cerp 1 tudor england henry vii

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TUDOR ENGLAND

Henry VII

Absolute monarchy. Henry VII began the move towards royal

absolutism. This was a belief in the divine right of kings to rule as

they saw fit, without having to answer to nobles, church, orParliament.

Whatever else he was, Henry was an able and active administrator.

He was frugal to the point of parsimony. When he came to the throne, the crown

was heavily in debt, but when he died he left his son Henry a bulging treasury.

What his son did with that money is another story.

Court of Star Chamber. Henry's reign saw the beginning of the Court of Star

Chamber, so called because the room where they met was decorated with paintings

of stars. This court was closed, and answerable to no one but the king. It eventually

became synonymous with secretive and autocratic administration.

Rebellions. Henry had to deal with two rebellions during his reign, both by

probable imposters claiming to be legitimate heirs to the throne. First there was

Lambert Simnel, who was eventually captured and made to work as a scullery in

Henry's kitchens. He was followed by Perkin Warbeck, who gathered foreign

support for an invasion. Warbeck was defeated and eventually hanged with some of

his supporters.

HUNDRED YEARS WAR

Edward II and Edward III

Edward II (1307-27) was a poor king, bored by the responsibilities of his position

and easily swayed by a succession of male favourites. The first of these was Piers

Gaveston. He was seized in Edward's absence by rebellious nobles and summarily

tried and executed. The barons forced Edward to agree to reforms in their favour.

In 1314 Edward lost the Battle of Bannockburn to Robert the Bruce and Scotland

gained its independence.

Edward's End. Hugh le DeSpenser was Edward's next favourite and he, along with

his father, also named Hugh, were virtual rulers of England from 1322-26. Edward's

queen, Isabella, finally had enough and raised a rebellion with French aid. She and

her lover, Roger Mortimer, defeated and hanged the DeSpensers and forced Edward

to abdicate in favour of his son. The ex-king was kept at Berkeley

Castle(Gloucestershire) until brutally put to death in 1327.

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Edward III (1327-77) was only 15 when he came to the

throne. Isabella and Roger Mortimer ruled as regents for three

years until Edward rebelled and had Mortimer hanged. Edward

proved to be a popular, approachable king.

In 1337 he began the conflict with France known as TheHundred Years War. Actually, it lasted, on and off, for 116

years, and despite early successes at Crecy and Poitiers, it was

to end with the loss of virtually all English possessions on the

mainland.

Parliament's Power. As is usual in times of war, Parliament

grew in power, forcing royal concessions in return for grants of

money. During Edward's reign the custom evolved of separate sittings for the

Commons (burgesses and knights) and a Great Council of prelates and magnates.

The system of Justices of the Peace, chosen from among the local nobility, also

dates from this time. They became a sort of amateur body carrying on localadministration and government for the next 500 years.

"Achoo, Achoo, All Fall Down..." In 1348 the Black Death reached England. So

named for the black tumours which appeared in a victim's armpits and groin, this

flea-born disease was carried to an unprepared Europe by rats on ships arriving

from the Far East. The effect of the Black Death on England and the rest of Europe

cannot be overstated. In some places up to one-half the population died. This

accelerated tremendous social change.

Social Changes. There was a drastic shortage of labour

on the land. Many landowners began to enclose theirlands, turning to sheep raising rather than labour

intensive traditional farming. Increased sheep farming

meant that fewer farm labourers were needed, so lords

often allowed villeins to purchase their freedom from

feudal obligation. The villeins became free labourers, and

many gravitated to towns.

Langland and Chaucer. The first great literary work in

the English language appeared in 1362, William

Langland's Piers Plowman, which was an indictment of

social inequality and injustice. Langland was followed afew years later by Geoffrey Chaucer, whose Canterbury

Tales remain a vivid and insightful look at medieval English society.

Wycliffe and the Lollards. In a more serious vein, it was about 1376 that John

Wycliff began to preach church reform, espousing the radical notion of an individual

connection with God, without the necessary intermediary of church ritual. Wycliff's

followers, called Lollards, were constant agitators for social and religious reform for

the next 50 years.

Edward III andKing David of

Scotland

Geoffrey Chaucer makinga point



The Wars of the Roses and the Princes in the Tower

Henry VI was troubled all his life by recurring bouts of madness, during which the

country was ruled by regents. The regents didn't do any better for England than

Henry did, and the long Hundred Years War with France sputtered to an end with

England losing all her possessions in France except for Calais. In England itself anarchy reigned. Nobles gathered their own private armies and fought for local

supremacy.

The Wars of The Roses. The struggle to rule on behalf of an unfit king was one of

the surface reasons for the outbreak of thirty years of warfare that we now call the

Wars of the Roses, fought between the Houses of York (white rose) and Lancaster

(red rose). In reality these squabbles were an indication of the lawlessness that ran

rampant in the land. More squalid than romantic, the Wars of the Roses decimated

both houses in an interminably long, bloody struggle for the throne. The rose

symbols that we name the wars after were not in general use during the conflict.

The House of Lancaster did not even adopt the red rose as its official symbol untilthe next century.

Edward IV. Henry VI was eventually forced to abdicate in 1461 and died ten years

later in prison, possibly murdered. In his place ruled Edward IV of the house of York

who managed to get his dubious claim to the throne legitimized by Parliament.

Edward was the first king to address the House of Commons, but his reign is

notable mostly for the continuing saga of the wars with the House of Lancaster and

unsuccessful wars in France. When Edward died in 1483 his son, Edward V, aged

twelve, followed him. In light of his youth Edward's uncle Richard, Duke of

Gloucester, acted as regent.

The Princes in The Tower. Traditional history, written by later Tudor historians

seeking to legitimize their masters' past, has painted Richard as the archetypal

wicked uncle. The truth may not be so clear cut. Some things are known, or

assumed, to be true. Edward and his younger brother were put in the Tower of

London, ostensibly for their own protection. Richard had the "Princes in the Tower"

declared illegitimate, which may possibly have been true. He then got himself

declared king. He may have been in the right, and certainly England needed a

strong and able king. But he was undone when the princes disappeared and were

rumoured to have been murdered by his orders.

In the 17th century workmen repairing a stairwell at the Tower found the bones of two boys of about the right ages. Were these the Princes in the Tower, and were

they killed by their wicked uncle? We will probably never know. The person with the

most to gain by killing the princes was not Richard, however, but Henry, Earl of

Richmond. Henry also claimed the throne, seeking "legitimacy" through descent

from John of Gaunt and his mistress.

The Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry defeated and killed Richard at the Battle of

Bosworth Field (1485). The crown is said to have been found hanging upon a bush,

and it was placed on Henry's head there on the field of battle. Bosworth marked the

end of the Wars of the Roses. There was no one else left to fight. It also marked

the end of the feudal period of English history. With the death of Richard III the

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crown passed from the Plantagenet line to the new House of Tudor, and a

new era of history began.

Kings were gaining the upper hand in the struggle

with the barons. They encouraged the growth of

towns and trade. They took more advisors andofficials from the new merchant middle class.

This eroded the power of the land-based nobility.

Further, kings established royal courts to replace

local feudal courts and replaced feudal duties (which

had been difficult to collect in any case) with direct

taxation. They created national standing armies

instead of relying on feudal obligations of service

from vassals. Feudal kingdoms moved slowly towards

becoming nations.

Henry II and Thomas a Becket (PLANTAGENET)

Henry II (1154-89) was the son of Queen Maud and Geoffrey of Anjou. He took as

his emblem the "sprig of broom" of the House of Anjou, which in the French of the

day became "plant a genet", or Plantagenet. Henry was a good administrator, but

he had a terrible temper, which would get him into trouble. He razed unlicensed

castles that had sprung up during the anarchy of the civil war , and reclaimed many

of the rights and powers of the crown that had laxed.

Becket - Henry's carousing chum and chief administrator was a cleric by the nameof Thomas a Becket. When the See of Canterbury fell empty in 1162 Henry

convinced a very reluctant Becket to become the new Archbishop.

Henry, of course, assumed that his friend would be

sympathetic to the royal cause in the escalating battle

between church and state. He wasn't. Thomas

underwent a change of character as Archbishop. He was

ostentatiously severe and strict in his observance of

church law. He wore a penitential hair shirt under his

vestments, and had his underlings flog him frequently.

More importantly, he opposed Henry over the questionof the supremacy of ecclesiastical courts. (See The

Constitutions of Clarendon)

Criminous Clerks - At that time anyone in orders could

only be tried in church courts. In practice, the number of

clerics was huge, including several levels of lay priests and clerks. Henry, anxious

to assert the power of royal justice, claimed that the "criminous clerks" should be

tried in royal courts. To his surprise, Becket refused to agree.

Becket's Death - The Archbishop fled to France after defying Henry. They

eventually were reconciled with the aid of the pope, and Becket returned. Heimmediately infuriated Henry by excommunicating those bishops who had prudently

A prosperous merchant in1475

Becket arguing with

Henry II

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supported the king during Becket's exile. Henry flew into one of his famous rages.

Four knights, perhaps seeking to curry favour with the king, rode from Westminster

to Canterbury and killed Becket in front of the main altar of the Cathedral when he

refused to relent.

Henry's Penance - Henry, full of remorse, did penance imposed by the pope. Hewalked to Canterbury Cathedral in sack cloth and ashes and allowed himself to be

flogged by the monks there. He also gave way for the moment on the question of

court authority.

Consequences of Becket's Death - Becket's martyrdom did Canterbury Cathedral no

harm at all. In a very short time miraculous cures began to be reported at his

tomb. The old Cathedral burned down in 1174, and it was the growing popularity of

Becket's shrine as a place of pilgrimage that paid for the rebuilding. Much of the

magnificent Cathedral that we see today was built on the proceeds of gifts and the

sale of "official souvenirs" at the shrine during the next few hundred years.

Canterbury became one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in westernChristendom.

Legal Reforms - Henry introduced several major reforms. Prior to 1166 trial by

ordeal was a common way of determining guilt or innocence in criminal cases.

Under this system, an accused person might have to pick up a red hot bar of iron,

or pluck a stone out of a boiling cauldron. If their hand had begun to heal after

three days they were considered to have God on their side, affirming their

innocence. One has to wonder how many "not guilty" verdicts were rendered by

this system! Henry replaced this rather painful system with a jury of 12 men. He

also introduced the first personal property tax. At the same time he forced Wales to

at least nominally acknowledge the sovereignty of the English crown.

The Devil's Brood - Henry was not so lucky in his family life. He was married to

the forceful Eleanor of Aquitaine, and in their squabbling she turned his sons

Richard, John, and Geoffrey against him. The "Devil's Brood" intrigued, fought, and

rebelled against their father. In the end, the crown went to Richard while John

"Lackland" received nothing. Geoffrey received even less; He died before his father.

Henry VIII

Henry VII's eldest son was Arthur, Prince of Wales. He married Catherine of Aragon,

but died shortly thereafter, leaving the throne to fall to his younger brother Henry.

History has not proved kind to the memory of Henry VIII (1509-47).

He is often remembered as the grossly stout, overbearing tyrant of his later years.

In his youth, however, Henry was everything it was thought a king should be. A

natural athlete, a gifted musician and composer, Henry was erudite, religious, and a

true leader among the monarchs of his day.

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Field of the Cloth of Gold

Background

In the early 16th century the balance of power in Western Europe was a

precarious one; the major players being Francis I of France and Charles,

Holy Roman Emperor. Each monarch tried to build a set of alliances to swing thebalance in their favour. Into the mix came England, under Henry VIII. Henry's chief

advisor, Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, favoured an alliance with France. Henry's queen,

Catherine, favoured the Empire (the Emperor Charles was her nephew). Yet Henry

and Catherine's daughter Mary was affianced to Francis's son, the Dauphin.

Henry himself was undecided as to which alliance offered him the best chance of

personal and national gain. He played a waiting game in an attempt to stay on good

terms with both Charles and Francis, hoping perhaps that no matter which monarch

gained the ascendancy, England would benefit.

The Meeting In 1520 Henry was persuaded to forge an alliance with France. A meeting was

arranged between the two monarchs at a location just outside Calais, a bit of

unremarkable countryside between the villages of Ardres and Guines. Francis and

Henry were personal as well as political rivals, and each king prided himself on the

magnificence of his court. Henry brought with him virtually his entire court, and he

was determined to impress his host with the size and splendour of his retinue.

When it was determined that the castles of both villages were in too great a state of

disrepair to house the courts, they camped in fields, Francis at Ardres and Henry at

Guines. This was no ordinary camping expedition, however; huge pavilions were

erected to serve as halls and chapels, and great silken tents decorated with gemsand cloth of gold.

Definition Cloth of Gold was a fabric woven with thin strands of gold

interspersed with more traditional materials, often silk. It might

be used for clothing or for a ceremonial cloth used as a canopy

for thrones.

It is this ostentatious display of wealth and power that earned the meeting-place

between Francis and Henry the sobriquet "The Field of the Cloth of Gold". The

meeting lasted for three weeks (June 7-June 24, 1520), during which time eachcourt strove to outdo the other in offering splendid entertainments and making

grandiose gestures. Feasts and jousts were held, including a tilt between Henry and

Francis themselves. Balls, masques, fireworks, and military sports were just some

of the activities on offer. The expense incurred by both monarchs was enormous,

and put tremendous strain on the finances of each country.

Consequences

Yet for all the trouble they went to, the results of the meeting were negligible.

Though Henry and Francis agreed in principle to an alliance, it was just two weeks

later that Henry met with Charles himself in England. By the terms of this new

treaty between England and the Empire, each agreed to not sign any new treatieswith France for two years, and the betrothal of Mary to the Dauphin was broken in



favour of a new betrothal to Charles himself (this alliance would later be broken

also). Over the next several years the three monarchs formed, broke, and reformed

alliances in an ever-shifting attempt to gain ascendance in Europe, with no-one

gaining any permanent advantage.

Cardinal Wolsey. Henry had none of his father's drive

for the grind of administration. He handed over that role

to his advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. This Henry was

more concerned with cutting a fine figure than with

balancing rows of figures like his father, and the result

was predictable. Over the course of his reign he

managed to turn a bulging treasury into a gaping black-

hole of debt.

Thomas Wolsey was the son of a Suffolk wool merchant.He became in turn Bishop of London, Archbishop of

York, Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, and papal legate. He

was even at one time considered seriously as a

candidate for the papacy itself. Wolsey loved luxury and ostentation. He maintained

a household of over 1000 people, and at the height of his power he was more king

than Henry himself.

Religious Reformers. The whole of Europe was ablaze during Henry's time with

the religious fervour of Reformation. Great reformers, religious and secular, called

England home. Erasmus, scholar and monk, taught at Oxford, where he agitated for

reform within the church. In his In Praise of Folly he lambasted the clergy for"observing with punctilious scrupulosity a lot of silly ceremonies and paltry

traditional rules." Sir Thomas More, later Chancellor, wrote Utopia, a vision of an

ideal society with no church at all to get in the way of spiritual understanding.

Henry himself, despite his later break with Rome, was not a religious reformer. He

was fairly orthodox in his own beliefs, and he passed measures against Lutheranism

and upheld many traditional Catholic rites from attack by reformers.

Marriage to Catherine. Henry received a special dispensation from the pope in

order to marry his brother's widow, Catherine. The only child of that marriage was

a daughter, Mary. Henry desperately wanted a male heir, and as time went on itbecame obvious that Catherine would have no more children. Henry began to cast

around for a solution.

Anne Boleyn. For by now Henry had enough of his marriage, and was eyeing one

of the Queen's ladies in waiting, Anne Boleyn. Anne refused Henry's advances

without the benefit of a wedding, so Henry sent his chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, to

ask the pope for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. Unfortunately for the

powerful Wolsey, he failed, and was deposed from office. Even the "gift" of his

magnificent new palace at Hampton Court to Henry could not save Wolsey, who

died shortly after his deposition, saving Henry the bother of a mock trial for

treason. In Wolsey's place Thomas More was brought in to be Chancellor.

An older but no wiserHenry VIII

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The Act of Supremacy. Henry's situation was now desperate, for Anne was

pregnant, and at all costs the child, which Henry was sure must be a son, had to be

legitimate. Henry got Parliament to declare that his first marriage was void, and he

secretly married Anne. Unfortunately for Henry, the child proved to be female once

again, the future Elizabeth I. Over the next several years Henry's wrangle with the

pope grew ever deeper, until in 1534 the Act of Supremacy was passed, makingHenry, not the pope, head of the church in England. This was not at first a doctrinal

split in any way, but a personal and political move.

Sir Thomas More opposed the divorce and was reluctantly executed by Henry. At

the foot of the scaffold More is reported to have said, "I pray you, Master

Lieutenant, see me safely up, and for my coming down, let me shift for myself".

How was Henry able to carry off the split from Rome? For one thing, the church had

incurred a tremendous amount of bad feeling over the years. High church officials

were seen as rich, indolent, and removed from the people they were supposed to

be serving. The abbeys and monasteries were well off, and certainly subject to jealousy. Feelings against priests and churchmen in general ran high. The church

had become too far removed from its spiritual roots and purpose.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries

Starting small. Henry VIII took his most decisive step against the power of the

church in 1538, when he began the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He did it

piecemeal, perhaps to avoid too much outcry at the start. First the small, less

powerful houses had their property confiscated and their buildings blighted (made

unsuitable for use). They were followed the next year by the large houses.

Philosophical concepts of the power of the king over church may have played a part

in Henry's decision to suppress the monasteries, but so did greed. The monasteries

were rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way directly or indirectly to the royal

treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as

country estates. Many others became sources of cheap building materials for local

inhabitants. One of the results of the Dissolution of the Monasteries is that those

who bought the old monastic lands were inclined to support Henry in his break with

Rome, purely from self interest.

Attitudes towards the Dissolution. Many of the clerics themselves thought that

a change was in order. The difference was, they thought the wealth they possessedshould go to charity, "religious and educational enterprises." Everyone else had a

personal stake in the matter; Henry wanted money, Parliament wanted to raise

money without having to impose unpopular taxes, the gentry saw a chance to

increase their own estates, and the merchant middle class saw a chance to become

landed gentry themselves.

Winners and losers. Henry sold the monastic lands for bargain basement prices,

such was his need for ready cash. The real beneficiary of the Dissolution was not

the king, but the new class of gentry who bought the lands. The suppression of the

monasteries and places of pilgrimages was devastating for those pilgrimage centres

that had no other economic base. Income for people on the pilgrim routes dropped,with no way to recover it. The other great loser of the Dissolution was culture;

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many monastic libraries full of priceless illuminated manuscripts were destroyed,

with little or no regard for their value.

The fate of the monks and nuns. The monks and nuns were treated quite well as

a rule. Only a few who resisted were summarily executed. The others, including

5000 monks, 1600 friars, and 2000 nuns, were given reasonable pensions. Many of the monks and friars went into regular church office, so they could not be said to

have suffered. Those who did suffer were the thousands of servants attached to the

monasteries. They numbered more than the monks, but there was no pension for

them, no golden handshake.

The English Reformation was slow to gather steam. Catholics were not

mistreated (at least not at first), and in many parts of the country religious life

went on unchanged. Catholic rites and symbols remained in use for many years.

Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey

Thomas Wolsey (or "Wulcy" as he called himself), was born between 1471 and

1474 in Ipswich, the son of a prosperous merchant. Fanciful legend has always

maintained that Wolsey was the son of a simple butcher, but there is no factual

basis to bear this out.

Butcher or not, his father Robert could afford to send Thomas to be educated at

Oxford University, where he was granted his degree at the tender age of only 15, afeat which earned him the sobriquet "the boy bachelor". In 1497 Wolsey was voted

a full fellow (roughly equivalent to a modern professor) at Magdalen College.

Shortly thereafter he was appointed master of the school there.

In 1498 he was ordained a priest of Marlborough (Wiltshire) under the patronage of

the Bishop of Salisbury. More patronage was to earn him his second church post;

the Marquis of Dorset, whose sons he taught at Magdalen, granted him the

rectorship of Limington, Somerset, in 1500. A host of other benefices followed. In

this Wolsey was following the accepted practice of his day, where many churchmen

were official holders of numerous church positions, including rectorships of places

they seldom if ever saw in person.

One of Wolsey's mounting number of church posts was as official chaplain to the

Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Dean. When Dean died in 1503, Wolsey became

chaplain to Sir Richard Nanfan. It was this post that catapulted him to national

power. Sir Richard noted his chaplain's genius for administration, and empowered

Wolsey to handle his financial affairs. He went so far as to present Wolsey to King

Henry VII.

On Nanfan's death in 1507 Wolsey joined the royal court as one of its many

chaplains. Here he attracted the notice and the friendship of Richard Fox, the

powerful Bishop of Winchester.



At this time the king began to use Wolsey on diplomatic errands. In one famous

episode Henry bade Wolsey travel into Flanders as a special envoy to the court of

the Emperor Maximillian. Wolsey travelled like a man possessed; he journeyed to

Flanders and returned in three days. The king, believing him still preparing to

leave, chided him for tardiness, and Wolsey was able to present his master with a

fait accompli !

Wolsey's greatest contributions came as Master of the Rolls, in which post he

initiated reforms which greatly eased the beaurocratic functioning of the court

administration. During this time Wolsey also acquired a bewildering number of

church posts, including Dean of Lincoln, and prebend of Hereford cathedral.

When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509 he continued his father's favour

towards Wolsey, naming him royal almoner, and shortly after, a canon of Windsor,

then registrar of the Order of the Garter.

Wolsey did not receive all these posts for nothing. Henry VIII had little of hisfather's interest or talent for administration, but he was quick to recognize Wolsey's

talents and gave the churchman an increasing number of administrative tasks.

That in itself may have been enough to earn him the enmity of the nobility, but fuel

was added to the fire when Henry began entrusting Wolsey with political power,

both domestically and in international affairs. Wolsey could now afford to indulge

his love of pomp and lavish living; he maintained a huge household, and lived with

a great show of expense. He built a superb palace beside the Thames at Richmond,

called Hampton Court (later Hampton Court Palace).

He added the Bishopric of Lincoln in 1514, and the following year was namedArchbishop (later Cardinal) of York. On December 24, 1515 he reached the zenith

of his power when he was named Lord Chancellor of England. His power was so

great, and his influence over Henry's policies so great that Wolsey was in some

ways more king than the king himself!

In 1521 Pope Leo X died, and Wolsey entertained legitimate hopes of election to

the Holy See. However, the support he needed from the Holy Roman Emperor,

Charles, did not materialize, and Wolsey was left lacking the votes necessary for

election. Two years later the new pope died, but once more Wolsey was deserted

by Charles, and once more he was disappointed. There appears to be some doubt

as to how much Wolsey really wanted the papacy; he protested his relief at notbeing named, and at least some historians tend to believe him.

Wolsey was increasingly unpopular within England, however. The nobility were

jealous of his power, the people hated him for imposing new taxes, and everyone

hated him for his extravagant lifestyle and lavish displays of wealth and power.

At this juncture Henry's personal life intervened. The king wished to rid himself of

his queen, Katherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Katherine had been

a thorn in Wolsey's side, favouring alliance with her nephew Charles, the Holy

Roman Emperor, over Wolsey's policies in favour of the French. So Wolsey did what

he could to help the king. He had Katherine's marriage declared invalid in hislegatine court, hoping that the pope would then feel obliged to officially annul the



marriage. Henry then sent Wolsey to persuade the French king to bring pressure to

bear on the pope.

All the machinations of kings and emperors, church and state, at long last resulted

in the Katherine's trial at Blackfriars, London, in 1519. In the process Wolsey made

an enemy of Anne Boleyn, who held him responsible for the long delay in settlingher status.

The trial failed, and Anne used her influence to bring about Wolsey's fall from royal

favour. He was forced to surrender the Great Seal of England, and more painfully

perhaps, to cede his possessions to Henry.

Although in disgrace, Wolsey was allowed to retain his living as Archbishop of York.

He seems to have made a sincere effort to turn these last few months of his life to

some good, and to perform his duties as an officer of the church with a

commendable conscientiousness. His health, for many years suspect, now failed

badly. In late 1530 Henry charged him with treason, and on the slow journey southfrom York to stand trial Wolsey died at Leicester Abbey.

The Amicable Grant

Background. Henry VIII had a nasty habit of getting embroiled in European

conflicts. In the early 1520s his alliance with Charles, Holy Roman Emperor

involved Henry in yet another continental imbroglio. Charles declared war on

France, and Henry followed suit.

To wage a war requires money; lots of money, and Henry needed plenty to pay for

his latest military project. He turned to his advisor, Cardinal Wolsey. In 1525

Wolsey ordered the implementation of 'Amicable Grant', in theory a freely given gift

from his subjects to the king, but in practice a heavy tax, levied without

Parliamental approval. It is perhaps ironic that the Grant was termed 'Amicable',

implying a sort of friendly largess on the part of Henry's subjects, when in fact it

was unwelcome and burdensome, and evoked heavy resistance.

According to the terms of the Amicable Grant, a tax of up to 1/6 was levied on

secular goods, and up to 1/3 on ecclesiastical possessions. Such a large tax wasbound to stir up considerable opposition, and so it proved. Violence flared in East

Anglia, where the cloth-workers strenuously objected to the Grant. Perhaps more

importantly, the citizens of London refused to pay. They claimed that under terms

of a 1484 statute, all benevolences (gifts of money to the crown) were banned.

In the face of the opposition, Henry VIII did an abrupt about turn. He ordered the

collection of the grant monies to cease, and claimed that they had been levied

without his permission or approval. Technically, this may have been true, as it was

Cardinal Wolsey who proclaimed the Grant, but it is very unlikely indeed that

Wolsey's actions took place without Henry's knowledge and tacit approval.







The failure of the Amicable Grant was one of the first events that led eventually to

Wolsey's fall from power.

Thomas Cranmer

"And forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my

hand shall first be punished." Cranmer's words at his execution.

Thomas Cranmer was born in 1489 at Aslacton, Nottinghamshire, where his father

was a poor village squire. He received his basic education at home, then entered

Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1503. He became a fellow of the college in 1510, but

was forced to abdicate that post after he married his first wife, Joan. After her

death in childbirth he re-entered the church and became a fellow of the college

once more.

Cranmer was an enthusiastic scholar, and he found himself in sympathy with the

continental movement toward church reform that emphasized the importance of

both the Bible and secular authority over papal authority.

Cranmer may have been content to live out his life of study at Cambridge, but the

personal life of King Henry VIII was about to bring this obscure churchman to

international prominence. When Henry's divorce proceedings against Katherine of

Aragon hit legal snags, chance brought Cranmer to Henry's notice.

When an outbreak of the "sweating sickness" struck Cambridge in the summer of

1529, Cranmer left the town to stay in Waltham, Essex. There he met two of Henry's chief advisors, Edward Fox and Stephen Gardiner, who were impressed by

his theological arguments in favour of the king's divorce. They presented Cranmer

to the king, who immediately had Cranmer write a theological defense of his

position, arguing that the Henry's marriage with the widow of his deceased brother

was not legal.

Cranmer defended this treatise before theologians at the universities of Oxford and

Cambridge, in the process earning the gratitude of Henry and the enmity of

Katherine's supporters, including her daughter, Mary. Thereafter Henry employed

Cranmer on several embassies abroad, first to the Pope, and later to make

surreptitious contact with Protestant leaders in Europe.

In 1532 Cranmer married for the second time, to Margaret, daughter of a Lutheran

scholar. Margaret's moment in the public eye was brief, however.

The following year Cranmer was elevated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and in

keeping with the king's objections to ecclesiastic marriages, he was forced to send

his wife into hiding and later to officially banish her. This peculiar state of affairs

continued until reforms in the reign of Henry's son Edward VI allowed clergymen to

marry, and Cranmer could once more live openly with his wife.

In the meantime Cranmer supported, at least in public, Henry's numerous maritalmaneuvers. In his role as Archbishop of Canterbury he officially dissolved Henry's



marriage with Katherine of Aragon, and later helped preside over the trial of Anne

Boleyne, the divorce from Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard's trial and

execution. In these proceedings Cranmer showed his pliability; he seemed unable

to deny Henry any whim.

Cranmer seems to have been genuinely opposed to Henry's Dissolution of theMonasteries, though his devotion to the secular authority of his master did not allow

much scope for challenging Henry's decisions! Certainly Cranmer was one of

Henry's most valued servants during the Dissolution, and as such he took a lot of

the blame from those opposed to the policy.

During the reign of Henry VIII, Cranmer worked toward his own version of sensible

ecclesiastical reform, including a new translation of the Bible in English. But it was

his actions during the reign of Edward VI that made Cranmer a truly controversial

figure, alternately despised and applauded by English Catholics and Protestants.

In 1549 Cranmer produced The Book of Common Prayer (a second revised versionwas issued in 1552), which introduced a storm of controversy. Cranmer presented

the view that a proper Christian Communion depends more on the heart of the

practitioner than the actual bread and wine used in the ceremony. He also

encouraged the public reading of the Bible by the entire congregation.

Though to modern ears these views seem sensible, or at least worthy of reasoned

consideration, at the time they were nothing short of revolutionary. Cranmer was

castigated by Catholics and occasionally by zealous Protestant reformers who

claimed he was not revolutionary enough!

Cranmer's brief reform movement was overturned when Mary I came to the thronein 1552. Mary, a firm Catholic, blamed Cranmer for her mother's divorce. She

quickly had Cranmer tried and sentenced to death for treason. The sentence was

not carried out, though, and Cranmer was tried anew for heresy.

During his trial Cranmer sensibly recanted his reform views, and affirmed the

supreme authority of the Pope and the physical presence of Christ in the bread and

wine of Communion. He signed an official document renouncing his reformist views.

Despite this recantation he was convicted of heresy and sentenced to death.

Perhaps realizing that his chances of survival were gone, Cranmer faced death with

remarkably calm. On March 21, 1556 he was burned at the stake at Oxford.

As the flames rose about him, Cranmer renounced his previous recantation, and

held out the treacherous right hand that had signed the documents, so that it might

be the first consumed by the fire.

His dramatic death notwithstanding, Thomas Cranmer is remembered as one of the

prime architects of England's move away from traditional Catholic worship and

towards its own form of Anglican religious observance.

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The Pilgrimage of Grace

Henry VIII's attacks on the Catholic church and the power of Rome (more details

here) had much popular support. But not everyone was happy with Henry's vigorous

dismantling of Catholic power in England.

The first wave of discontent surfaced in October, 1536, when a large force of rebels

occupied the city of Lincoln. The king did little more than express his displeasure,

and the rebels dispersed.

The Yorkshire Revolt. A much more serious outbreak arose almost immediately

in Yorkshire, led by lawyer Robert Aske, whose men occupied York and then

Doncaster. Aske was supported by no less a personage than Henry Lee, Archbishop

of York. In addition to their complaints against religious policy Aske's rebels added

objections to the high rents and taxes faced by the poor.

The rebels, which contemporary accounts number as high as 40,000 men, carefullyavoided any personal attacks against Henry himself (a wise move), but made a

villain of Henry's chief advisor, Thomas Cromwell.

This was a common approach by rebels throughout the medieval and Tudor period -

rather than risk even the perception of an attack upon the monarch, they

proclaimed themselves loyal subjects who were simply trying to rescue their king

from evil advisors.

Rebel demands. The rebels proclaimed that the revolt would "extend no further

than to the maintenance and defense of the faith of Christ and the deliverance of

holy church, sore decayed and oppressed, and to the furtherance also of private

and public matters in the realm concerning the wealth of all the king's poor

subjects. " To emphasize the religious nature of their motives, the rebels decked

themselves out with badges and banners depicting religious symbols.

In other words, they portrayed themselves as defenders of the church and the

poor, not as overt rebels against the king. Henry VIII was not moved by such fine

distinctions, and he moved quickly to put down the rebellion. He sent an army led

by Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, north to confront the "pilgrims". Howard

played for time, receiving the rebel demands and negotiating while he brought

more troops into position.

Confrontation. The rebels at first defied the royal troops, and a battle seemed

inevitable. Before the conflict could take place, a sudden downpour caused a

stream separating the armies to deepen so much that no troops could cross.

Perhaps the rain dampened the rebels spirit, for they accepted the duke's offer of

pardon for the leaders, in exchange for vague promises that the king would hear

their petitions and hold a parliament at York within a year.

Once that agreement had been reached, Aske naively persuaded his men to

disperse, assuming that his demands would be favourably received. The rebels

melted away to their northern homes, and the revolt was over as suddenly as it had

begun.






Treatment of the Leaders. Aske was received by the king in London and treated

well. But the story does not end there. A few months later another Yorkshire

landowner, Sir Francis Bigod, led a fresh uprising at Beverley. Although Aske and

other leaders of the original Pilgrimage of Grace tried to defuse Bigod's revolt, they

were held responsible.

Aske and his friends were arrested, tried for treason, and executed at London in

June, 1537. The entire north of the country was placed under martial law and

roughly 250 people were hanged, many on the merest suspicion of sedition.

Results. The vigorous repression of the Pilgrimage of Grace and its aftermath

effectively ended any popular resistance to Henry's religious policies, and the

Dissolution of the Monasteries proceeded without further serious difficulty.

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

Anne's Boleyn's Fall. For all the trouble that Henry had undergone to marry Anne

Boleyn, their marriage did not last long. First was the disappointment of a female

child. Then came rumours that Anne had been unfaithful to Henry, which neatly

coincided with Henry's new infatuation for Jane Seymour.

Eventually Anne was tried for adultery, which, since Henry was the king, was

treason if Henry chose to look at it that way. He did so choose, and Anne was

beheaded on the green in the Tower of London. She was little mourned; in her short

reign she had managed to alienate just about everyone at court.

Wives Three through Six. Henry married Jane, and between them they produced

the long awaited male heir to the throne, the future Edward VI. Unfortunately, Jane

died in childbirth. Henry then went through the last of his three wives in quick

succession. Anne of Cleves, whom Henry married on the basis of a highly

flattering portrait which proved to be largely artistic license, was divorced.

Catherine Howard was accused of adultery and executed. And finally, Catherine

Parr, who was more nursemaid than wife to the ailing Henry, managed to outlive

the king.

At the end of his life Henry grew grossly fat and was in terrible pain from his

swollen legs, probably brought on by gout. He was carried in a chair while indoors,and hoisted up and down stairs with the aid of elaborate machines, but he still

insisted on riding on horseback when traveling.

Enclosures. The single greatest social issue of the reigns of the first three Tudors

was the enclosure movement and the attendant woes to the lower classes who

were displaced or had their common grazing privileges denied by the new

enclosures. Simply put, enclosure was the fencing or hedging of open farmland for

the purpose of raising sheep. As a landowner it made far more economic sense to

raise sheep than to rely on traditional feudal arrangements of mutual obligation.

Summing up the early Tudors. Early Tudor Britain was a society in turmoil, bothreligious and economic. Social upheaval and religious strife dominated English

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public life. The prosperity of the early years of Henry VII gave way to terrific

economic pressures on the lower classes, though the middle class merchants and

yeomen continued to grow in strength and wealth.

Individual initiative, both economic and religious, was replacing the ordered (or

static) conditions of the Middle Ages. Entrepreneurial zeal and religious reformationwere overturning a society that had remained largely unchanged for centuries. It

was now possible for peasants to rise to high church office, or to great economic

power, through their own initiative and drive. This kind of upward mobility was

something new and challenging for England. People with no pretensions to a noble

title or lands were rising higher than anyone could have imagined a few decades

earlier.

These changes primarily affected men. The role of women was mostly static, even

during the later reigns of the two queens, Mary and Elizabeth. The abolition of

monastic settlements must have proved a great hardship to those women who

would otherwise have used the church to escape being married off for family profit.

The early Tudor period can be summed up in these three characteristics: peace in

England, strong central government, and general prosperity.

Elizabeth I and Tudor England

The feeble Edward VI (1537-53) was only ten years old when he came to the

throne. The Duke of Somerset (The Lord Protector) acted as regent. Somerset

introduced Protestant reforms to the English church. Uniformity of service wasensured by an act of Parliament. In 1551 Archbishop Cranmer's Forty Two Articles

of religion laid the foundation for Anglicanism.

When the Edward died at the age of sixteen the Duke of Northumberland tried to

put a reluctant Lady Jane Grey, great grand-daughter of Henry VII, on the throne

ahead of Edward's sister Mary. There was no real public support for the move and it

fizzled after only nine days. The Duke, the unfortunate Jane Grey, and all her major

supporters were executed at the Tower of London. Overseas, Calais was finally lost to

the French, and a legacy of English presence on the continent going back to William

the Conqueror disappeared forever.

The reign of Queen Mary (1553-58) was marked by religious

upheaval and dissension. She had been raised as a Catholic,

and she sought to undo the Protestant changes of the past

several years. Protestants were suppressed and burned in the

hundreds, an act which earned Mary the charming nickname

"Bloody Mary".

Mary entered into an extremely unpopular marriage with Philip,

heir to the throne of Spain. Parliament refused to accept Philip

as co-ruler, and after much wrangling he took his place as

Mary's consort only, with no right to inherit the throne. Mary seems to have dotedon Philip, but he regarded the marriage as an affair of political convenience.

Queen Mary

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When Mary died the pendulum of English religious life swung once again. Elizabeth

I (1558-1603) was raised as a Protestant, but she was shrewd enough to play the

game of politics; she was a master of procrastination and of playing one side

against the other.

Under Elizabeth the Church of England was officially

established (1563) with Protestant dogma, but a liturgy, rites,

and church organization which were essentially Catholic in

form.There were many non-conforming Protestant sects at

this time, most of which were tolerated under Elizabeth's

policies. Life was not easy for Catholics, though. There were

as many executions of Catholics under Elizabeth as there were

Protestants under Mary, though over a reign nine times as

long.

One of the main thorn's in Elizabeth's side was Mary, Queenof Scots. Mary, a Catholic, fled from Scotland after managing to offend nearly

everyone there, and took refuge in England. The trouble was that Mary became the

centre of numerous Catholic plots to regain power in England. Elizabeth might have

been able to overlook that, but Mary had the gift of indiscretion, and was

discovered once too often corresponding with Elizabeth's enemies. Reluctantly,

Elizabeth had Mary executed for treason.

Tension with Spain was constant during Elizabeth's reign. Philip, who had once been

touted as a possible husband for Elizabeth, was now king of Spain. Spain had

tremendous wealth pouring into its treasury from its territories in the New World,

and English sailors had a habit of capturing Spanish ships on the high seas. This"piracy" was officially reprimanded by Elizabeth and unofficially praised. Sir

Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins were two captains who made their

reputations and fortunes playing at piracy.

In 1588 Philip assembled a great fleet of warships to invade England. He should

have succeeded, as the Spanish Armada had far more fire-power than the

English.

The Armada was sighted off Plymouth, where the English

commander, Drake, was enjoying a game of bowls on the

common, or Hoe. In one of those delightful scenes whichbecome legends, Drake calmly insisted on finishing his

game before taking ship to meet his foe. In reality his

bravado was based on good knowledge of the weather and

the tides; he knew full well that he had plenty of time.

The English used their lighter, more manoeuverable vessels

to great advantage against the larger, heavier Spanish. They sent fire-ships into

the midst of the Armada to spread panic and disperse the fleet. All might well have

been lost, however, but a heavy storm came up and scattered the Spanish vessels.

A combination of tactics, luck, and weather sent a tattered Spanish Armada limping

around Scotland, down the west coast of Ireland, and home to Spain.

Elizabeth I

An English ship in theArmada fight



The Spanish Armada

Background. King Philip II of Spain was the most powerful and (seemingly)wealthy man in Europe in the latter half of the 16th century. His territories in the

New World brought him enormous wealth, though the expense of administering

that far-flung empire meant that Spain was heavily in debt to foreign bankers.

England, by comparison, was a relatively small nation, and

not a particularly powerful or wealthy one. Why then would

Philip spend the money to assemble the largest - and most

expensive - naval force ever seen against his island foe?

The answer has many parts. In his youth, Philip was

married to his fellow Catholic, Mary, Queen of England. Hewas not king, indeed the only way the English Parliament

would countenance the marriage was if Philip was

expressly forbidden from ruling.

He was, rather, Mary's consort, a duty he fulfilled with underwhelming enthusiasm.

Philip never cared for Mary, indeed, he said while on his way to his marriage, "I am

going to a crusade, not to a marriage feast". He was fueled by a religious desire to

father a Catholic heir who would keep England within the Roman Catholic sphere.

Mary, by now a middle-aged spinster, certainly did care for her new husband, and

even managed to convince herself that she was pregnant at one point, but it was

not to be.

When Mary died in 1558 her very Protestant sister Elizabeth came to the throne.

Philip was unwilling to let his precarious grasp on England slip away completely; he

proposed marriage to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was a master at procrastination, and playing the game of politics. She

kept communication open with Philip, and protested her friendship, all the while

encouraging English pirates like Hawkins and Drake to seize Spanish ships and

goods in the West Indies. Drake was dubbed by the Spanish "the Master Thief of

the Unknown World".

In the 1560s Elizabeth also earned Spanish wrath by supporting Protestants in the

Netherlands in their revolt against Spanish occupation.

Spain also believed, or at least found it useful to believe, that Elizabeth was

illegitimate. Under Catholic principles Elizabeth's father Henry VIII had no right to

divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, to marry Elizabeth's mother, Anne

Boleyne. Therefore Elizabeth was born out of proper wedlock, and thus had no right

to the throne.

More importantly for the fervently Catholic Philip, he believed that it was his duty to

lead Protestant England back to the Catholic faith - by force of necessary. He

An English ship inaction against theSpanish Armada



managed to get papal approval for his invasion, and a promise of money to be

delivered after the Spanish had landed in England.

He also got papal permission to name the next ruler of England (by surreptitiously

slipping a clause to that effect into the middle of the document of agreement with

the pope). Philip planned to name his daughter Isabella as Queen of England, underhis control.

The Spanish Fleet. Philip began preparing his invasion force as early as 1584. His

first choice as commander was the Marquis of Santa Cruz, but when Santa Cruz

died Philip ordered the Duke of Medina Sedonia to take command of the fleet. The

Duke was an experienced warrior - on land. He had no naval background, and no

interest in leading the Armada, as the invasion fleet came to be called. He begged

to be dismissed, but Philip ignored the request.

Cadiz. Despite Spanish precautions, the English were well aware of the Spanish

preparations. In a bold move that was apparently against Elizabeth's wishes, SirFrancis Drake sailed a small English fleet to Cadiz, where they surprised a large

number of Spanish warships in the harbour. Drake burned and sunk a number of

ships and slipped away before the Spanish could rally. Although the blow at Cadiz

was more an annoyance than a major setback, the English took heart from this

"singeing of the King of Spain's beard".

The Armada sets sail. By May of 1588, however, the Armada was finally ready to

sail. The fleet numbered over 130 ships, making it by far the greatest naval fleet of

its age. According to Spanish records, 30,493 men sailed with the Armada, the vast

majority of them soldiers. A closer look, however, reveals that this "Invincible

Armada" was not quite so well armed as it might seem.

Many of the Spanish vessels were converted merchant ships, better suited to

carrying cargo than engaging in warfare at sea. They were broad and heavy, and

could not maneuver quickly under sail.

This might not at first glance have seemed a problem to the Spanish. They did not

intend to engage the English in a sea battle. The ships of the Armada were

primarily troop transport. Their major task was simply to carry armed men to a

designated landing point and unload them.

Naval tactics were evolving; it was still common for ships to come alongside eachother and allow fighting men to engage in hand to hand combat. Advances in

artillery were only beginning to allow for more complex strategies and

confrontations at sea. At this stage the English were far more adept at artillery and

naval tactics than the Spanish, who were regarded as the best soldiers in Europe.

The Spanish plans called for the fleet to sail up the English Channel and rendezvous

off Dover with the Duke of Parma, who headed the Spanish forces in the

Netherlands. This in itself presented huge problems. Communications were slow,

and the logistical problems of a rendezvous at sea were immense.

Also, the Duke of Parma was a very proud man, and resented the fact that MedinaSedonia had been given command of the operation. Throughout the whole Armada



affair Parma, while not openly obstructionist, did a poor job of cooperating with his

titular commander, Medina Sedonia. He did not believe the enterprise could

succeed, and he did the absolute minimum possible to help.

Perhaps worst of all the problems faced by the Armada was Philip himself. The king

insisted on controlling the details of the Armada's mission. He issued a steadystream of commands from his palace of the Escorial, yet he seldom met with his

commanders, and never allowed his experienced military leaders to evolve their

own tactics. He did not listen to advice, which was a shame, for Philip had little

military training and a poor grasp of naval matters. He firmly believed that God

guided him, and that therefore his mission would succeed.

The English were not idle while the Spanish Armada prepared to sail. A series of

signal beacons atop hills along the English and Welsh coasts were manned. When

the Spanish ships were at last sighted of The Lizard on July 19, 1588, the beacons

were lit, speeding the news throughout the realm. The English ships slipped out of

their harbour at Plymouth and, under cover of darkness, managed to get behindthe Spanish fleet.

The Battle. The Spanish sailed up the Channel in a crescent formation, with the

troop transports in the centre. When the Spanish finally reached Calais, they were

met by a collection of English vessels under the command of Howard. Each fleet

numbered about 60 warships, but the advantage of artillery and maneuverability

was with the English.

Under cover of darkness the English set fireships adrift, using the tide to carry the

blazing vessels into the massed Spanish fleet. Although the Spanish were prepared

for this tactic and quickly slipped anchor, there were some losses and inevitableconfusion.

On Monday, July 29, the two fleets met in battle off Gravelines. The English

emerged victorious, although the Spanish losses were not great; only three ships

were reported sunk, one captured, and four more ran aground. Nevertheless, the

Duke of Medina Sedonia determined that the Armada must return to Spain. The

English blocked the Channel, so the only route open was north around the tip of

Scotland, and down the coast of Ireland.

It was then that the unpredictable English weather took a hand in the proceedings.

A succession of storms scattered the Spanish ships, resulting in heavy losses. Bythe time the tattered Armada regained Spain, it had lost half its ships and three-

quarters of its men.

In England the victory was greeted as a sign of divine approval for the Protestant

cause. The storms that scattered the Armada were seen as intervention by God.

Services of thanks were held throughout the country, and a commemorative medal

struck, with the words, "God blew and they were scattered" inscribed on it.

Note: The term "Invincible Armada" was not a Spanish one. It was a sarcastic

phrase employed by later English commentators.



Lady Jane Grey

While Henry VIII grumbled towards a cantankerous death, he felt it necessary to

settle the matter of his succession. In his will, he named his son Edward to succeed

him. After Edward, and the heirs of his body, he named his daughter Mary and theheirs of her body, and after that, his second daughter Elizabeth. Henry's will was

duly approved by an acquiescent Parliament.

Jane Grey - quick facts

Born September 1537

Died February 12, 1554

Father: Henry Grey, Marquess of

Dorset

Mother: Lady Frances Brandon,

daughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary

When Henry finally died in 1546, his son Edward took the throne as Edward VI.

Since Edward was only 9 years old at the time of his coronation, government was

actually conducted by a Council of Executors. The Council was headed by Edward's

uncle, the Earl of Hertford, who was named Protector of the Realm. Shortly after

taking office Hertford had himself named Duke of Somerset, and it is by that name

that he is best known.

Somerset was an interesting character; a man of occasional laudable ideals, but

with a knack for alienating people and going about his business with the least tact

possible. He managed to pass measures aimed at widespread religious tolerance,for example, yet also aroused the church to fury by imposing the Act of Uniformity

and the Book of Common Prayer upon it. More importantly, he aroused Parliament

to an equal fury by his measures against land enclosure.

Somerset found himself wholly without support where it counted the most;

amongst his fellow nobles. John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, headed Parliamentary

opposition which resulted in Somerset's arrest. Somerset was forced to resign as

Protector, had some of his property seized, and was briefly held in the Tower of

London.

Into the void created by the deposition of Somerset stepped John Dudley, betterknown by the title he later appropriated, Duke of Northumberland. Where Somerset

had been possessed of laudable (by modern standards) motives on occasion,

Northumberland was motivated by greed and personal power. His administration

was marked by a move towards extremism and harshly repressive laws aimed at

squelching any and all opposition to the Duke's power.

Somerset fell victim to those laws, and was executed in 1552. Northumberland's

position might have seemed unassailable, but there was widespread opposition to

his leadership within Parliament. More importantly, Northumberland was well aware

that Edward was ill and probably had not long to live.



In a desperate bid to secure his own power upon the young king's

death, Northumberland concocted a plan to put a puppet upon the

throne. That puppet was Lady Jane Grey, the quiet, devout sixteen-

year-old granddaughter of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Rose.

Northumberland believed that Jane would be pliable enough to do

whatever he asked of her.

It took a hefty measure of gall to put forward Jane Grey as the future

queen of England, since her claim to the title was extremely weak.

But gall was something Northumberland had in abundance.

He married Jane to his own son Guildford Dudley, and through them believed he

would be able to control the crown when Edward finally died. Jane had no inkling

that her new father-in-law planned to put her forward in Mary Tudor's place when

the king died.

Northumberland had little trouble persuading the fervently Protestant Edward thatthe throne must not fall to his Catholic sister Mary. The king was convinced to

circumvent his father's will and name Jane's mother Frances Grey as his successor.

Frances then duly relinquished her own "claim" in favour of her daughter, Jane.

With great difficulty Northumberland convinced the Council to fall in with his plans.

Edward died on July 6, 1553 and four days later Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen

of England. But here Northumberland's plans suffered their first check. Jane flatly

refused to allow her new husband Dudley to be named king, a title he had

manifestly no right to possess.

Instead, she proposed he be created Duke of Clarence. Northumberland, his wife,and Jane's own husband, were furious at her refusal, but she would not unbend

from what she considered the only right and lawful course.

A second setback soon followed; to secure the success of his plans Northumberland

needed to capture Mary and prevent support forming around her. But Mary was

warned of his plans, and barely escaped the men sent to imprison her.

Northumberland abandoned London and set off in pursuit of Mary, who had taken

refuge at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. In his absence the Council acted quickly

and declared its support for Mary.

Mary was declared queen at Paul's Cross, London, and Northumberland realizedthat his plans had failed. He threw himself upon Mary's mercy. She was inclined to

be magnanimous in victory, but Northumberland's enemies on the Council

persuaded her that the Duke was too dangerous, and he was quickly put to death.

As for Jane Grey, she and her unwelcome husband Guildford were sent to the

Tower. She had spent but nine short days as queen of the realm.

Guildford was held in the Beauchamp Tower, and Jane at the house of the Gaoler at

#5 Tower Green. Though the couple were neighbours, they were forbidden contact.

On November 13 they were brought to trial for treason at the Guildhall and speedilyfound guilty. Even then, Mary was inclined to be merciful and spare the lives of

Lady Jane

Grey



these unwitting pawns in the schemes of Northumberland. But once again the plots

of others ensnared Jane Grey. This time it was her father Henry, now Duke of

Suffolk, who brought about her final ruin.

Henry Grey joined the ill-fated revolt known as the Wyatt Rebellion. Sir Thomas

Wyatt, angered at Mary's plans to marry Phillip of Spain, raised an armed revolt inKent and marched on London. His cause failed to rouse the Londoner's support, and

Wyatt was captured. Grey tried to raise the Midlands in revolt, but he also was

swiftly captured. Mary realized that as long as Jane lived she would continue be a

focus for rebellion, so on February 7, 1554 she reluctantly signed Jane's death

warrant.

Guildford begged Mary's leave to visit Jane, which Mary granted, but Jane refused

to meet with her husband, saying 'it would disturb the holy tranquility with which

they had prepared themselves for death.'

On the morning of February 12 Jane watched from her window as Guildford wastaken to Tower Hill, and she was still watching when his headless corpse returned

to the Tower. Then it was her own turn. At a scaffold erected on the Tower Green,

Jane Grey was beheaded.

The "Queen for Nine Days" was buried in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula at

the Tower, near her husband Guildford and his father Northumberland, who by his

ambition had brought about her death.



English History

Wyatt's Rebellion

Edward VI was only xxx when he died in July, 1553. The Duke of

Northumberland seized upon Edward's death to put his daughter-in-law, Lady

Jane Grey, upon the throne, but this attempt came to nothing. Lady Jane was put

in prison, and Mary, eldest daughter of Henry VIII, was crowned queen on 10

July, 1553.

Mary was a devout Catholic, and one of the tasks she saw as essential to the

spiritual well being of the realm was for her to foster the Catholic faith. One of

the ways she could do that was to marry a devout Catholic and produce Catholicheirs. After prolonged negotiations a marriage was arranged between Mary and

Philip, son of the Spanish Emperor Charles V.

When the Spanish marriage was announced, Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger

(born about 1521 - died 1554) took action. Wyatt was a courageous leader and

a skilled soldier, but he was also reckless and hotheaded. He had served for a

short time as sheriff of Kent, were he had his estate of Allington Castle. Wyatt

considered the marriage an affront to English sovereignty - both spiritual and

material. He saw it as the thin edge of a Catholic wedge which would undo the

reforms of Henry VIII and draw England under the influence of the Catholic

church and the very Catholic Spanish empire.

Wyatt evolved a daring and dangerous plot to raise armies in different parts of

the country and converge upon London. The most prominent of his fellow

conspirators were Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, Sir Peter Carew, and Edward

Courtenay, Earl of Devon. To Grey fell the task of raising troops in Leicestershire,

while Courtenay did the same in Devon. More troops were expected from the

Welsh borderland.

Like many such plots during the turbulent Tudor period, Wyatt's plans were

uncovered. Courtenay turned against him, and the other conspirators did not, or

could not, fulfil their part in the plan. But Wyatt, perhaps foolishly, went aheadwith his rebellion; he raised an army of some 3000 men in Kent, and marched on

London. Wyatt's motives seem hazy; perhaps he did not know himself what his

aims were beyond putting a stop to the Spanish marriage. It is possible that

Wyatt intended to put Elizabeth on the throne; indeed, it is hard to see how he

could have envisaged any other outcome in the event of Mary's removal. There is

some suggestion that he wanted to marry Elizabeth to Edward Courtenay.

Whether Elizabeth herself knew of Wyatt's intentions is another matter. It was

certainly politically expedient for her to not know, so that she could deny

involvement should affairs to go to plan. It seems unlikely, though, that she was

completely unaware of Wyatt's plans.



There was little popular support for Mary and her Catholic leanings, but even so,

Mary was not so secure on the throne that that she could be assured of victory.

Wyatt, on the other hand, was counting on the citizens of London to rise up and

join him in his rebellion. The first troops sent against him deserted to his cause,

and Wyatt must have hoped that his rebellion would succeed against the odds.

But Mary did not sit meekly waiting to see what he fate would be; she went inperson to the London Guildhall and exhorted the citizens of the city to come to

her aid. Twenty thousand men volunteered to act as militia against the

insurgents.

Wyatt's men entered London on 3 February, 1554, but the expected outbreak of

popular support did not materialize, perhaps in part because of Mary's appeal to

the Londoners. Wyatt had a minor skirmish with a troop of infantry at Hyde Park

Corner on 7 February, and though he escaped, the morale of his men was

dropping rapidly as the promised popular support was nowhere to be found.

Wyatt reached Ludgate on the morning of 8 February, but the gate was shutagainst him and he had no means to break through. He retreated as far as

Temple Bar, where he finally gave recognized that his cause was lost and he

surrendered.

Wyatt himself was taken to Whitehall, and thence to the Tower of London. Wyatt

was tried for treason on 15 March, found guilty, and executed on Tower Hill on

11 April. Before he died Wyatt was put under extreme duress to implicate

Elizabeth in his plot, but this he strenuously denied to the end. In his final

address to the crowd gathered to watch his execution, Wyatt exonerated

Elizabeth and Courtenay, and took the full responsibility for the rebellion on his

own shoulders.

Nevertheless, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for alleged

involvement in Wyatt's Rebellion. Whether Mary actually believed that her sister

had been involved in the plot is another question, but the Rebellion certainly

provided a useful pretext for putting Elizabeth out of the way. In the aftermath of

the rebellion Mary's advisors were zealous in tracking down and executing

conspirators, and alleged conspirators. Many called for Elizabeth to be executed

as well, and it is interesting to consider how history would have changed had

Mary not resisted those calls.

One unfortunate side effect of Wyatt's Rebellion was that it hastened the demiseof the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. The 'Nine Days Queen', who had been little

more than a pawn in the hands of her ambitious father-in-law, was considered at

threat to the throne, and was beheaded, along with her husband and her father,

the Duke of Suffolk.

The Essex Rebellion

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was a charming rogue at his best, and a

treacherous schemer at his worst. On his best behaviour, he became a firm

favourite with an aging Queen Elizabeth I, but Elizabeth, ever cautious, never lethim presume too far upon her favour. It was suggested in later novels and films



that Elizabeth was in love with the handsome Essex, but this suggestion is not

supported by any firm evidence. Rather, it seems, Elizabeth enjoyed his flattery

and his flamboyant company. Whatever the truth of the matter, Elizabeth was

never one to let her heart rule her head.

The final years of Elizabeth's long reign were fraught with intrigue over herpossible successor, given that she had no direct descendants. Elizabeth herself

refused to be drawn over the subject, and refrained from favouring any one

possible heir. In law there was no question who had the best claim to the throne;

James VI of Scotland was the only legitimate legal successor, but legality was

sometimes put to one side in the turbulent affairs of Elizabethan England.

Various claimants to the throne wee suggested, from Arabella Stuart, great

granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, to Isabella of Spain, sister of the Spanish king

Phillip III. Though there were religious extremists on both the Catholic and

Protestant sides of the spectrum, most moderates would be prepared to accept

either a Catholic monarch who supported the rights of Anglicanism, or aProtestant ruler prepared to accept Catholicism. The situation leant itself to plot

and counter-plot on all sides.

Two of the most active plotters were Robert Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Robert

Devereux, the Earl of Essex. Though personal enemies, both men ultimately

supported James VI of Scotland, though it would seem that their primary

objective was the ruin of the other!

The Irish question

In 1598 the English determined to send a large force against Hugh O'Neill, the

Earl of Tyrone. Essex was handed the responsibility of carrying out the campaignagainst Tyrone, and to do so was given sweeping powers of administration in

Ireland.

Essex's campaign was a disaster, marred by inaction, and refusal to seriously

engage the enemy. When at last Essex bowed to pressure from the English

government to march against Tyrone, he treated with the Irish earl instead of

fighting, and broke off the engagement. Though we do not know for certain what

terms the two earls came to, there is a strong suspicion that they agreed to

support the succession of James VI, and give support their own claim to authority

within their own countries.

But Essex had gone too far; he had refused to follow out the express orders

given him to fight Tyrone. Elizabeth reproached him sternly, and at that point the

impetuous Essex made a fatal decision. Without asking permission to leave

Ireland Essex deserted his post, took ship for England, and rode to Greenwich,

where he burst in upon the queen and threw himself upon her mercy.

Elizabeth was furious at her former favourite; she would hear nothing of his plea,

and banished him from her presence. That same day Essex was arrested and put

under house arrest. There he languished for over a year, while Cecil carried on

his intrigues. When Essex was finally released, he found his support had withered

away.



The Essex Rebellion

In a last attempt to regain power he conceived a wild and desperate plan to seize

the queen and destroy Cecil. He gathered about him some 300 supporters, and

tried to persuade Lord Mountjoy, his successor in Ireland, to bring his troops

from Ireland back to England to support him. But the wily Cecil was aware of

every move Essex made.

A treasonous play

Essex sponsored a performance of Shakespeare's play, Richard II , at the Globe

Theatre in London, on 7 February 1601. This would on the surface appear to be

an innocuous event, scarce worthy of mention. But in Elizabethan England

nothing was as it seemed. The play revolves around the story of the unfortunate

Richard, who lost his throne and his life by listening to evil advisors. It would be

very easy to draw parallels with Elizabeth herself as the unfortunate monarch,

and cast Cecil and his faction as Richard's advisors. In these circumstances, the

play could be seen as a symbolic threat to the queen.

The queen sent four of her advisors to Essex house, the earl's London residence.

Impetuous to the last, Essex locked the men in his library and took to the

streets, hoping to raise support from the Sheriff of London. The Sheriff, Sir Thom

as Smythe, put him off, and the expected spontaneous swell of support from the

London mob failed to materialize. Essex must have realized the game was up.

The Earl of Nottingham led a force of men to Essex House and after a short

skirmish, forced Essex to surrender. Essex was brought before a council of his

peers, where he was summarily tried and found guilty of treason.

Essex may have hoped that the aging queen would come to his rescue, but evenshe had had enough, and she let the sentence of execution be carried out

without intervention. Robert Devereux was executed on 25 February, 1601.

The main consequence of Essex's failed rebellion is that Cecil reigned supreme at

court, and under his direction, the succession of James VI of Scotland to the

English throne was assured when Elizabeth died two years later.

Elizabethan Life

High Society. Society began to form along new lines in the Tudor years. If feudal England was an age of community, Tudor England was one of

individuality. Nobility and knights were still at the top of the social ladder, but the

real growth in society was in the merchant class.

Nobles old and new. Within the nobility there was a distinction between old

families and new. Most old noble families were Catholic, and most new noble

families were Protestant. The upper classes were exempt from the new oaths of

allegiance to the Church of England, and many Catholic families maintained

private chaplains.

Noble obligations. It is easy to think of the nobility as the idle rich. They mayhave been rich (though not necessarily), but they certainly weren't allowed to be



idle. Often, high office brought debt rather than profit. Honorific offices were

unpaid, and visiting nobles to England were the responsibility of the English

nobility to house and entertain at their own expense. Appointment to a post of

foreign ambassador brought with it terrible financial burdens. The ambassador

was expected to maintain a household of as many as 100 attendants.

Elizabethan progresses. The most expensive "honour" of all was that of

housing Queen Elizabeth and her household. Elizabeth hit on the clever scheme

of going on constant "progresses" about the country. Aside from the benefit of

bringing her into closer contact with her subjects, she saved a great deal of

money by making the nobles with whom she stayed foot the bill for her visit.

Many nobles begged off the honour of her stay for fear of bankruptcy.

Incidentally, the "progresses" of Elizabeth account for the fact that there are so

many places today that advertise "Queen Elizabeth slept here". She slept just

about everywhere.

Nobility had other expenses besides the monarch. They maintained hugehouseholds, and conspicuous consumption and lavish entertainment was

expected.

The new merchant class. The Tudor era saw the rise of modern commerce

with cloth and weaving leading the way. A prosperous merchant class emerged

from the ashes of the Wars of the Roses. The prosperity of the wool trade led to a

surge in building in the active wool areas. "Wool churches" can be seen today in

the Cotswolds, Lavenham, Leominster, and Stamford, among others. The importance

of the wool trade in late medieval and Tudor England cannot be overstated.

Witness the inscription carved on a monument in a wool church, "I thank God

and ever shall, it was the sheep that payed for all".

Houses. House designs became more balanced and symmetrical, with E and H

shapes common, (possibly as a tribute to Elizabeth and Henry VIII). For the first

time greater attention was paid to comfort and less to defence. Battlements

disappeared, arches became flattened, and bay and oriel windows grew in size.

Houses were often built around an inner courtyard. The hall was still the centre

of life, though now space was made in lofts for servants to sleep. The winter

parlour appeared, a forerunner of the modern dining room. It acted as a family

retreat area, and privacy began to be more prized. The walls were commonly

decorated with linen fold panelling and adorned with freshly cut boughs for scent.

Tudor houses were generally timber-framed. The oak timbers were usually left to

the weather rather than tarred black as is commonly seen in modern restorations

and imitations. A new feature of manor houses was the long gallery running the

length of the upper floor. It was a place for walks, games, and displaying art.

There were few passages; one room opened directly into the next. This also

meant that privacy tended to be a foreign concept to most people.

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Houses began to be built with many more windows. Hardwick

Hall in Derbyshire was known by the rhyme, "Hardwick Hall,

more glass than wall". Elaborately carved oak staircases

began to be featured in houses, replacing circular stone

stairwells.

Gardens were a vital feature of Tudor life. Both flower and

herb gardens were popular, with formal layouts of straight

lines and walks. Topiary made an appearance.

Meals were elaborate and large. Breakfast was simply a

light snack, while the main meal of the day was dinner, which began at 11

o'clock and lasted for three hours. A smaller supper was usual at 6 o'clock. The

lower classes had dinner at noon and supper at 7 or 8 in the evening. The poor

ate off wooden vessels, or pewter, the rich off silver, glass, or delft from Holland.

China ware was unknown.

Food was cooked over open fires. Meat was cooked on a spit which was

sometimes turned by a dog running on a circular treadmill attached to the spit

end. Baking was done in iron boxes laid on the fire or in a brick oven set into the

side of the fireplace.

House Interiors. If the medieval period was one of beautiful work in stone the

Tudor period was one of beautiful woodwork. The movement began in the 15th

century with church carvings (screens, stalls, and pulpits), and by Elizabeth's

time the carvings had spread to house interiors. Walls were heavily panelled and

furniture grew more elaborate, though it was still heavy and sparse by modern

standards. Sideboards became fashionable as a way to display plate.

There were few chairs; stools or chests were used instead. Rushes, loose or

plaited together to form a rug, were used on the floors. These rushes were swept

or replaced haphazardly, if at all, early in Tudor times. They accumulated layers

of filth and fleas over the years. By the end of Elizabeth's reign, however, things

changed, and the English acquired a reputation for cleanliness.

Great attention was paid to beds. The feather bed made an appearance,

replacing the straw mattress. Elaborate four poster beds were the mode, and

were so highly valued that they are given special mention in the wills of the time.

Literature. Latin was still the language of literacy, despite the success of

Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1589 Spenser's Faerie Queen was a revelation of the

possibilities of the English language in prose.

Plays and playwrights proliferated after 1580, notably Christopher Marlowe and

William Shakespeare. Plays were originally performed in the courtyard of inns,

whose galleried design influenced the later design of playhouses such as

Shakespeare's The Globe (1599). These theatres were open to the air in the

centre, or pit. Performances were given in daylight, due to the difficulty of

lighting the stage and the unsafe nature of travel after dark.

Popular games included bowls, paume (the ancestor of tennis), tilting at quintain,

Tudor townhouse

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bull and bear-baiting, and cockfighting. Medieval tournaments were replaced by

masques, a sort of play or spectacle full of allegory. Sometimes fireworks, which

had just been invented, were a part of the masque.

Practice with a long bow was still encouraged despite the advent of gunpowder

and cannon. Accuracy was expected; a law of Henry VIII decreed that no one 24years of age or older should shoot at a target less than 220 yards away. Early

guns were incredibly slow and proved useless in wet weather. Bowmen could

afford to laugh at them.

The Tudor Church

It has been estimated that in Queen Mary's reign 2/3 of the English people were

Catholic, but it didn't matter because the leadership and the middle classes were

not.

At the beginning of the 16th century most priests were illiterate, knew little Latin

and not much scripture. Under Elizabeth standards improved and the clergy had

to pass examinations. The church began to actively recruit educated men in the

universities.

Church vandalism... Elizabeth's reign also saw

quite a bit of image vandalism in churches, which

steadily increased as the more radical Puritan sects

grew in influence. Paintings were whitewashed,

chalices, roods, and stone altars were removed.

However, screens without roods stayed, as didpainted glass, tombs, fonts, and lecterns. Durham

Cathedral in particular suffered from the defacement and removal of treasures.

... and greed. Sometimes there was more at work than religious zeal. In

Chester the canons removed glass from the cathedral to install in their own

churches. The vicar of Islington melted down funerary brasses from the church

and made coins from them.

Pride goeth before...the sermon. Males and females were separated in the

church, and seating was by social rank. This occasionally led to brawls in the

church over who outranked who. Churches became the stage for family pride;often altars were pulled down and replaced by elaborate family tombs. This was

part of the great surge in social mobility, and hand in hand with it, a great class

consciousness. Pretensions to nobility were insisted upon fanatically. Phillip

Stubbs called it, "Every man crying with open mouth 'I am gentleman'". These

class concerns extended far beyond church; they found an outlet, for example, in

heraldry which bedecked the new tombs. Before Tudor times coats of arms were

generally simple affairs. Now they became crowded, full of reference to real or

imagined family backgrounds.

Monastic buildings were adapted to become houses, hospitals, government

stores, factories, tenements, and guild halls. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries there were far fewer people in religious orders and the influence of the church

A Tudor family at prayer

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declined drastically. It was said that, "The church no longer ran the country, the

country ran the church.

Elizabethan Theatre

Elizabethan theatre and the name of William Shakespeare are inextricably bound

together, yet there were others writing plays at the same time as the bard of

Avon. One of the most successful was Christopher Marlowe, who many

contemporaries considered Shakespeare's superior. Marlowe's career, however,

was cut short at a comparatively young age when he died in a tavern fight in

Deptford, the victim of a knife in the eye.

Theatre had an unsavory reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays

within the city, so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark, outside theauthority of the city administration.

The first proper theatre as we know it was the Theatre, built at

Shoreditch in 1576. Before this time plays were performed in the

courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen. A

noble had to be careful about which play he allowed to be

performed within his home, however. Anything that was

controversial or political was likely to get him in trouble with the

crown!

After the Theatre, further open air playhouses opened in the

London area, including the Rose (1587), and the Hope (1613). The most famous

playhouse was the Globe (1599) built by the company in which Shakespeare had

a stake.

The Globe was only in use until 1613, when a canon fired during a performance

of Henry VIII caught the roof on fire and the building burned to the ground. The

site of the theatre was rediscovered in the 20th century and a reconstruction

built near the spot.

These theatres could hold several thousand people, most standing in the open pit

before the stage, though rich nobles could watch the play from a chair set on the

side of the stage itself.

Theatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was

no artificial lighting. Women attended plays, though often the prosperous woman

would wear a mask to disguise her identity. Further, no women performed in the

plays. Female roles were generally performed by young boys

The Act of Supremacy

Shakespeare



The name "Act of Supremacy" is given to two separate acts of the English

Parliament, one passed in 1534 and the other in 1559. Both acts had the same

purpose; to firmly establish the English monarch as the official head of the

Church of England, supplanting the power of the Catholic pope in Rome.

1534 Act of Supremacy

Henry's actions in assuming for himself the mantle of ecclesiastical authority

were tinged with self-interest. He had sought in vain for papal approval for his

divorce from Katherine of Aragon, and when it became clear that approval would

not be forthcoming, Henry took matters into his own hands.

The Act of Supremacy must be seen as part of a broader policy, though, one

aimed at increasing the power of the English monarch and decreasing the

influence of Rome. To give him his due, Henry was probably sincere in his belief

that the Church of England was riddled with poor administration and had long

since lost the right to act as an independent body. (See our article on theDissolution of the Monasteries).

At the same time, however, Henry had his eye on the wealth of the church,

particularly the property of the monasteries. His lifestyle, and his desire for

military glory had left Henry in a precarious financial position; he needed money,

the church had lots of it, so the solution was obvious - take control of the church

and its assets. This he did by asserting his legal right to act as head of the

Church of England.

One important point to note is that the Act effectively made it treasonable to

support the authority of the Pope over the Church of England. By tying thechurch and monarch so closely together, support for Catholicism became not

simply a statement of personal religious conviction, but a repudiation of the

authority of the monarch, and as such, an act of treason punishable by death.

1559 Act of Supremacy

Not surprisingly, Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy was repealed (1554) in the reign

of his staunchly Catholic daughter, Mary I. Equally unsurprisingly, it was

reinstated by Mary's Protestant sister, Elizabeth I, when she ascended the

throne. Elizabeth declared herself Supreme Governor of the Church of England,

and instituted an Oath of Supremacy, requiring anyone taking public or churchoffice to swear allegiance to the monarch as head of the Church and state.

Anyone refusing to take the Oath could be charged with treason.

There were three levels of penalties for refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy. A

first refusal to resulted in loss of all movable goods. A second offence could mean

life in prison and a loss of all real estate Possessions. A third offence would result

in a charge of High Treason and death. A few years later the Oath was extended

to include M.P.s and anyone taking a university degree.

Tudor London






When Henry VII took the throne in 1485, the population of the city of London

was about 75,000. By 1600 that figure had risen to 200,000. London under the

Tudors was a prosperous, bustling city.

Henry's son Henry VIII made Whitehall Palace the principle royal residence in thecity, and after Cardinal Wolsey "gave" Hampton Court to Henry, that palace

became a countryside retreat for the court.

During Henry's Dissolution of the Monasteries, the 13 religious houses in London were

either converted for private use or pulled down for building materials. All that

now remains are the names they gave to areas of the city, such as Whitefriars

and Blackfriars.

Many areas that are now London parks were used as Royal hunting forests during

the Tudor period. Richmond Park served this purpose, so did Hyde Park, Regent's

Park, and St. James Park.

An international exchange was founded by the mercer Thomas Gresham in 1566

to enable London to compete for financial power with Antwerp, at that time the

financial centre of Europe. This became the Royal Exchange in 1570, by

proclamation of Elizabeth I, and is now housed in a massive Victorian building

beside the Bank of England Museum in Mansion House Square.

In 1598 John Stow, a retired tailor, wrote a survey of the city of London, which

gives a wonderful historic snapshot of the state of Tudor London and its history.

Stow is buried at St. Andrew Undershaft, and a ceremony is held there every year

celebrating his life.

After the Reformation, theatres were banned in the city of London, but it wasn't

for religious objection to the play's contents. Rather, the city authorities (read

guilds) thought they wasted workmen's time.

Rather than disappearing, the theatres moved across the Thames to Southwark,

outside the authority of the city government. Southwark became the

entertainment district for London (it was also the red-light area).

The Globe Theatre, scene of many of Shakespeare's plays, was built on the South

Bank in 1599, though it burned down in 1613. A modern replica, also called theGlobe, has been built near the original site. Southwark was also a favorite area

for entertainment, like bull and bear-baiting.

Unfortunately, many of London's Tudor buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire

of 1666, so it is difficult to get a real sense of what the city was like at that time.

Marprelate Tracts




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The Marprelate Tracts were a series of seven printed pamphlets appearing in late

1588. The tracts, whose authorship was a well-guarded secret, lampooned

individual bishops in the Anglican church, and viciously attacked the church in

general. They were signed 'Martin Mar-Prelate', and thus became known as theMarprelate Tracts.

The government of Elizabeth I went to great lengths to track down those

responsible for the publication of the tracts, and eventually executed one man,

John Penry. The author of the Marprelate Tracts was never uncovered, but the

finger of suspicion points at a man named Job Throckmorton.

Though not of great importance of themselves, the Marprelate Tracts were part

of a larger movement of presbyterian radical reform of the established church.

Background The late Elizabethan church was in great flux, with more or less incompatible

sects struggling to gain the upper hand. A severe Court of High Commission was

set up to deal with ecclesiastical matters, and the Court gained a reputation for

severity and high-handed action. The more severely the Court of High

Commission acted, and the more it tried to enforce rigid uniformity in religious

matters, the louder bayed the voices of its opponents.

The established Church responded to the tracts and other similar voices for

reform with an increasingly severe crackdown on Catholicism and all other forms

of non-conformist theology. In a sense, the Church leadership turned its energy

in two directions at once; against the Catholics at one extreme, and more radicalreligious reformers at the other extreme. A few of the non-conformists left the

country, but most stayed, not just within England, but within the Church as well;

choosing to continue their clamour for reform from within the church rather than

without it. Eventually the established church metamorphosed into the so-called

'High Church', while the reformers became what we now know as the Puritans.

The Early Stuarts and the English Civil War

James I. Elizabeth was followed to the throne by James

VI of Scotland, who became James I of England. Jamesbelieved in the absolute power of the monarchy, and he

had a rocky relationship with an increasingly vociferous

and demanding Parliament. It would be a mistake to think

of Parliament as a democratic institution, or the voice of

the common citizen. Parliament was a forum for the

interests of the nobility and the merchant classes (not

unlike today, some would say).

The Gunpowder Plot. James was a firm protestant, and

in 1604 he expelled all Catholic priests from the island.

This was one of the factors which led to the GunpowderPlot of 1605. A group of Catholic plotters planned to blow up Parliament when it

James I



opened on November 5. However, an anonymous letter betrayed the plot and

one of the plotters, Guy Fawkes, was captured in the cellars of the Houses of

Parliament with enough gunpowder to blow the place sky high. Most of the

plotters were captured and executed. (See our in-depth examination of the

Gunpowder Plot here).

The Rise of the Puritans. During James' reign radical Protestant groups called

Puritans began to gain a sizeable following. Puritans wanted to "purify" the

church by paring down church ritual, educating the clergy, and limiting the

powers of bishops. King James resisted this last. The powers of the church and

king were too closely linked. "No bishop, no king," he said. The Puritans also

favoured thrift, education ,and individual initiative, therefore they found great

support among the new middle class of merchants, the powers in the Commons.

James' attitude toward Parliament was clear. He commented in 1614 that he was

surprised his ancestors "should have permitted such an institution to come into

existence....It is sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the heightof his power".

The King James Bible. In 1611 the King James version of the Holy Bible was

issued, the result of seven years of labour by the best translators and theological

minds of the day. It remained the authoritative, though not necessarily accurate,

version of the Bible for centuries.

Charles I (1625-49) continued his father's acrimonious relationship with

Parliament, squabbling over the right to levy taxes. Parliament responded with

the Petition of Right in 1628. It was the most dramatic assertion of the traditional

rights of the English people since the Magna Carta. Its basic premise was that notaxes of any kind could be allowed without the permission of Parliament.

Charles finally had enough, and in 1629 he dissolved Parliament and ruled

without it for eleven years. Some of the ways he raised money during this period

were of dubious legality by the standards of the time.

Between 1630-43 large numbers of people emigrated from England as

Archbishop Laud tried to impose uniformity on the church. Up to 60,000 people

left, 1/3 of them to the new American colonies. Several areas lost a large part of

their populations, and laws were enacted to curb the outflow.

Ship Money. In 1634 Charles attempted to levy "ship-money", a tax that

previously applied only to ports, on the whole country. This raised tremendous

animosity throughout the realm. Finally Charles, desperate for money,

summoned the so-called Short Parliament in 1640. Parliament refused to vote

Charles more money until its grievances were answered, and the king dismissed

it after only three weeks. Then a rebellion broke out in Scotland and Charles was

forced to call a new Parliament, dubbed the Long Parliament, which officially sat

until 1660.

Civil War. Parliament made increasing demands, which the king refused to

meet. Neither side was willing to budge. Finally in 1642 fighting broke out. TheEnglish Civil War (1642-1646) polarized society largely along class lines.

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Parliament drew most of its support from the middle classes, while the king was

supported by the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry. Parliamentary troops

were known as Roundheads because of their severe hair style. The king's army

were known as Cavaliers, from the French for "knight", or "horseman".

The war began as a series of indecisive skirmishes notablefor not much beyond the emergence of a Parliamentary

general from East Anglia, Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell whipped

his irregular volunteer troops into the disciplined New

Model Army.

Meanwhile, Charles established the royalist headquarters in

Oxford, called his own Parliament, and issued his own

money. He also allied himself with Irish Catholics, which

alienated some of his supporters.

To the poor, the turmoil over religion around the Civil War meant little. Theywere bound by tradition and they supported the king, as they always had.

Charles encouraged poor relief, unemployment measures, price controls, and

protection for small farmers. For most people, life during the Civil War went on

as before. Few were involved or even knew about the fighting. In 1644 a farmer

at Marston Moor was told to clear out because the armies of Parliament and the

king were preparing to fight. "What?" he exclaimed, "Has them two fallen out,

then?"

Marston Moor. The turning point of the war was probably that same Battle of

Marston Moor (1644). Charles' troops under his nephew Prince Rupert were

soundly beaten by Cromwell, giving Parliament control of the north of England.Above the border Lord Montrose captured much of Scotland for Charles, but was

beaten at Philiphaugh and Scot support was lost for good.

The Parliamentary cause became increasingly entangled with extreme radical

Protestantism. In 1645 Archbishop Laud was executed, and in the same year the

Battle of Naseby spelled the end of the royalist hopes. Hostilities dragged on for

another year, and the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold (1646) was the last armed

conflict of the war.

The death of a king. Charles rather foolishly stuck to his absolutist beliefs and

refused every proposal made by Parliament and the army for reform. Hepreferred to try to play them against each other through intrigue and deception.

He signed a secret treaty which got the Scots to rise in revolt, but that threat

was snuffed out at Prestonpans (1648). Finally, the radical core of Parliament

had enough. They believed that only the execution of the king could prevent the

kingdom from descending into anarchy. Charles was tried for treason in 1649,

before a Parliament whose authority he refused to acknowledge. He was

executed outside Inigo Jones' Banqueting Hall at Whitehall on January 30.

Oliver Cromwell

http://www.britainexpress.com/History/stuart/cromwell.htm




cerp 1 tudor england henry vii

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