Schoolproject

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Schoolproject

• English History

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Humanism   A basic principle of humanism is that
people are rational beings who possess within
themselves the capacity for truth and goodness.
The word humanism is most often used to describe
a literary and cultural movement that spread
through western Europe in the 14th and 15th
centuries. The humanist movement started in
Italy, where the late medieval writers for
example Dante, Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco
Petrarch contributed greatly to the discovery of
Classical works. The movement was further
stimulated by the influence of Byzantine
scholars. They came to Italy after the fall of
Constantinople to the Turks, when the Platonic
Academy in Florence was established. The academy
was founded in the 15th century. Its leading
thinker was Marsilio Ficino. The academy sought
to revive Platonism and had particular influence
on the literature, painting and architecture of
the times. After a while the translation and
Collection of manuscripts became widespread.
Although in Italy humanism developed principally
in the fields of literature and art, in central
Europe, where it was introduced by the German
scholars Johann Reuchlin and Melanchthon, the
movement extended into the fields of theology and
education. What is very interesting too is the
fact that it was a major underlying cause of the
reformation. Desiderius Erasmus was one of the
most popular scholars in the development of
humanism in France. He also played an important
role in introducing the movement to England.
There humanism was established at the University
of Oxford by the English scholars William Grocyn
and Thomas Linacre. At the University of
Cambridge it was established by Erasmus and John
Fischer. From the universities it spread
throughout English society and paved the way for
the great flourishing of Elizabethan literature
and culture.
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Themes

• Henry VIII
• Elizabeth I
• Stuart Dynasty

4
Henry VIII Henry VIII was born on June 28,
1491. His father and mother, Henry VII and
Elizabeth of York, were loving parents, although
they saw little of their children. Henry, their
second son, was given the title Duke of York. He
had his own servants and minstrels. He even had a
whipping boy who was punished when Henry did
something wrong. Henry VII loved entertainers,
and the court attracted acrobats, jesters,
magicians and musicians. Prince Henry enjoyed
music and grew up to be an accomplished musician
At the age of 10 he could play many instruments,
including the fife, harp, viola and drums.
Henry's older brother Arthur married a Spanish
princess, Catherine of Aragon, when he was
fifteen. Prince Arthur danced at his wedding and
seemed to be in good health, but within a few
months he was dead. Some historians think Arthur
had tuberculosis. Or he may have contracted the
plague or another fever. Young Henry was now
heir to the throne. He was guarded at all times
and allowed to see only few people. Henry was a
very tall, athletic, handsome teenager. He had
received little training for his future role as
king, and would rely heavily on his counselors in
the early years of his reign. In 1509 Henry VII
died of tuberculosis and his son became King
Henry VIII. He was 17. Henry's interest in
foreign policy was focused on Western Europe,
which was a pattern of alliances centred round
the kings of Spain and France, and the Holy Roman
Emperor. Henry 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.
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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. However, a previous Pope had specifically
granted Henry a licence to marry his brother's
widow in 1509. In May 1529, Cardinal Wolsey
failed to gain the Pope's agreement to resolve
Henry's case in England. All the efforts of Henry
and his advisers had come 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, the 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 become 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. The
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. The Act of Submission of
the Clergy and the Act of Succession followed,
together with the 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. 
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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 Edward's 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, he was arrested and executed three months
later. Henry married two more times, Katherine
Howard and Catherine Parr. 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 wealth of the Monasteries.
However, Henry's reformation had produced
dangerous Protestant-Roman Catholic differences
in the kingdom. The wealth of the monasteries had
been spent on wars and had also built up the
economic strength of the aristocracy and other
families in the counties. 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.   
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Wife 1 - Catherine of Aragon Catherine was
five years older and much more sedate. She was
interested in politics and Henry often turned to
her for advice. In 1513 she ruled as regent while
Henry was campaigning in France. Although
Catherine was pregnant many times, only one of
her children, Princess Mary, survived. Henry was
a doting father and didn't seem to blame
Catherine for her failure to bear healthy sons.
Henry is only known to have had two mistresses
during his marriage to Catherine, which made him
a reasonably faithful husband by the standards of
the time. Catherine knew of his affairs but kept
silent.
Henry VIII was married to his first wife for over
20 years, and for a long time they were happy
together. Catherine (the widow of Henry's brother
Arthur) was the daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain, and had received an excellent
education at their court. She had long red-gold
hair and blue eyes, and in her youth was
considered pretty.
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Wife 2 - Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn was probably born in 1500 or 1501.
Her father was an English diplomat and her mother
was the daughter of an earl. When Anne was around
12 she became a maid of honor to Margaret of
Austria, the regent of the Netherlands. A year
and a half later she moved to the French court,
where she served Henry VIII's sister Mary, who
had married the king of France. King Louis soon
died and Mary returned to England, but Anne
stayed in France as maid of honor to the new
queen, Claude. In 1522 Anne returned to England
and went to live at King Henry's court as a
member of Queen Catherine's household. There she
became secretly betrothed to a young courtier,
Henry Percy - secretly because Percy was already
promised to another woman, and his family would
not approve of his marrying Anne Boleyn. But the
lord chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, heard of the
engagement and alerted the king, who told Wolsey
to end the relationship. Wolsey did just that,
lecturing Percy for becoming involved with a
"foolish girl" and summoning Percy's father, who
forbade him to see Anne again. Percy was forced
to marry the bride his father had chosen for him,
and Anne never forgave Wolsey. Anne was banished
from the royal court after the abrupt ending of
her romance with Percy and did not return until
1524 or 1525. In 1526 Henry began to pursue Anne
openly. But Anne refused to become his mistress,
saying, "I would rather lose my life than my
honesty." Bewitched by Anne's sparkling black
eyes, long dark hair and vivacious personality,
the king began scheming to end his marriage to
Catherine. He claimed that it had never really
been a marriage because she had been his
brother's wife. Catherine insisted that her first
marriage didn't count because it hadn't been
consummated, and church authorities agreed. For
years Henry struggled unsuccessfully to have his
marriage annulled. In the end, determined to have
his way, he broke free of the Catholic Church,
established the Church of England, banished
Catherine from court, had his first marriage
declared invalid, and married Anne Boleyn.
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Queen Anne was crowned in June of 1533. Later
that year she gave birth to her only surviving
child, Elizabeth. The years of waiting had been
hard on Anne. She was in her thirties now, moody
and sharp tongued, and Henry was falling out of
love with her. She had friends at court, but also
many enemies. She had brought about the downfall
of Cardinal Wolsey, who died in 1530, and she
also plotted against Catherine of Aragon and her
daughter Mary. Catherine died on January 7,
1536, and Anne rejoiced. She was pregnant again,
and if she gave birth to a healthy son her
position as queen would be secure. But Anne had a
miscarriage. According to one story, it happened
because she became hysterical after finding one
of her maids of honor, Jane Seymour, sitting on
the king's knee on the day of Catherine's
funeral. In May Anne was arrested and charged
with having affairs with five men, including her
own brother George. The charges were false, but
Anne and all of the men were convicted and
sentenced to death. On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn
was beheaded. And on May 30 Henry VIII married
his third wife . . .
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Wife 3 - Jane Seymour
The Seymours were an old and noble family. Jane,
who was probably born between 1507 and 1509, had
been maid of honor to both Queen Catherine and
Queen Anne. As Henry grew tired of Anne's
tantrums he was drawn to Jane's gentle, modest
ways. Jane sympathized with Catherine and was
apparently happy to help bring about Queen Anne's
downfall. Like Anne before her, Jane virtuously
rejected the king's advances, and once again
Henry fell in love with the woman he could not
have. After their marriage Jane remained quietly
obedient to Henry. Once she fell on her knees in
public and begged the king to change one of his
policies. This did not go over well with the
king, and Jane never tried it again. In October
of 1537 Jane gave birth to a son, Edward. Twelve
days later she died. Henry grieved for her, but
he also began looking for a new wife. This time
he wanted to make a politically advantageous
marriage. The royal women of Europe were
understandably reluctant to marry him, and it was
two years before Henry VIII became betrothed to
his fourth wife . . .
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Wife 4 - Anne of Cleves Anne didn't
speak English, didn't know who this fat stranger
was, and was busy watching something out the
window, so she more or less ignored Henry. The
king's pride was wounded. "I like her not!" he
told all and sundry. He found her ugly -
downright repulsive - and the last thing he
wanted to do was marry her. But Henry couldn't
wriggle out of his treaty with Cleves. The
wedding took place on January 6, 1540 with the
groom protesting every step of the way. At first
Anne had no idea that her husband was displeased
with her. She told her ladies, "Why, when he
comes to bed he kisseth me, and taketh me by the
hand, and biddeth me 'Good night, sweetheart.'"
Her ladies had to tell her that this wasn't
enough to cause a pregnancy. Eventually Anne
learned that her husband wished to be rid of her.
She was shrewd enough to realize that her life
was in danger. To Henry's amazement, she
cooperated with his desire to have the marriage
annulled. Relieved, he gave her money and
property and treated her very well. Anne remained
in England, and never remarried. Henry called her
his sister and often invited her to court. She
outlived Henry and was certainly the most
fortunate of his wives. Less than twenty days
after his marriage to Anne of Cleves ended, Henry
married his fifth wife. . .
Cleves was a dukedom in modern day Germany and
Anne was the sister of its ruler, Duke William.
Born in 1515, she was given a sheltered
upbringing, and was less educated and worldly
than Henry's previous wives. Henry approved of
her portrait, so in 1539 a marriage treaty was
signed and Anne set sail for England.
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Wife 5 - Katherine Howard But Katherine
had secrets. Several years earlier she'd had an
affair with a man named Francis Dereham and
promised to marry him. This alone made her
ineligible to marry the king. She had also been
involved with her music teacher, Thomas
Culpepper, and as queen she resumed her
relationship with him. In time, of course, her
infidelity was discovered and she was arrested.
In December of 1541 Dereham and Culpepper were
executed. Katherine Howard was beheaded in
February 1542. Henry was horrified and
heartbroken, but he had not given up on
matrimony. The following year he married his
sixth and final wife. . .
Katherine Howard, a first cousin of Anne Boleyn,
was fifteen or sixteen when she married Henry.
She was lively, pretty and kind, and Henry saw
her as perfect and unspoiled, a "rose without a
thorn."
13
Wife 6 - Katherine Parr
Katherine Parr was born around 1512. In her teens
she married a man named Lord Borough, who was in
his sixties. He soon died and Katherine married
another older man, Lord Latimer. Katherine and
her second husband frequently visited the royal
court, and Henry became fond of the auburn-haired
Lady Latimer. Lord Latimer died in March 1543
and Henry quickly began courting Katherine. She
was in love with Jane Seymour's handsome brother
Thomas, but she didn't dare refuse the king. On
July 12, 1543, Henry and Katherine were married.
Henry was old and ill now, and Katherine was as
much a nurse to him as a wife. She was good to
his children and helped him reconcile with
Catherine of Aragon's daughter Mary. But
Katherine's keen intellect and radical religious
views placed her in danger. She argued with Henry
about religion and he angrily ordered her arrest.
Learning of this, Katherine took to her bed
crying, which so distressed Henry that he
cancelled the arrest warrant. After that
Katherine took care not to dispute with the king.
Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547. Within
months Katherine had married her true love,
Thomas Seymour. But Seymour soon betrayed her by
trying to seduce her stepdaughter, Henry's
daughter Elizabeth. Henry VIII's last unfortunate
wife died from complications of childbirth on
September 7, 1548.
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ELIZABETH I (1558-1603) Elizabeth I -
the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on
7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and
his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Her early life was
full of uncertainties, and her chances of
succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once
her half-brother Edward was born in 1537. She was
then third in line behind her Roman Catholic
half-sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics,
indeed, always considered her illegitimate and
she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake
of a failed rebellion against Queen Mary in
1554. Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her
half-sister's death in November 1558. She was
very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and
had inherited intelligence, determination and
shrewdness from both parents. Her 45-year reign
is generally considered one of the most glorious
in English history. During it a secure Church of
England was established. Its doctrines were laid
down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise
between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth
had astute political judgement and chose her
ministers well these included Burghley
(Secretary of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor)
and Walsingham (in charge of intelligence and
also a Secretary of State). Overall, Elizabeth's
administration consisted of some 600 officials
administering the great offices of state, and a
similar number dealing with the Crown lands
(which funded the administrative costs).
Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of
discovery, including those of Francis Drake, Sir
Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly
to the Americas. These expeditions prepared
England for an age of colonisation and trade
expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by
establishing the East India Company in 1600. The
arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country
houses such as Longleat and Hardwick Hall were
built, miniature painting reached its high point,
theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first
performance of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer
Night's Dream. The image of Elizabeth's reign is
one of triumph and success
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The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana',
'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen' since
she also invested in expensive clothes and
jewellery. However, Elizabeth's reign was one of
considerable danger and difficulty for many, with
threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland,
and from France through Scotland. Much of
northern England was in rebellion in 1569-1570. A
papal bull of 1570 specifically released
Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and
she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics
after plots against her life were discovered. One
such plot involved Mary, Queen of Scots, who had
fled to England in 1568 after her second
husband's murder and her subsequent marriage to a
man believed to have been involved in his murder.
As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19
years as Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was
the focus for rebellion and possible
assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot
of 1586. Mary was also a temptation for potential
invaders such as Philip II. Despite Elizabeth's
reluctance to take drastic action, on the
insistence of Parliament and her advisers, Mary
was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587. In
1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy
scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion
fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The
Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and
re-establish Roman Catholicism by conquest, as
Philip II believed he had a claim to the English
throne through his marriage to her sister
Mary. During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation
also suffered from high prices and severe
economic depression, especially in the
countryside, during the 1590s. The war against
Spain was not very successful after the Armada
had been beaten and, together with other
campaigns, it was very costly. Despite the
combination of financial strains and prolonged
war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more
often. There were only 16 sittings of the Commons
during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in
the period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely
used her power to veto legislation, she avoided
confrontation and did not attempt to define
Parliament's constitutional position and rights.
Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had
chosen a foreign prince, he would have drawn
England into foreign policies for his own
advantages (as in her sister Mary's marriage to
Philip of Spain) marrying a fellow countryman
could have drawn the Queen into factional
infighting. Elizabeth used her marriage prospects
as a political tool in foreign and domestic
policies. So the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as
a selfless woman who sacrificed personal
happiness for the good of the nation, to which
she was, in essence, 'married'. Late in her
reign, she addressed Parliament in the so-called
'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs 'There
is no jewel, be it of never so high a price,
which I set before this jewel I mean your love.'
She seems to have been very popular with the vast
majority of her subjects. Overall, Elizabeth's
always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive
leadership brought success during a period of
great danger both at home and abroad. She died at
Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a
legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession
was a national holiday for two hundred years.
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Elizabethan Theatres William Shakespeare Sir
Walter Raleigh
17
    Queen of Scots Mary Stuart was born
at Linlithgate Palace on Dec 8th, 1542, 6 days
later she became the Queen of Scotland when her
father died. Her French mother sent her to France
in 1548, at the age of 6. In April of the year
1558, she got married to Francis II of France. In
July of the year 1559, Francis became King of
France and Mary became Queen of France, even
though at the same time she was Queen of
Scotland. Soon afterwards her hunger for power
grew even more and she wanted to take over
England. Mary tried to claim the English throne
in the year 1558. Her claim was based on the fact
that she was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor.
Yet Elizabeth the first claimed the English
throne as well. To the Roman Catholics Mary's
claim appeared stronger than Elizabeths. Mary,
who was about 18 years of age, was left in a
difficult position. Mary didnt want to stay in
France so she went back to Scotland. There her
husband died and she was convicted of his murder.
She was put in jail, but she was able to escape
with the help of friends. At this point Mary
decided to leave Scotland and go to England for
support. However, she seemed too much of a threat
to Elizabeth, so she was kept prisoner
there. Mary had a bad fate. While she was
convicted in England numerous plots by the
English Roman Catholics were associated with her.
The Babington plot, an attempt at assassinating
Elizabeth, was formed to trap Mary. Later Mary
was found guilty and beheaded on Feb 8th 1587.
The last thing Mary did before she was beheaded
was that she wrote a letter. She wrote it six
hours before she was beheaded at Fotheringhay
Castle. This letter contained four pages written
to her brother-in-law, Henry III King of France.
Mary had a hard life trying to keep her thrones.
She was Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567. Mary
was also Queen of France from 1559 to 1560.
Besides being Queen of Scotland and Queen of
France she also tried to take over the English
throne in the year 1558.
Mary Stuart
18
Mary's Parents   James V, from
April 10th 1512 to December 14th 1542, was the
seventh Stuart king of Scotland (1513-42), the
son of James IV. In 1514 James V's mother,
Margaret Tudor, daughter of England's Henry VII,
married Archibald Douglas, 6th earl of Angus.
John Stuart, duke of Albany, became regent and a
power struggle ensued among factions controlled
by Albany, Angus and Margaret. For a time, Angus,
a pro-English Protestant supporter, held James
prisoner (1526-28). When James reached his
maturity he sided with Scotland's pro-French
Catholic faction against the English. On 1st
January 1537 he married Madeleine, the daughter
of Francis I of France, and received a large
dowry. She died the following July, and James
married (1538) Mary of Guise. His aggressive,
vindictive policies lost him the support of the
nobility, weakening his army and contributing to
his defeat by the English at Solway Moss in 1542.
Soon after this battle, he died at Falkland
Palace leaving a week-old daughter, Mary Queen of
Scots to succeed him. 
19

• Elizabethan Theatres
• Two kinds
• Outdoor or "public"
• Indoor or "private
• Both were open to anyone who could pay, but the
  private theatres cost more, were smaller, and had
  a more select audience.
• Nine Public playhouses were built between 1576
  and 1642.The three most important were all
  outside the city limits of London
• The Globe (1599)
• The Fortune (1600)
• The Swan         
• General features of public playhouses
• Varied in size largest seated 2-3,000.
• Varying shapes round, rectagonal, octagonal
• The stage was raised, 4-6 feet, extending to the
  center of the yard.
• A "Tiring house" at the rear of the raised
  platform where the actors would wait and
  change.

20

• Indoor / Private Theatres
• Less is known about the Elizabethan indoor
  theatres.
• Smaller, roofed.
• Troupes did shows in winter when it was too cold
  to be outside suggesting that the staging was
  probably similar.
• 1576 Blackfriars a former monastery was
  the first one closed by 1584.
• The New Blackfriars opened in 1596 by James
  Burbage. Their company, the Kings Men, used it
  after 1610 as their winter performance area.
• Childrens troupes had been popular for a while
  until 1610.
• By the time of Shakespeare (1595?), actors had
  achieved a satisfactory level of financial and
  social stability.
• By 1642, there were six private theatres in
  London.
• Private theatre rose in popularity from 1610 to
  1642. Public theatres were used only during the
  five warm months.
• Spectators sat in the pit or in galleries or
  private boxes. The stages were probably similar.
•  

21
William Shakespeare(1564-1616)
England's greatest poet and playwright was born
at Stratford-upon-Avon, the son of a tradesman
and Alderman of Stratford, John Shakespeare in
1564. William, the eldest son, and third child
(of eight) was baptised on 26th April 1564 and
probably educated at Stratford Grammar School,
but little is known of his life up to his
eighteenth year. He did not go to University and
his younger contemporary and fellow-dramatist,
Ben Johnson, would later speak disparagingly of
his "small Latin, and less Greek" in the eulogy
prefaced to the First Folio. However the Grammar
School curriculum would have provided a
formidable linguistic, and to some extent
literary, education. In 1575 when he was eleven,
there was a great plague in the country and Queen
Elizabeth journeyed out of London to avoid its
consequences and stayed for several days at
Kenilworth Castle near Stratford enjoying
"festivities" arranged by her host Lord
Leicester. It is probable that these events may
have made a strong impact on the mind of young
William. At the age of eighteen, he married Anne
Hathaway, eight years his senior. Five years
later he left for London. William worked at the
Globe Theatre and appeared in many small parts.
He first appeared in public as a poet in 1593
with his Venus and Adonis and the following year
with The Rape of Lucrece. He became joint
proprietor of The Globe and also had an interest
in the Blackfriars Theatre. The play writing
commenced in 1595 and of the 38 plays that
comprise the Shakespeare Cannon, 36 were
published in the 1st Folio of 1623, of which 18
had been published in his lifetime in what are
termed the Quarto publications. Love's Labour's
Lost and The Comedy of Errors appear to be among
the earliest, being followed by The Two Gentlemen
of Verona and Romeo and Juliet. Then followed
Henry VI, Richard III, Richard II, Titus
Andronicus, The Taming of the Shrew, King John,
The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's
Dream, All's Well that Ends Well, Henry IV, The
Merry Wives of Windsor, Henry V, Much Ado about
Nothing, As you like it, Twelth Night, Julius
Caesar, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, Othello,
Measure for Measure, Macbeth, King Lear, Timon of
Athens, Pericles, Antony and Cleopatra,
Coriolanus, Cymbeline, A Winter's Tale, The
Tempest, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
22
When he retired from writing in 1611, he returned
to Stratford to live in a house which he had
built for his family. His only son, Hamnet died
when still a child. He also lost a daughter
Judith (twin to Hamnet), but his third child
Susanna married a Stratford doctor. John Hall and
their home "Hall's Croft" is preserved as one of
the Shakespeare Properties today. In 1616
Shakespeare was buried in the Church of the Holy
Trinity, the same Church where he was baptised in
1564. Tradition has it that he died after an
evening's drinking with some of his theatre
friends. His gravestone bears the words- Good
friend for Jesus sake forebeare, to digg the
dust encloased heare,Bleste be ye man yt spares
thes stones,And curst be he yt moves my bones.
In his will Shakespeare left his wife, the
former Anne Hathaway, his second best bed. We
cannot be sure of the reason for this. It may
have been the marital bed the best bed being
reserved for guests. It may suggest that they had
a not altogether happy marriage which
nevertheless produced three children, Susanna,
born on May 26th 1583 and twins , Hamnet and
Judith, born on February 2nd 1585. These entries
appear in the Holy Trinity Register.
23
Sir Walter Raleigh     Sir Walter Raleigh was
born in 1552, during a time when his father
leased Hayes Barton from the Duke family of
Otterton. He was half brother to Sir Humphrey and
Sir John Gilbert, from his mother's first
marriage. He had a brother, Carew, and a sister,
Margaret.   He is known to have attended church
in East Budleigh. The nearby sea-side town of
Budleigh Salterton is the setting for the
painting "The boyhood of Raleigh" by Millais.
Since it was painted in 1870 it's not surprising
that the wall still exists. He was quite tall
(six foot) considering that the average height
was lower than now. He is said to have retained
his strong Devonshire accent during all his time
at Court. During his early life, from 1553 to
1558, Queen Mary I was on the throne. This was a
time when the Roman Catholic church was in
favour. Although a large part of the population
had previously become Protestants, those who were
most open about it were persecuted. To quote from
the "Five English Reformers" by J.C. Ryle in 1890
"Mary was not called "Bloody Mary" without
reason.....during the last four years of Queen
Mary's reign no less than 288 persons were burnt
at the stake for their adhesion to the Protestant
faith". His father narrowly escaped being killed
by taking refuge in a church tower. It is
understandable that Raleigh grew up with a hatred
of the Catholic Church and, when Elizabeth I came
to the throne in 1558, he was open to express it.
In 1581, after seeing action on a number of
occasions, he became a favourite of Queen
Elizabeth the first. There is little to confirm
the famous story of how he spread his cloak
across a puddle so that the Queen could walk over
it, except for the cloak included in his coat of
arms.
24
He became Captain of the Guard and his part in
foiling the "Babington" conspiracy ended up with
him owning a 42,000 acre estate in Ireland. The
"Babington" conspiracy was aimed at replacing
Queen Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots. Since
she was implicated in it, this led to Mary's
execution. In 1585 he was made Governor of
Jersey. While there, he built "Elizabeth Castle"
on a rocky islet, in the 1590s.Other records say
he was Governor there between 1600 and 1603 and
merely arranged an extension to, and renaming of
the castle. In 1602, the unfortunate Sir Walter
was ejected from his house, which the Bishop
promptly reclaimed. Sir Walter was then accused
of conspiring against the new ruler, James I, and
was sent to the Tower of London. He tried to stab
himself, but failed miserably in that, too, and
got only a slight wound. Sir Walter caught a
fever and nearly died. His son died at the hands
of the Spanish. Sir Walter made it back to
England just in time to be executed on 29 October
1618. The Spanish Armada
25
The Spanish Armada  
The mission of the Armada combined political and
religious aims. Philip, leader of Roman Catholic
Spain, could not suppress a revolt of his
Protestant subjects in the Netherlands that began
the Dutch Wars of Independence. This revolt,
which began in 1566, was aided by Protestant
England. By 1586 Philip had decided that he would
be unable to defeat the Dutch without first
mastering England. At the same time, he hoped to
resolve the long-standing religious rivalry
between England and Spain by dethroning Elizabeth
I and reconverting England to Roman Catholicism.
He therefore evolved a plan to conquer the
English.The scheme called for coordinating a
fleet sailing from Spain with an army led by
Alessandro Farnese in the Netherlands to be
dispatched across the English Channel for a
simultaneous invasion of England. Philip
appointed the inexperienced Alonzo Pérez de
Guzmán, Duke of Medina-Sidonia, to lead the force
of 130 ships. The English, aware of the plan,
tried to prevent the Armada from sailing by
sending Sir Francis Drake to attack it at Cádiz
in Spain in 1587. By destroying the Armada's
ships in Cádiz Harbour, Drake succeeded in
delaying it for nearly a year.            
     
26
By July 1588, however, the Armada had set sail.
It was first sighted off the English coast on
July 29, and a larger English fleet, commanded by
Lord Charles Howard with Drake and Sir John
Hawkins as subsidiary commanders, intercepted it
near Plymouth. For the next week, Howard, with
his faster, smaller, and more manoeuvrable ships,
attacked the Spanish in battles off Plymouth,
Portland Bill, and the Isle of Wight. Unable to
break the Armada's formation, however, the
English waited for a chance to strike a decisive
blow.The opportunity came when the Armada
anchored near Calais in France, hoping to join
the troops scheduled to sail from the
Netherlands. Howard ordered fireships to be sent
against the Armada, producing panic that broke
the Spanish formation. In the ensuing Battle of
Gravelines on August 8, the English defeated the
Armada. Strong winds prevented the remaining
vessels from sailing home through the English
Channel, and they were forced to make their way
back to Spain round the north of Scotland and the
west of Ireland, with many lost to storms and
shipwreck. Only 67 of the original 130 ships
returned to port in Spain, and most of these were
in poor condition.The failure of the Armada did
not end the war between England and Spain, which
lasted until 1604 Spain launched similar
attempts in 1596 and 1597, both of which were
driven back by storms. It did, however, stimulate
English nationalism, secure Protestantism as
England's state religion, and create the trust in
the English navy that for centuries remained the
first line of the nation's defence. For Spain, by
contrast, it was a demoralizing defeat that
nearly bankrupted its treasury.
27

• The House of Stuart
•  
• MONARCHS of the HOUSE OF STUART
•  
• James I reigned 1603-1625
• Charles I reigned 1625-1649
• Charles II reigned 1649-1685
• James II reigned 1685-1689
• Mary II reigned 1689-1694
• William III reigned 1689-1702
• Anne reigned 1702-1714

28
James I James I was born in 1566 to Mary
Queen of Scots and her second husband, Henry
Stewart, Lord Darnley. He descended from the
Tudors through Margaret, daughter of Henry VII
both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were
grandchildren of Margaret Tudor. James ascended
the Scottish throne upon the abdication of his
mother in 1567, but Scotland was ruled by regents
until James reached his maturity. He married Anne
of Denmark in 1589, who bore him three sons and
four daughters Henry, Elizabeth, Margaret,
Charles, Robert, Mary and Sophia. He was named
successor to the English throne by his cousin,
Elizabeth I and ascended that throne in 1603.
James died of a stroke in 1625 after ruling
Scotland for 58 years and England for 22 years.
James was affected by his years as a boy in
Scottish court. Murder and intrigue had plagued
the Scottish throne throughout the reigns of his
mother and grandfather and had no less bearing
during James's rule. His father had been
butchered mere months after James' birth by
enemies of Mary, who, because of her
indiscretions and Catholic faith, was forced to
abdicate the throne. Thus, James developed a
guarded manner. He was thrilled to take the
English crown and leave the restrictions and
poverty of the Scottish court. James'
twenty-nine years of Scottish kingship did little
to prepare him for the English monarchy England
and Scotland, rivals for superiority on the
island since the first emigration of the
Anglo-Saxon races, virtually hated each other.
This inherent mistrust, combined with
Catholic-Protestant and Episcopal-Puritan
tensions, severely limited James' prospects of a
truly successful reign. His personality also
caused problems he was witty and well-read,
fiercely believed in the divine right of kingship
and his own importance, but found great
difficulty in gaining acceptance from an English
society that found his rough-hewn manners and
natural paranoia quite unbecoming. James saw
little use for Parliament. His extravagant
spending habits and nonchalant ignoring of the
nobility's grievances kept king and Parliament
constantly at odds. He came to the thrown at the
zenith of monarchical power, but never truly
grasped the depth and scope of that power.
29
Religious dissent was the basis of an event that
confirmed and fueled James' paranoia the
Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes
and four other Catholic dissenters were caught
attempting to blow up the House of Lords on a day
in which the king was to open the session. The
conspirators were executed, but a fresh wave of
anti-Catholic sentiments washed across England.
James also disliked the Puritans who became
excessive in their demands on the king, resulting
in the first wave of English immigrants to North
America. James, however, did manage to commission
an Authorized Version of the Bible, printed in
English in 1611. The relationship between king
and Parliament steadily eroded. Extravagant
spending (particularly on James' favorites),
inflation and bungled foreign policies
discredited James in the eyes of Parliament.
Parliament flatly refused to disburse funds to a
king who ignored their concerns and were annoyed
by rewards lavished on favorites and great
amounts spent on decoration. James awarded over
200 peerages (landed titles) as, essentially,
bribes designed to win loyalty, the most
controversial of which was his creation of George
Villiers (his closest advisor and homosexual
partner) as Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was
highly influential in foreign policy, which
failed miserably. James tried to kindle Spanish
relations by seeking a marriage between his son
Charles and the Spanish Infanta (who was less
than receptive to the clumsy overtures of Charles
and Buckingham), and by executing Sir Walter
Raleigh at the behest of Spain. James was not
wholly unsuccessful as king, but his Scottish
background failed to translate well into a
changing English society. He is described, albeit
humorously, in 1066 and All That, as such "James
I slobbered at the mouth and had favourites he
was thus a bad king"
30
The English East India Company (EIC) The English
East India Company was the most unique
organization in British colonial history. On
October 16, 1599, Queen Elizabeth I of England
granted a charter to the EIC, awarding it a
monopoly of the trade with the East. The EIC was
made up of a group of London merchants, ordinary
city tradesmen and aldermen who were prepared to
take a gamble in buying a few ships and filling
them with cargo to sell in the East. At the end
of the voyage, after the return cargo was sold,
the profits would be shared among the share
holders. This system was known as "joint-stock".
Huge profits were made from the initial and
difficult voyages to Southeast Asia, mainly from
the sale of pepper acquired from the Sumatran and
Javanese trading ports and sold in London. Soon,
the EIC was building more and bigger ships and
increasing the number of shareholders. Rivalry
with the Dutch In the Malay archipelago, the EIC
faced stiff competition from the Dutch East India
Company (VOC) (founded in 1602). The VOC's policy
was a monopoly on trade in spices, pepper and
other commodities in the region. The VOC tried to
keep out the EIC as a rival. Rivalry and tension
between the two companies increased to such an
extent that in 1620, the Dutch massacred the
personnel in the EIC depot at Amboyna. After the
massacre, and owing to the high costs of
financing its voyages to the archipelago, the EIC
turned its attention to India where it already
had a factory at Surat. At that time, Surat was
the main port of trade between India and Europe.
Although the EIC turned to India, it did not
completely withdraw from the Malay archipelago.
It kept its factory at Bencoolen on the west of
coast of Sumatra. Trade with India and China At
this time, the Indian market became more
attractive for English goods. From the mid 1600's
onwards, the EIC slowly began to acquire
territory in India (Madras, Bombay and Calcutta).
During this period also, the EIC was allowed to
raise its own military force. In 1689, the EIC
issued a formal declaration of its intention to
be a territorial power in India, thus revising
its earlier commercial aims. By the 1700s, the
French were becoming involved in India too. The
eighteenth century was a very important period in
the EIC's history. The EIC expanded into Northern
India and was increasingly involved in the China
Trade. In London, the Company's office
headquarters was improved to reflect its
importance as a great company of the world. The
Archipelago Trade Since the EIC found it
difficult to pay in silver for increased imports
of Chinese tea and silk, it turned to Southeast
Asian produce as another form of payment. The EIC
also hoped to attract Chinese junks to an
entrepot in the archipelago where the terms of
exchange would be more favorable to the EIC.