The Tudors

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THE TUDORS Coordonator, Prof. Goldis Cristina

Absolvent, Mladin Cristina

Royal House of Tudors

Table of Contents Argument Chapter I: Introduction 1.1 The Dynasty 1.2 Ascent to the Throne Chapter II: Rulers 2.1 Henry VII 2.2 Henry VIII 2.3 Edward VI 2.4 Lady Jane Grey 2.5 Mary I 2.6 Elizabeth I Chapter III: 3.1 Religion during the Tudors time 3.2 Culture during the Tudors time 3.3 International Relations during the Tudors time Chapter IV: 4.1 Conclusion Bibliography

Argument

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The Dynasty

The five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty are among the most well-known figures in Royal history. Of Welsh origin, Henry VII succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York to found the highly successful Tudor house. Henry VII, his son Henry VIII and his three children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I ruled for 118 eventful years. During this period, England developed into one of the leading European colonial powers, with men such as Sir Walter Raleigh taking part in the conquest of the New World. Nearer to home, campaigns in Ireland brought the country under strict English control. Culturally and socially, the Tudor period saw many changes. The Tudor court played a prominent part in the cultural Renaissance taking place in Europe, nurturing all-round individuals such as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser and Cardinal Wolsey. The Tudor period also saw the turbulence of two changes of official religion, resulting in the martyrdom of many innocent believers of both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The fear of Roman Catholicism induced by the Reformation was to last for several centuries and to play an influential role in the history of the Succession.

Ascent to throne It shows the petals of a red rose enfolding the petals of a white rose. The red rose was the symbol of the House of Lancaster and the white rose was the symbol of the House of York. Henry VII was the first Tudor king and a Lancastrian. He married Princess Elizabeth of York. Their marriage was the literal union of both houses, symbolized by the new 'Tudor Rose'. Also, the Wars of the Roses were thus called because they represented the 15th century struggle between Lancaster and York for the throne of England. The Tudors were able to establish England as a world power. They did so by positioning their country as a peace-maker between the dueling powers of France and Spain/the Holy Roman Empire. They also gave England a century of dynastic stability. With the exception of Lady Jane Grey's brief reign and Catholic attempts to place Mary, queen of Scots on Elizabeth I's throne, most Tudor monarchs came to the throne - and remained on the throne - unchallenged. This lengthy period of peace allowed England a much-needed respite from the Lancastrian-Yorkist wars. Government ran more efficiently; royal power replaced that of aristocrats and there was a uniform system of justice and taxation throughout the country. And, as always in times of peace, the arts flourished.

Rulers Henry VII Henry VII was the founder of the Tudor dynasty, unifying the warring factions in the Wars of the Roses. Although supported by Lancastrians and Yorkists alienated by Richard III's usurpation, Henry VII's first task was to secure his position. In 1486 he married Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV, thus uniting the Houses of York and Lancaster. Henry's reign (1485-1509) was troubled by revolts, sometimes involving pretenders (such as Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel) who impersonated Edward V or his brother. With this in mind, n 1485, Henry formed a personal bodyguard from his followers known as the 'Yeomen of the Guard' (the oldest military corps in existence today). Henry strengthened the power of the monarchy by using traditional methods of government to tighten royal administration and increase revenues (reportedly including a daily examination of accounts). Royal income rose from an annual average of £52,000 to £142,000 by the end of Henry's reign. Little co-operation between King and Parliament was required; during Henry's reign of 24 years, seven Parliaments sat for some ten and a half months. Henry used dynastic royal marriages to establish his dynasty in England and help maintain peace. One daughter, Margaret, was married to James IV of Scotland (from whom Mary, Queen of Scots and her son, James VI of Scotland and James I of England, were descended); the other daughter married Louis XII of France.

Rulers Henry VIII From his father, Henry VIII inherited a stable realm with the monarch's finances in healthy surplus - on his accession, Parliament had not been summoned for supplies for five years. Henry's varied interests and lack of application to government business and administration increased the influence of Thomas Wolsey, an Ipswich butcher's son, who became Lord Chancellor in 1515. Wolsey became one of the most powerful ministers in British history (symbolised by his building of Hampton Court Palace - on a greater scale than anything the king possessed). Wolsey exercised his powers vigorously in his own court of Chancery and in the increased use of the Council's judicial authority in the court of the Star Chamber. Wolsey was also appointed Cardinal in 1515 and given papal legate powers which enabled him to by-pass the Archbishop of Canterbury and 'govern' the Church in England. Henry's interest in foreign policy was focused on Western Europe, which was a shifting pattern of alliances centred round the kings of Spain and France, and the Holy Roman Emperor. (Henry was related by marriage to all three - his wife Catherine was Ferdinand of Aragon's daughter, his sister Mary married Louis XII of France in 1514, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was Catherine's nephew.) The second half of Henry's reign was dominated by two issues very important for the later history of England and the monarchy: the succession and the Protestant Reformation, which led to the formation of the Church of England.

Rulers Edward VI Edward VI became king at the age of nine upon the death of his father, Henry VIII, and a Regency was created. Although he was intellectually precocious (fluent in Greek and Latin, he kept a full journal of his reign), he was not, however, physically robust. His short reign was dominated by nobles using the Regency to strengthen their own positions. The King's Council, previously dominated by Henry, succumbed to existing factionalism. On Henry's death, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and soon to be Duke of Somerset, the new King's eldest uncle, became Protector. During Edward's reign, the Church of England became more explicitly Protestant - Edward himself was fiercely so. The Book of Common Prayer was introduced in 1549, aspects of Roman Catholic practices (including statues and stained glass) were eradicated and the marriage of clergy allowed. The imposition of the Prayer Book (which replaced Latin services with English) led to rebellions in Cornwall and Devon. Despite his military ability, Seymour was too liberal to deal effectively with Kett's rebellion against land enclosures in Norfolk. Seymour was left isolated in the Council and the Duke of Northumberland subsequently overthrew him in 1551. Seymour was executed in 1552, an event which was only briefly mentioned by Edward in his diary: 'Today, the Duke of Somerset had his head cut off on Tower Hill.' Northumberland took greater trouble to charm and influence Edward; his powerful position as Lord President of the Council was based on his personal ascendancy over the King. However, the young king was ailing. Northumberland hurriedly married his son Lord Guilford Dudley to Lady Jane Grey, one of Henry VIII's great-nieces and a claimant to the throne. Edward accepted Jane as his heir and, on his death from tuberculosis in 1553, Jane assumed the throne.

Rulers Lady Jane Grey The accession of Lady Jane Grey as Queen was engineered by the powerful Duke of Northumberland, President of the King's Council, in the interests of promoting his own dynastic line. Northumberland persuaded the sickly Edward VI to name Lady Jane Grey as his heir. As one of Henry VIII's great-nieces, the young girl was a genuine claimant to the throne. Northumberland then married his own son, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane. On the death of Edward, Jane assumed the throne and her claim was recognised by the Council. Despite this, the country rallied to Mary, Catherine of Aragon's daughter and a devout Roman Catholic. Jane reigned for only nine days and was later executed with her husband in 1554.

Rulers Mary I Mary I was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and stubborn, her character was moulded by her early years. An Act of Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death), whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English Protestant Church. Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary also revived the old heresy laws to secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). As a result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics were mostly poor and self-taught people. Apart from making Mary deeply unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of Mary's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these possessions voluntarily as Mary invited them to do.

Rulers Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November 1558. She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness from both parents. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history. During it a secure Church of England was established. Its doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Elizabeth herself refused to 'make windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity. Most of her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century. Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political judgement and chose her ministers well; these included Burghley (Secretary of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of intelligence and also a Secretary of State).

Rulers Elizabeth I However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after plots against her life were discovered. In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the English throne through his marriage to Mary. During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the 1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost over £5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to some £392,000. Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16 sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Religion during Tudors time Religious change is the best-known impact of the Tudor era on English history. Henry VIII’s excommunication by the Pope in 1533 led to him establishing his own Church of England. He ensured that his son, Edward VI, was educated in Protestant values, but when Edward died at just 15, the succession of his Catholic half-sister Mary I led to outbreaks of religious violence.

Mary tried to revive Catholic power and around 300 Protestants were burned as heretics during her reign. Her half-sister, Elizabeth I, brought forward a compromise agreement in 1563 which secured the Church of England and helped avoid a large-scale religious war. British monarchs today still hold the title “Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England,” which dates from Tudor times.

Culture during the Tudors times

In the early years of the Tudor period, England produced few books or manuscripts; ideas and literature were typically imported from Europe. However, by Elizabeth's death in 1603 the picture had changed significantly. Henry VIII enjoyed music and literature and became a patron of the arts, while Elizabeth I continued her father’s cultural pursuits, encouraging theater and the arts. Literary figures like William Shakespeare thrived under her influence -- Elizabeth personally attended the first performance of his play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

International Relations during the Tudors times Difficult relations with Europe marked much of the Tudor period. Henry VIII spent large periods of his reign at war with France, and invested heavily in his navy to increase English prestige. His daughter, Elizabeth I, spent much of her reign under threat of war from both France and Spain, and in 1588 a combination of the English navy and stormy weather prevented a Spanish invasion led by 122 warships. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s reign also saw the beginnings of England’s imperial expansion, as ships captained by men like Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake explored the globe, setting the scene for the establishment of English colonies in North America in the 1600s.

Conclusion The Tudors are the most famous English royal dynasty, their name remaining at the forefront of European history.

The Tudors are also important for their actions, as much as their reputations. They ruled England during the era when Western Europe moved from the medieval to the early modern, and they instituted changes in government administration, the relationship between crown and people, the image of the monarchy and the way people worshipped.

They also oversaw a golden age for English writing and exploration.

Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_dynasty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_dynasty#The_age_of_intrigues_and_plots:_Elizabeth_I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_rose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_dynasty#Ascent_to_the_throne