Transcript the tudors - The World of Britain

THE
TUDORS
The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485)
 The
struggle for the throne between
the Lancastrians and Yorkists
 In the Battle of Bosworth Henry
Tudor (of Lancastrians) defeated King
Richard III
 Henry was crowned on the battlefield
as Henry VII
Henry VII crowned on
the battlefield
Henry VII (1485-1509)
To secure his position as king, he employed
three “weapons” to bring peace:
the law courts (centralized government and increased
law and order)
financial policy (increased the efficiency of tax
collection and thus - the income, but spent little. Took personal
interest in his finances, initialed every page of accounts)
marriage (married Elizabeth of York and united the
Lancastrians and Yorkists; married his 15-year-old son Arthur
to the Spanish Princess Catherine of Aragon. When Arthur died
Henry VII married his younger son Henry to his widow)
The wedding of
Henry VII and
Elizabeth of York
Henry VIII (1509-1547)
Henry’s reign is a pivotal one
in English history.
He broke with the Roman
Catholic Church and made the
Church English.
Parliament, though under
king’s control, increased its
importance
“A Renaissance Prince”
In 1515 a Venetian diplomat,
Pasqualigo, described Henry as:
the most handsomest potentate I
ever set eyes on; above the usual
height, with auburn hair combed
straight and short, . . . and a
round face so very beautiful that
it would become a pretty woman,
his throat being rather long and
thick. ... He speaks French,
English and Latin, and a little
Italian, plays well on the lute and
harpiscord, sings from book at
sight, draws the bow with greater
strength than any man in
England, and jousts marvellously.
Thomas Wolsey (1472-1530)
A son of a butcher, he rose to the highest
positions of both Church and State:
 In 1515 he became Lord Chancellor and
virtually ruled the kingdom
 Archbishop of York (1514), Cardinal (1515),
Papal Legate (1518)
 An income of £50,000
 Three palaces (the most famous is Hampton
Court, later presented to Henry VIII)
"He ruled both the King and the kingdom”
Cardinal Wolsey,
founder of Christ
Church, Oxford, was
Henry VllI's chief
minister for
fourteen years, and
reached a position
of unrivalled
eminence before his
fall in 1529.
The Base
Court and
Gateway
at
Hampton
Court,
begun by
Cardinal
Wolsey,
and
continued
by Henry
VIII, who
built the
Great Hall.
The break with the Roman Church:
pre-conditions
 To firmly ensure the succession Henry needed
a son. Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a girl
named Mary
 Henry ordered Cardinal Wolsey to get a
permission to a divorce from the Pope, but the
latter refused to do it
 Wolsey was banished from the court and
charged of treason. He died on the way to the
Tower of London
CATHOLICISM, NON-CATHOLICISM AND
PROTESTANTISM
In many countries, including England, there was widespread
anti-clericalism:
- the wealth and corruption of the higher clergy
- the ignorance of the ordinary clergy
As a reaction to the situation there appeared
- “humanism” – a European movement emphasising classical
learning and simple Biblical piety (John Colet, Erasmus of
Rotterdam)
- Protestantism (Martin Luther in Germany)
Henry VIII supposedly wrote a pamphlet denouncing Lutheranism (real
authur was Thomas More). The pope gave him the title of Fidei Defensor
(Defender of the Faith). [The letters ‘F.D.’ still appear on British coins]
In pursuit of the divorce
1529 – the attempt to win over academic
opinion - to put pressure upon the pope
 1532 – an act to holt certain papal revenues
 January 1533 – Henry was secretly married to
Anne Boleyn being not officially divorced
Catherine
 May 1533 – Henry’s marriage to Catherine was
pronounced nun and void and to Anne Boleyn –
valid
 June 1533 – Anne Boleyn crowned Queen of
England

The Act of Supremacy (1534)
declared that the king was the Supreme
Head of the Church of England.
The pope was then officially designated
the 'Bishop of Rome'.
Papal authority had been irrevocably
replaced by royal authority:
the Church of England was now
independent of Rome.
Thomas More (1478-1535)
Henry's Lord Chancellor, having taken
over from Wolsey,
 the author of Utopia.
 He argued the Catholic case in Parliament,
but the mood of the country was against
him and he was finally executed for
refusing to take an oath that Henry was
the Head of the Church of England.

A modern statue of Sit
Thomas More in
Chelsea, London, where
he lived.
THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIESpre-conditions:
the architect of the Dissolution of the
Monasteries was Thomas Cromwell
(Chancellor of the Exchequer and later –
Lord Privy Seal)
 Henry desperately needed money to repel
a supposed invasion by France
 Monasteries possessed huge wealth and a
lot of land

THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES
In 1535 commissioners were sent out to uncover
the 'manifest sin, vicious carnal and abominable
living' in the smaller abbeys. They went to work
with enthusiasm and, knowing what they were
expected to find, they discovered a vast
amount of evidence.
On the basis of their reports Henry dissolved the
monasteries. Monastic property was in the
hands of the crown. The medieval dominance
of the monasteries had come to an end in three
short years
The monasteries were physically destroyed. The stone was used to repair buildings
and city walls, the lead was stripped from the roofs and the precious metals were
carted away to be melted down. The destruction of medieval art, books and
architecture was enormous. All that gave the population visible proof that a major
element of medieval life had disappeared.
The ruins of
Fountains
Abbey in
Yorkshire, one
of the many
which were
destroyed at
the
Dissolution of
the
Monasteries
under Henry
VII.
Henry VIII’s Wives