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History The 16th – 17th centuries

 

THE TUDORS (1485 - 1603). Henry VII is less well-known than either Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. But he was far more important in establishing the new monarchy than either of them. During the 15th century, but particularly during the Wars of Roses, England’s trading position had been badly damaged. The strong German Hanseatic League, a close trading society, had destroyed English trade with the Baltic and northern Europe. Trade with Italy and France had also been reduced after England’s defeat in France in the mid 15th century. The Low Countries (the Netherlands and Belgium) alone offered a way in for trade in Europe. Only a year after his victory at Bosworth in 1485, Henry VII made an important trade agreement with the Netherlands which allowed English trade to grow again.

The authority of the law had been almost completely destroyed by the lawless behaviour of nobles and their armed men. Henry used the “Court of Star Chamber”, traditionally the king’s council chamber to deal with lawless nobles. Local justice that had broken down during the wars slowly began to operate again. Henry encouraged to use heavy fines as punishment because this gave the Crown money. He also raised taxes for wars which he then did not fight. He was careful enough to keep the friendship of the merchant and lesser gentry classes. Like him they wanted peace and prosperity. When Henry VII died in 1509 he left behind the huge total of 2 million$, about 15 years’ worth of income. The only thing on which he was happy to spend money freely was the building of ships for a merchant fleet, because he understood that England’s future wealth would depend on international trade.

Henry VIII was quite unlike his father. He liked to rule by fear, executed his opponents and ordered the destruction of beautiful buildings, libraries and works of art. To historians, Henry remains one of the most important monarchs to have ruled the English and Welsh. He lasted almost 4 decades, during which he presided over the foundation of the Church of England, a remodelling of the machinery of government and of taxation, a major growth in the importance of Parliament, the incorporation of Wales into the regular system of English local administration, the establishment of the Kingdom of Ireland, the arrival in England of Renaissance modes of art and literature, and a major building programme which included colleges, palaces and fortresses. In public memory, also, he is remembered as a colossal figure. He has probably been portrayed in the cinema more often than any other English king. The fact that a Cockney could provide a recognisable representation of him gives away part of his enduring appeal; in national memory, Henry was one of the lads, the only English king to have his achievements celebrated in a long-popular music hall song.

He was the second son of Henry VII, and throughout his childhood was overshadowed by his older brother Arthur. He stayed with his mother, Elizabeth of York, living a sheltered existence of strong maternal love, while Arthur was paraded before the kingdom as its heir. Suddenly both Arthur and Elizabeth died in quick succession, leaving the old king half-crazed with grief and Henry deprived of affection. He was the last monarch for over a century to attend the debates of the House of Lords, and in his last 7 years he personally gave 108 interviews to foreign ambassadors. He wanted all state documents drawn up with large margins and spaces between lines so that he could scribble comments. Henry possessed an amazing memory, he was able to recall the names of every servant employed by the royal households and all the grants of land or money which he had ever signed. On the other hand, he did not care to attend the deliberations of his council of advisers, kept postponing major decisions of policy, and hated to read or write long documents. He was a chronic annotator, editor and commentator, loving the detail of government but disliking the main business.



Some claims could be made for him as a cultured monarch. He was quite a good musician, and possessed a library of almost a thousand books, which he certainly read as he scribbled all over them. He had a real understanding of fortification, ballistics and shipping, and could discuss mathematics and astronomy on equal terms with experts. His only conventional vices were gluttony, ostentation and gambling: in two years he lost £3,250 on cards and by his death he owned a record 50 palaces.

Given Henry's status as father of the English Reformation, it is remarkable how little personal piety is revealed by his annotations of religious books. His damage to traditional Christianity in England is obvious: his policies resulted in the destruction of hundreds of beautiful buildings and works of art, incalculable damage to libraries, and the execution of the Englishmen mostly widely respected in Europe for their godliness. Henry never showed any capacity as a general, and his foreign policy was a failure. He repeatedly attempted to reconquer parts of France, and ended up with Boulogne. He tried to conquer Scotland, and only forced the Scots to become allies of his enemies the French. Two real successes of his reign - the assimilation of Wales and the pacification of Ireland - were not matters in which he displayed personal interest. The splendid string of fortresses which he built to guard the English coast were a sign of panic, at having united all the strongest powers in Western Europe against himself by rejecting Catholicism. The overhaul of governmental structures and taxation undertaken by his ministers was driven by the need to raise money for his wars, where it was spent to little result. His reputation among 20th century historians has generally been low, but in his own time it stood much higher. He was feared, and admired, and his death was marked by more obvious public grief than that of any other Tudor.

The break from Rome. The Act of Supremacy (1534) confirmed the break from Rome, declaring Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The Dissolution of the Monasteries lasted 4 years to 1540. Two thirds of all the land was sold to the laity and the money squandered in vanity wars against France. With the destruction of priceless ecclesiastical treasures it was possibly the greatest act of vandalism in English history but also an act of political genius, creating a vested interest in the Reformation: those now owning monastic lands were unlikely to embrace a return to Catholicism. Further doctrinal reform was halted by the Act of Six Articles in 1539 and following Cromwell's sudden fall the next year the court hung between religious conservatives and radical reformers. The 1539 Act was repealed, priests were permitted to marry - creating another vested interest - and more land was confiscated.

Changing attitudes. Becoming Queen in 1553 Mary, was always going to have a tough time undoing twenty years' work. Mary did her best, reinstating Catholic doctrines and rites, and replacing altars and images, but she handicapped herself by martyring almost 300 ordinary men and women, as well as bigger names like Cranmer. Burning bodies, Spanish courtiers all fuelled further Protestant propaganda and confirmed fears of the Catholic menace that had been threatened since 1534. Fighting France for Philip, Mary lost Calais in 1558 - England's last territory in France. Tension mounted, Thomas Wyatt was rebelling in Kent, and religious civil war seemed not too far away. However, chance rolled the dice once more. Mary died childless in November 1558: the only heir was Elizabeth: a moderate Protestant, she inherited a nervous kingdom where Catholicism dominated everywhere but the major cities, the South East and East Anglia. She had to inject some stability. The religious settlement of 1559 was intended to be inclusive. It restored Royal Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity but, reintroduced clerical vestments and a more Catholic Eucharist.

A lasting legacy. In reality, however, the settlement was very Protestant: it reissued Cranmer's Prayer Book of 1552 and its 39 Articles were closely modelled on his work in 1553. All but one of Mary's Bishops were removed from office after refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, replaced by men hand-picked by Elizabeth's chief minister, Robert Cecil. Most were far more radical than their Queen, as were the clergy who filled the parishes vacated by resigning Catholic priests. The church was further bolstered in 1563 when another Act of Uniformity made refusal to take the oath, or the defence of papal authority, a treasonable offence. But this time the foreign threat was real: a revolt in 1569, the papal invasion of Ireland, Elizabeth's excommunication and the arrival of priests from France all underlined the insecurity of the Anglican Church. The severity of the Treason Laws increased alongside anti-Catholic sentiment, effectively killing it as any real force by driving it underground for the rest of her reign. And it was the length of her reign that secured Anglicanism and established it as Protestant. After the stop-start policies of Edward and Mary, it had 45 years of Elizabethan rule to bed down. Had she succumbed to smallpox in 1562, a religious civil war might easily have followed. But luck struck again, and by her death in 1603 the country was united as had not been possible in the previous century, both by a common religion and a common enemy. Patriotism and Protestantism were two halves of the same coin, a coin baring Henry's title, 'Fidei Defensor'. They still do.


The English Reformation. Despite the zeal of religious reformers in Europe, England was slow to question the established Church. During the reign of Henry VIII, however, the tide turned in favour of Protestantism, and by the 1600s the new Church held sway over the old. How did all this come about?



Date: 2015-01-29; view: 911


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