 |
Tudors | and | Stuarts | |
| 1485-1603 | 1603-1714 | |||
|
Tudors | and | Stuarts | |
| 1485-1603 | 1603-1714 | |||
 |
The Tudors |  |
||
| Monarch | Reigned | |||
| Henry V11 | Tudor | 1485-1509 | ||
| Henry V111 | Tudor | 1509-1547 | ||
| Edward V1 | Tudor | 1547-1553 | ||
| Jane | Tudor | 1553-1553 | ||
| Mary 1 | Tudor | 1553-1558 | ||
| Elizabeth 1 | Tudor | 1558-1603 | ||
Some Paintings done by
our Children
The period begins when Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian, defeated King Richard 111 at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 ending the War of the Roses which took place between the Yorkists and Lancastrians. To make his claim to the throne stronger he married his fourth cousin Elizabeth of York (from the other side). Henry V11 became a very rich man through heavy taxation and although not popular he was well respected for bringing peace to England.
In 1509 Henry V11 died leaving a strong and safe crown to his eleven year old son Henry V111. This fierce, patriotic Englishman grew to be a merry, jovial monarch loved by the common man but at the same time was a very cruel, ruthless and greedy man who spent all his father's money fighting wars against France. Henry enjoyed jousting, archery, stag and deer hunting and hawking for hares in the royal forests. The blood sports of bear-baiting and cock-fighting were very popular. He was a great lover of music and never went anywhere without harpists and trumpeters, fiddlers and pipers. He loved extravagance and in order to impress the French king would stage a brilliantly decorated pageant known as "The Field of the Cloth of Gold". He had six wives in his attempt to have a son to inherit the throne of England.
Henry V111's wives were: 
As the Pope had already been persuaded to marry Henry to the widowed Catherine, the Pope refused to give the king a divorce from Catherine of Aragón, so Henry broke away from the Catholic Church and, at the suggestion of Thomas Cromwell, set up his own Protestant church. King Henry V111 built many magnificently decorated palaces. Hampton Court was given to him by his minister the 'Lord Chancellor of England', Cardinal Wolsey and is one of the 55 palaces Henry left when he died.
Henry dissolved the monastic communities and gave much of their property to the nobles in exchange for their support. Due to the dissolution of the monasteries the squires became the new rural aristocracy and became wealthy from the purchase of abbey lands at a very low prices, some grabbing as much money as they could from the poor farmers and tenants who were renting their land. New schools such as The King's School, Peterborough now had to be built, as schools had previously been provided by the monks.
Agricultural implements were very
basic, and the horse and ox provided the power for ploughing the fields. A great woollen
trade developed as sheep farming increased and the woollen merchants growing wealthy in
the midlands built splendid houses out of Cotswold stone.
There were no police as such
so the local burghers and lesser gentry managed to keep the peace using punishments
such as whipping through the streets, branding with hot irons, time in the pillory or
stocks and the ducking stool to set a strong example to others.
For the common man public hanging from the gallows could be
expected for the crimes of stealing, treason, rebellion, riot or murder, a Noble would of
course have the privilege of being beheaded! The heads of traitors were sometimes placed
on spikes along London Bridge. As modern police techniques such as fingerprinting had not
yet been invented a suspected criminal was often tortured into confession on the rack.
At the beginning of the Tudor period,
around the middle of the 15th century, most people thought the world was flat, but due to
great explorers like Sir
Francis Drake sailing the world in his ship The Golden Hind in 1577-1580, everyone realised the
world was round! 
In 1492 he discovered the Aztecs and took all
their gold. When Henry V111 came to power he embarked on a programme of ship building in
order to fight with France. One of Henry V111's finest ships was the Mary Rose. Later, encouraged by
Queen Elizabeth English captains, nicknamed 'Sea Dogs' by the Spanish,
began attacking the slow Spanish galleons and steeling their treasure. The Catholic King Philip 11
of Spain grew very angry with Queen Elizabeth who was also helping the Dutch Protestant
rebels fight with Spain. In 1588, he sent the great Spanish Armada, a
fleet of 130 warships carrying 30,000 soldiers and sailors to invade England. They were
scuppered by the English fleet helped by a great storm and less than half the Spanish
ships were able to make it back home to Spain.
Henry V111's only son Edward, at age 9 became known as Edward V1 'The Boy King' when Henry died in 1547. Edward's uncle, the Duke of Somerset and later the Duke of Northumberland ruled England in his name. As his father had closed all the monastery schools new grammar schools were started to teach reading and writing and the most important subjects at that time were Latin, Greek and Mathematics. Only children of wealthy parents were educated and teachers were very strict, beating their pupils with birches if they misbehaved. The monastery hospitals had also disappeared so Edward commissioned four Royal hospitals be built in London. Edward was never a healthy child and died in 1553 at the age of fifteen.
While Edward was still
alive his ministers persuaded him to make a will naming Lady Jane Grey
his successor to the throne. She was a Protestant and ruled for only 9 days before Mary,
Henry V111's eldest daughter had her arrested and executed. Mary 1, known as
'Bloody Mary' was a strong Catholic and never forgave her father, Henry,
for divorcing her mother and ignoring her at court. She was determined to return England
to the old religion and burned nearly three hundred Protestants at the stake when
they refused to give up their religion. Mary married King Philip 11
of Spain and, living with him for less than a year, produced no children.
The prosperous Elizabethan Age began when Mary’s sister Elizabeth
became queen upon Mary 's death in 1558. Known by her people as 'Good
Queen Bess', Queen
Elizabeth 1 was an intelligent, courageous and determined woman. For most of her reign
she would be seen accompanied by her childhood friend Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester. The crown had very little money left and England was being threatened
by Scotland, France and Spain.
In 1568,
Queen Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Queen of Scots fled to England after a rebellion of the Scottish
lords. Being a Catholic she had the support of many Catholics in England who thought she
should be queen. Elizabeth had her confined to various English castles for nineteen years
until proof was brought to her attention that Mary was foolishly plotting against her with
the help of King Philip 11 of Spain. Mary was then executed at Fotheringhay Castle
in 1587.
During the Tudor period theatre became very popular. Religious plays were now banned so
new plays had to be written. In 1575 the first theatre was built in
London. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
from Stratford-on-Avon emerged as the most famous playwright who has ever lived,
performing most of his plays in The Globe Theatre. This period saw a great expansion in trade and
crafts. London became the greatest city in Europe and was inhabited by
nearly a quarter of a million people. Many trades such as soap and dye-making, cloth
weaving and heavy industry had to be centred in towns. Trades such as glass and
brick-making developed near the supplies of sand and clay. Sugar refining was carried on
in London, and the great paper industry started in nearby in Dartford. Prosperity was also
found in new coal mines and the smelting of iron. Many Protestant refugees fled to England
from Europe and brought their crafts and skills with them and many new beautifully woven
textiles inspired more intricate styles of clothing.
Smoking was
unknown in England until towards the end of Elizabeth's reign when Sir
Walter Raleigh returned from the New World with a cargo of tobacco. The
habit of smoking
soon spread and it was not unusual to see both women and children smoking clay pipes!
As baronial armies no
longer threatened the peace people started to build homes beyond the city walls. Houses
were built too close together and no regard was paid to hygiene or drainage. Many people
died from diseases spread by rats. Rushes or straw were the main floor covering. As people
rarely had baths, rooms for this purpose were rare. In the richer houses beds had canopies
to keep out draughts but poor people's hovels probably had only one room with straw for
bedding.
The main roads in Britain were
still the wonderful straight highways built by the Romans, some of which remain today. Few
roads were surfaced and people were merely responsible for the lengths of road that passed
through their parish. Most people travelled in convoys with wealthy merchants who had
hired guards to protect them from robbers. In August and September Queen Elizabeth
travelled in a procession around England in what was known as The Royal Progress.
She visited with nobles and would travel with over four hundred wagons and coaches and
over 2400 packhorses carrying courtiers and their belongings. The early coaches had no
suspension so Elizabeth would travel on horseback until she reached a town.
The Tudor period ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth 1 on 24th March 1603 after 45 years on the throne. She had no husband or children to succeed her.
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