Art and Culture/British - Tudors
Henry VII (1485-1509)
Henry Tudor took the throne after the Battle of Bosworth 22 August 1485. He married Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward IV, thus uniting “York and Lancaster”.
Pretenders to the throne:
Lambert Simnel - claimed to be the Earl of Warwick (son of Edward IV’s brother George, Duke of Clarence) In 1487. He was the figurehead of a Yorkist rebellion organised by John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. Simnel's army — mainly Flemish and Irish troops — was defeated by the King's army at the Battle of Stoke Field. Henry pardoned Simnel and gave him a job in the royal kitchen as a spit-turner and he later became a falconer.
Perkin Warbeck - claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the "Princes in the Tower". After a failed invasion attempts in 1495 and 1496 (with Scottish support) he landed in Cornwall in 1497. He gained some support because the Cornish had already rebelled earlier over tax demands. Having abandoned his army on the approach of Royal forces, he was captured at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire where he surrendered. Warbeck wrote a confession in which he said he was a Fleming born in Tournai around 1474. After being treated well he tried to escape the Royal court and was imprisoned. He was hanged after a second escape attempt along with the Earl of Warwick in 1499.
The Star Chamber was established in 1487. Its primary purpose was to hear political libel and treason cases and it sat at the Palace of Westminster until 1641. It was made up of Privy Counsellors, as well as common-law judges, and supplemented the activities of the common-law and equity courts in both civil and criminal matters.
Poynings’ Law (Statute of Drogheda) of 1495 - Sir Edward Poynings, Lord Deputy of Ireland, declared that the Parliament of Ireland was thereafter to be placed under the authority of the Parliament of England. This marked the beginning of direct Tudor rule in Ireland.
In 1502, Henry VII's first son and heir-apparent, Arthur Tudor, died suddenly at Ludlow Castle.
James IV of Scotland married Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII, in 1503.
Henry VII died at Richmond Palace on 21 April 1509 of tuberculosis and was buried at Westminster Abbey.
He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII (1509 – 1547).
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) (Queen of England 1509-1533) - The daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, Catherine was three years old when she was betrothed to Prince Arthur, heir apparent to the English throne. They married in 1501, and Arthur died five months later. She married Arthur's younger brother, the recently succeeded Henry VIII, in 1509. Henry divorced her in 1533. Her only surviving child was Mary Tudor (Mary I).
Anne Boleyn (1501 – 1536) (Queen of England 1533 – 1536) – courted by Henry from 1526, his desires to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon precipitated the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. She was investigated for high treason, arrested and beheaded within a few weeks in 1536. Her only surviving child was Elizabeth Tudor (Elizabeth I).
Jane Seymour (1508 – 1537) (Queen of England 1536 – 1537) – married Henry one day after the execution of Anne Boleyn. She died of postnatal complications less than two weeks after the birth of her only child. She was the only one of Henry's wives to receive a queen's funeral and his only consort to be buried beside him in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. She was the only wife of Henry VIII whose son survived infancy – Edward Tudor (Edward VI).
Anne of Cleves (1515 – 1557) (Queen of England 6 January 1540 - 9 July 1540) - The artist Hans Holbein the Younger was dispatched to paint portraits of Anne and her younger sister, Amalia, each of whom Henry was considering as his fourth wife. The marriage was declared never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort. Henry is reported as saying "I liked her before not well, but now I like her much worse” the morning after the wedding night. She was given a generous settlement and thereafter referred to as the “King's Beloved Sister”. She lived to see the coronation of Queen Mary I, outliving the rest of Henry's wives.
Catherine Howard (1523– 13 February 1542) (Queen of England 1540 – 1541) - married Henry on 28 July 1540, at Oatlands Palace, in Surrey. She was stripped of her titles in late 1541 and executed in February 1542 for adultery and treason – also implicated and executed were Thomas Culpepper and Francis Dereham.
Catherine Parr (1512 – 1548) (Queen of England 1543 – 1547) - married Henry on 12 July 1543, and outlived him. She was also the most-married English queen, with four husbands, and the first English queen to be titled "Queen of Ireland". She was influential in passing of the Third Succession Act in 1543 that restored both his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to the line of succession to the throne.
Anglo-Scottish Wars
Battle of Flodden Field was fought in Northumberland in 1513, between an invading Scots army under King James IV (who was killed in battle) and an English army commanded by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. It ended in a victory for the English and was the largest battle (in terms of numbers) fought between the two nations.
Thomas Wolsey was made bishop of Lincoln then archbishop of York, in 1514, Cardinal, Lord Chancellor (1515) and Henry VIII’s first chief minister.
Battle of Solway Moss was fought near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish Border in November 1542 and was an English victory.
War of the Rough Wooing was a war between Scotland and England during the 16th century. (This term was only coined many years later by Sir Walter Scott.) It was fought by Henry VIII of England, in an attempt to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary, Queen of Scots.
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, along the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh in 1547, was part of the War of the Rough Wooing. It was the last pitched battle to be fought between the Scottish and the English Royal armies and the first ‘modern’ battle to be fought in the British Isles. It resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the Scots. English forces were led by the Duke of Somerset.
Politics, Religion and the rest
Field of the Cloth of Gold – Henry VIII met Francis I near Calais in 1520.
Thomas Wolsey was Lord Chancellor 1515 – 1529. He fell out of favour due to his failure to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Recalled to London to answer to charges of treason but died en route of natural causes. He built Hampton Court.
Wolsey was succeeded as Lord Chancellor by Thomas More in 1529.
The Submission of the Clergy was a process by which the Church of England gave up their power to formulate church laws without the King's licence and assent. It was first passed by the Convocation of Canterbury in 1532 and then by the Reformation Parliament in 1534. Along with other Acts passed by the Parliament, it further separated the Church from Rome
Thomas More asked to be relieved of the Chancellorship in 1532. He was succeeded by Thomas Audley.
Act of Supremacy was passed in 1534 by Henry VIII. This is the piece of legislation which declares that the sovereign is Supreme Head of the Church of England. First time the salutation ‘Your Majesty’ was used.
In 1534 Thomas More was accused of conspiring with the ‘Holy Maid of Kent’, Elizabeth Barton, a nun who had prophesied against the king's annulment. He was executed in 1535 at Tower Hill for failing to swear the oath on the Act of Supremacy. He is the only English saint and knight.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was beheaded on Tower Hill in 1535 for denying the Royal Supremacy.
Dissolution of the Monasteries – 800 monasteries were dissolved between1536 and 1541.
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, organised the dissolution of the monasteries and was known as ‘the hammer of the monks’. He was executed for treason in 1540.
Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in Northern England in 1536 led by Robert Aske, in protest against England's break with Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. Although the Pilgrimage was a specific uprising around York, the term has come to describe a series of rebellions that occurred in the North in late 1536 and early 1537.
Law passed in 1543 to prevent people reading the Bible.
Mary Rose – sank in 1545, raised in 1982.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, was executed for treason on 19 January 1547.
Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547 in the Palace of Whitehall. He allegedly uttered his last words: "Monks! Monks! Monks!"
He was succeeded by his son Edward VI (1547-1553)
Kett’s rebellion was an enclosure-related revolt in Norfolk in 1549.
Acts of Uniformity (1549, 1552, 1559, 1662) all had the basic object of establishing some sort of religious orthodoxy within the English church.
Edward died at the age of 15 at Greenwich Palace on 6 July 1553. He nominated Lady Jane Grey as successor to the Crown in his will, thus subverting the claims of his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth under the Third Succession Act.
Lady Jane Grey (10 July 1553 – 19 July 1553)
The title Duke of Northumberland was created in 1551 for John Dudley, Earl of Warwick. In 1553 Dudley advanced the claim of his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, to the English throne, but when she was deposed by Queen Mary I, Dudley was convicted of high treason and executed.
Lady Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of London when the Privy Council decided to change sides and proclaim Mary as queen on 19 July 1553. Jane was convicted of high treason in November 1553, which carried a sentence of death, although her life was initially spared. Wyatt's rebellion of January and February 1554 against Queen Mary I's plans to marry Philip of Spain led to the execution of both Jane and her husband.
Mary I (1553-1558)
Mary married Philip II of Spain in 1554.
She is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short-lived Protestant reign of her half-brother. During her five-year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
Wyatt's Rebellion was a popular uprising in England in 1554, named after Thomas Wyatt the younger, one of its leaders. The rebellion arose out of concern over Mary's determination to marry Philip II of Spain, which was an unpopular policy with the English. Princess Elizabeth was interrogated about the rebellion but released.
John Rogers was a clergyman, Bible translator, and the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England. He was burned at the stake at Smithfield in 1555.
The Oxford Martyrs were tried for heresy in 1555 and burnt at the stake in Oxford, for their religious beliefs and teachings. The three martyrs were the Anglican bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Succeeding Cranmer was Reginald Pole, a Catholic cardinal and the last to be Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office during the Counter Reformation, from 1556 to 1558.
In January 1558, French forces took Calais, England's sole remaining possession on the European mainland. According to Holinshed's Chronicles, Mary later lamented, "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying in my heart".
Mary had two phantom pregnancies.
Mary died aged 42 at St. James's Palace during an influenza epidemic that also claimed the life of Reginald Pole later the same day, 17 November 1558.
Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
Elizabeth was born in Greenwich Palace (The Palace of Placentia) in 1533.
She was known as “The Virgin Queen”, “Gloriana” or “Good Queen Bess”.
Relations with Mary Queen of Scots
Marian civil war in Scotland (1568–1573) followed the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots and her escape from Lochleven Castle in 1568.
Ridolfi plot (1570) – was a Roman Catholic plot to assassinate Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
Babington plot (1586) - was foiled by Francis Walsingham. It led to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots at Fotheringay Castle.
Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada of 1588 led by Duke of Medina-Sedonia. Spanish king was Philip II. Lord Howard, in Ark Royal, led the British fleet, Drake was second-in-command in Revenge. It was effectively ended by the Battle of Gravelines on 8 August. The Armada was forced to sail around the British Isles to return to Spain and was destroyed by poor weather.
Speech to the Troops at Tilbury was delivered in the summer of 1588 by Queen Elizabeth I of England to the land forces assembled in preparation to repel the expected invasion by the Spanish Armada. Included the line “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”
Elizabethan Coutiers
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520 – 1598) was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Elizabeth for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.
Francis Walsingham (1532 – 1590) was principal secretary to Elizabeth from 1573 until his death and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
Francis Drake (1540–1596) – born in Devon. He circumnavigated the globe in the Golden Hind (originally known as The Pelican) 1577-1580. He “singed the King of Spain’s beard” in 1587 by sailing a fleet into Cadiz and also Corunna. He died in Panama (of dysentery). He was known to the Spaniards as El Draque (The Dragon).
Walter Raleigh (1554 – 1618) – born in Devon. He explored from North Carolina to Florida and named the region 'Virginia' in honor of the "Virgin Queen". Raleigh's plan in 1584 for colonisation in North America ended in failure at Roanoke Island.
In 1591 he entered into a secret marriage with Bess Throgmorton, one of the Queen’s ladies in waiting. Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London in June 1592. He was released from prison in August 1592 to help set up an expedition for an attack on the Spanish coast. Although recalled by the Queen, the fleet captured an incredibly rich prize, the Madre de Deus (Mother of God) off Flores of which he had to divide the spoils. Bess was released in December.
He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London in1603 after Elizabeth’s death due to his involvement in the Main Plot against King James. He remained there until 1616 where he wrote the first volume of The Historie of the World. After being released he conducted a failed raid on Spanish Guiana and he was executed in 1618.
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (1532 - 1588) was the favourite, close friend and suitor of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death. When his first wife, Amy Robsart, fell down a flight of stairs and died in 1560, he was free to marry the Queen. However, the resulting scandal very much reduced his chances in this respect.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1565-1601) was one of the Queen’s favourites. he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government and was executed for treason.
“Golden Speech” - was delivered by Elizabeth to the House of Commons on 30 November 1601. It was a speech that was expected to be addressing some pricing concerns, based on the recent economic issues facing the country. Surprisingly, she revealed that it would be her final Parliament and turned the mode of the speech to addressing the love and respect she had for the country, her position, and the Members themselves.
Elizabeth died on 24 March 1603 at Richmond Palace, between two and three in the morning. A few hours later, Cecil and the council set their plans in motion and proclaimed James VI of Scotland as James I of England.
