A HISTORY OF BRITAIN III 1485 - 1603.

TUDOR DYNASTY

The rather less than romantic Tudor dynasty had its roots in a most romantic liaison, the marriage in 1428 of an unknown young Welsh servant, Owen Tudor, to his mistress Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V . This was a most unsettled era, and Owen was to be executed shortly after the battle of Mortimer's Cross for his part in the struggle against the future Edward IV , but his sons, half-brothers to Henry VI , were established as figures of some prominence: the elder of them, Edmund, died shortly before the birth of his son Henry, the future Henry VII ; the second, Jasper, rescued the 13-year-old Henry from the bloody recriminations after Tewkesbury in 1471 by fleeing with him to Brittany. Henry Tudor would spend the next 14 years in exile, in 1484 nearly given up by the Bretons to Richard III who dearly wished to rid himself of another rival, as he had (probably personally) rid the field of Henry VI and his son, plus his own brother the Duke of Clarence, and possibly the Princes in the Tower , (the child-king Edward V and his younger brother).Henry escaped Brittany for France, where he was given some support in his preparations for an attempt on the English throne, firstly in 1483 in an ill-judged rising that foundered when Henry's lieutenant Buckingham was caught and executed and Henry's fleet was beaten by the weather.A new attempt was mounted in 1485 with Richard increasingly unpopular in the kingdom he had seized just two years previously. But Henry had only 2,000 men when he landed at Milford Haven , playing on his Welsh lineage, and the chances of success were doubtful. 

Bosworth , where the two sides met on August 22 1485, was a close fought battle, but with the death there of Richard III Henry was given a breathing space to establish himself as monarch, which he did with energy and brilliance. A marriage to Elizabeth of York which had been discussed and agreed in principle two years before Bosworth was hastily arranged, taking place in 1486. Thus the Houses of York and Lancaster were united, and Henry's claim to the throne improved enormously.The first half of Henry's reign was far from easy. A rising in 1486 led by Yorkist diehard Lord Lovel may have been halted without alarms, but it demonstrated that hopes remained for another change of monarch. After all, since Henry VI ascended the throne in 1422 he had been murdered, as had his son; the usurper Edward IV had lost his grip on the crown for a period in the middle of his reign; his son Edward V died in the Tower; and Richard III had been killed at Bosworth. The English were used to brutal changes of rule, and Henry's survival was by no means guaranteed.Concern for the security of his throne - a concern every Tudor was to share - was lessened somewhat perversely by the Lambert Simnel uprising in 1487. Lord Lincoln , the strongest Yorkist claimant, died at the battle of Stoke , near Newark , as did many other senior figures on his side. Henry judged his reaction after Stoke very cleverly: nobles were relieved of their lands and gold but not executed, filling his coffers and creating some gratitude rather than hatred; but common soldiers were hanged in droves, a warning to the general populace not to become involved in such affairs again. He even let the dupe Simnel live and work in his household in the kitchen then as a hawk trainer. Perkin Warbeck, the more dangerous pretender who troubled Henry for several years, was not so lucky, executed in 1499 after a failed rising in the West Country two years previously. The Cornish who had risen against taxes imposed on them in 1497 were slaughtered at Blackheath , uncomfortably close to London , significantly outnumbered, outgunned, and out-thought by Henry.
Henry recognised the threat of the nobility to settled rule, and took measures to reduce that threat: while some acts such as that which limited the use of liveried retainers were effective and visible signs, the new king used finance above all else to cement his rule: bonds for significant sums were guarantors of good behaviour hanging over noble families. And contrary to the view of him as a grey miser, his court was lively and distinguished, attracting and distracting the young nobles drawn to it.The first Tudor King strengthened his own finances, by taxing those same nobles, and by the careful monitoring and control of state expenditure and income by the king himself. He also roped in the merchant and gentry to his cause, his most effective administrators Empson and Dudley coming from the middle ranks and below. By largely avoiding expensive foreign adventures he created a period of settled prosperity during which trade prospered, so taxes though not high were healthy. Henry was the only Tudor to leave his successor a surplus rather than debts.John Cabot was financed to make in 1496 a voyage of discovery, finding and claiming what would become Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and Henry began major development of the Navy, something his son Henry VIII continued after him.The death of Prince Arthur, heir to the throne, in 1502, was a terrible blow to Henry, followed shortly by the death of his wife Elizabeth. It is wrong to think of him as broken by this, however, as he even considered a crusade against the Turks, and marrying Catherine of Aragon , Arthur's widow, before he died (probably of TB) in 1509. On his death he handed his second son, Henry, a kingdom at peace, with a prosperous economy, and royal coffers filled, his legacy included a vast fortune of £1.5 million to his 17-year-old son. 

The reign of Henry VIII began with a symbolic gesture to the nobility, an almost adolescent piece of petulant foolishness: Empson and Dudley were arrested in days, tried and executed on trumped up charges. Henry would continue to use minor gentry and even humbler men as his civil servants and administrators, most notably Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell , but he wished his reign to be more glorious and glamorous, becoming involved rapidly in the foreign adventures his father had shunned. It is telling that Henry was the first English monarch to be called His Majesty - he saw himself as above the common herd - and his view of himself was as the greatest athlete, thinker, scholar and lover of his age, and god help any who went against him and that view. Previous rulers had been addressed as Your Grace.Cardinal Wolsey, supposedly the son of a butcher from Ipswich , was to prove an exceptional servant, taking the burdens of government from Henry's shoulders, allowing him to shine at court and to enjoy some forays onto the European stage: in 1520 Wolsey organised the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting with Francis I, held near Calais, and limited but successful foreign adventures, including gaining victories in France. Happily for Henry the Scots chose to honour their alliance with France when he was on such an adventure, and at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513 their king and a generation of their nobility were wiped from the earth by Henry's generals. Scotland was no threat for the rest of his reign, and in its latter stages Henry was able to order the "Rough Wooing", the devastation of swathes of Scotland in the attempt to force the betrothal of Mary Queen of Scots to his son Edward, though this suffered a setback at Ancrum Moor in 1545.Henry VIII was never a religious radical, disliking Martin Luther and even winning the title Defender of the Faith from the Pope for his stance against Protestantism. But when it served him he moved away from Rome, the occasion being the need to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a marriage that had only produced one surviving daughter, and about the legitimacy of which Henry probably had sincere concerns. Wolsey died in Leicester in 1530, having failed to secure an end to the marriage accepted by the Papacy; disgraced, arrested and facing almost certain death as a traitor had his health not failed before he was returned to the capital. The Cardinal had also annoyed Henry by his extravagant life - founding Cardinal College (now Christ Church ) in Oxford ; building the magnificent Hampton Court - and by the peculation which funded it.The overarching concern of Henry's reign (as so often with the Tudors) was his successor. The Wars of the Roses were by no means a distant memory, and as well as the risk of leaving a daughter as heir it must have been embarrassing and painful for his self-image not to have sons in his own image to follow him.Marriage to Anne Boleyn in 1533 failed to give him a son, just another daughter, Elizabeth. Anne and her supporters were brushed aside in 1536 when she was tried and executed for supposed infidelity and other crimes - this from a king whose mistresses (including Anne's sister) were without number. Jane Seymour followed, and finally he had his son and heir, Edward, though Jane tragically died in childbirth. The break with Rome that had been convenient for marital purposes became stronger in 1536 when he began to dissolve the monasteries: firstly those which had become morally and financially corrupt, then the rest: these potential enemies of Henry and allies of the Pope within the English state were wiped away. It helped his own finances too, the wealth from the likes of Fountains and Furness Abbeys allowing him to continue his fabulously expensive court life, and to buy the loyalty of the great families who were granted monastic lands. Throughout his reign Henry felt the need to shine, to be a glorious figure in a glorious court, comparing himself first with Francis I of France, then with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V too.The Pilgrimage of Grace, the northern rebellion which began in Louth in 1536 in reaction to the Dissolution, and ended the following year, was halted with diplomacy then brutality, a reminder if he needed one that Henry's kingdom was still not immune from the turbulence of the previous century. When in 1538 the Pope, after Thomas a-Becket 's shrine had been despoiled, finally accepted that he had no option but to excommunicate the English King and any chance of reconciliation in Henry's lifetime had gone. In spite of his at best ambivalence towards Protestantism - Tyndale was executed on Henry's orders for his Protestant writings - some reforming clergymen had climbed the English hierarchy by the end of his reign, and by his order a copy of the bible was in every church in the land, an act seen as a threat to Rome's supremacy. The ground had been prepared for later changes.Thomas Cromwell met his end when he promoted the marriage with Anne of Cleaves, not to Henry's taste when she arrived, and he was executed after being found guilty by act of attainder, enemies including the Duke of Norfolk having persuaded the King he was a traitor. When Catherine Howard was genuinely unfaithful to the ageing king within two years of their marriage she too was executed, and in his declining years he married Catherine Parr. His court was increasingly factional, the power of Catholics and Protestants waxing and waning with little logic sometimes discernible. Henry's reign brought pride to his country, in spite of his monstrous egotism, his moral bankruptcy and his hypocrisy - but he is not unique in British royal history in holding such vices. He is still regarded by some as the epitome of "Merry England". Not so merry if you vexed him: one cook whose food upset the King's stomach was boiled in oil for his error. Among the higher ranks many lived in fear of the King turning against them: in 1513 the Duke of Suffolk , Edmund de la Pole, was executed after years in prison, his death contrary to Henry VII's vows when he had him brought to England ruthlessly ridding Henry VIII of a potential Yorkist rival. He was the first of many to die for political expediency in Henry's long reign.He did, to give the other side of the coin, continue to develop the Navy, establishing the royal dockyard at Portsmouth , and building the 1000 ton plus Royal Harry, a giant symbol of Britain's newfound sea power. And in spite of his egotism and ambition he was a skilled statesman in foreign affairs.Strangely, though he was riddled with all sorts of ailments, from gout to (it is thought) diabetes, some believe malnutrition was a contributing factor in his death, as his diet was almost exclusively meat. 

By his end he had become a bloated and pustulous mockery of the athlete who had ascended the throne 38 years previously. When he died at the Palace of Whitehall it is said his waist measured 54". He was buried at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle , next to the only wife - Jane Seymour - who gave him a surviving son, his successor Edward VI .In spite of the Tudors having reigned for 62 years by the time Henry VIII died, the continuation of their rule was not completely assured: the new King Edward VI was a child of just nine. His Yorkist namesake Edward V had been 12 when he ascended the throne in 1483, but was easily swept aside by Richard III, and probably murdered on his orders too. News of the King's death was not given until careful arrangement had been made to get Edward from Hertford to Enfield and then the safety of the royal accommodation in The Tower of London .Edward's uncle, The Duke of Somerset, ruled for him as Protector for the first two years, with the reforming Archbishop Cranmer as spiritual guide and church head. Henry VIII had at times edged towards Protestantism for political ends; Edward though an adolescent was to be a zealot in that cause, his court preachers including Knox, Latimer and Ridley, and his personal studies concentrating above all else on matters of religion. Somerset, initially successful, winning against the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh during the continuation of the (eventually unsuccessful) "Rough Wooing", was clumsy in his internal politicking and hasty in his religious reforms. In 1549 the Act of Unity abolished mass; and a new prayer book was introduced. The ensuing Cornish and Devonian uprising was quelled by Somerset , but the later Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk was put down not by Somerset but by Northumberland , who became the new de facto ruler. Somerset was sent to the Tower, and in spite of being released with a pardon in 1550 in 1552 he was not so lucky, executed after his re-arrest the previous year.The boy-king's reign would be brief. The "Rough Wooing" of Mary Queen of Scots only resulted in her flight to France, and no other marriage candidate was to meet the nation's needs. Determined the country should not revert to Catholicism were he to succumb to the illnesses already wracking his young body, Edward was persuaded to take drastic action over the succession. His fervently Catholic sister Mary, next-in-line, was cut out, as was Elizabeth. In their place Lady Jane Grey , Edward's cousin, Henry VII's great-granddaughter and Henry VIII's grand-niece, was selected, hastily married to Northumberland's son (against her better judgement) just six weeks before Edward died. The measles and smallpox that had weakened him in 1552 were followed by lung problems. He died at Greenwich Palace on July 6 1553.Lady Jane was attractive as an heir to Edward because of her known Protestant convictions. To Northumberland she meant continuation of the power and wealth gained as Edward's Lord President of the Council. The succession created by Henry did indeed place Jane as fourth in line, after Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth, and legally both Mary and Elizabeth were considered illegitimate, the marriages of their mothers both having been annulled (Anne Boleyn suffering this indignity just before her execution). But Edward's 'Devise of the Crown' which sidelined Mary and Elizabeth was highly dubious, and Jane's accession can best be seen as a coup by Northumberland.It was a coup that might well have succeeded, had Mary not escaped to Kenninghall in Norfolk and then safety at Framlingham Castle 20 miles distant in Suffolk .

 Northumberland had built up a strong power-base during the previous four years, and his faction had the sympathies if not the outright support of many Protestant figures. And it should not be forgotten that many noble families had gained, like Northumberland, from the lands and wealth transferred to them during the Dissolution. Elizabeth's role in the situation is unclear; she remained at Hatfield during the crisis. A conveniently diplomatic illness prevented her taking any action for either side. Though Parliament proclaimed Jane Queen, Mary acted swiftly, and benefiting from public wishes to see the true Tudor line continue she was able to enter London to popular acclaim and imprison Jane on July 19 1553. Northumberland's execution followed quickly, but Jane and her husband may have been forgiven or at least allowed to live on in comfort in the Tower had Wyatt's Rebellion not forced Mary's hand in 1554. Wyatt - like many Englishmen - was outraged at Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain. Although only Kent rose under his urgings, his army made it as far as Ludgate before being repulsed. Elizabeth was lucky not to have been executed with Jane Grey, many had expected her to be killed to rid Mary of a further Protestant rival.If Edward VI's reign is characterised by a zealous push towards Protestantism, Mary's can be summarised as a rabid return to Catholicism. Her marriage to Philip of Spain had his support in that task at its heart. Mary rapidly resorted to a bloodbath as the means to rebuild Catholicism in England. In 1555 John Rogers was the first to go to the stake, his grisly end met at Smithfield in London. In her five year reign more than 300 Protestants suffered the same horrible death, most famously Cranmer , Ridley and Latimer burned in Oxford. In keeping with her father's and grandfather's tradition Mary expanded the Navy. She also showed her kinship to Henry VII in her attention to economic matters: customs dues and their collection were reformed, and the currency strengthened. But it is for her religion that she is remembered.Mary's marriage to Philip was doubly tragic. In spite of seemingly imagined pregnancies no heir resulted from the 14 months of his first stay in England and the mere three of his second. And support for Spain against France (expressly contrary to the agreement made with Parliament regarding her marriage) in their war allowed the French to seize Calais in 1558. It had been in English hands since 1347, and as a trading port and military base on the continent was of inestimable value to the country. Like her brother before her Mary's health was bad when she came to the throne, and she died at Lambeth Palace aged just 42. Her violent assault on Protestantism was to haunt the English collective mind for centuries, ensuring Catholics would be treated with at best concern, at worst similar violence and discrimination, until relatively modern times.Mary's successor was her sister Elizabeth , destined to be the last of the Tudors. Though she had many suitors and was obviously an attractive catch for both European royalty and English nobility, Elizabeth never married.But if her reign saw the end of a dynasty it also witnessed the birth of our modern artistic culture. In music William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons and John Dowland rose to prominence. In literature this was the age of Shakespeare , Kit Marlowe , Bacon , Ben Jonson , Sidney , Spenser and the most easily read poet of the day Raleigh . And that latter figure stands also in the list of those who flourished in the voyages that eventually changed England from a European backwater to a world power: Drake , Hawkins , Raleigh and Davis opened the nation's collective mind geographically as the artists did culturally.The delicate balancing act that Elizabeth was forced to maintain though her reign was demonstrated well at her coronation: both reformist and Catholic bishops presided; both English and Latin were used. The procession before that coronation was used to communicate vital messages to her people: her English lineage (Mary of course was half Spanish); her desire for prosperity; the wish to enjoy colour and music after a period of near terror.After the bloody years under Mary the country needed to return to more settled times. Elizabeth stamped down on ultra-Catholic sermons by some bishops early in her reign, not from Protestant zeal but in line with the moderate course she had chosen. That course in part resulted from her lack of funds: she even stooped to selling muskets at inflated prices to her own soldiers to rake in some extra cash at one point. The same needs meant that, though the West Country pirates and privateers were never given free rein, their predations on the Spanish (among others) were a useful source of funds for the crown - Raleigh at one point was freed from prison to secure her share of one juicy windfall.This preying on the Spanish was not just for funds - there were undoubted religious undertones to the raids too, with Elizabeth's excommunication by the Pope in 1570 in the background. This clash of religions was behind the constant plotting to replace Elizabeth with Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned in Sheffield and elsewhere in England until Elizabeth finally lost patience and had her executed. The list of those threats to her life and crown, from the Ridolfi plot in 1572 to Throckmorton in 1584, Parry 1585; and Babington in 1586, shows her need for constant vigilance. Religion was of course also largely behind the attempt by Philip II of Spain, her brother-in-law, to invade England with his mighty Armada in 1588, the year after Mary Stewart's death at Fotheringhay, Elizabeth for once having thrown her weight behind the Dutch Protestant rebels causing Philip great difficulties.When the Armada was decisively defeated by a combination of English seamanship, incompetent Spanish planning and leadership, terrible weather, and Spanish vessels poorly suited to those storms, Elizabeth was at last in a position of strength. Mary Queen of Scots, her greatest rival, was dead; and Spain forced to divert attention from England to Ireland where there was greater prospect of success, Tyrone indeed forcing the Queen to send her favourite, Essex, to try to subdue the rising in 1599. Essex had taken Cadiz in the daring raid of 1596, but neither that nor Elizabeth's affection for him prevented his execution in 1601 after a foolish attempted coup. Thus it is seen that even in the last few years of the Tudor dynasty it was under threat, as it had been since Henry VII deposed Richard III at Bosworth. Elizabeth died in 1603, at Richmond Palace. She had become increasingly world-weary, depressed by the deaths of her friends and contemporaries, still saddened by the loss of Essex. In her last days she refused to eat, hastening her own end. As throughout the Tudor epoch the question of succession loomed large. The ageing Queen had refused to name a successor, or accept the obvious candidate James VI of Scotland. It is unclear if she ever did truly acknowledge him as the man to follow her, though conveniently - the dangers to the country had the question been left open at her death were too horrible to contemplate - she was supposed by a gesture to have done so. Thus with her death on March 24 1603 the Tudor dynasty and era ended.
Five hundred years ago the world was a very different place. We were only just realizing that America existed and we had no idea about Australia. England (including the Principality of Wales) and Scotland were separate kingdoms, each with their own royal family.Five hundred years ago the world was a very different place. We were only just realizing that America existed and we had no idea about Australia. England (including the Principality of Wales) and Scotland were separate kingdoms, each with their own royal family.

The Reformation

The story really begins over a hundred years earlier, when the Papacy began to reap the effects of centuries of compromise. The Great Schism saw two, even three individuals claiming to be the Pope, and the Council of Constance in the early fifteenth century saw a power struggle between Bishops and Pope. Combined, they hindered Papal government and harmed the reputation of the Church in the eyes of the laity. They led early sixteenth century popes to resist reform and bolster their own position by using their spiritual power, along with war and diplomacy, to become territorial princes in Italy, building their bank accounts on the way.

In England, the same period saw John Wyclif, an Oxford academic, anticipate the arguments of Martin Luther over a century later, and also produce the first English Bible. Piers Plowman, a popular poetic satire, attacked abuses in the entire church, from Pope to priest. But nothing happened. Wyclif's supporters, the Lollards, were driven underground after their failed rebellion of 1414, and remained a persecuted minority for another hundred years. The church carried on unabashed and proud, selling offices and indulgences, a political plaything for princes and a useful source of income for second sons and men on the make. And forget celibacy.

So European anticlericalism was nothing new; it had been seething for centuries. What was new this time round was a by-product of the infant capitalism: wealth, urbanisation and education. Whilst still a minority, the literate laity were no longer confined to those in on the game, and were better educated than many priests who claimed to be the path to salvation (while taking their money in taxes). It rankled somewhat.

Criticism was stepped up, at home and abroad, by the Humanists. Led by Colet, More and Erasmus, they went back to basics, studying the Scriptures as they would any classical text. Yet they remained Catholics, attacking corruption but keen to reform from within, stressing toleration and man's inherent dignity. It was a depressed German cleric, Martin Luther, who lit the fuse for the first, European, Reformation. Provided no comfort by Catholic ritual and horrified by abuses in Italy, he concluded that salvation was a personal matter between God and man: traditional church ceremonial was irrelevant at best and at its worst - the sale of indulgences, for example - fraudulent. Nailing his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, he prompted massive theological debate and was condemned as a heretic and an outlaw.

It is one of history's great ironies that the man who publicly refuted him was none other than Henry VIII, rewarded with the title of Fidei Defensor - Defender of the Faith - in 1521. But it was too late. Luther's ideas were white hot and they spread fast. They soon reached England and were discussed by academics here, most notably the White Horse Group who were named after a Cambridge pub where scholars would meet, drank and put the world to rights. Some things don't change.

The break from Rome

So England by the mid 1520s was hearing grumbles of lay dissatisfaction, grumbles that remained. Catholicism addressed many important needs and enjoyed general popular support. Even though the grumblers could point to Europe as a lead, the same situation existed in France, yet that remained Catholic. What France didn't have was a Defender of the Faith; it didn't have a Henry. King since 1509, England's Renaissance Man lacked but one thing in his life - a son. Catherine of Aragon had produced six children but only a daughter, Mary, survived. Henry had become convinced that God was punishing him for marrying the wife of his dead elder brother, Arthur. He had also become infatuated with Anne Boleyn, daughter of a well-connected London merchant whose family he knew well: her sister had been a mistress. No beauty but no fool, Anne insisted that she be Queen or nothing. Henry was keen. He was also married. It was his search for a solution that triggered the break from Rome.

In 1527 he asked Pope Clement VII for a divorce on Scriptural grounds. But unfortunately for both Clement and Henry, Rome was surrounded by the Emperor Charles V of Spain, Catherine's nephew. Unsurprisingly, Charles was unsympathetic to Henry's requests, which meant the Pope had to be as well. Henry had to find another way.
It was Thomas Cranmer, one of the White Horse Group, who in 1530 suggested a legal approach. The Collectanea argued that Kings of England enjoyed Imperial Power similar to that of the first Christian Roman Emperors. This meant that the Pope's jurisdiction was illegal: if Henry wanted a divorce, he could have it, as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury agreed. But William Warham didn't. Henry applied some pressure, charging the clergy with Praemunire, the unlawful exercise of spiritual jurisdiction. In 1532 they had capitulated, and the next year a new Act asserted England's judicial independence. By now, matters were pressing: Anne was pregnant. Henry had to marry for the child to be legitimate. Luckily, Warham had just died. Henry replaced him with Cranmer and the divorce came through within months.

Dissolution of the monasteries

The Act of Supremacy (1534) confirmed the break from Rome, declaring Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. But the Reformation was far from over. The Protestant Anne Boleyn had the motivation, the power and the intelligence to push reform as far as it would go. She also had the means: Cranmer and Cromwell. In the Orwellian atmosphere of the Tudor state, Cranmer was the thought, Cromwell the police. Thomas Cromwell combined managerial genius with Machiavellian ruthlessness. The years to 1540 saw his hitsquads travel the country, assessing the church's wealth. Once he knew how much to take, he took.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries lasted four 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.

But for all the work carried out in his name, Henry was never a Protestant. 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 with the Reformation stuck in the mud. But on the quiet, Henry's young son, born to Jane Seymour (wife number three), was being educated by Protestants. Edward was only ten when he became king in 1547 but his two regents accelerated the pace of Protestant reform considerably. 

The 1539 Act was repealed, priests were permitted to marry - creating another vested interest - and more land was confiscated. Altars and shrines were all removed from churches and the stained glass was smashed.

Changing attitudes

Becoming Queen in 1553 Mary, Edward's devoutly Catholic sister, was always going to have a tough time undoing twenty years' work. Although Protestantism remained patchy and its followers a minority, this minority was entrenched and substantial, at least in London and the South East. 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.

The burnings were unpopular and immensely counter-productive, and she compounded her errors by marrying Philip II of Spain, son of Charles V who had so successfully thwarted Henry in 1527. Burning bodies, Spanish courtiers and Philip's awful English all fuelled further Protestant propaganda and confirmed fears of the Catholic menace that had been threatened since 1534. Fighting France for Philip, Mary's loss of Calais in 1558 - England's last territory in France - helped turn distrust into hatred and xenophobia. Tension mounted, Thomas Wyatt was rebelling in Kent, and religious civil war seemed not too far away.

However, chance rolled the dice once more. After two phantom pregnancies Mary died childless in November 1558: the only heir was Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter. 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, in a conciliatory gesture, reintroduced clerical vestments and a more Catholic Eucharist. Altars were allowed, and clergy had to get permission to marry.

A lasting legacy

Norwich Cathedral. 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. While altars were theoretically allowed, in practice they were removed by church commissions that toured the country to check compliance.

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.
So why is the Reformation important? True, it happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but it established in English minds the image of an island nation, separate and supreme, still resonant today. English policy became increasingly repressive in Ireland, importing Protestant landowners to oppress the locals who resisted conversion. That legacy still lingers, and the abiding sense of anti-Catholicism remained potent enough to be a cause of the Civil War a century later.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 Tudors - Society

During the Tudor period people were grouped in a hierarchical system with the King at the top. The nearer to the top of the system you were, the richer you were. If you were born poor there was little chance of you becoming rich. People were taught by the church that their position in life was determined by God. However, it was through the church that some men who were born poor managed to become very rich and powerful indeed.

The Church

During the Tudor period the church was very powerful, owning large amounts of land. The people were very religious and attended church services. The church was able to control people's lives by preaching what they wanted them to believe. During the reign of Henry VIII the church became less powerful as Henry made himself head of the church, dissolved the monasteries and confiscated their land.

Archbishops

 Archbishops were very powerful. They owned large amounts of land and were very rich. They were able to influence the King or Queen and played a part in the government of the country. After the Reformation, Archbishops only remained powerful if they supported the monarch.

Bishops

The Bishops of the most important churches were rich and powerful, playing a part in the government of the country. After the Reformation they only remained in position if they supported their monarch.

Clergymen 

Clergymen were poorly paid but were highly respected members of the community that they served. As well as delivering church services they were responsible for the education of those members of the community that could afford to pay, for visiting the sick and counselling the bereaved.

The King or the Queen

The Tudor monarch was at the head of the social system. He or she was the richest person in the land, owning vast amounts of land and many palaces. Both rich and poor alike were bound to serve their monarch, failure to do so often resulted in death. The monarch made all the laws of the land and although there was a court system, few judges would dare to pass judgement against the King's wishes. Until Henry VIII broke away from Rome (the Reformation) and formed the Church of England, Monarchs were subject to obey the Pope The Tudor monarchs, with the exception of Henry VII, and Mary I who returned the Church to Rome, were head of the Church, the Judiciary and the Government.

Gentlemen

Gentlemen were born rich and came from families with titles - barons, Earls and Dukes. Most owned large country estates and were often given important positions in government. The Monarch would visit his most notable subjects when he or she went on a progress and they would be expected to provide board and lodging for the King and his court. Sometimes this could be as many as 300 persons. If summoned to court a gentleman, or other member of his family, would have to leave their home and travel to London to be with the King.

Yeomen and citizens

Both yeomen and citizens were fairly wealthy men. They were not born members of the gentry, but were rich enough to own their own houses and employ servants. Yeomen either owned their own land or rented land from gentlemen which they farmed. They were successful farmers and were rich enough to be able to afford labourers to do the heavy farming jobs for them. Citizens lived in the towns. They were rich merchants and craftsmen. Merchants made their living by trading goods with ship owners. Craftsmen were skilled men who could command a good price for the goods that they made.

Labourers

Labourers worked for Yeomen or citizens and were paid a wage for their work. Labourers were employed to do the heavy back-breaking jobs on the farms or in the craft shops. In 1515 an act was passed which fixed a labourers wage at 3d per day for winter months and 4d per day for summer months with bonuses to be paid at harvest time. A labourer could expect to work from sunrise to sunset in the winter and from sunrise to early evening in the summer. Sundays and major saint's days were free. Skilled workers were to be paid 5d per day during the winter and 6d for summer days.

Vagrants / Beggars

These formed the lowest and poorest section of the Tudor social system. They did not work and therefore earned no money. They were forced to beg on the streets for money or food. In 1536 laws were introduced that punished those who could work but chose not to (undeserving poor). The Church helped those who were unable to work due to ill health or disability.

Life during the Tudor Time

There were only 4 million people living in Tudor England and the towns were not very big. London was the largest.

The Houses

 The tudors built many thousands of new houses. A few were grand palaces made of stone but most were smaller. They had wooden frames pinned together with wooden pegs, and the spaces were filled with clay or brick. 

Brick and stone were only used for building big country houses. Most buildings were made of wood and plaster. They would build a wooden frame and then pack it with clay or daub. Lots of houses in the town were built upwards because there was not much space. The floors used to jut out over each other. They were built on both sides of the street and made the streets gloomy because they blocked the light. The streets were narrow and crowded this made it easy for criminals to rob and steal from shops, traders and people. 

People threw their rubbish into the streets. They smelt very unpleasant. 

Tudor shops were more like open market stalls. The shopkeeper had a picture sign to show people what they sold. This was better than a written sign because lots of people could not read.

Life at Home

Everything had to be done by hand so the housewife was a busy person. The people then were not as particular as we are about changing their clothes.  Washing would only be done about once a month In a big house, there might only be one washday in three months. 

People often did their washing outside in a stream. They used home made soap from fat and ashes. 

Most of the furniture was made of wood. Only important people had chairs, the rest had to sit on stools or benches. Rich people had big wooden four poster beds. Beds like this one were very precious and would be passed down to families when people died. Most people's beds were feather matresses covered with thick sheets and wool blankets. The walls had wood panelling to keep out draughts.

Food and Drink

Most people ate well. The main part of each meal was meat. This could be beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, deer, goat or wildfowl, rich people even ate swans. 

Ordinary people cooked, ate and slept in the same room. They would cook over an open fire and would probably drink beer or cider with each meal. 

Tables were made of oak. The dishes they used were made of earthenware which was a kind of rough pottery. Food was usually put into a big bowl in the middle of the table then people helped themselves. They didn't use forks just spoons and knives. Drinking cups were made of horns which had the pointed end cut off. 

Feasts and banquets took place in the great hall of a big house. The host and important guests sat at the top of the table which was raised up on a platform. The rest of the guests sat lower down. There was loads of food and often lots left over which was given to the servants anything they didn't eat was given to beggars who waited outside.

Education

Schools were mainly for rich children. Most pupils were boys and very few girls were educated. Some were taught at home by a tutor. 

Pupils spent a long time at school. After three years at a nursery school they moved on to a grammar school when they were seven. They only had two holidays of about two weeks each, one at Christmas and one at Easter. For the rest of the year they only had Sundays off. 

The day began at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. Lunch was at 11 o'clock and afternoon lessons lasted from 1o'clock until 5 o'clock.

Entertainment

 In the Tudor period people had to make their own entertainments. Hours of work were long and without electric light or the benefit of being able to read, many people simply went to bed when it got dark. The time for entertainment was on a Sunday or Saint's day or when there was a great public event - Royal wedding or public execution.

Sports

Sports were very popular in the Sixteenth Century. Some of the most popular are still played today:

Jousting

Pitching the Bar

Throwing the Sledgehammer

Leaping

Shin kicking (with iron-tipped boots)

Sword fighting

Performing headstands

Fox Hunting

Hare Coursing

Theatre

The popularity of the theatre rose with both rich and poor alike, during the sixteenth century. This popularity was helped by the rise of great playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare as well as the building of the Globe theatre in London.

Banquets

Banquets were a popular form of entertainment for the rich, but the poorer folk would also hold feasts on Special occasions. If there was a great public event such as a royal wedding then the monarch would pay for wine and food to be placed in the streets for the poor people to join in the celebrations. The diners would be entertained by mummers, jugglers, jesters or fire-eaters.

How people travelled

The roads of England were very poor. Each village was supposed to repair its own roads. By a law of 1555 ,one man was chosen every year to be surveyor of the Highway. Rich people were supposed to provide the materials for road repairs and the poorer people were to work unpaid for 6 days a year. Some people left money for road repairs when they died. Nobody liked having the job of surveyor. Often the surveyor only bothered to repair those pieces of road which they travelled on. 

 Roads then  did not have good surfaces, and they were not properly drained like ours deep ruts made by carts filled up with water  when it rained. Most people travelled on horse back or on foot.  For shorter journeys you might pay to have yourself  carried in a chair. 

Travelling  could be very dangerous it was not a good idea to travel alone if you could help it. Servants at the inns where  travellers stayed were sometimes in league with robbers. They looked at a travellers luggage and if they thought he was worth robbing ,they found when they were setting off and where they were heading. Then they told the robbers ,who would lie in wait and attack them taking all of their money and valuables.

Crime and Punishment

People who committed crimes could be put in the stocks. They always stood where lots of people would pass and they would throw things at the criminals. Beggars were a big problem people were afraid of them. If they became a nuisance they were dragged through the streets being whipped. 

Most towns had a ducking chair to punish women who were "scolds". The chair was kept near a pond or river and was hung on a see-saw. The woman was tied into the chair, dipped into the water and pulled out again. 

If people thought that a woman was a witch she would be tied up in a sack and thrown into the water. If she floated it meant she was not guilty. 

Other people could be burned at the stake.

 Clothes
King Henry VIII enacted Sumptuary Laws or Statutes of Apparel which were designed to keep the different classes separate. The clothes of the Tudors were regulated by law. It did not matter how wealthy you were - clothes and fashion indicated status and violation of these laws could result in loss of property, title or (in cases of lower class Tudors) even death.

The Costumes worn by the rich Tudors were fabulous - sumptuous materials, vivid colours and extremely costly. Read about ideas for Costumes from the times of the Tudors with a comprehensive list of underclothes and outer garments worn by the Tudors.

Clothes for a King

The dynasty of the Tudors include Kings and Queens such as King Henry VIII and his daughters and all are immediately recognisable due to the sumptuous clothes that they wore. The Tudor Clothes for a King were made of the most expensive materials which included Brocade, Buckram, Calico, Damask, Felt, Flannel, Gauze, Lawn, Linen, Satin, Shag, Silk, Tabbinet, Taffeta and Velvet. The following description details the clothes worn by King Henry VIII:
diamond as big as a walnut. His clothes were magnificent to match, sumptious silks, cloth of gold,
satins, coloured feathers and of course jewells and precious metals sprinked everywhere."
The introduction of Italian and French fashion exhibited better taste and a greater amount of elegance in the clothes of royalty and the nobility. The typical Tudor clothes for a King such as King Henry VIII featured the following items of clothing

"His fingers were one mass of jewelled rings, and around his neck he wore a gold collar from which hung a 

Tudor Clothes for a King

The basic Tudor clothes for a king  consisted of a kind of tight waistcoat, fastened by tags, and of very close-fitting breeches, which displayed the outlines of the figure

The colors worn by the king would include purple, gold, silver and crimson - these colors were forbidden to lower classes under the Sumptuary Laws or Statutes of Apparel

The style of the doublet was designed for the emphasis to be on the shoulders and hips and were fastened at the front

The breeches, or long hose, were made tight-fitting and finished with a garter

The codpiece worn by the Tudor King Henry VIII was padded and boned and became so large that it was used to carry small weapons or jewels

Full, gathered or puffed sleeves, gave considerable gracefulness to the upper part of the body and in order to appear wide at the shoulders artificial pads were worn. The sleeves were slashed as dictated by the fashion of the day

A short and ornamental mantle, trimmed with the finest fur, was open in front. The mantle had false sleeves which were slit up above in order to allow the arms of the under coat to pass through

A flat, broad-brimmed hat was worn which was covered with feathers

A livery collar or chain of office was a collar or heavy gold chain which was worn as insignia of office

The shoes were a kind of large padded shoe of black leather, round or square at the toes, and gored over the foot with coloured material

The King would have worn items of jewelry fit for a King of England containing gold, silver, Diamonds, Emeralds, Sapphires, Rubies, Topaz, Opals and Pearls

Buckles were not only practical but also used as ornaments and jewelry for shoes and belts

Besides tunics, the men also wore undershirts and briefs covered by a sleeveless jacket and an additional tunic

Stockings or trunk hose completed the male attire at the end of the fifteenth century.

Tudor Clothes for the Rich
Tudor clothes and fashion varied according to whether the person was a member of Royalty, the Nobility, Upper Class or one of the poor, working class. But whether a man was wealthy or poor he was not allowed to wear whatever he liked due to the Tudor Sumptuary or Statutes of Apparel. Colors, styles and materials were dictated by class and rank. The higher the rank the more choice of materials, styles and colors that could be worn. The rank and position of Tudor men and women would be immediately recognised by the color, style and material of their clothes.

Jewelry

Tudor Jewelry for the Rich

Tudor jewelry was similar to the type of jewelry worn in the modern age - but it was only available to the Nobility or Upper Class. Gold, silver, copper, gilded metals, ivory, jet together with precious and semi-precious stones were used to make Tudor jewelry. Faceted jewels using precious jewels such as diamonds and emeralds were still fairly simple flat table cuts.
Poor Tudors had to made do with wooden beads. Cheaper alternatives to jewels were made of glass, bone,mother of pearl, metal and horn were also used to create Tudor jewelry. These cheaper stones were used singly and in strings. 

Goldwork was also popular, enamelled with colored glass or featuring cameos. Colored glass beads were also fashioned into jewelry for outside use, reducing the risk of loss or theft. They were also used as rosary beads. Glass beads, called bugles were  used as ornaments, especially for women’s hair. Other beads were made of mother of pearl, metal, bone and even wood.

The precious jewels used to make Tudor jewelry were surrounded by plain gold which became more intricate towards the end of the 1500's. Pearls were one of the most popular items of jewelry in the Tudor era and worn by both Anne Boleyn and her daughter Queen Elizabeth I. Pearls were were worn in a string or as a single pearl or a combination of both as illustrated in the above picture. The jewels and precious stones used for the jewelry of Royalty and the Nobility in the Tudor era are included in the following list:
Diamonds, Emeralds;sapphires, Rubies, Topaz, Opals, Pearls.
Semi-precious jewels were also used to make jewelry in the Tudor era and the most popular stones are included in the following list:
Turquoise, Onyx, Carnelian, Bloodstone, Amber, Crystal, Coral, Agate

Tudor Jewelry for the Poor

Poor Tudors had to made do with wooden beads. Cheaper alternatives to jewels were made of glass, bone,mother of pearl, metal and horn were also used to create Tudor jewelry. These cheaper stones were used singly and in strings. Goldwork was also popular, enamelled with colored glass or featuring cameos. Colored glass beads were also fashioned into jewelry for outside use, reducing the risk of loss or theft. They were also used as rosary beads. Glass beads, called bugles were  used as ornaments, especially for women’s hair. Other beads were made of mother of pearl, metal, bone and even wood.

Henry VII
Henry VII, son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, was born in 1457. He married Elizabeth of York in 1486, who bore him four children: Arthur, Henry, Margaret and Mary. He died in 1509 after reigning 24 years.
Henry descended from John of Gaunt, through the latter's illicit affair with Catherine Swynford; although he was a Lancastrian, he gained the throne through personal battle. The Lancastrian victory at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 left Richard III slain in the field, York ambitions routed and Henry proclaimed king. From the onset of his reign, Henry was determined to bring order to England after 85 years of civil war. His marriage to Elizabeth of York combined both the Lancaster and York factions within the Tudor line, eliminating further discord in regards to succession. He faced two insurrections during his reign, each centered around "pretenders" who claimed a closer dynastic link to the Plantagenets than Henry. Lambert Simnel posed as the Earl of Warwick, but his army was defeated and he was eventually pardoned and forced to work in the king's kitchen. Perkin Warbeck posed as Richard of York, Edward V's younger brother (and co-prisoner in the Tower of London); Warbeck's support came from the continent, and after repeated invasion attempts, Henry had him imprisoned and executed.Henry greatly strengthened the monarchy by employing many political innovations to outmaneuver the nobility. 

The household staff rose beyond mere servitude: Henry eschewed public appearances, therefore, staff members were the few persons Henry saw on a regular basis. He created the Committee of the Privy Council ,a forerunner of the modern cabinet) as an executive advisory board; he established the Court of the Star Chamber to increase royal involvement in civil and criminal cases; and as an alternative to a revenue tax disbursement from Parliament, he imposed forced loans and grants on the nobility. Henry's mistrust of the nobility derived from his experiences in the Wars of the Roses - a majority remained dangerously neutral until the very end. His skill at by-passing Parliament (and thus, the will of the nobility) played a crucial role in his success at renovating government.Henry's political acumen was also evident in his handling of foreign affairs. He played Spain off of France by arranging the marriage of his eldest son, Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. Arthur died within months and Henry secured a papal dispensation for Catherine to marry Arthur's brother, the future Henry VIII ; this single event had the widest-ranging effect of all Henry's actions: Henry VIII's annulment from Catherine was the impetus for the separation of the Church of England from the body of Roman Catholicism. The marriage of Henry's daughter, Margaret, to James IV of Scotland would also have later repercussions, as the marriage connected the royal families of both England and Scotland, leading the Stuarts to the throne after the extinction of the Tudor dynasty. Henry encouraged trade and commerce by subsidizing ship building and entering into lucrative trade agreements, thereby increasing the wealth of both crown and nation.Henry failed to appeal to the general populace: he maintained a distance between king and subject. He brought the nobility to heel out of necessity to transform the medieval government that he inherited into an efficient tool for conducting royal business. Law and trade replaced feudal obligation as the Middle Ages began evolving into the modern world. Francis Bacon, in his history of Henry VII, described the king as such: "He was of a high mind, and loved his own will and his own way; as one that revered himself, and would reign indeed. Had he been a private man he would have been termed proud: But in a wise Prince, it was but keeping of distance; which indeed he did towards all; not admitting any near or full approach either to his power or to his secrets. For he was governed by none."


Finance and administration

Henry did not tax harshly in times of peace. He probably realised that this would have been a bad move in times of such political instability.Not only was Henry concerned with the raising of funds, he also concentrated on saving it rather than spending it (with the exception of spending lavishly on his household). He made very few gifts to his subjects (in contrast to previous rulers), and he carefully apportioned money to government needs.Most historians are agreed that it was in this area that Henry made a significant impact in government. 

You could say that he streamlined the organisation of financial administration Henry arranged for all of the revenue to go directly to the chamber. By his death 80% of royal income did go straight to the chamber. Consequently, the treasurer of the chamber was in fact the receiver-general of all crown lands, and most other revenues.He managed to secure an average annual income of around £100 000. This was nothing in comparison to the monies that the French Kings raised from their subjects, but it was £35 000 more than Edward IV ever had. Henry oversaw the account logs personally initialling each page. Henry obviously equated good, strong government with solvent government.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII was born at Greenwich on 28 June 1491, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He became heir to the throne on the death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur, in 1502 and succeeded in 1509.

In his youth he was athletic and highly intelligent. A contemporary observer described him thus: 'he speaks good French, Latin and Spanish; is very religious; heard three masses daily when he hunted ... He is extremely fond of hunting, and never takes that diversion without tiring eight or ten horses ... He is also fond of tennis.'
Henry's scholarly interests included writing both books and music, and he was a lavish patron of the arts.
He was an accomplished player of many instruments and a composer. Greensleeves, the popular melody frequently attributed to him is, however, almost certainly not one of his compositions.
As the author of a best-selling book (it went through some 20 editions in England and Europe) attacking Martin Luther and supporting the Roman Catholic church, in 1521 Henry was given the title 'Defender of the Faith' by the Pope.

From his father, Henry VIII inherited a stable realm with the monarch's finances in healthy surplus - on his accession, Parliament had not been summoned for supplies for five years. Henry's varied interests and lack of application to government business and administration increased the influence of Thomas Wolsey, an Ipswich butcher's son, who became Lord Chancellor in 1515.
Wolsey became one of the most powerful ministers in British history (symbolised by his building of Hampton Court Palace - on a greater scale than anything the king possessed). Wolsey exercised his powers vigorously in his own court of Chancery and in the increased use of the Council's judicial authority in the court of the Star Chamber.
Wolsey was also appointed Cardinal in 1515 and given papal legate powers which enabled him to by-pass the Archbishop of Canterbury and 'govern' the Church in England.
Henry's interest in foreign policy was focused on Western Europe, which was a shifting pattern of alliances centred round the kings of Spain and France, and the Holy Roman Emperor. (Henry was related by marriage to all three - his wife Catherine was Ferdinand of Aragon's daughter, his sister Mary married Louis XII of France in 1514, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was Catherine's nephew.)
An example of these shifts was Henry's unsuccessful Anglo-Spanish campaigns against France, ending in peace with France in 1520, when he spent huge sums on displays and tournaments at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Henry also invested in the navy, and increased its size from 5 to 53 ships (including the Mary Rose, the remains of which lie in the Portsmouth Naval Museum).

The second half of Henry's reign was dominated by two issues very important for the later history of England and the monarchy: the succession and the Protestant Reformation, which led to the formation of the Church of England.
Henry had married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon, in 1509. Catherine had produced only one surviving child - a girl, Princess Mary, born in 1516. By the end of the 1520s, Henry's wife was in her forties and he was desperate for a son.
The Tudor dynasty had been established by conquest in 1485 and Henry was only its second monarch. England had not so far had a ruling queen, and the dynasty was not secure enough to run the risk of handing the Crown on to a woman, risking disputed succession or domination of a foreign power through marriage.

Henry had anyway fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of his many mistresses, and tried to persuade the Pope to grant him an annulment of his marriage on the grounds that it had never been legal.
Royal divorces had happened before: Louis XII had been granted a divorce in 1499, and in 1527 James IV's widow Margaret (Henry's sister) had also been granted one. However, a previous Pope had specifically granted Henry a licence to marry his brother's widow in 1509.
In May 1529, Wolsey failed to gain the Pope's agreement to resolve Henry's case in England. All the efforts of Henry and his advisers came to nothing; Wolsey was dismissed and arrested, but died before he could be brought to trial.

Since the attempts to obtain the divorce through pressure on the papacy had failed, Wolsey's eventual successor Thomas Cromwell (Henry's chief adviser from 1532 onwards) turned to Parliament, using its powers and anti-clerical attitude (encouraged by Wolsey's excesses) to decide the issue.
The result was a series of Acts cutting back papal power and influence in England and bringing about the English Reformation.
In 1532, an Act against Annates - although suspended during 'the king's pleasure' - was a clear warning to the Pope that ecclesiastical revenues were under threat.
In 1532, Cranmer was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury and, following the Pope's confirmation of his appointment, in May 1533 Cranmer declared Henry's marriage invalid; Anne Boleyn was crowned queen a week later.

The Pope responded with excommunication, and Parliamentary legislation enacting Henry's decision to break with the Roman Catholic Church soon followed. An Act in restraint of appeals forbade appeals to Rome, stating that England was an empire, governed by one supreme head and king who possessed 'whole and entire' authority within the realm, and that no judgements or excommunications from Rome were valid.
An Act of Submission of the Clergy and an Act of Succession followed, together with an Act of Supremacy (1534) which recognised that the king was 'the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia'.
The breach between the king and the Pope forced clergy, office-holders and others to choose their allegiance - the most famous being Sir Thomas More, who was executed for treason in 1535.

The other effect of the English Protestant Reformation was the Dissolution of Monasteries, under which monastic lands and possessions were broken up and sold off. In the 1520s, Wolsey had closed down some of the small monastic communities to pay for his new foundations (he had colleges built at Oxford and Ipswich).
In 1535-6, another 200 smaller monasteries were dissolved by statute, followed by the remaining greater houses in 1538-40; as a result, Crown revenues doubled for a few years.
Henry's second marriage had raised hopes for a male heir. Anne Boleyn, however, produced another daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and failed to produce a male child. Henry got rid of Anne on charges of treason (presided over by Thomas Cromwell) which were almost certainly false, and she was executed in 1536. In 1537 her replacement, Henry's third wife Jane Seymour, finally bore him a son, who was later to become Edward VI. Jane died in childbed, 12 days after the birth in 1537.

Although Cromwell had proved an effective minister in bringing about the royal divorce and the English Reformation, his position was insecure. The Pilgrimage of Grace, an insurrection in 1536, called for Cromwell's dismissal (the rebels were put down) but it was Henry's fourth, abortive and short-lived marriage to Anne of Cleves that led to Cromwell's downfall. Despite being made Earl of Essex in 1540, three months later he was arrested and executed.
Henry made two more marriages, to Katherine Howard (executed on grounds of adultery in 1542) and Catherine Parr (who survived Henry to die in 1548).
None produced any children. Henry made sure that his sole male heir, Edward, was educated by people who believed in Protestantism rather than Catholicism because he wanted the anti-papal nature of his reformation and his dynasty to become more firmly established.
After Cromwell's execution, no leading minister emerged in the last seven years of Henry's reign. Overweight, irascible and in failing health, Henry turned his attention to France once more.
Despite assembling an army of 40,000 men, only the town of Boulogne was captured and the French campaign failed. Although more than half the monastic properties had been sold off, forced loans and currency depreciation also had to be used to pay for the war, which contributed to increased inflation. Henry died in London on 28 January 1547.

To some, Henry VIII was a strong and ruthless ruler, forcing through changes to the Church-State relationship which excluded the papacy and brought the clergy under control, thus strengthening the Crown's position and acquiring the monasteries' wealth.
However, Henry's reformation had produced dangerous Protestant-Roman Catholic differences in the kingdom. The monasteries' wealth had been spent on wars and had also built up the economic strength of the aristocracy and other families in the counties, which in turn was to encourage ambitious Tudor court factions.
Significantly, Parliament's involvement in making religious and dynastic changes had been firmly established. For all his concern over establishing his dynasty and the resulting religious upheaval, Henry's six marriages had produced one sickly son and an insecure succession with two princesses (Mary and Elizabeth) who at one stage had been declared illegitimate - none of whom were to have children.

Edward VI
Edward VI, the only legitimate son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour, was born at Hampton Court Palace, after a difficult and protracted labour, on 12th October, 1537.

Edward's christenening in the chapel royal at Hampton  Court, was a long and elaborate ceremony followed by a grand reception for the nearly four hundred guests. His arrival on the Vigil of St. Edward the Confessor decided the Prince's name and his elder sister, Mary, stood as the child's godmother, his other sister, Elizabeth also took part. His mother Queen Jane Seymour also participated although she had to be carried into the chapel on a portable bed.

Edward was never to know his mother, Jane Seymour contracted puerperal fever (or childbed fever) an infection of the uterus following childbirth and died twelve days later, on October 24th. Henry VIII is reported to have mourned the loss of his third wife sincerely, she was accorded a magnificent state funeral at which the Princess Mary, Henry's elder daughter who Jane had done much to reconcile with her father, acted as a chief mourner. Queen Jane was interred at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Edward was appointed a nurse, Mother Jack, to care for him, at four years old he contracted a quartan fever, the effects of which gripped him for months, but he eventually made a recovery. At the age of six the young Prince was appointed his first tutor. He grew to be extremely fond of his last step mother, Catherine Parr, who took a lively interest in all of her husband's children from his previous marriages and provided a home life for them, which had been conspicuously lacking in Edward's life prior to her arrival.

Henry VIII's will had decreed the kingdom was to be in the control of a Council of Regency during his son's minority. King Edward's ambitious maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, however, gained control, Hertford was made Lord Protector and later Duke of Somerset.

Somerset (depicted right), in common with his young nephew, was an ardent Protestant. The use of English was enforced in church services by the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer. The heresy laws of Henry VIII were repealed. In Cornwall, these changes produced simmering ill feeling, which boiled into rebellion, the uprising was put down with severity.

Edward VI had been betrothed in his infancy to his cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots To crush rising Scottish resistance to the marriage, Somerset lead an army into Scotland and defeated the Scots at the battle of Pinkie Cleugh on 10th September, 1547. A further expedition was launched, burning and plundering all before it in the hope of forcing the Scots to hand over Mary, this "rough wooing" had an adverse effect on English marriage plans, the six year old Queen of Scots was smuggled out of the country to France, where in August, 1548, she was married to the Dauphin Francis, son of King Henry II of France.

The young King himself seems to have been a bigoted Protestant who was intensely interested in theology. He complained that his uncle, the Protector, kept him short of money. Edward's other maternal uncle, Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral, an ambitious and reckless man who had married Edward's step-mother, Catherine Parr, with unseemly haste after the death of Henry VIII, plotted to gain power with his nephew and Somerset was forced to send his brother to the block on a charge of high treason.

The Duke of Somerset was ousted from office in 1549 by John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who became Duke of Northumberland in 1551. Somerset followed his brother to the block on a charge of treason. Northumberland ingratiated himself with the impressionable young King and acquired a dominating influence over him.

The highly religious Edward strongly disapproved of his elder sister Mary's ardent Catholicism. At the age of ten, he had written to their step-mother, Catherine Parr, urging her to influence Mary to give up foreign dances and merriments, which "did not become a Christian princess" When summoned to London to answer for her transgressions in continuing attendance at the Catholic mass, she told Edward that she would sooner he took away her life than her religion, he indignantly replied with irritation that he "required no such sacrifice." Mary responded by lecturing the King in front of his council "Riper age and experience will teach Your Majesty much more yet," Edward, embarrassed, responded sharply " You also may have somewhat to learn, none are too old for that."

Mary was summoned to appear before the council again on the matter of her attendance at mass and entered London with a large retinue of retainers. Her powerful maternal cousin, Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, threatened war on England in support of Mary. In the ensuing debate with his council, Edward, who adopted a defiant attitude to the Emperor's threats, was humiliatingly overruled, for which he shed bitter tears. Mary's victory was fated not to last, the French alliance was strengthened, after which the council proceeded to move against her. She and her household were deprived of the mass but defiantly continued to practice it in secret.

The Death of Edward VI

King Edward fell ill in April 1552, of a combination of measles and smallpox. Later in the year he began to exhibit signs of tuberculosis, or consumption as it was known at the time. By June it was obvious that the King was unlikely to survive. It is now known that the measles virus supresses host immunity to tuberculosis. The unscrupulous Northumberland, fearing for his own political survival under Edward's successor, the fanatically Catholic Mary, influenced the impressionable young King to disinherit both his sisters in favour of his cousin Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane was the grand-daughter of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary and was conveniently married to Northumberland's son, Guildford Dudley. To allow time for his plans to progress, the Protector dismissed Edward's doctors and installed a female to administer to the dying king. Her 'restringents' brought on a temporary improvement but probably slowly poisoned him through the levels of arsenic they contained. Edward's sufferings reached a pitch where they became intolerable, he was heard to whisper to his tutor "I am glad to die." His legs and arms swelled and his skin darkened, while his fingers and toes became gangrenous, he also lost his hair and nails.

On July 6th, 1553, during the close atmosphere of a violent thunderstorm, which rumour said was the spectre of Henry VIII, stamping his feet in characteristic fury and venting his wrath at the extinction of his dynasty, King Edward VI died in agony, crying out with pathos "Lord, have mercy upon me, take my spirit.".

News of the King's death was not released until 10th July to allow Northumberland time to bring his plans to fruition and establish his daughter-in-law on England's throne. Edward's body lay unburied until August 8th, when it was interred in Westminster Abbey under Protestant rites by his eventual successor, his sister Mary I. The service was carried out by his godfather, Thomas Cramner. Mary had wanted to give her half-brother a Catholic funeral, but was persuaded against it, instead, while the Protestant service was taking place, she had masses said for the soul of her young brother at the Tower.


Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey, eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk and great-niece of Henry VIII, was born in October of 1537 only shortly after her cousin Edward VI. Jane spent most of her childhood in her family's home in Leicestershire, learning Greek, Latin, French, and Hebrew from tutors. Her education was started at an early age as was the custom for children of nobility. She was also brought up strictly Protestant. 

At the age of nine Jane was sent to the court of Katherine Parr, the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII. (It was also a custom for nobility to put their daughters under the guardianship of notable ladies to learn proper social etiquette.) Katherine was very much a motherly figure to Jane as she was to Jane's cousins Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward. When Katherine died in 1547 after complications from childbirth, Jane was chief mourner at her funeral. After the death of Henry VIII, Katherine had married Thomas Seymour. After Katherine's death, Seymour made promises to Jane's parents that he would ensure her marriage to then King Edward VI, who was only nine at the time of his accession. However, this plan was cut short when Seymour's ambitious nature cost him his head.

This was not the end of plots to raise Jane to the queenship. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland and chief councillor to the King, made plans to marry his son Guildford to Jane. Dudley would have surely been punished by Edward's staunchly Catholic sister Mary for his anti-Catholic policies and would have lost a great deal of power if Elizabeth were to accede  His only hope laid with Jane, the technical fourth in line to the throne. Dudley befriended Jane's parents and her and Guildford was married on May 21st 1553. By this time it was clear that the King was sick and would probably not survive into adulthood. 

Two months after Jane and Guildford were married, Edward VI was pronounced dead on July 10th, 1533 and Jane's supporters, headed by John Dudley, proclaimed her Queen. Jane was reluctant to accept the crown forced upon her by her ambitious father-in-law who she hated. She later spoke of him "Woe worth him! He hath brought me and our stock in most miserable calamity and misery by his exceeding ambition." She hadn't even heard of Edward's death before she was summoned to Sion House where nobles fell to the ground, kissed her hands and paid homage to her as their sovereign. Her grief over the death of her cousin coupled with the shock of her new position prompted Jane to write later that the moment left her "stupefied." Nevertheless, she made her way to the Tower of London in a ceremonious procession wearing the Tudor colours and raised shoes to give her height. Little did she know that she would

Dudley was indeed a shrewd man and Jane had good reason to hate him. Jane believed that Mary was the rightful heir, but Dudley wouldn't hear of it. He sent a letter to Mary after the death of her brother stating that the King (implying he was still alive) wished to see her. His intentions were to take Mary prisoner when she entered to city and lock her in the Tower of London. Unfortunately for Dudley, Mary discovered the truth about Edward's death and Jane's accession, and continued her travel to London gaining support along the way. She entered the city in a triumphant procession accompanied by sister Elizabeth and any support left for Jane collapsed. 

Meanwhile, Jane was still housed in the Tower with her own problems to deal with. Her husband, Guidlford, was demanding that he be named King and Jane continuously denied him. (Jane probably saw that this was John Dudley's plan all along.) This led to many internal conflicts within Jane's kin. Guildford's mother adamantly berated Jane for her unwavering resolve and got into loud fights with Jane's father. Jane's council was abandoning her one by one in hopes of saving their lives and the people were refusing to arm against Mary in support of Jane. Nine days after she was proclaimed Queen, Jane was deposed in favour of Mary.

John Dudley was beheaded at Tower Hill on August 22nd 1553 and Jane's father was also arrested. Jane and Guidlford were imprisoned in the Tower on charges of high treason. After much reluctance, Mary signed the death warrants of her kin. Jane said goodbye to Guildford from her Tower window as he was being led to his death on the morning of February 12, 1554. She saw his headless body later that day being brought from the execution.

That same day, Jane was executed herself in a more private affair on Tower Green. The confusion of the past year of her life took its toll on the young girl who blindly scrambled to find the block to put her head upon, until a bystander led her hands to it. Before she was beheaded Jane politely asked the executioner if he would take off her head before she laid it down. He answered her "No Madame" and cut off her head. 

Jane Grey went down in history as the Nine Day Queen, a poor girl used and victimized as a result of the ambitions of her parents and in-laws.

Mary I

MARY I, Queen of England, unpleasantly remembered as "the Bloody Mary" on account of the religious persecutions which prevailed during her reign, was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, born in the earlier years of their married life, when as yet no cloud had darkened the prospect of Henry's reign. Her birth occurred at Greenwich, on Monday, the 18th February 1516, and she was baptised on the following Wednesday, Cardinal Wolsey standing as her godfather.

She  was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and stubborn, her character was moulded by her early years.

Mary also revived the old heresy laws to secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). 

As a result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics were mostly poor and self-taught people.

It was a misfortune that she shared with high-born ladies generally in those days that her prospects in life were made a matter of sordid bargaining from the first. Mary was little more than two years old when she was proposed in marriage to the dauphin, son of Francis I. Three years afterwards the French alliance was broken off, and in 1522 she was affianced to her cousin the young emperor Charles V by the Treaty of Windsor. No one, perhaps, seriously expected either of these arrangements to endure; and, though we read in grave state papers of some curious compliments and love tokens (really the mere counters of diplomacy) professedly sent by the girl of nine to her powerful cousin, not many years passed away before Charles released himself from this engagement and made a more convenient match.
During the next nine years the life of Mary, as well as that of her mother, was rendered miserable by the conduct of Henry VIII in seeking a divorce. During most of that period mother and daughter seem to have been kept apart. Possibly Queen Catherine had the harder trial; but Mary's was scarcely less severe. Removed from court and treated as a bastard, she was, on the birth of  Anne Boylen's daughter [Elizabeth], required to give up the dignity of princess and acknowledge the illegitimacy of her own birth. On her refusal her household was broken up, and she was sent to Hatfield to act as lady-in-waiting to her own infant half-sister. Nor was even this the worst of her trials; her very life was in danger from the hatred of Anne Boleyn. Her health, moreover, was indifferent, and even when she was seriously ill, although Henry sent his own physician, Dr Buttes, to attend her, he declined to let her mother visit her. So also at her mother's death, in January 1536, she was forbidden to take a last farewell of her.

Mary was a high-spirited girl, and undoubtedly popular. All Europe looked upon her at that time as the only legitimate child of her father, but her father himself compelled her to disown the title and pass an unjust stigma on her own birth and her mother's good name. Nevertheless Henry was now reconciled to her, and gave her a household in some degree suitable to her rank. During the rest of the reign we hear little about her except in connexion with a number of new marriage projects taken up and abandoned successively, one of which, to the count palatine Philip, duke of Bavaria, was especially repugnant to her in the matter of religion. Her Privy Purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that Hatfield, Beaulieu or Newhall in Essex, Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence. Although she was still treated as of illegitimate birth, it was believed that the king, having obtained from parliament the extraordinary power to dispose of the crown by will, would restore her to her place in the succession, and three years before his death she was so restored by statute, but still under conditions to be regulated by her father's will.
Her first acts at the beginning of her reign displayed a character very different from that which she still holds in popular estimation. Her clemency towards those who had taken up arms against her was altogether remarkable. She released from prison Lady Jane´s father, Surffolk, and had difficulty even in signing the warrant for the execution of Northumberland. Lady Jane herself she fully meant to spare, and did spare till after Waytt‘s formidable insurrection. Her conduct, indeed, was in every respect conciliatory and pacific, and so far as they depended on her personal character the prospects of the new reign might have appeared altogether favourable. But unfortunately her position was one of peculiar difficulty, and the policy on which she determined was far from judicious. Inexperienced in the art of governing, she had no trusty councillor but Gardiner; every other member of the council had been more or less implicated in the conspiracy against her. And though she valued Gardiner's advice she was naturally led to rely even more on that of her cousin, the emperor [Charles V], who had been her mother's friend in adversity, and had done such material service to herself in the preceding reign. Following the emperor's guidance she determined almost from the first to make his son Philip her husband, though she was eleven years his senior. She was also strongly desirous of restoring the old religion and wiping out the stigma of illegitimacy upon her birth, so that she might not seem to reign by virtue of a mere parliamentary settlement.

Each of these different objects was attended by difficulties or objections peculiar to itself; but the marriage was the most unpopular of all. A restoration of the old religion threatened to deprive the new owners of abbey lands of their easy and comfortable acquisitions; and it was only with an express reservation of their interests that the thing was actually accomplished. A declaration of her own legitimacy necessarily cast a slur on that of her sister Elizabeth, and cut her off from the succession. But the marriage promised to throw England into the arms of Spain and place the resources of the kingdom at the command of the emperor's son. The Commons sent her a deputation to entreat that she would not marry a foreigner, and when her resolution was known insurrections broke out in different parts of the country. Suffolk, whose first rebellion had been pardoned, proclaimed Lady Jane Grey again in Leicestershire, while young Wyatt raised the county of Kent and, though denied access by London Bridge, led his men round by Kingston to the very gates of London before he was repulsed. In the midst of the danger Mary showed great intrepidity, and the rebellion was presently quelled; after which, unhappily, she got leave to pursue her own course unchecked. She married Philip, restored the old religion, and got Cardinal Pole to come over and absolve the kingdom from its past disobedience to the Holy See.
Her first acts at the beginning of her reign displayed a character very different from that which she still holds in popular estimation. Her clemency towards those who had taken up arms against her was altogether remarkable. She released from prison Lady Jane´s father, Surffolk, and had difficulty even in signing the warrant for the execution of Northumberland. Lady Jane herself she fully meant to spare, and did spare till after Waytt‘s formidable insurrection. Her conduct, indeed, was in every respect conciliatory and pacific, and so far as they depended on her personal character the prospects of the new reign might have appeared altogether favourable. But unfortunately her position was one of peculiar difficulty, and the policy on which she determined was far from judicious. Inexperienced in the art of governing, she had no trusty councillor but Gardiner; every other member of the council had been more or less implicated in the conspiracy against her. And though she valued Gardiner's advice she was naturally led to rely even more on that of her cousin, the emperor [Charles V], who had been her mother's friend in adversity, and had done such material service to herself in the preceding reign. Following the emperor's guidance she determined almost from the first to make his son Philip her husband, though she was eleven years his senior. She was also strongly desirous of restoring the old religion and wiping out the stigma of illegitimacy upon her birth, so that she might not seem to reign by virtue of a mere parliamentary settlement.
Each of these different objects was attended by difficulties or objections peculiar to itself; but the marriage was the most unpopular of all. A restoration of the old religion threatened to deprive the new owners of abbey lands of their easy and comfortable acquisitions; and it was only with an express reservation of their interests that the thing was actually accomplished. A declaration of her own legitimacy necessarily cast a slur on that of her sister Elizabeth, and cut her off from the succession. But the marriage promised to throw England into the arms of Spain and place the resources of the kingdom at the command of the emperor's son. The Commons sent her a deputation to entreat that she would not marry a foreigner, and when her resolution was known insurrections broke out in different parts of the country. Suffolk, whose first rebellion had been pardoned, proclaimed Lady Jane Grey again in Leicestershire, while young Wyatt raised the county of Kent and, though denied access by London Bridge, led his men round by Kingston to the very gates of London before he was repulsed. In the midst of the danger Mary showed great intrepidity, and the rebellion was presently quelled; after which, unhappily, she got leave to pursue her own course unchecked. She married Philip, restored the old religion, and got Cardinal Pole to come over and absolve the kingdom from its past disobedience to the Holy See.
Hostilities with France were inevitable, because France had encouraged disaffection among Mary's subjects, even during the brief truce of Vaucelles. Conspiracies had been hatched by English refugees in Paris, and an attempt to seize Scarborough had been made with the aid of vessels from the Seine. But perhaps the strangest thing about the situation was that the pope took part with France against Spain; and so the very marriage which Mary had contracted to bring England back to the Holy See made her the wife of the pope's enemy. It was, moreover, this war with France that occasioned the final calamity of the loss of Calais, which sank so deeply into Mary's heart some time before she died.
The cruel persecution of the Protestants, which has cast so much infamy upon her reign, was not due, as commonly supposed, to inhumanity on her part. When the kingdom was reconciled to Rome and absolved by Cardinal Pole, it followed, almost as a matter of necessity, that the old heresy laws should be revived, as they were then by Act of Parliament. They had been abolished by the Protector Somerset for the express purpose of promoting changes of doctrine which did violence to what was still the prevailing religious sentiment; and now the old religion required to be protected from insult and fanatical outrages. Doubts were felt as to the result even from the first; but the law having been once passed could not be relaxed merely because the victims were so numerous; for that would only have encouraged the irreverence which it was intended to check. No doubt there were milder men among the heretics, but as a class their stern fanaticism and ill-will to the old religion made them dangerous, even to the public peace. Rogers, the first of the martyrs, was burnt on the 4th of February 1555.Hooper Bishop of Gloucester, had been condemned six days before, and suffered the same fate upon the 9th. From this time the persecution went on uninterrupted for three years and three quarters, numbering among its victims Ridley, Latimer and Cramer. It came to an end at last on the death of Mary. It seems to have been more severe in the eastern and southern parts of England, and the largest number of sufferers was naturally in the diocese of Bonner. Bishop of London. From first to last nearly three hundred victims are known to have perished at the stake; and their fate certainly created a revulsion against Rome that nothing else was likely to have effected.
Mary was of weak constitution and subject to frequent illnesses, both before and after her accession. One special infirmity caused her to believe a few months after her marriage that she was with child, and thanksgiving services were ordered throughout the diocese of London in November 1554. The same delusion recurred in March 1558, when though she did not make her expectation public, she drew up a will in anticipation of the dangers of childbirth, constituting her husband regent during the minority of her prospective heir. To this she added a codicil on the 28th of October following, when the illness that was to be her last had set in, showing that she had ceased to have much expectation of maternity, and earnestly entreating her "next heir and successor by the laws" (whom she did not name) to allow execution of the instrument. She died on the 17th of November.
Her name deserved better treatment than it has generally met with; for she was far from cruel. Her kindness to poor people is undoubted, and the severe execution of her laws seemed only a necessity. Even in this matter, moreover, she was alive to the injustice with which the law was usually strained in behalf of the prerogative; and in appointing Sir Richard Morgan chief justice of the Common Pleas she charged him "not to sit in judgement otherwise for her highness than for her subjects,"2 and to avoid the old error of refusing to admit witnesses against the Crown. Her conduct as queen was certainly governed by the best possible intentions; and it is evident that her very zeal for goodness caused most of the trouble she brought upon herself. Her subjects were entirely released, even by papal authority, from any obligation to restore the confiscated lands of the Church. But she herself made it an object, at her own expense, to restore several of the monasteries; and courtiers who did not like to follow her example, encouraged the fanatics to spread an alarm that it would even yet be made compulsory. So the worldly minded joined hands with the godly heretics in stirring up enmity against her. 
An Act of Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death), whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English Protestant Church.

Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow reintroduction of monastic orders. 

She seems to have been a singularly precocious child, and is reported in July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, as entertaining some visitors by a performance on the virginals. When she was little over nine she was addressed in a complimentary Latin oration by commissioners sent over from Flanders on commercial matters, and replied to them in the same language "with as much assurance and facility as if she had been twelve years old".1 Her father was proud of her achievements. About the same time that she replied to the commissioners in Latin he was arranging that she should learn Spanish, Italian and French. A great part, however, of the credit of her early education was undoubtedly due to her mother, who not only consulted the Spanish scholar Vives upon the subject, but was herself Mary's first teacher in Latin. She was also well instructed in music, and among her principal recreations as she grew up was that of playing on the virginals and lute. 

In 1526 a rearrangement was made of the royal household, and it was thought right to give Mary an establishment of her own along with a council on the borders of Wales, for the better government of the Marches. For some years she accordingly kept her court at Ludlow, while new arrangements were made for the disposal of her hand. She was now proposed as a wife, not for the dauphin as before, but for his father Francis I, who had just been redeemed from captivity at Madrid, and who was only too glad of an alliance with England to mitigate the severe conditions imposed on him by the emperor. Wolsey, however, on this occasion, only made use of the princess as a bait to enhance the terms of the compact, and left Francis free in the end to marry the emperor's sister.

It was during this negotiation, as Henry afterwards pretended, that the question was first raised whether Henry's own marriage with Catherine was a lawful one. Grammont, Bishop of Tarbes, who was one of the ambassadors sent over by Francis to ask the princess in marriage, had, it was said, started an objection that she might possibly be considered illegitimate on account of her mother having been once the wife of her father's brother. The statement was a mere pretence to shield the king when the unpopularity of the divorce became apparent. It is proved to be untrue by the strongest evidence, for we have pretty full contemporary records of the whole negotiation. On the contrary, it is quite clear that Henry, who had already for some time conceived the project of a divorce, kept the matter a dead secret, and was particularly anxious that the French ambassadors should not know it, while he used his daughter's hand as bait for a new alliance. The alliance itself, however, was actually concluded by a treaty dated Westminster, the 30th of April 1527, in which it was provided, as regards the Princess Mary, that she should be married either to Francis himself or to his second son Henry Duke of Orleans. But the real object was only to lay the foundation of a perfect mutual understanding between the two kings, which Wolsey soon after went into France to confirm.

But in May following another change occurred. Anne Boleyn, the real cause of all her miseries, fell under the king's displeasure and was put to death. Mary was then urged to make a humble submission to her father as the means of recovering his favour, and after a good deal of correspondence 2 with the king's secretary, Cromwell, she actually did so. The terms exacted of her were bitter in the extreme, but there was no chance of making life tolerable otherwise, if indeed she was permitted to live at all; and the poor friendless girl, absolutely at the mercy of a father who could brook no contradiction, at length subscribed an act of submission, acknowledging the king as "Supreme Head of the Church of England under Christ," repudiating the pope's authority, and confessing that the marriage between her father and mother "was by God's law and man's law incestuous and unlawful." No act, perhaps, in the whole of Henry's reign gives us a more painful idea of his revolting despotism. 

Under the reign of her brother, Edward VI, she was again subjected to severe trials, which at one time made her seriously meditate taking flight and escaping abroad. Edward himself indeed seems to have been personally not unkind to her, but the religious revolution in his reign assumed proportions such as it had not done before, and Mary, who had done sufficient violence to her own convictions in submitting to a despotic father, was not disposed to yield an equally tame obedience to authority exercised by a factious council in the name of a younger brother not yet come to years of discretion. Besides, the cause of the pope was naturally her own. In spite of the forced declaration formerly wrung from her, no one really regarded her as a bastard, and the full recognition of her rights depended on the recognition of the pope as head of the Church. Hence, when Edward's parliament passed an Act of Uniformity enjoining services in English and communion in both kinds, the law appeared to her totally void of authority, and she insisted on having Mass in her own private chapel under the old form. When ordered to desist, she appealed for protection to the emperor Charles V, who, being her cousin, intervened for some time not ineffectually, threatening war with England if her religious liberty was interfered with.
But Edward's court was composed of factions of which the most violent eventually carried the day. Thomas Seymour, the Lord High Admiral, was attainted of treason and beheaded in 1549. His brother, the Protector Somerset , met with the same fate in 1552. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, then became paramount in the privy council, and easily obtained the sanction of the young king to those schemes for altering the succession which led immediately after his death to the usurpation of Lady Jane Grey [see Edward VI's 'Devise for the Succession]. Dudley, had in fact, overawed all the rest of the privy council, and when the event occurred he took such energetic measures to give effect to the scheme that Lady Jane was actually recognized as queen for some days, and Mary had even to fly from Hunsdon  into Norfolk. But the country was really devoted to her cause, as indeed her right in law was unquestionable, and before many days she was royally received in London, and took up her abode within the Tower.
It was a more than questionable policy thus to ally England with Spain— a power then actually at war with France. By the treaty, indeed, England was to remain neutral; but the force of events, in the end, compelled her, as might have been expected, to take part in the quarrel. Meanwhile the country was full of faction, and seditious pamphlets of Protestant origin inflamed the people with hatred against the Spaniards. Philip's Spanish followers met with positive ill-usage everywhere and violent outbreaks occurred. A year after his marriage Philip went over to Brussels to receive from his father the government of the Low Countries and afterwards the kingdom of Spain. Much to Mary's distress, his absence was prolonged for a year and a half, and when he returned in March 1557 it was only to commit England completely to the war; after which he went back to Brussels in July, to return no more to England.

Elizabeth I 

The reign of Queen Elizabeth I is often referred to as The Golden Age of English history. Elizabeth was an immensely popular Queen, and her popularity has waned little with the passing of four hundred years. She is still one of the best loved monarchs, and one of the most admired rulers of all time. She became a legend in her own lifetime, famed for her remarkable abilities and achievements. Yet, about Elizabeth the woman, we know very little. She is an enigma, and was an enigma to her own people.

Elizabeth  was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. Her birth was possibly the greatest disappointment of her father's life. He had wanted a son and heir to succeed him as he already had a daughter, Mary, by his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. He had not divorced Katherine, and changed the religion of the country in the process, to have only another daughter. Elizabeth's early life was consequently troubled. Her mother failed to provide the King with a son and was executed on false charges of incest and adultery on 19 May 1536. Anne's marriage to the King was declared null and void, and Elizabeth, like her half-sister, Mary, was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the line of succession. 

The next eight years of Elizabeth's life saw a quick succession of stepmothers. There was Jane Seymour who died giving birth to the King's longed for son, Edward; Anne of Cleves who was divorced; Catherine Howard who was beheaded; and finally Catherine Parr. For generations, historians have debated whether the constant bride changing of her father was responsible for Elizabeth's apparent refusal to marry. It is certainly possible that the tragic fates of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard impressed upon her a certain fear of marriage, but there may have been other reasons for the Queen's single state, such as a fear of childbirth, which claimed the lives of a significant number of women in this period. Even if the Queen had no personal reservations about marriage, there were political problems with almost every contender for her hand. Religion was a major divisive issue, and there was also the problem of whether Elizabeth would have to relinquish any of her royal powers to a husband in an age when the political sphere was exclusively male.

As a child, Elizabeth was given a very impressive education. It had become popular amongst the nobility to educate daughters as well as sons and Elizabeth excelled at her studies. She was taught by famous scholars such as William Grindal and Roger Ascham, and from an early age it was clear that she was remarkably gifted. She had an especial flare for languages, and by adulthood, she could reputedly speak five languages fluently.

Elizabeth's adolescence was no easier than her childhood. While the King lived, she was safe from political opportunists, but when he died in the January of 1547, and his young son became King Edward VI, she was vulnerable to those who saw her as a political pawn. Despite being officially illegitimate, Henry had reinstated his daughters in the line of succession. Mary was to follow Edward, and Elizabeth was to follow Mary. This meant that Elizabeth was now second in line to the throne. Edward was too young to rule himself as he was only nine years old, so his uncle, Edward Seymour, became Protector of England. His younger brother, Thomas Seymour, was jealous of his position and attempted to overthrow him. His scheme, which involved an attempted kidnapping of the Boy King, cost him his life. He had made no secret of his desire to marry Elizabeth (in Tudor times a girl was considered of marriageable age at twelve) so she was implicated in his plot. It was treason for an heir to the throne to marry without the consent of the King and his Council, and at only fifteen years of age, Elizabeth had to persuade her interrogators that she knew nothing of the plot and had not consented to marry the King's uncle. She succeeded in defending her innocence, but rumours of an illicit affair with Seymour, all the more scandalous because he had been married to her last step-mother, Katherine Parr, (before she died in childbirth), plagued her long afterwards.

Elizabeth again found herself implicated in treason after the Wyatt rebellion of 1554. Edward had died in the summer of 1553 from prolonged ill health, and Elizabeth's half-sister, Mary, was now Queen Mary I of England after a brief fight for the throne against the scheme of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to make his daughter in law, Jane Grey, queen. Mary was not a particularly popular monarch, and was suspicious of her Protestant half-sister. It was thus not difficult to persuade her that Elizabeth may have been conspiring with Thomas Wyatt and his men to seize the throne. Whether or not the rebellion was to make Elizabeth queen is uncertain, and it is also unknown whether Elizabeth had any knowledge of the conspirators plans. Even if she did have knowledge of them, there is no evidence that she approved of the actions of Wyatt and his followers. Elizabeth said she was innocent of the accusations made against her, but she was still arrested and sent to the Tower of London as a prisoner. 

Many of those surrounding the Queen would have liked Elizabeth to have been executed, but there was no evidence against her and she was popular with the people. Elizabeth was kept a captive at the Tower for two months and then removed to Woodstock Manor in Oxfordshire, where she was kept a prisoner for a year. The house itself was uninhabitable so she had to be lodged in the gatehouse with her servants. It was only at the behest of the Queen's husband, Philip of Spain, that she was allowed to return to her childhood home of Hatfield in Hertfordshire. Philip was aware of the Queen's poor health and wanted to gain the friendship of Elizabeth to ensure peaceable relations between England and Spain should his wife die and Elizabeth succeed to the throne.

Elizabeth did finally succeed to the throne on 17th November 1558. It was a moment of supreme triumph for the unwanted daughter who had spent her life in the shadow of the court, cast aside and forgotten. The years following the death of her father had called for sobriety and caution, but now that she was Queen, Elizabeth was determined to enjoy her new found freedom and live life to the full. She loved all kinds of sports, especially horse riding, and in the early years of her reign spent many an hour riding. She also loved hunting, hawking, bear baiting, and watching the male courtiers excel at jousts or other sporting contests. She loved music and dancing, pageantry and masques, and could even play the virginals and the lute herself with skill. She had no time for the Puritan theologians who deemed such things impious. She also loved watching plays and created the atmosphere responsible for the flourishing of the literary masterpieces of the period against the Puritan demands for the closure of all theatres and playhouses.

Elizabeth was crowned Queen on Sunday 15th January 1559. In the months that followed, the new Queen re-established the Protestant Church in England and restored the debased coinage. Perhaps to appease Catholics or to appease those who did not believe a woman could become head of the church, Elizabeth became Supreme Governor of the Church of England, rather than Supreme Head as her father had been. While it is impossible to know what exactly the Queen's personal religious beliefs were, the Church she established is an indication of them. She was a committed Protestant, and reputedly spent time in prayer every day, but she was probably a conservative Protestant. She liked candles and crucifixes in her private chapel, liked church music, and enjoyed the more traditional style of worship in contrast to the sermon based service that was becoming popular in some Protestant circles. She did not like religious extremism and did not want to persecute any of her people for their religious beliefs. However, the tenacious political nature of the Catholic/Protestant split meant that her government had to take a harsher line towards Catholics than she wanted.

Now that Elizabeth was Queen, proposals of marriage flooded in, but Elizabeth committed herself to none of them. In a genius of political wheeling and dealing, she managed to use her single state to benefit the country by using the bait of marriage to draw in enemies, or to frighten them by suggesting she would marry one of their foes. Whatever Elizabeth's personal feelings towards marriage, on two occasions she did come close to matrimony. For many years, the most serious contender for her hand was Robert Dudley, created Earl of Leicester in 1564. He and Elizabeth had known each other for years and had been imprisoned in the Tower of London at the same time. He was the only serious personal love interest of the Queen's life. Politically, however, marrying him would have been a disaster. He was unpopular as he was the son of the traitor Northumberland, and was loathed even more after his wife was found dead in mysterious circumstances. It was thought he had murdered her so he would be free to marry Elizabeth. The other serious contender for the Queen's hand was Francis, Duke of Alencon/Anjou, heir to the French throne. But again, political considerations made the match ultimately impossible.

Not marrying and having a child of her own meant that the succession was unsettled. Elizabeth did not like to talk about the succession and tried to have talk of it suppressed, but people were anxious about what would happen to the country when she died. However, having a child of her own may not have been an end to all problems. In the eyes of Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate and had no right to the throne. To them, Mary, Queen of Scots was the rightful Queen of England. Plots were made to make Mary queen and these would have been formed regardless of whether Elizabeth had a child or not. This is perhaps especially so when Mary was Elizabeth's prisoner following her disastrous reign in Scotland. 

Forced to flee her own country, having abdicated her throne in favour of her son, she landed in England, seeking Elizabeth's help in restoring her to her kingdom. She was immediately imprisoned. This was as much to protect her as to minimize the danger she posed to Elizabeth. Mary was kept a prisoner for almost twenty years. In that time, Elizabeth refused to hear about executing her cousin, but Mary's complicity in the Babington plot of 1586 made the execution, in the eyes of many, unavoidable. It was a traumatic time for Elizabeth, and for a while it seemed that she would not have the strength to go ahead with the execution, but she did, and Mary was executed at Fotheringay Castle on 8 February 1587.

Relations between Elizabeth and Philip, now King of Spain, had begun amicably, but had deteriorated over the years as their different political and religious agendas clashed. By 1588 they were enemies of the first-rate. Philip had spoken of invading England and dethroning Elizabeth for years but the execution of the Queen of Scots gave him an added incentive. Now he could claim the English throne for himself and not for her. In the summer of 1588 he sent his mighty fleet against England. But by superior tactics, ship design, and sheer good fortune, the English defeated them. Elizabeth's popularity reached its zenith. It was also another personal triumph as she had proved that she, a woman, could lead in war as well as any man.

Elizabeth was dedicated to her country in a way few monarchs had been or have been since. Elizabeth had the mind of a political genius and nurtured her country through careful leadership and by choosing capable men to assist her, such as Sir William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham. Elizabeth was a determined woman, but she was not obstinate. She listened to the advice of those around her, and would change a policy if it was unpopular. In appearance she was extravagant, in behaviour sometimes flippant and frivolous, but her approach to politics was serious, conservative, and cautious. When she ascended the throne in 1558, England was an impoverished country torn apart by religious squabbles. When she died at Richmond Palace on the 24th March 1603, England was one of the most powerful and prosperous countries in the world. Elizabeth was dedicated to her country in a way few monarchs had been or have been since. Elizabeth had the mind of a political genius and nurtured her country through careful leadership and by choosing capable men to assist her, such as Sir William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham. Elizabeth was a determined woman, but she was not obstinate. She listened to the advice of those around her, and would change a policy if it was unpopular. In appearance she was extravagant, in behaviour sometimes flippant and frivolous, but her approach to politics was serious, conservative, and cautious. When she ascended the throne in 1558, England was an impoverished country torn apart by religious squabbles. When she died at Richmond Palace on the 24th March 1603, England was one of the most powerful and prosperous countries in the world.

The Scottish rebellion of 1560 deprived Mary, Queen of Scots of effective power, but she never accepted this and plotted to regain full authority.

Mary also claimed the English crown. Roman Catholics regarded Elizabeth as a bastard (never recognizing the divorce of Henry VIII from Katherine of Aragon or the legitimacy of his marriage to Anne Boleyn). To strengthen her claim, in 1565 In 1567, Darnley himself was murdered (possibly with Mary's approval); and Mary then married the adventurer, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, who had probably organized Darnley's homicide. The outraged Scottish nobility rose again, defeated Mary and Bothwell in battle and forced her to abdicate in favor of her infant son James VI.

Mary fled to England (1568) where she became the focus of English Catholic plots to depose Elizabeth. Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, toyed with the idea of marrying Mary and was sent to the Tower of London.
In 1569, the earls of Westmorland and Northumberland led the Revolt of the Northern Earls, aimed at restoring Catholicism and placing Mary on the throne in place of Elizabeth. The rebellion was soon defeated.

Pope Pius V heard of the revolt and (having despaired of Elizabeth restoring Catholicism) decided to help the rebels by deposing Elizabeth.In fact the bull of deposition, Regnans in Excelsis did not arrive until after the Revolt's suppression and served only to anger Elizabeth and increase her distrust of Catholics.

The view that all Roman Catholics were potential traitors led to a series of measures against them from 1570 onwards:  Roman Catholic judges and Justices of the Peace were excluded from power, and it became increasingly dangerous to shelter priests.

The deterioration of relations with the Papacy went along with increasing tension with the "most Catholic" king of Spain, Philip II.

Philip II was faced with the rebellion in the Netherlands: Calvinist beliefs had spread in its northern provinces, and even the Catholic South feared that Philip would suppress local autonomy.
In 1567, Philip sent an army there to prevent an uprising, but Elizabeth was afraid that the army would be used against England. In 1568, she seized a shipment of bullion sent by Genoese bankers to pay the Spanish troops garrisoned in the Netherlands. Philip was furious, particularly as he was also suffering losses in the New World from English privateers.

In 1572, full-scale revolt broke out in the Netherlands, and Elizabeth sent them help in the form of money and supplies. (No English soldiers were sent until 1585).

In retaliation, Philip helped William Allen to establish  a seminary for training English priests at Douai in the Netherlands. These priests began arriving in England from about 1574 onwards.

Anti-Catholic feeling contributed to the growth of radical Puritanism. Many Protestants objected to the traditional ceremonies retained in the Church of England's worship. When Elizabeth and her bishops insisted that these rituals be observed, some puritans took their opposition further and adopted Presbyterian views. Led by Thomas Cartwright, these Presbyterians wanted the church to be run by synods of clergy and elected laymen (as in Geneva and Scotland). Presbyterianism posed a serious threat to Elizabeth's control of the church.

 Background 

King Philip II of Spain was the most powerful and (seemingly) wealthy man in Europe in the latter half of the 16th century. His territories in the New World brought him enormous wealth, though the expense of administering that far-flung empire meant that Spain was heavily in debt to foreign bankers.

England, by comparison, was a relatively small nation, and not a particularly powerful or wealthy one. Why then would Philip spend the money to assemble the largest - and most expensive - naval force ever seen against his island foe? 

An English ship in action against the Spanish Armada

The answer has many parts. In his youth, Philip was married to his fellow Catholic, Mary, Queen of England. He was not king, indeed the only way the English Parliament would countenance the marriage was if Philip was expressly forbidden from ruling.
He was, rather, Mary's consort, a duty he fulfilled with underwhelming enthusiasm. Philip never cared for Mary, indeed, he said while on his way to his marriage, "I am going to a crusade, not to a marriage feast". He was fueled by a religious desire to father a Catholic heir who would keep England within the Roman Catholic sphere. Mary, by now a middle-aged spinster, certainly did care for her new husband, and even managed to convince herself that she was pregnant at one point, but it was not to be.
When Mary died in 1558 her very Protestant sister Elizabeth came to the throne. Philip was unwilling to let his precarious grasp on England slip away completely; he proposed marriage to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was a master at procrastination, and playing the game of politics. She kept communication open with Philip, and protested her friendship, all the while encouraging English pirates like Hawkins and Drake to seize Spanish ships and goods in the West Indies. Drake was dubbed by the Spanish "the Master Thief of the Unknown World".
In the 1560s Elizabeth also earned Spanish wrath by supporting Protestants in the Netherlands in their revolt against Spanish occupation.
Spain also believed, or at least found it useful to believe, that Elizabeth was illegitimate. Under Catholic principles Elizabeth's father Henry VIII had no right to divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon, to marry Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyne. Therefore Elizabeth was born out of proper wedlock, and thus had no right to the throne.
More importantly for the fervently Catholic Philip, he believed that it was his duty to lead Protestant England back to the Catholic faith - by force of necessary. He managed to get papal approval for his invasion, and a promise of money to be delivered after the Spanish had landed in England.
He also got papal permission to name the next ruler of England (by surreptitiously slipping a clause to that effect into the middle of the document of agreement with the pope). Philip planned to name his daughter Isabella as Queen of England, under his control.

The Spanish Fleet 

Philip began preparing his invasion force as early as 1584. His first choice as commander was the Marquis of Santa Cruz, but when Santa Cruz died Philip ordered the Duke of Medina Sedonia to take command of the fleet. The Duke was an experienced warrior - on land. He had no naval background, and no interest in leading the Armada, as the invasion fleet came to be called. He begged to be dismissed, but Philip ignored the request. 

Cadiz

Despite Spanish precautions, the English were well aware of the Spanish preparations. In a bold move that was apparently against Elizabeth's wishes, Sir Francis Drake sailed a small English fleet to Cadiz, where they surprised a large number of Spanish warships in the harbour. Drake burned and sunk a number of ships and slipped away before the Spanish could rally. Although the blow at Cadiz was more an annoyance than a major setback, the English took heart from this "singeing of the King of Spain's.

The Armada sets sail 

By May of 1588, however, the Armada was finally ready to sail. The fleet numbered over 130 ships, making it by far the greatest naval fleet of its age. According to Spanish records, 30,493 men sailed with the Armada, the vast majority of them soldiers. A closer look, however, reveals that this "Invincible Armada" was not quite so well armed as it might seem.
Many of the Spanish vessels were converted merchant ships, better suited to carrying cargo than engaging in warfare at sea. They were broad and heavy, and could not maneuver quickly under sail.
This might not at first glance have seemed a problem to the Spanish. They did not intend to engage the English in a sea battle. The ships of the Armada were primarily troop transport. Their major task was simply to carry armed men to a designated landing point and unload them.
Naval tactics were evolving; it was still common for ships to come alongside each other and allow fighting men to engage in hand to hand combat. Advances in artillery were only beginning to allow for more complex strategies and confrontations at sea. At this stage the English were far more adept at artillery and naval tactics than the Spanish, who were regarded as the best soldiers in Europe.

The Spanish plans called for the fleet to sail up the English Channel and rendezvous off Dover with the Duke of Parma, who headed the Spanish forces in the Netherlands. This in itself presented huge problems. Communications were slow, and the logistical problems of a rendezvous at sea were immense. 

Also, the Duke of Parma was a very proud man, and resented the fact that Medina Sedonia had been given command of the operation. Throughout the whole Armada affair Parma, while not openly obstructionist, did a poor job of cooperating with his titular commander, Medina Sedonia. He did not believe the enterprise could succeed, and he did the absolute minimum possible to help.
Perhaps worst of all the problems faced by the Armada was Philip himself. The king insisted on controlling the details of the Armada's mission. He issued a steady stream of commands from his palace of the Escorial, yet he seldom met with his commanders, and never allowed his experienced military leaders to evolve their own tactics. He did not listen to advice, which was a shame, for Philip had little military training and a poor grasp of naval matters. He firmly believed that God guided him, and that therefore his mission would succeed.
The English were not idle while the Spanish Armada prepared to sail. A series of signal beacons atop hills along the English and Welsh coasts were manned. When the Spanish ships were at last sighted of The Lizard on July 19, 1588, the beacons were lit, speeding the news throughout the realm. The English ships slipped out of their harbour at Plymouth and, under cover of darkness, managed to get behind the Spanish fleet.

The Battle 
The Spanish sailed up the Channel in a crescent formation, with the troop transports in the centre. When the Spanish finally reached Calais, they were met by a collection of English vessels under the command of Howard. Each fleet numbered about 60 warships, but the advantage of artillery and maneuverability was with the English.
Under cover of darkness the English set fireships adrift, using the tide to carry the blazing vessels into the massed Spanish fleet. Although the Spanish were prepared for this tactic and quickly slipped anchor, there were some losses and inevitable confusion.
On Monday, July 29, the two fleets met in battle off Gravelines. The English emerged victorious, although the Spanish losses were not great; only three ships were reported sunk, one captured, and four more ran aground. Nevertheless, the Duke of Medina Sedonia determined that the Armada must return to Spain. The English blocked the Channel, so the only route open was north around the tip of Scotland, and down the coast of Ireland.
It was then that the unpredictable English weather took a hand in the proceedings. A succession of storms scattered the Spanish ships, resulting in heavy losses. By the time the tattered Armada regained Spain, it had lost half its ships and three-quarters of its men.
In England the victory was greeted as a sign of divine approval for the Protestant cause. The storms that scattered the Armada were seen as intervention by God. Services of thanks were held throughout the country, and a commemorative medal struck, with the words, "God blew and they were scattered" inscribed on it.


Speech to the troops at Tilbury
My loving people,,
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general2 shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

Finances and Economy

When Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, she inherited a difficult financial situation and a debt of £227,000. Over £100,000 of this was owed to the Antwerp Exchange who charged an interest rate of 14%. Throughout her reign, Elizabeth was engaged in expensive financial issues, especially foreign policy. By instinct, Elizabeth was a careful spender and believed in strict housekeeping. However, she could not avoid certain European dimensions that cost large sums of money. To her credit, when Elizabeth died in 1603, the nation was only in debt to the tune of £350,000 - £123,000 more than in 1558, but spread over the duration of her reign, this represented just under £3,000 a year. At first glance this seems to have been a remarkable achievement in an era of much European intrigue. However, the one thing Elizabeth failed to do was to address the whole mechanism of finance and the financial structure of England. This remained essentially unreformed and did not bode well for the reign of James I.

 While Elizabeth tried to be a careful housekeeper, she was also willing to borrow money of this was required. At the start of her reign she was advised by Thomas Gresham. He made it clear at the start of her reign that Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII, had not had a good credit rating among European money lenders because of his habit of debasing coins. Gresham also advised Elizabeth that England’s monetary and financial system was being hampered by out-of-date legislation. In 1560, he urged Lord Burghley, William Cecil, to reform this so that the market would grow internally so that if the Queen needed to borrow money she could do so from within the nation as opposed to going abroad for loans. Gresham believed that it would appear unseemly for a Queen of England to go cap in hand to money lenders in Europe and that it would dilute her standing. However, this would not be the case if the matter was dealt with internally. At first, Cecil did not take on board Gresham’s advice, probably because he was conservative by nature when it came to matters of money. However, in 1571 a start was made at reforming the usury laws, which Gresham believed was needed as a starting point of internal financial modernisation.

 The full impact of the “removal of the vice of usury” is difficult to know without a full range of accounts and other financial documents. However, in 1574 Elizabeth was able to announce that she was not in debt for the very first time since 1558. The feeling of financial well-being was made clear in 1576 in a speech to Parliament by Sir Walter Mildmay. He started his speech with an attack on Mary:

 “(Eilzabeth) had inherited a realm miserably overwhelmed with Popery, dangerously afflicted with war, and grievously afflicted with debts; the burden of which three cannot be remembered without grief. Her Majesty hath most carefully delivered the kingdom from a great and weighty debt, wherewith it hath long been burdened. The realm is not only acquitted form this great burden but also her Majesty’s credit thereby both at home and abroad greater than any other prince for money.”

 Elizabeth was well aware that her reputation in Europe would be damaged if she had bad credit. Therefore Elizabeth raised as many loans as she could at home. This meant that those who loaned money could be more easily controlled and news of such loans would be restricted. Failure to offer a loan when it was needed for “national interests” would have been deemed as unpatriotic.

 While Elizabeth may have been careful with money, any chance of a long-term improvement in England’s financial situation was threatened by the lack of any important financial reforms. Elizabeth did not support the idea of raising taxes, as she feared that this would alienate those who she wanted to support her. But wars cost money and the war with Spain in 1585 reduced Elizabeth to borrowing again. Parliament also granted money to the Queen. Local gentry collected this at a local level and few believe that the actual sum collected in a locality was the actual sum that was sent to London. The rich were also allowed to assess their own contribution and it was an accepted fact that the money they gave was not proportionate to their wealth. However, these were the men that Elizabeth needed on her side so nothing was done to correct this anomaly. One way of coping with this was for the Queen to have an efficient bureaucracy – and this was something she did not have.

 England and Wales still suffered from natural disasters. A series of poor harvests in the 1590’s had a negative impact of the nation’s economy and Elizabeth had to borrow from financiers such as Palavicino. In 1600, the Crown estimated its expenditure in both domestic and foreign affairs to be £459,840. The main issue that absorbed the majority of this sum was Ireland (£320,000). England’s contribution in the Low Countries only came to £25,000. However, the Queen’s income for 1600 was estimated at £374,000 – a shortfall of £86,000.

 There were a few – such as members of the Merchant Adventurers – who did very well during Elizabeth’s reign. But it was also these men who tended to stifle any chance of fiscal reform as they did so well out of the system as it stood. Those who really suffered from the financial problems of Elizabeth’s reign were the poor. During Elizabeth’s reign the price of food went up by about 75% - yet there was a drastic fall in the wages of agricultural labourers during the same period. Those with work found that they could barely afford food, while those out of work could not. Their plight was so extreme that Shakespeare commented on this in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. 

Elizabethan Explorers
The Elizabethan Times saw the emergence of the bravest and skilful English seamen who became the Elizabethan Explorers! The Renaissance age of new ideas and learning encouraged a pioneering spirit of curiosity and adventure. The success of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers in acquiring monopolies on much of the Eastern spice trade and their expeditions to the New World fired the imagination and the ambitions of Elizabethan explorers. For specific facts and information about America please refer to Colonial America. New discoveries could bring untold riches in terms of gold and silver and spices - the Elizabethan explorers were searching for adventure, glory and wealth! Many of the Elizabethan explorers were also classed as pirates due to their attacking the Spanish treasure fleet and the Spanish colonies. Heroes or Villains? Explorers or Pirates? Queen Elizabeth's 'pirates' brought wealth and power to England! These amazing Elizabethan seamen also played a major role in defeating the 'Invincible' Spanish Armada.

The Greatest English Explorers of the Elizabethan Age
The great Elizabethan age of exploration produced many famous English explorers. The greatest English explorers of the Elizabethan age and their accomplishments & voyages were:

Sir Francis Drake (1542-1596) cousin of John Hawkins

Drake was famous for his Voyage around the World between 1577 - 1580

Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) half brother to Humphrey Gilbert

Raleigh was famous for the Discovery of Guiana

Establishing the Virginia colony of Roanoke Island in 1584

Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539-1583)  half brother to Walter Raleigh

Gilbert was famous for the Discovery of Newfoundland

Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) cousin of Francis Drake

Hawkins was famous for his voyages to West Africa and South America

Sir Richard Grenville (1541-1591)

Grenville was famous his voyages to Virginia and Roanoke Island and the Azores

Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-1594)

Frobisher was famous for his attempts to discover a North-West passage and his voyages to Labrador and Greenland

Henry Hudson (1570-1611)

His search for the Northwest Passage in led to the discovery of the mouth of the Hudson River

Thomas Cavendish (1560 - 1592)

Followed Drake in an attempt to circumnavigate the World

John Davis (1550 - 1605)

Famous for his voyages to the Canadian Artic and Asia

Sir Richard Hawkins (1562-1622) son of Sir John Hawkins

Famous for his voyages to South America

The English Elizabethan explorers were determined to share the opportunities offered by the exploration of the New World. The Spanish and Portuguese were the foremost of the Elizabethan explorers. The Italians and French were also showing interest in the New World. These European countries had gained monopolies on the Eastern spice trade and had gained great wealth from this revenue . It was imperative that England was involved in the exploration of the New World. Failure to do so would have resulted in England becoming a 'poor relation' to her European neighbours and vulnerable to invasion by either Catholic France or Spain. Spain, especially, was seen as an enemy to England. The English seamen and explorers were therefore encouraged by Queen Elizabeth to make their voyages of exploration. If, on their voyages, the Explorers encountered the opportunity to raid Spanish ships this would not have been greeted with disapproval from their Queen. Thus the English Elizabethan Explorers also gained the reputation of being pirates. The Spanish were continuously harassed in the Caribbean by pirates and buccaneers who attacked the Spanish galleons which were carrying riches back to Spain. The pirates who operated in the Islands included Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Henry Morgan and the celebrated English Explorers Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake!

English Elizabethan Explorers
The English Elizabethan explorers looked at the successes of the Portuguese and Spanish and the voyages of the first English Explorer John Cabot (1450-1499). John Cabot sailed in search of a Northwest Passage to China and as a consequence discovered Cape Breton Island. The Muscovy Company which was formed by the navigator and explorer Sebastian Cabot ( the son of the John Cabot) together with a number of London merchants. The Muscovy Company was granted a monopoly of Anglo-Russian trade and aimed to search for the Northeast Passage. Various other companies were formed - all voyages of discovery had different backers and patrons who wanted a share in the potential profits. The explorations and voyages of Sir Francis Drake were so profitable that, apart from the nobility, he was the richest man in England!