Lecture 4: The Tudors

Principle of legitimacy: allowed or admitted by law; rightful; lawful.

• Nations must be ruled by legitimate rulers in a legitimate system
• Democracy: rulers are elected in legitimate elections
• Monarchy: rulers inherit power
• Necessity in a monarchy: an heir

Tudor Rulers

• Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
  House of Lancaster vs. House of York, both families in the Plantagenet dynasty of William the Conqueror
• Cause: Richard II of York was childless; Henry Lancaster, his cousin, usurped power
• Result: Henry Tudor (distant Lancaster) killed Richard III of York in Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
• Primary goal of Henry Tudor, Henry VII: establish a legitimate line of rulers to avoid another civil war
• Married his son, Arthur, to Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille (Columbus fame)
• Problem: Arthur died childless
• Solution: obtain a papal dispensation for next son, Henry, to marry Catherine

Henry VIII, 1491-1547

• ruled 1509-1547
• primary objective: a male heir to continue the dynasty
• Catherine gave birth to one daughter, Mary; other pregnancies ended in miscarriage or short-lived infants
• 1521: wrote “Defence of the Seven Sacraments” against Luther
• Pope conferred title “Defender of the Faith” on Henry
• Divorce Catherine?
  • Henry thought he needed a divorce
  • Catherine said her marriage with Arthur was never consummated
  • Catherine’s nephew, Charles V of Spain, had an army camped outside Rome
  • Pope Clement VII feared Charles’ army; refused to issue a divorce
• 1533: Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, married Henry and Anne Boleyn
• 7 September 1533: Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth
• 1533: Pope excommunicated Henry
• 1534: Parliament passed Act of Supremacy, making Henry head of the Church in England
• 1534: Act of Succession: Parliament legitimized Anne’s children, declared Mary illegitimate
• problem: Anne had no more children
• Henry turned his head to Jane Seymour (not the actress)
• 1536: Anne Boleyn was beheaded for witchcraft, adultery, and incest
• 1536: New Act of Succession: Parliament legitimized Jane’s children, declared Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate
• 12 October 1537: Jane gave birth to Edward; died 2 weeks later
  • Henry had a male heir
  • problem: Edward was sickly; Henry thought he needed another male heir
• January 1540: Henry married Anne of Cleves, sister of Protestant Duke of Cleves
  • Henry of Anne: “Flanders mare”
  • annulled marriage, executed Thomas Cromwell for a dumb idea
• July 1540: Henry married Catherine Howard
  • problem: Henry is 49, Catherine is at most 20
  • Henry was infatuated; Catherine was bored
  • 1541: Catherine’s love letter to Thomas Culpepper was found
  • February 1542: Catherine was beheaded
• 1543: Henry married Catherine Parr, a devout Protestant
  • Parr was almost executed for arguing with Henry
• 28 January 1547: Henry died; succeeded by Edward

Edward VI, 1537-1553

• Became king at the age of 9
• Guided by competent advisors, including Thomas Cranmer
• Thorough Protestant
• Cranmer wrote Book of Common Prayer
• 1553: Edward died, no heir
• bumbled attempt to make Lady Jane Grey (a Protestant cousin) the queen failed; Edward was succeeded by Catholic Mary

Mary I, 1516-1558

• ruled 1553-1558
• attempted to reverse Protestantism
• married Philip, son of Charles V of Spain and Holy Roman Empire, in 1554
• killed Protestants who refused to accept Catholicism, including Cranmer; gained the name “Bloody Mary”
• Parliament refused to restore Church lands
• alienated her subjects by marrying Philip
• died without an heir

Elizabeth I, 1533-1603

• reigned 1558-1603
• barely survived Mary’s reign
• Protestant, but sought peace with the Catholics
• 1559 Book of Common Prayer: thoroughly Protestant, but the Church of England kept many Catholic practices
• used her single status as a diplomatic tool
• inherited a financial and diplomatic disaster
• 1588: Spanish Armada was defeated
• Elizabethan Age: age of Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser
• One of England’s most popular monarchs
• died without an heir, but James Stuart VI of Scotland was declared king of England as James I