schemes: because the king was dying of consumption, Northumberland took advantage and persuaded
him to alter the succession to the throne to prevent mary tudor from restoring Catholicism in England. He wanted to
marry his son to lady jane grey, mary’s cousin, and have her be named the heir. The king and the privy council
agreed.
Lady jane grey: she only reigned 9 days, protestants didn’t join her cause. Northumberland turned catholic. New
queen: Mary tudor
 Mary tudor and the catholic reaction (1553-1558)
Two objectives: restore roman Catholicism faith, and have a close alliance with her mother’s native land, spain

The return of Catholicism:

At the beginning she was tolerant, but then she started to become impatient and intolerant because of the
opposition and revolts. She was called “bloody mary”
Mary’s parliaments: she immediately pressured the 3 parliaments to revive the old heresy laws and to petition the
pope to have England received back into the catholic church. Parliament didn’t want to restore confiscated monastic
lands. She forced continental preachers and exiles to leave the country, replaced protestant bishops with catholic
ones and revived catholic liturgy.
Catholic marriage: mary wanted so hard to marry Charles 5th’s son, archduke Philip, because they dominated Europe.
Parliament didn’t want it, but finally agreed only because they guaranteed he wouldn’t drag England into any wars
against France and he would have rights to the throne of England if mary died childless. There were 3 rebellions
because of this. Lady jane grey was not implicated but she and her husband were executed anyway
Persecution of protestants: she burned many protestants and this backfired and evoked sympathy for the
prosecuted and turned public opinion against her and her cause. All this contributed to the permanence of
Protestantism in England

Foreign policy:
No successful. Declining trade, parliament was opposed to voting taxes for the queen, growing influence of Calvinism
in Scotland, a lost war against France organized by her husband for Spanish objectives.

Death of mary tudor:

She died in 1558. Her reign was brief and disastrous.

Elizabeth 1 (1558-1603)
Situation: nation at war, treasury empty, the nation bitterly divided on religion. She established a national church of
England that settled for a compromise between roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

Character of the queen:

She was 25 years old. She had the abilities to rule with wisdom and to show strength of leadership. She was vain and
iron-willed, had remarkable political perspicacity and personal magnetism. She loved power and had a shrewd mind.
She was well-educated, loved literature, could speak and write 6 languages, and loved England

RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT
The Elizabethan compromise:
She wasn’t a fanatic or a religious person. She restored Protestantism, created a national church and a clergy
responsible to the crown
Parliamentary religious acts: parliament repealed the heresy acts of mary’s reign / passed the act of supremacy
which abolished papal allegiance and recognized Elizabeth as supreme governor of the church of England / passed
the act of uniformity to establish the only legal form of public worship / the 42 articles of faith were modified to 39
and were imposed as the doctrine of the Anglican church.
All government and church officials were required to take an oath of allegiance to the new queen and governance of
the church. These religious changes were passed by parliament rather than by church convocation. Catholic prelates
were replaced by protestant ones. There was no problem about all this, chill.
Later religious developments: toman catholics and radical protestants were not pleased with the Elizabethan
settlement.
*Roman catholics: the more militant catholics were upset because they saw the more passive catholics could live
comfortably under the settlement. The pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570 and religious peace disappeared
because they had to choose between their faith and their queen. In 1580 catholics priests went back to England
reawakening catholic opposition to Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots was recognized as the only lawful catholic
candidate for the English throne and plots were planned against Elizabeth. The government counterattacked with
repression. Fines jumped for nonattendance at the established church, saying or hearing mass brought
imprisonment and executions increased.
*The puritans: they were members within the Anglican church who were also demanding changes. They favored a
more Calvinistic doctrine and wanted a presbyterian form of church government. The house of commons became
increasingly puritan in its sympathies and tried to make changes in parliament, but the queen made a stop and
nothing happened. So, they turned to congregational meetings and pamphlet warfare.
*The separatists: they were the radical protestants and formed separate organizations outside of the Anglican
church. They stressed congregational autonomy and separation of church and state.
*Government response: they took repressive measures against separatists because they repudiated the national
church and they had to flee the country.

John knox and the church of Scotland:

He was a priest interested in the reform of the church and opposed to the French catholic regency in Scotland. He
was exiled because of his beliefs and then he came back to Scotland when mary stuart got married. The scots feared
a French catholic empire so they formed a group of nobles and requested major church reforms, but they were
rejected and civil war broke out. Elizabeth intervened reluctantly and saved the reformers from defeat.
Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560: the French had to withdraw from Scotland. The treaty contributed to the triumph of
Protestantism over Catholicism
The Scottish parliament: it broke relations with rome in 1560, banned the mass, and adopted a calvinistic profession
of faith and a book of discipline

FOREIGN POLICY
For 25 years Elizabeth kept neutrality in foreign affairs. England increased national finances, strengthened its
commercial and naval power and developed self-confidence

The queen’s advisors:

She selected wise and loyal advisors for domestic and foreign policies. She chose experienced and devoted laymen,
largely from the gentry class.
Secretary and chief counselor: William cecil, later lord Burghley
Lord chancellor: sir Nicholas bacon, her brother in law
Robert Dudley, early of Leicester
Ambassador to France: sir francis Walsingham

The diplomacy of neutrality:

France: The treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis ended the war between France and her enemies, spain and England and
brought Elizabeth peace. But now, because mary stuart was married to King Francis II and she wanted the English
throne, France became England’s most immediate threat. The king died and mary was left without support. There
was a religious war between catholics and French protestants and Elizabeth helped the French but lost in a ridiculous
war, so then, she just secretly aided them.
Spain: at first, spain supported Elizabeth and her title to the throne. Philip 2 proposed marriage to Elizabeth, but she
procrastinated so long that he took a French wife. English-spanish relations worsened. The queen kept the peace by
avoiding any deliberate offense against spain. But she condoned raids on Spanish shipping and colonies by English
seamen and gave secrete aid to spain’s rebelling subjects. Philip aided plots to place mary stuart on the English
throne
Ireland: much of her reign, Elizabeth spent on suppressing rebellions in Ireland where catholic loyalty was intense.

The threat of mary stuart:

She returned to Scotland and married her cousin, lord Darnley, who was a descendant of henry 7. This strengthened
her claim to the English succession. She gave birth to her son, james 6, and fell in love with a protestant border lord,
the earl of bothwell. Mary’s husband was murdered and the earl got a divorce from his wife and they got married.
Protestants and catholics rebelled against the queen. She was imprisoned, escaped from it and fled to England to
beg sanctuary from her cousin, Elizabeth. Because of mary’s presence, there were many plots against Elizabeth. The
queen’s advisors urged her to sentence mary to death but she refused.

Marriage diplomacy:
The queen received many proposals, but she preferred her independence. Plus, her marriageable state gave her
flexibility in foreign diplomacy and the opportunity to play. She had real affection for only one suitor: Robert dudley,
earl of Leicester

Plots against Elizabeth:

The plots had as objectives the full recognition of mary stuart as queen of England and the reestablishment of
Catholicism. The first serious threat was the rising of the northern earls in 1569. The result was the execution of
Northumberland and 800 rebels. Many more plots followed and Elizabeth finally consented to mary’s execution

THE WAR WITH SPAIN

Steps to war:
King Philip 2 persuaded himself that for religious, commercial, political and personal reasons he had cause to invade
England
Religious rivalry: Philip wanted to restore religious orthodoxy to Europe. The only protestant leader left was
Elizabeth
Maritime friction: spain had fabulous overseas wealth, but English sea dogs had been sailing the Atlantic and the
Spanish main, capturing treasure ships, breaking the Spanish monopoly on the slave trade and suffering few
casualties. They weren’t publicly supported by the crown, but Elizabeth backed them privately, knighted them, and
took her share of the profits.
The war in the Netherlands: the protestant provinces of the Spanish Netherlands were still in open revolt against
spain. The English supported the rebels because Elizabeth feared that a profitable trade with the Netherlands would
end and also she feared an invasion of England
Effects of mary stuart’s execution: one week after her execution, Philip moved rapidly with plans for an invasion

The Spanish armada:

Philip’s plan was to send a great armada of ships to the Netherlands and ferry the duke of parma and the best army
in Europe to England, where he hoped English catholics woud rise in revolt. There were problems from the
beginning. Nevertheless, on july 1588, the armada of 131 ships was sighted by the English in the channel. Finally, the
invasion failed.
Consequences of the armada: it united English catholics and protestants against a common enemy, it prevented the
imposition of both a catholic and a Spanish hegemony over Europe. The breaking of Spanish sea power opened up
new regions in both the far east and in America. To elizabeth and her people, the events reinforced their belief that
god and good fortune were on their side

The war continues:

The armada marked the beginning of a war with spain that continued for the remaining 14 years of elizabeth’s reign.
To finance the war, Elizabeth had to grant monopolies, increase customs, sell more than 800.000 crown lands and
raise an additional 2 million in taxes

ECONOMIC AND COLONIAL EXPANSION

Prices, trade, and prosperity increased. In contrast, there were too many unemployed and vagabonds.

Agriculture and labor:

The enclosure movement continued in spite of laws passed to restrict it. Wheat-raising competed with sheep-raising.
Elizabeth took out of circulation the debased currency and replaced it with sound money to restore the country’s
credit. The government passed many economic legislations, such as the statute of artificers which transferred the
regulation of labor and industry from local to national control to stop vagrancy by promoting full employment.
Welfare laws:
The plague and the harvest failures of the 1590s caused the government to nationalize poor relief. The state took
over the earlier role of the church in administering charity, motivated by fear of what wandering, hungry people
could do. The Poor Laws made the parish the local unit of welfare administration. There were stiff penalties for
vagrancy. Each parish appointed 4 inspectors who imposed compulsory taxes on landowners to build workhouses
and provide work and wages for the unemployed.

Commerce and industry:

The cloth trade continued as the leading industry. Shipbuilding and coalmining grew rapidly, and new industries
became important, like the salt and alum.

Colonies and chartered companies:

The reign was noted for the expansion of england’s overseas exploration and trading activities. In 1497,
Newfoundland was discovered and it provided England with a basis for future claims to north America. With the rise
of the merchant navy English foreign commerce expanded through new trading companies chartered by the crown,
like the east india company.
*a charter gave a company the right to all the business in its particular trade or region. In return for this important
advantage the chartered company gave some of its profits to the crown.

The new trading empire:

Elizabeth followed 2 policies: she encouraged English sailors to continue to attack and destroy Spanish ships bringing
gold, silver and other treasures back from America and she also encouraged English traders to settle abroad and to
create colonies. This second policy led to britain’s colonial empire of the 17 th and 18th centuries. The first English
colonists sailed to America, they brought tobacco, started selling west African slaves, which became an important
trade, bringing wealth

THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT

The central administration became national and public and the house of commons increased in size and significance
and became a major instrument of government

The administration:
The administrative reform transformed a royal household administration into centralized administrative machinery
that could function effectively regardless of the leadership of the king. Royal administration, both on the local level
and in parliament, relied especially on the rising gentry class, both worked well together.
The central government: the center of administrative control was the privy council. It became a formal executive
body that took over the functions formerly handled by household officers. The highest policy decisions were still
made by the monarch. The council was responsible to the sovereign. An enormous increase in council business took
place and specialization of function occurred. It also claimed judicial powers as well as supervisory functions over the
councils of the north and Wales.
Local government: the parish was the local unit of administration. The church wardens and the overseers of the poor
administered the poor laws under the supervision of the privy council. The post of lord-lieutenant was created and
served as the formal contact between the central government and the local administration, he was responsible fot
the local militia and all emergency measures. The justices of the peace increased in numbers and presided over local
courts, regulated new laws on labor and apprentices, kept the peace, enforced the poor laws, and punished
vagabonds. Other local officials were the sheriff, the coroner and the vice-admirals of the coastal counties.

The courts:
The legal profession and legal business expanded greatly. The regular courts consisted of:
The petty sessions: heard minor charges
The quarter sessions: considered more serious county cases
The assizes: royal judges on circuit presided
The common law courts: king’s bench, common pleas, exchequer
The prerogative courts of the crown with no jury were the chancery: heard cases of equity and important civil cases
Court of the north for northern England
Council of wales
Court of castle chamber for Ireland
Court of the star chamber

Parliament:
It became increasingly important. Under Elizabeth parliament perfected some procedures: 3 readings for each bill
was established, a standing committee for privileges and disputed elections existed, and the committee system for
examining bills was accepted.
House of commons and hose of lords: the commons gained greatly in power since it represented the growing
influence of the middle class (the gentry, the lawyers, the merchants). Its membership increased.
The tudor system: tudor government relied on the voluntary services of local administrators and on the cooperation
of the crown and its loyal subjects.
The last years of Elizabeth: successor named by the queen, king james 6 of Scotland. Elizabeth left as her legacy a
firmly established church of England, domestic peace, a victorious navy, a sound coinage, and a flourishing
environment for poets and playwrights. She also left an increasingly assertive house of commons that would test its
prerogatives with her successor. Elizabeth was a symbol of unity for England.

LEARNING AND LITERATURE

It reflected the new nationalism and revealed a self-questioning and a self-conscious maturity.

Tudor education:
Renaissance scholars contributed new ideas on learning, especially in the study of Greek classics. The reformation
reduced church influence on education. Elizabeth’s reign restored the grammar schools. In the universities there
were some reforms. Oxford and Cambridge. Cambridge advanced greatly in size and influence. Cambridge was more
protestant than oxford. Little change in curriculum took place, theology, logic and philosophy were still the central
studies, although the tutorial system began to alter teaching methods.

Literature:
Prose: writers typically reflect the varied interests of the renaissance
Poetry: during elizabeth’s reign came the 3 leading poets of the century: sir Philip Sidney, Edmund spenser, and
William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s nondramatic poems were written early in his career and consisted of the
sonnets and the long narrative poems, venus and adonis and lucrece
Drama: Shakespeare wrote his 34 plays which so fully captured the temper of the Elizabethans and the human
spirits. His plays have continued to be classics because of the universal themes and the characterizations that
underlie them he attempted all types, comedy, tragedy and history. At first, plays were given in courtyards of inns,
then theatres were built in London which soon became the focus of popular entertainment.

THE RENAISSANCE
th th
From 14 to 17 century in Europe
It bridged the time between the Middle Ages and modern times
The first part is called the Italian Renaissance
Early renaissance (1400-1479): symmetry
High renaissance (1475-1525): perspective and space for more realism.
There was a change in the subjects from religion to Greek and roman mythology, historical subjects, and portraits of
individuals.

Middle ages:
began with the fall of the roman empire in 476
advances in science, art, government got lost
part of the middle ages is called the dark ages

Renaissance: rebirth
Was a time of “coming out of the dark”
It was a rebirth of education, science, art, literature, music, and a better life for people in general
It started in Florence, Italy and spread to other city-states in Italy (1350-1400)
Italy had become very wealthy and the wealthy were willing to spend their money supporting artists and geniuses

City-states: Italy was divided up into a number of powerful city-estates which were ruled by powerful families.
Examples: Florence, milan, venice
Renaissance man: a talented person in many areas, like Leonardo da vinci (painter, sculptor, scientist, inventor,
architect, engineer, writer) and Henry 8

Humanism: cultural movement, it was a philosophy that people should fight to be educated and learned in the
classical arts, literature, and science, it looked for realism and human emotion in art, and it said that it was okay for
people to pursue comfort, riches and beauty. It changed the basic way people thought about things. They studied
the writings and works of the greeks and the romans and realized earlier civilizations had lived differently. (AGREGAR
INFO DEL VIDEO)

English renaissance theatre: during elizabeth’s reign theatres and Shakespeare were important. The first theatre was
the red lion in 1567, then the curtain theatre in 1577 and then the famous globe theatre in 1599. Popular genres
were history, tragedy and comedy.

Other arts: music and painting. New techniques such as perspective, balance and proportion, use of light and dark,
sfumato, foreshortening. There were new types of instruments and combinations of voices. People sung in churches
in large choirs. Main types of dances were the court dances and country dances. Leonardo da vinci studied anatomy
to better understand the body and create better paintings and sculptures.

Architecture and buildings: the style was taken from ancient rome and Greece. Buildings were built as squares or
rectangle symmetrical shapes, the front of them were also symmetrical, they used roman columns and arches,
domes were popular, and the ceilings were flat. Renaissance buildings are the basilica of st peter, the Sistine chapel,
and the pazzi chapel.

Navigation and exploration: the rise of the English navy with the defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 (Elizabeth). Sir
francis drake circumnavigated the globe. Sir walter Raleigh established the virginia colony and sir Humphrey gilbert
discovered newfoundland.

Daily life: people started to enjoy more luxuries, nicer clothes, finer foods, and the arts. There were more craftsmen,
artisians, and merchants. For the farmers and peasants’ lives was mostly work.

Clothing and fashion: there were laws that said who could wear what. The royal family could wear clothing trimmed
with ermine fur, the nobles wore fancy clothes made from silk and velvet, bright colors, large ruffles on their wristst
and collars. Men wore colorful tights or stockings and hats. Women wore long dresses, jewelry made of gold

Housing: for the poor it was a one room hut and for wealthier merchant, large homes. The houses didn’t have
running water or bathrooms.

Food: for the peasants, black bread, stew, soup, mush, didn’t get a lot of meat, salt was expensive. The rich ate more
interesting and fancy meals, had huge feasts, used exotic spices and sugar, ate more meat, roasts of beef, stag or pig.
Drank beer or wine. Water made them sick. They used their hands and maybe a knife.
Entertainment: festivals, sporting events, played games like chess, checkers and backgammon. Biggest event was
carnival. In the masquerade people had big parties and dressed up in costumes.

Shopping and money: money wasn’t as regulated as today

Science and inventions: the scientific revolution began near the end of the renaissance. Galileo galilei improved the
telescope, discovered that the moon was covered with craters and that it didn’t make its own light, but reflected
light from the sun, among other discoveries. The printing press was the most important invention, Johannes
Gutenberg invented it around 1440, it allowed for info to be distributed to a wide audience and spread new scientific
discoveries as well. Also, the microscope, the telescope and eyeglasses were invented, the clock, the flashing toilet,
the wrench, the screwdriver, wallpaper, the submarine. Nicolas copérnico discovered that the earth was not the
centre of the universe, but the sun, and that the earth and other planets orbited around it. Galileo agreed with this
and because of this he was put under house arrest because the church didn’t agree.

Children: were treated like small adults. Wealthy children had free time to play and enjoy their childhood.

Schools: for the wealthy. They went to college or had a private tutor. They learned about grammar and arithmetic,
some studied philosophy, latin and public speaking.

Government: it was made up of 3 bodies, the monarch (queen Elizabeth), the privy council (made up of the queen’s
closest advisor) and the parliament (had 2 groups, the house of lords, made up of nobles and high ranking church
officials, and the house of commons, made up of commoners)

Reformation: it was a split in the catholic church and a new type of Christianity, Protestantism, was born.

Bible: more people started reading the bible, plus, the printing press was invented and allowed for new ideas to be
easily printed and distributed. They could read the bible for themselves for the first time.

Martin luther: he began to question the practices of the catholic church and made a list of 95 points telling of things
the thought the church had gone wrong and nailed it to the door of a catholic church. One of these practices was the
paying of indulgances (people were forgiven of their sins if they paid the church money). This reduced the church’s
income, which made them mad and they kicked him out of it, which was a big deal for that time. Many people
agreed with luther and much of northern Europe began to separate from the catholic church. New churches were
formed, such as the Lutheran church and the reformed church.

The church of England: it split from the roman catholic church. Henry 8

War: the 30 years war, fought in Germany, involves nearly every country in Europe. The cause was arguments over
the reformation, some rulers converted to Protestantism and others still supported the catholic church.

SHAKESPEARE

Playwright, actor and poet

1564 – 1616, Stratfor-upon-Avon, England
His father was a successful leather merchant
Had 5 siblings
Went to the local grammar school and learned about poetry, history, Greek and latin
He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18. She was 26 and they had a daughter named Susanna and twins named
Hamnet and Judith
The lost years: there is no record of his life from when he had the twins to many years. They ended up in London and
William working at the theatre.

Actors:
Two important qualities were acting talent and money. Shakespeare was a full “sharer” in a company known first as
Lord Chamberlain’s men and later as the king’s men. This meant that Shakespeare was bound to be performance
focused, for it was at the end of the day’s playing that the money taken at the doors of entrance was placed upon a
table and distributed among the sharers. As theatrical income was specifically linked to performance, then if plague
closed the theatre, or whatever, Shakespeare would make no money. So, there was seldom any spare money in the
theatre.
Sharers sometimes kept and trained apprentices, young boy players to whom they taught the art of acting. As
playing was not a formalized profession, an actor who wanted apprentices had to acquire and maintain membership
of a professional guild as for example a grocer.
Men played women roles
Though “hirelings” (players paid by the week) were sometimes acquired, scenes were, when possible, simply swollen
with non-speaking characters (mutes) performed by people already working for the troupe: gatheres, who collected
entrance money from the audience, and “tiremen”, who helped dress the actors backstage.
As Shakespeare wrote largely for a group of actors whom he knew well, he shaped his characterizations to the skills
of his colleagues. For this reason, he regularly repeats character types. The fool with a beautiful singing voice or a
talkative and gullible old man who thinks he is smarter that he is, like in polonius (hamlet), Brabantio (Othello), or
Duncan (Macbeth)
When hamlet meets a group of players, he knows from experience what part each will play, though he has not seen
them perform for a year: one is “he that plays the king”, another is “the adventurous knight”. He identifies the type
of each member of the group in front of him.
His texts often alternate between using a generic name like queen and a character name like Gertrude, suggesting
that Shakespeare probably wrote for “types” found in his troupe and individualized them only later.
Different plays were put on everyday in the early modern theatre. Sharers in a company would hear a reading of a
new play given by its author, partly to decide whether or not to accept the text, and partly to learn the tale it told.
After that, they would each be given texts known as “parts” or “rolls” containing the speeches they were to speak
and they would learn them by heart. After this, they have only one brief and unfinished collective rehearsal before
they put on the performance itself.
Actors would read their parts looking to identify their passions. Acting at the time was even sometimes called
passionating.
They had to manifest other more technical features of the writing as well, like the verse, the prose, the rhetorical
tropes, and the pauses. For all this, actors needed to decide which words in their text to choose and emphasize and
which telling gestures to use to accompany them.

Theatres:
London was a small, walled city. In 1567 a fixed theatre, the red lion, was constructed, but it didn’t last long. In
1576, an enormous round theatre, called the theatre, was built in shoreditch, outside the city walls and it was
successful.
Shakespeare started writing for the theatre in about 1594.
Much of London was in the hands of puritans, so all playhouses, the theatre included, were constructed in areas
known as the liberties, which were outside the jurisdiction of the lord mayor and not bound by London laws. Some
Liberties were sites of former monasteries within the city, but most were outside the London walls or opposite them
on the south side of the thames. The theatre had to be relocated. During the next year, the globe playhouse was
built from the theatre’s remains.
While waiting for the globe to be completed, the lord chamberlain’s men moved to another round theatre, the
curtain.
The attraction of southwark was that the area had a well-established reputation for light-hearted entertainment.
Once a year southwark fair was held there. But the liberty has over time become known for hosting more dubious
pleasures. It was to this place that a Londoner would resort for a day’s drinking or bear-baiting, or paid sex. Globe
plays often refer to bear-baiting, and whores and bawdy-houses. Both, bottled ale and women seem to have been
readily available at most playhouses.
Round theatres of the period had a structure that, itself, became part of the plays performed inside them. They
contained stages that “thrust” into the middle of the building, around which was a space for a standing audience.
People who paid least were nearest the stage and were regularly insulted in the plays of the period, known as penny
stinkards, groundlings or understanders. Shakespeare directly taunts the standing audience in moments when his
characters refer to crowds with crowd mentalities. He also rouses them when he wants an external mass of people
like the army.
Over the stage was an internal roof that protected the clothes of the actors and aided with the amplification of their
voices, known as heaven and it was decorated with signs of the night sky. Under the stage was an area known as
hell.
A couple of pillars supported the weight of the heavens, attaching the area to the stage. They existed for practical
reasons, but naturally made their way into the drama too. They would be used as trees and hiding places. Pillars
could also be used as stage-dividers: there were 2 of them, just as there were 2 doors to the left and right of the
stage for entrances.
On top of all round theatres was a flagpole on which colourful ensigns were hung. They signified that a play was
soon to begin and were embellished with signs directly related to the theatre they represented. This means that any
reference to Hercules, atlas or the globe in a play written for performance in that theatre becomes metatheatrical
too.
In addition, were the smaller, more intime and pricier private theatres. They were often in liberties within the city
walls. Advantages: they were enclosed, well lit by candles, comfortable and well heated. They could charge
considerably higher prices so they attracted a slightly different kind of audience, richer and more educated, with
higher expectations. The preoccupations of such an audience tended to be taken up in the plays written for them.
Shakespeare changes the nature of his playwriting around 1608, when his company was finally granted the right to
perform in a private theatre, the black friars. He started writing plays in a 5-act structure. He also started adding
courtly entertainments into his dramas. The slightly magical properties of Shakespeare’s late plays too: yellow
candlelight, perfumed air, cloying smoke from wicks and tobacco, and a bejeweled, highly visible audience.

Playgoers:
They could come from any social class if they could manage to get the money to pay for entrance. Public playhouses
attracted a wide social range. Private theatres attracted a better-educated audience. Shakespeare had to write for all
sorts of people.
Spectators needed to arrive very early to save a good place and to occupy the time, they usually read books, which
were even sold at theatres. Audiences also learnt of plays in print before they saw them in performance.
Literate members of the theatre audience also responded to plays in a bookish fashion, they would take notes of the
passages they liked. This was great for Shakespeare because it was a way of advertisement for him, his plays and the
theatre. He made an effort to give spectators “extractable” passages for their tables as well as plenty of new words
that they could take home as gifts.
Spectators who attended first performances were different in make-up from any subsequent set of spectators. They
were monied and judgmental, for they paid double the normal entrance charge in order to be able to evaluate the
play. They would clap the passages they liked and hiss those they didn’t. At the end of the performance, they would
ask whether the text could be performed again and they would say yes or no.

Court versus playhouse:

Court approval was also important for a playwright and additional special prologues and epilogues were written for
royal productions. The entire company for which Shakespeare wrote gained ever-increasing royal approval. When
king James gave the troupe the title “the king’s men” in 1603, he elevated its sharers to the position of “grooms of
the chamber”, they were allowed to wear scarlet livery and march in state processions.
Court performance was a boon for any company both in terms of money and reputation and prestige. It also offered
troupes protection. There was a heavily puritanical faction in London who were keen to stop all plays and pull the
theatres down.
Naturally, sections were specifically inserted into plays for the court’s delectation. Shakespeare’s writing, then, may
have been reshaped, not necessarily by him, to match court preoccupations.