Tudor & Stuart England

Religion, Revolution and the birth of the Modern State

England 1558-1660

Elizabeth I and the creation of the Modern State

James I & Charles I and the crisis of Royal Power

The English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell

Charles II and the Restoration

We will examine Politics, Religion, Government, Society and Economic life in these periods.

Assessment:

2 Internals (4 or 5 credits each): Research project (on the Crusades) and Presentation assignment

3 Externals (5 credits each): Source Interpretation question on England 1558-1660, 2 essay questions on same topic

Religious Conflict

What is a Catholic?

What is a Protestant?

The Reformation: Who’s God?The Reformation was a movement in the 16th century to reform the Catholic Church in Western Europe. Soon, the reformers split from the Church altogetherMany Catholics were troubled by the way the Church abused its power. The Church allowed the sale of indulgences (substitutes for confession) and allowed people to buy the titles in the church such as priest, bishop, etc. In 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses On the Power of Indulgences criticising the Church. Church beliefs and practices under attack by Protestant reformers included purgatory, particular judgment, devotion to Mary, intercession of the saints, most of the sacraments, and authority of the Pope.The Protestant saw the Bible as the word of God and got it into the hands of the laity (anyone outside the church) by translating it from Latin and using the newly invented printing press.Religious challenges to the Church were not new, but the Protestants found an ear amongst the monarchs of Northern European states.The four most important new churches to emerge from the reformation were the Lutheran, the Reformed/Calvinist/Presbyterian, the Anabaptist, and the Anglican.

Counter-reformation

The Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation was a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself and to protect itself from Protestant attacks.Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests, the reform of religious life, and new spiritual movements focus on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ.The Inquisition was now charged with rooting out protestant ‘heretics’ and saving the Holy Church.Spain and France (after a bloody Civil War) became the main defenders of Catholicism against the new protestant powers of Northern Europe.

The Tudors:

Henry VII: 1485-1509. Henry Tudor seizes power in the Wars of the RosesHenry VIII: 1509-47. Marries 6 wives, creates the Church of EnglandEdward 1:1547-53. Boy King, dies youngMary: 1553-58. Bloody Mary restores Catholicism brieflyElizabeth I: 1558-1603

Henry VIIHenry VII, was from a minor branch of the royal family who seized power.England was crippled after 85 years of civil war (the War of the Roses) and defeat in France in the Hundred Years War.Henry greatly strengthened the monarchy by outmaneuvering the nobility.His skill at by-passing Parliament (and thus, the will of the nobility) played a crucial role in his success.Henry was political astute in his handling of foreign affairs and maintained a low profile.

Henry VIIIThe early part of Henry's reign, however, saw the young king invade France, defeat Scottish forces at the Battle of Flodden Field and write a treatise denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the pope awarded Henry the title "Defender of the Faith".Henry turned against the Catholic Church. The 1530's saw Henry separate of the Church of England from Roman Catholicism. Henry became the head of the Anglican Church.The separation was actually a by-product of Henry's obsession with producing a male heir; Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male and the need to maintain dynastic legitimacy forced Henry to seek an annulment from the pope in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Religious reform movements had already taken hold in England, but on a small scale but continental Protestantism had yet to find favor with the English people. Henry needed to convince his own people.

Henry VIII (cont.)The break from Rome in 1529 was accomplished through law, not social outcry; Henry, as Supreme Head of the Church of England, acknowledged this by slight changes in worship ritual instead of a wholesale reworking of religious beliefs.England moved into an era of "conformity of mind" with the new royal supremacy, by 1536, all ecclesiastical and government officials were required to publicly approve of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty.Reformist factions won the king's confidence and vastly benefiting from Henry's dissolution of the monasteries, as monastic lands and revenues went either to the crown or the nobility. The royal staff continued the rise in status that began under Henry VII, eventually to rival the power of the nobility. They created new governmental departments for the varying types of revenue and establishing parish priest's duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths.Henry VIII built upon the innovations instituted by his father. The break with Rome, coupled with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to the royal supremacy that would last until the execution of Charles I and the establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred years after Henry's death.

MaryMary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was born in 1516 and suffered through a terrible childhood of neglect, intolerance, and ill-health. She was a staunch catholic from birth, constantly resisting pressure from others to renounce her faith, a request she steadfastly refused. She married Philip II of Spain in 1555, but was unable to produce a child.

Mary (cont.)Mary's first act was to repeal the Protestant legislation of her brother, Edward VI, hurling England into a phase of severe religious persecution. Her major goal was the re-establishment of Catholicism in England.Nearly 300 people (including former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer and many of the most prominent members of society) were burned at the stake for heresy, earning Mary the nickname, "Bloody Mary.“Mary's marriage to the militant Catholic Philip was again designed to enforce Roman Catholicism on the realm. Unfortunately for Mary, two factors compelled opposition to her plans: the English people hated foreigners - especially the Spanish - and twenty years of Protestantism had soured the English on popery. She met with resistance at every level of society, and, unlike her father and brother, failed to conform society into one ideological pattern. England suffered during the reign of Mary I: the economy was in ruin, religious dissent reached a zenith and England lost her last continental territory.

Elizabeth IAt the time of her accession in 1558 England was a weak, divided backwater far outside the mainstream of European power and cultural development.Elizabeth's deft political skills and strong personal character were directly responsible for putting England on the road to becoming a true world economic and political power and restoring the country's lost sense of national pride.Although she entertained many marriage proposals and flirted incessantly (her closest brush with marriage came with Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester), she never married or had children.

Elizabeth I (cont.)Elizabeth inherited a tattered realm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics) doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest. Elizabeth lacked the fanaticism of her siblings, which enabled her to devise a compromise that, basically, reinstated Henry’s reforms. She was, however, compelled to take a stronger pro-Protestant stance blaming the plots of Mary Queen of Scots and persecution of Protestants by Catholic Spain and France.The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was a problem for Elizabeth. Mary, was Elizabeth's prisoner from 1568 and gained the loyalty of Catholic factions who tried several-failed assassination/overthrow plots against Elizabeth. After ‘irrefutable’ evidence of Mary's involvement in the plots came to light, Elizabeth executed her in 1587.

Europe 1600

The persecution of continental Protestants forced Elizabeth into war. She sent an army to aid French Huguenots (protestants) after a 1572 massacre wherein over three thousand Huguenots lost their lives. She sent further assistance to Protestant factions on the continent and in Scotland and assisted Belgium in their bid to gain independence from Spain.The situation came to head in 1588 after Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain. The indignant Spanish King, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England. The English won the naval battle handily, aided by some fortuitous inclement English Channel weather, and emerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for later English imperial designs.

Elizabeth was a master of political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of the monarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonize Parliament.She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council. She used the various factions, playing one off another until the combatants came to her to settle their grievances.Few English monarchs enjoyed such political power, while still maintaining the devotion of most of English society.