VIII Tudor England

People and Events

Premises of the story:

The Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603. Their story encompasses some of the most dramatic and unforgettable events in European history. And they remain the most famous and controversial of royal families.

The Tudors

*The Wars of the Roses

Henry VII (1457 - 1509) was the first Tudor monarch. His claim to the throne was not strong and he became king after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. Henry's success on the battlefield ended the Wars of the Roses that had begun in 1455. The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles that were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster (Lancastrians) and the supporters of the House of York (Yorkists). The wars were called the Wars of the Roses because the Yorkists were represented by a white rose and the Lancastrians by a red rose. 3

The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house of Welsh. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, to which the Tudors were aligned, extirpated. The Tudor line failed in 1603 with the death of Elizabeth I of England, who died without issue. Through secret negotiations with her cousin James, King of Scotland, (whose great-grandmother was Henry VIII's elder sister, Margaret) Elizabeth arranged the succession of the House of Stuart to the English throne, uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a personal union.

The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century. The family provided England with three kings. Henry IV of England, ruled 13991413 Henry V of England, ruled 14131422 Henry VI of England and (II of) France, ruled 14221461 and 14701471
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The Personality of Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Henry VIII is the best known of the Tudor Monarchs, he was the second son of Henry VII and became King because his brother, Arthur had died. He married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon when he became King, but divorced her when she did not produce a male heir to the throne. In order to gain his divorce, Henry had to establish the Church of England and end Catholicism. Henry went on to marry another five wives - Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr. Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were executed for 7 treason. He died in 1547.

Henry VIII
So Henry VIII, crowned king at the prime of his life, just eighteen years old and physically magnificent with more enthusiasm and energy than most of his contemporaries, became a conflicted and confused man. But it is a shame to let the last twenty years of his life color the interpretation of his entire life. His personality was quite amazing; his intelligence, learning, and curiosity impressed even the world-weary ambassadors He was usually genial company. He loved music and wrote his own. He enjoyed dancing and entertainment. He held countless banquets and tournaments. He enjoyed all physical activities and excelled at most of them. Hunting, archery, tennis, jousting - the king made his court into an endless round of competition and celebration.
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Political ambitions:

His political ambitions failed and he bequeathed a woeful mess to his nine-year-old heir, Edward VI. His greatest achievement was a dubious one, and one for which he was often eager to distance himself - the Henrician reformation, the end of Roman Catholicism in England and the birth of the Anglican church. The king, for all his contradictions and failures, helped destroy the greatest institution in medieval Europe. Once Germany and England fell to the new heresy, its spread across Europe was inevitable and invincible.
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Elizabeth

Elizabeth I became Queen after her sister Mary I died without an heir. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She upheld Protestantism in England and her will was the law. She did not marry and was known as the Virgin Queen. During Elizabeth's reign the age of exploration began with explorers such as Francis Drake claiming new lands for England and introducing new materials and foods. The American State, Virginia, is named after her. When Elizabeth died in 1603 the Tudor line ended
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The Structure of Tudor Society:

During the Tudor period people were grouped in a hierarchical system with the King at the top. The nearer to the top of the system you were, the richer you were. If you were born poor there was little chance of you becoming rich. People were taught by the church that their position in life was determined by God. However, it was through the church that some men who were born poor managed to become very rich and powerful indeed.
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The Church:
During the Tudor period the church was very powerful, owning large amounts of land. The people were very religious and attended church services. The church was able to control people's lives by preaching what they wanted them to believe. During the reign of Henry VIII the church became less powerful as Henry made himself head of the church, dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their land.
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Archbishops and Bishops:

Archbishops were very powerful. They owned large amounts of land and were very rich. They were able to influence the King or Queen and played a part in the governing of the country. After the Reformation, Archbishops only remained powerful if they supported the monarch. The Bishops of the most important churches were rich and powerful, playing a part in the governing of the country. After the Reformation they only remained in position if they supported their monarch.
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The Social Hierarchy:

Gentlemen were born rich and came from families with titles Barons, Earls and Dukes. Most owned large country estates and were often given important positions in government. The Monarch would visit his most notable subjects when he or she went on a progress and they would be expected to provide board and lodging for the King and his court. Sometimes this could be as many as 300 persons. If summoned to court a gentleman, or other member of his family, would have to leave their home and travel to London to be with the King.
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Yeomen & Citizens:

Both yeomen and citizens were fairly wealthy men. They were not born members of the gentry, but were rich enough to own their own houses and employ servants. Yeomen either owned their own land or rented land from gentlemen which they farmed. They were successful farmers and were rich enough to be able to afford labourers to do the heavy farming jobs for them. Citizens lived in the towns. They were rich merchants and craftsmen. Merchants made their living by trading goods with ship owners. Craftsmen were skilled men who could command a good price for the goods that they made.
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Labourers:
Labourers worked for Yeomen or citizens and were paid a wage for their work. Labourers were employed to do the heavy back-breaking jobs on the farms or in the craft shops. In 1515 an act was passed which fixed a labourers wage at 3d per day for winter months and 4d per day for summer months with bonuses to be paid at harvest time. A labourer could expect to work from sunrise to sunset in the winter and from sunrise to early evening in the summer. Sundays and major saints' days were free. Skilled workers were to be paid 5d per day during the winter and 6d for 17 summer days.

Tudor Costume:
Men's clothing gave them a square shape. they wore short doublets over their hose and the shoulders of their coat were cut wide. It was fashionable for their sleeves to be slashed and their flat hats were often decorated with feathers.
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Women Women's clothing gave them a triangular shape. Their corsets were tight fitting while their kirtles and gowns were very full. Their head-dress consisted of a coif that fitted closely round the face, to which was attached the cornet - a long piece of black material that

often hung down the back.

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The Tudors Entertainment:

Our lives today are filled with ready-made entertainment - television, computers, music centres etc. In the Tudor period people had to make their own entertainments. Hours of work were long and without electric light or the benefit of being able to read, many people simply went to bed when it got dark. The time for entertainment was on a Sunday or Saint's day or when there was a great public event - Royal wedding or public execution. 20

The Theatre:

The popularity of the theatre rose with both rich and poor alike, during the sixteenth century. This popularity was helped by the rise of great playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare as well as the building of the Globe theatre in London.

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Execution:
A public execution was an event not to be missed and people would queue through the night to get the best places. There was always a carnival atmosphere and a good trade was done by pie sellers, ale merchants and producers of execution memorabilia. Public executions always produced a carnival-like atmosphere with large crowds attracting peddlers, minstrels, jugglers and other street performers anxious to use this ready-made audience.
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The Tudors Discoverers and Explorers:

In the Tudor period Europeans began to explore the world more than ever before. Some of those who left their homeland and journeyed across the seas were looking for new lands and peoples to trade with, some were looking for better and quicker routes to China and India. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer who, financed by the king and queen of Spain, set sail to find a new route to India. He left Europe early in September 1492 and when land was sighted one month later he believed he had found India and named the native people living there, Indians. Columbus had not reached India as he thought but had reached Central America. He claimed the land for Spain and from 1492 onwards Europeans began to settle in America. They called it 23the New World.

Ther Tudors Discoverers and Explorers:

Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was a Portuguese explorer and the first sailor to sail all around the world. He did not discover America because he sailed around the bottom of South America. Magellan also named the Pacific Ocean. Sir Francis Drake (1545-1596) was a British explorer and navy captain. He was financed by Queen Elizabeth to discover lands and riches for England. Drake was the second man to sail all around the world and was knighted by the queen for his services to the country. In 1588 he was one of the Captains that sailed to meet and defeat the Spanish Armada. It is a well known legend that he insisted on finishing a game of bowls before going to his ship.
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The Tudors Discoverers and Explorers:

Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was an adventurer and explorer who became one of queen Elizabeth's favourites after putting down a rebellion in Ireland. Elizabeth gave him land and the position of captain of the Queens Guard. Raleigh led an expedition to the New World and claimed North Carolina and Virginia for England. Virginia was named after Elizabeth who was known as the Virgin Queen because she never married. 25

Tudor Architecture

The Tudors created the distinctive Black and White halftimbered houses The style of the Tudor Architecture had shifted from the pointed, ornate Gothic style to the plainer Renaissance style, which was symmetrical. The symmetrical lines were displayed in the architecture of houses, palaces and buildings built during this period. The emphasis was placed on a horizontal rather than vertical line. Coastal Forts and Palaces built during the Tudor dynasty replaced the castles of the Medieval era. Tastes turned from the practical to luxury and the rich favoured such innovations as marble floors instead of the rushes used as floor coverings during the early Tudor period.
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Tudor Architecture - Hampton Court

In 1529 King Henry VIII 'acquired' Hampton Court palace from Cardinal Wolsey and began a process of rebuilding. Features of Hampton Court include the distinctive red bricks, chimneys and gatehouses of Hampton Court.

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Tudor style The Tudor style in architecture is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period (14851603) and even beyond. It followed the Perpendicular style and, although superseded by Elizabethan architecture in domestic building of any pretensions to fashion, the Tudor style still retained its hold on English taste, portions of the additions to the various colleges of Oxford and Cmabridge being still carried out in the Tudor style which overlaps with the first stirrings of the Gothic Revival. The four-centred arch, now known as the Tudor Arch, was a defining feature; some of the most remarkable oriel windows belong to this period; the mouldings are more spread out and the foliage becomes more naturalistic.
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Kings College Chapel

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Decorative half-timbering give Tudor Revival houses the appearance of a medieval building.
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Elizabeth I

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(7 September 1533 24 March 1603)

Titles from birth to death
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Elizabeth I

Elizabeth
July

September 1533 July 1536: The Princess

1536 17 November 1558: The Lady Elizabeth 17 November 1558 24 March 1603: Her Majesty The Queen
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Elizabeth was the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, who did not bear a male heir and was executed less than three years after Elizabeth's birth.

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Elizabeth I
(7 September 1533 24 March 1603)
Elizabeth was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Irfeland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Her half-brother, Eoleyn, bequeathed the crown to Lady Jane Grey, cutting his sisters out of the succession. His will was set aside, Lady Jane Grey was executed, and in 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. 36

Accession

Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25, and upon hearing of her accession to the throne, she is reputed to have quoted the 118th Psalm's twenty-third line, in Latin:

"A Domino factum est illud, et est mirabile in oculis notris" "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."

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Elizabeth I in her coronation robes, patterned with Tudor roses and trimmed with ermine.

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Elizabeth's political skills

Elizabeth's deft political skills and strong personal character were directly responsible for putting England (at the time of her accession in 1558 a weak, divided backwater far outside the mainstream of European power and cultural development) on the road to becoming a true world economic and political power and restoring the country's lost sense of national pride.
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Elizabeth and Europe

Elizabeth inherited a tattered realm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics) doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to her problems - France had a strong foothold in Scotland, and Spain, the strongest European nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of the realm. Elizabeth proved most calm and calculating (even though she had a horrendous temper), employing capable and 40 distinguished men to carrying out royal prerogative.

Protestants vs. Catholics

Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest, which enabled her to devise a compromise that, basically, reinstated Henrician reforms. She took a stronger stance when events demanded it, for two reasons: the machinations of Mary Queen of Scots and persecution of continental Protestants by the two strongholds of Orthodox Catholicism, Spain and France. The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. Mary, in Elizabeth's custody beginning with 1568 (for her own protection from radical Protestants and Scots), gained the loyalty of Catholic factions and instituted several-failed assassination/overthrow plots against Elizabeth. After irrefutable evidence of Mary's involvement in the plots came to light, Elizabeth sadly succumbed to the pressure from 41 her advisors and had the Scottish princess executed in 1587.

Elizabeth and the Armada

In 1588, after Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain, the indignant Spanish King, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England, providing Elizabeth with an opportunity to put on public display those qualities of heart that one might not expect to find in those days, in a small, frail woman. She travelled to Tilbury, Essex, to address her troops as they awaited the coming battle with the feared Spanish naval forces. As they say, the rest is history. The English won the naval battle handily, aided by some fortuitous inclement English Channel weather, and emerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for later English imperial designs.
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The importance of Elizabeths reign 1

Elizabeth was a master of political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of the monarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonize Parliament. She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council, who were constantly perplexed by her habit of waiting to the last minute to make decisions. She used the various factions (instead of being used by them), playing one off another until the exhausted combatants came to her for resolution of their grievances. Few English monarchs enjoyed such political power, while still maintaining the devotion of the whole of English society. Elizabeth's reign was one of the more constructive periods in English history: literature bloomed through the works of Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare; Elizabeth's religious compromise laid many fears to rest and de-fused a potential powder keg; fashion and education came to the fore because of Elizabeth's penchant for knowledge, courtly behavior and extravagant dress. 43

The importance of Elizabeths reign 2

Good Queen Bess, as she came to be called, maintained a regal air until the day she died; a quote, from a letter by Paul Hentzen, reveals the aging queen's regal nature: "Next came the Queen in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow... she had in her ear two pearls, with very rich drops... her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging. This regal figure surely had her faults, but she excelled at rising to challenges and emerging victorious.

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Conclusions

Elizabeth, "Gloriana," the last of the Tudors, died without leaving an heir at seventy years of age after a reign that had exceeded all realistic expectations for it and qualifies her to be considered in the top rank of British monarchs. Elizabeth's reign is known as the Elizabethan era, famous above all for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and for the seafaring prowess of English adventurers such as Sir Francis Drake.

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Elizabeth Tudor is considered by many to be the greatest monarch in English history. She ruled alone for nearly half a century, lending her name to a glorious epoch in world history. She dazzled even her greatest enemies. Her sense of duty was admirable, though it came at great personal cost. She was committed above all else to preserving English peace and stability; her genuine love for her subjects was legendary. Only a few years after her death in 1603, they lamented her passing. In her greatest speech to Parliament, she told them, 'I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your love.' And five centuries later, the worldwide love affair with Elizabeth Tudor continues.
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Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I

Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I abound, particularly from the later years of her reign. Elizabeth was perhaps the first monarch to understand the importance of public relations and she carefully prepared her image for public consumption.
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Princess Elizabeth, c. 1543-1547.

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The Coronation Portrait, c. 1600.

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Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses, 1569.

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End

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