England

The course of the Renaissance in England corresponds closely with the history of the Tudor dynasty. Ideas associated with the Renaissance began to take hold in the country around the time that HENRY VII, the first Tudor monarch, assumed power. The Renaissance reached its peak in England during the reign of ELIZABETH I, the last Tudor monarch. Although Renaissance thought continued to flourish during the rule of her successor, JAMES I, it lost momentum after his death.

The Birth of the Tudor Dynasty. When Henry VII took the throne in 1485, he put an end to the Wars of the Roses, a long struggle for power between the noble houses of York and Lancaster. Henry, a relative of the Lancasters, united the two families by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of a Yorkist king. To strengthen his new dynasty, he arranged matches for his four children with foreign royals. His daughter Mary wed Louis XII of France, while his daughter Margaret married James IV of Scotland. The heir to the throne, Arthur, wed the Spanish princess CATHERINE OF ARAGON. When Arthur died in 1502, his younger brother Henry became heir and eventually married his brother's widow.

An able but rather colorless ruler, Henry VII firmly established the Tudor dynasty on the English throne. He made the government more efficient and raised money for the royal treasury. During his reign, the humanist* ideas that had begun to enter England took firm root. Latin and Greek, which only a few university scholars had studied before 1485, became a regular part of the curriculum around 1500. At the same time, the printing industry was established in England. The king took little personal interest in intellectual matters. However, his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, became a patron* of scholars and founded two colleges at Cambridge University.

In the past, most historians labeled Henry VII England's first Renaissance ruler. However, modern scholars believe that Renaissance ideas truly came to dominate the country in the 1530s, during the reign of his son Henry VIII. Well educated in Latin and theology*, and a strong supporter of learning and the arts, Henry VIII embodied many of the qualities of the Renaissance. Art and humanism flourished under his rule. The great Renaissance scholar Sir Thomas MORE served as Henry's lord chancellor in the 1530s, and German-born artist Hans HOLBEIN became the official court painter. The founding of St. Paul's School, the first grammar school in England to provide thorough instruction in ancient Greek and Latin, also encouraged humanist studies during Henry's reign.

The Reformation in England. The growth of Renaissance thought in England went hand in hand with the Protestant Reformation*. The changes in the English church began in 1527, when Henry VIII sought the pope's permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon. The couple had no sons, and Henry wanted a new wife who could give him a male heir to the throne. When the pope denied the king's request, Henry decided to reject papal* authority. In 1533 and 1534 Parliament passed laws that cut England's ties to the Roman Catholic Church and named the king as head of the new Church of England.

Henry's divorce from Catherine became official in May 1533. The king had already taken a new wife, Anne Boleyn, in secret several months earlier. Anne bore Henry a daughter that September, but the couple had no more children. In 1536 Henry accused Anne of being unfaithful and had her beheaded. He then married Jane Seymour, who bore his long-awaited son in 1537. The queen died shortly after childbirth. Henry married three more times, but none of these marriages produced additional children.

After breaking away from the Catholic Church, Henry began taking over the monasteries in England. This change had a major impact because at the beginning of the Tudor period, monasteries had owned as much as a quarter of the country's land. Parliament passed acts in 1536 and 1540 that closed the monasteries and turned their property over to the crown. By the time Henry VIII died, most of the former monastic lands had been sold to nobles and members of the gentry*. Their valuable libraries went to universities, cathedrals, and private collectors.

Much of the wealth seized from the religious houses was spent on warfare. Henry had already taken part in wars earlier in his reign. As a Catholic king, he had made England part of the Holy League, an alliance designed to prevent the French from gaining territory in Italy. The king had personally commanded troops at the famous Battle of the Spurs (1513), in which the hasty French retreat had left several towns in northern France under English control. After establishing a Protestant church in England, Henry and his advisers feared that Catholics would attempt to invade the country and restore the old religion. They spent vast amounts of money on fortifications and on renewed wars against France and Scotland, its longtime ally.

The relationship between the Renaissance and the Reformation in England is complex. Renaissance ideas about questioning traditional views may have paved the way for rethinking church government. Also, classical* learning had an impact on several early leaders of the Church of England. At the same time, however, the Reformation drew interest away from the Renaissance. Humanist learning generally became less important after 1540, as religious concerns absorbed the nation.

Shifts in Power. In his will, Henry VIII named his son, Edward, as his heir. However, he also decreed that his daughter Mary, the child of Catherine of Aragon, would inherit the throne if Edward died without children. Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, was third in the line of succession*.

EDWARD VI became king in 1547, when he was only nine years old. Henry had named a large group of advisers to act as his son's regents*, but Edward's uncle, the duke of Somerset, soon took control of the government. Somerset ruled effectively for several years, but rebellions in 1549 caused him problems. He lost power to John Dudley, the duke of Northumberland, who remained the most important figure in the government for the rest of Edward's reign.

Edward and his regents brought new reforms to the English church. In 1549 Archbishop Thomas CRANMER introduced the first Book of Common Prayer in the English language. This volume did not stray too far from Catholic practices, but a revised version that appeared in 1552 contained more sweeping changes. The following year, Cranmer issued the Forty-Two Articles of Religion, which laid out the doctrines of the English church. Many of these beliefs represented a sharp break from Catholic views.

King Edward died of lung disease in 1553. During the last days of his reign, his advisers tried to steer the succession to Lady Jane GREY, a distant relative of the king's and a supporter of Protestant causes. They feared that if the crown passed to Edward's Catholic sister Mary, she would try to restore the old religion. However, Mary had enough popular support to take the throne as MARY I.

Queen Mary undid the English Reformation in two stages. In 1553 she restored the Latin Mass (the Roman Catholic religious service), and in 1554 she brought England back under the authority of the pope. The Protestant Archbishop Cranmer was dismissed, arrested, and finally executed. A Catholic noble, Reginald Pole, took his place. Many people supported Mary's restoration of the Catholic faith, believing that earlier reforms had gone too far in doing away with beloved church ceremonies and religious beliefs. Those who held on to their Protestant beliefs continued to worship in secret or fled the country.

The Golden Age. When Mary died in 1558, her younger sister Elizabeth took the throne. Many historians have called her reign the golden age of England. The young queen began by trying to resolve the conflict in the English church. She restored the Church of England in 1559 but attempted to steer a middle course between Protestant and Catholic ideas. For example, the Elizabethan prayerbook allowed worshipers to hold different views on some points of theology.

The Renaissance reached its fullest flower under Elizabeth. Educated by humanist scholars, the queen spoke many languages and was an accomplished musician. During her long reign, classical ideas dominated literature. Noted writers such as William SHAKESPEARE, Philip SIDNEY, and Christopher MARLOWE drew ideas from ancient history and mythology. Grammar schools and universities began to emphasize Greek, Latin, and ancient history in their courses of study. Even areas such as state pageants and medical practice reflected the influence of classical thought.

During Elizabeth's reign, England devoted much of its energy to opposing Catholic powers in Europe. PHILIP II, the Catholic ruler of Spain who had been married to Mary I, sought Elizabeth's hand. When Elizabeth rejected his offer, she gained an enemy and brought England into the conflict between Spain and the pope and other Protestant states. In the Netherlands, Protestants were struggling against Spanish rule and persecution by Catholics. At first Elizabeth avoided taking sides. However, in time she decided that England, the main Protestant power in Europe, had a duty to aid Protestants elsewhere. Angry at Elizabeth's support for the rebels, Philip sent a fleet called the Spanish ARMADA against England in 1588. England defeated the Armada, scoring a decisive victory in its battle with Spain.

Elizabeth also faced Catholic threats closer to home. Various Catholic plots centered on MARY STUART, the former queen of Scotland, whose Protestant subjects had driven her from her homeland. For years Elizabeth allowed Mary to live under guard in England, even though this granddaughter of James IV of Scotland was the leading Catholic rival for the English throne. In 1586 Elizabeth learned of Mary's involvement in a plot against her life. The queen arrested her cousin and in 1587 ordered her execution. Catholic rebellion in Ireland also caused difficulties in Elizabeth's final years.

A Troubled Reign. When Elizabeth died in 1603, she left no children, and the Tudor dynasty came to an end. The crown passed to James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart and Lord Darnley. James took the throne as James I of England, the country's first monarch of the STUART DYNASTY. His court was more troubled than Elizabeth's had been. Under his rule the country suffered severe economic problems, and political leaders disapproved of the king's favorite courtiers.

Soon after taking the throne, James called a special conference to respond to Puritan* requests for church reform. The attempt at cooperation failed, however, when the Puritans demanded that James eliminate bishops. James refused, believing that a structured church was an essential partner to the monarchy. The only lasting result of the conference was the King James BIBLE, a new translation that remained popular for centuries.

King James made peace with Spain and proposed a marriage between his son Charles and the daughter of Philip II. However, the Spanish princess refused to wed a Protestant. A marriage between the king's daughter Elizabeth and the German ruler Frederick V had unfortunate results as well. Frederick's attempts to take the throne of BOHEMIA led to the outbreak of the bloody THIRTY YEARS' WAR (1618–1648). James tried to remain outside this conflict, but many of his subjects believed that England should support fellow Protestants. As a result, England was dragged into unsuccessful naval campaigns against Spain and France.

Throughout the early years of the Stuart dynasty, classical learning continued to dominate education and literature in England. Playwrights such as Ben JONSON based court masques* on stories from ancient mythology. At the same time, architect Inigo JONES introduced classical styles into English architecture. With the death of King James in 1625, the English Renaissance faded.

Economic and Social Changes. The population of England grew rapidly in the 1500s, straining the country's resources. At the same time, changes in agriculture caused economic problems. Many large landowners had begun replacing their grain fields with fenced pastures for sheep. This process, called enclosure, increased their profits because wool was England's most valuable export. However, it also forced many peasants off the lands they had farmed all their lives. They moved into the cities seeking work, but many lacked the skills to find jobs and ended up as beggars or robbers. Although the government tried to deal with this social problem by banning enclosure, most landlords ignored the law. England eventually passed a series of poor laws to provide relief for those in need.

Inflation, an increase in prices, contributed to economic distress as well. To meet their expenses, kings Henry VIII and Edward VI had reduced the amount of precious metal in the coins they issued. When merchants realized that the coins had less value, they began to raise their prices. Elizabeth I recalled all the "debased" coins in 1560 and replaced them with coins of higher value. However, prices continued to rise, causing hardship for many.

At the height of the Renaissance, England began expanding its naval power. Voyages of exploration and discovery began in 1497, when John Cabot sailed to North America. In the 1500s, Captain John Hawkins opened up trade with the Caribbean and Sir Francis DRAKE gained fame for his voyage around the world. In the early 1600s England began to establish colonies in the New World, laying the foundations of what would eventually become the mighty British Empire.

England

Perkin Warbeck