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The Tudors
A chronology of the Tudor period
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Headlines are in brown.
Dates are in red.
Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.
References and citations are in turquoise.
Context and local history are in purple.
Geographical context is in green.
The
Houses of Lancaster and York
The Tudors, 1485-1603
With support from the French, Henry
Tudor, Earl of Richmond, with a tenuous claim to the throne through his mother,
Mlady Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of John of Gaunt, marched to comfort
Richard III near Bosworth in Leicestershire.
According to legend, Richard was killed
by a Welshman and Sir William Stanley picked up the crown and placed it on
Richmond’s head.
The Tudors did not seen
themselves as a new dynasty, and as a label it was not used until the Scottish
historian David Hume in the eighteenth century.
The Wars of the Roses had not impacted
heavily on the commoners, but it had weakened the aristocracy. By 1495 the
French were distracted by conflict over the next three centuries with the
Hapsburgs.
There is an In
Our Time podcast on the role of the Tudor dynasty in
reshaping the British state and whether their government of England laid the
political foundations of our own age
Henry VII, 1485-1509
1492
Christopher Columbus reached America.
The Fall of Granada and the Moors were
expelled from Spain.
1495
The Vagabonds and Beggars Act allowed
the punishment of the poor.
The licensing of alehouses began.
1497
John Cabot, an Italian merchant living
in Bristol, reached Newfoundland.
1498
Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape and
sailed to India.
King Henry VIII, 1509-1547
The European
context in 1509 was challenging:
·
Geopolitical
crises were tearing Europe apart
·
Western
civilisation was challenged
·
Portends
of the end of the world were rife
·
After
the capture of Constantinople, Muslim forces were threatening Europe
·
1494
– War between France and the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire
·
1495
- Savonarola, a Dominican friar, established a theocratic dictatorship in
Florence
·
1517
– Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, nailed his critique of the religious
authorities to a church door in Wittenburg
·
1527
– Rome was sacked by the Hapsburgs
·
1530
to 1527 – Muslim raiders took a million Europeans into slavery
·
1618
to 1648 – the Thirty Years War
England was on the periphery of much of
these challenges, but could not fully scape its
repercussions.
In this context of tumult on the
Continent, Henry VIII’s reign was marked by concerns about succession, and his
interface with the Church to provide a solution. For the religious aspects to
his reign see the page on the Church.
Henry had married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain, in 1509. She had previously been married to Henry’s older
brother, Arthur in 1501, but he died soon after the wedding. The pope had
granted dispensation in 1509 when Henry became King.
1513
The Battle of Flodden Field
1515
Conversion of land from arable to pasture
became an offence.
Cardinal Wolsey was Archbishop of York
and Lord Chancellor, 1515-1530
Thomas
More,
Henry’s Chancellor, wrote the humanist parable, Utopia, describing an imaginary pagan island
governed by equality and justice.
1519
Ferdinand Magellan began his
circumnavigation of the world.
1520
At 6pm on 7 June 1520, Henry VIII of
England met François I of France near Calais, for an astonishingly grand
European festival, designed to improve relations between the two great rival
kingdoms. So magnificent was the occasion that it became known as the Field of
Cloth of Gold. The meeting of Henry VIII and Francois I on the Field
of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 was a flamboyant display of opulence.
There
is an In Our Time podcast on the Field of the
Cloth of Gold
in 1520, one of the greatest and most conspicuous displays of wealth and
culture that Europe had ever seen.
1521
Henry disliked Luther’s teachings and
attacked his theories and had Lutherans burned as heretics, which led the Pope
to declare him Fidei Defensor, ‘Defender of the Faith’, a monarchic
title which has survived.
Yet at the same time, he was
increasingly drawn down a path of challenge of papal authority.
1523
The Great Subsidy on all individuals
over 16 years old. A long list of taxpayers were
included in the returns.
1527
Catherine had not produced a male heir:
·
1510
– a stillborn girl
·
1511
– a boy who died after 7 week
·
1513
– a miscarriage
·
1514
– a boy who died shortly after he was born
·
1516,
a girl, Mary, was born, but reliance on a girl after the traumas of the Wars of
the Roses, was too risky for Henry
·
1517
– a miscarriage
·
1518
– a still birth
Meantime Henry had an illegitimate son
in 1519, Henry Fitzroy, who lived into his teens. So
Henry was convinced the problem was not him.
His advisers found support in the Book
of Leviticus, that he could not have a male heir in a marriage with his
brother’s widow.
Meantime, he became enthralled with Anne Boleyn, daughter of Henry’s friend, Sir
Thomas Boleyn.
Christianity was unique at that time, in
not allowing divorce.
And so Cardinal
Wolsey, Henry’s chief minister, began a diplomatic and legal effort to
resolve the matter with the papacy in 1527.
The issue soon became one of
international controversy. There might have been quieter ways to deal with
Henry’s issue.
However Pope Clement VII was inhibited from
helping by the complexities of European politics.
This gave rise to the greatest
revolution in English history (Robert Tombs, The
English and their History, 2023, 163).
There is an In
Our Time podcast on the infamous St Bartholomew’s
Day Massacre
in 1572 when the River Seine ran red with Protestant
blood.
1529
Henry
dismissed Wolsey and confiscated his property, including Hampton Court.
1533
The Reformation
Henry
appointed Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury.
There
followed a succession of parliamentary acts to remove the English church from
papal jurisdiction.
The
Act
in Restraint of Appeals 1533
ended legal recourse to Rome. England was declared an empire.
1534
The
First
Act of Succession 1534
declared Catherine’s marriage ended and conferred the succession on Anne’s
issue.
Two
Acts
of Supremacy
confirmed that Henry was the only supreme head of the Church of England, under
pain of treason. Every man in the Kingdom was required to take an oath to
accept the new law.
To
most ordinary folk, these issues were remote and caused little issue.
1535
Henry
More and John Fisher (pioneer of Greek learning and Chancellor of Cambridge
University) were entrapped by the solicitor general Sir
Richard Rich
and beheaded.
Henry
VIII started to exercise his control, partly driven by his religious revolution,
over Wales and Ireland. In Ireland this translated as bloody and indiscriminate
repression and by 1546, he started the process of introducing armed English, Welsh and later Scottish settlers, which caused antagonism
into the modern age.
Thomas Cromwell was appointed to be the king’s
secretary. He was the son of a cloth merchant and inn keeper, an itinerant
soldier in Flanders and Italy, a self-taught businessman, lawyer and
intellectual.
1535
Tyndale was tracked down to Antwerp and
burned for heresy.
However from 1835, Henry, wishing to prevent
the likes of More and Fisher becoming modern Thomas a Beckets, had the shrine
of Becket destroyed.
A process started of visitations and
stocktaking of religious houses, leading to a detailed survey of church wealth.
The
Dissolution of the monasteries 1536 to 1539.
There is an In
Our Time podcast on Henry VIII and the Dissolution
of the Monasteries,
asking whether Henry’s policy was an act of grand larceny or the pious
destruction of a corrupt institution.
Henry
started to accumulate chests of gold stored in his bed chamber. There was vast
looting and thousands of objects and works of art taken, and often melted down.
Some
historical material was preserved, for instance by Matthew Parker, Master of
Corpus Christi, Cambridge, who saved many ancient documents.
The
significant wealth accumulated from the Church by the monarchy was spent on
creating a new navy and on a futile war with France in 1544.
The
Pilgrimage of Grace in Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire in opposition
to the dissolution of the monasteries (rebels were executed).
A
poor law act allowed vagrants to be whipped.
Anne
Boleyn was convicted of treason for multiple adultery (probably wrongly
alleging affairs with Mark Smeaton and Henry Norris) and beheaded. Her real
afront was two miscarriages and producing only one
daughter, Elizabeth.
Henry
already had his eyes on Jane Seymour. He
married her 11 days after Anne was beheaded.
The
Pilgrimage of Grace.
1537
The foundation of the Honourable
Artillery Company, the oldest regiment in the British Army.
Jane gave birth to a son, the future
Edward VI in October 1537. She died soon afterwards.
The Pope excommunicated Henry VIII and
called for a crusade against him, which the French and Spanish were supportive
of.
The greatest construction of
fortifications since the Romans began along the English coast and the navy was
enlarged leading to Henry’s reputation as the father of the Royal Navy, albeit
his actual success in that regard was limited.
1539
John Leland’s journey through England
and Wales published in the 5 volume The Itinerary.
Numbers of men
mustered before Sir Ralph Eure and Sir Nicholas Fairfax included 83 from
Farndale, 71 from Kirkbymoorside, 38 from Gilling, and 28 from Ampleforth (John Rushton, The History
of Ryedale, 2003, 161).
1540
Thus threatened, Henry VIII saw
advantage in an alliance with the Lutheran States of northern Germany, and persuaded by assurance of her beauty supported
by Hans Holbein’s painting, he agreed to marry Anne
of Cleves.
There is an In Our Time podcast on Hans Holbein's role in the
Tudor Court, painting Henry VIII as he asserted himself as supreme head of
the Church during the Reformation.
His wedding was not consummated
and a mutual annulment was wisely (for Anne) agreed.
Henry blamed Thomas Cromwell and he was
arrested on 10 June 1540 and beheaded on 28 July 1540.
The Statute of Wills permitted freehold
land to be bequeathed.
Henry married Catherine
Howard. Her indiscretions were not so subtle.
1541
Catherine Howard and
her lovers, were
executed in November 1541.
1542
The Scots were heavily defeated at the Battle
of Solway Moss in December 1542 and James V was killed.
1543
Henry VIII married his sixth wife, Catherine Parr. Nothing untoward happened.
She was an intellectual influence on
Prince Edward and Princess Elizabeth.
1544
In
May 1544, war with France gave rise to the first officially approved church
service in English and to the litany in the Book of Common Prayer. It was
written by Cranmer to encourage prayers for victory.
1545
The war with France (allied with
Scotland) became costly and largely futile. It was ruinously expensive.
The Mary Rose sank, with 500 men
drowned.
1547
Henry VIII died in January 1547, aged
57.
Edward VI, 1547-1553
The accession of the nine
year old Edward caused a period of fighting for influence amongst the
related factions.
The Vagabonds Act allowed the branding
and enslavement of beggars deemed capable of work.
1548
The Book of Common Prayer introduced a
new liturgy.
1549
Kett’s rebellion in Norfolk against
enclosure of land.
1551
The Alehouse Act to combat drunkenness.
1552
The Poor Act banned begging and
authorised a Collector of Alms in each parish to keep a register of licensed
poor.
1553
By 1553, Edward was suffering from lung disease.
He made a last ditch effort to prevent his Catholic
half sister Mary (daughter of Catherine of Aragn) from becoming Queen and he
declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate.
Lady Jane Grey 1553 (9 days)
Edward’s 17 years old second cousin,
Jane Grey had been named as Edward’s heir.
On Edward’s death Mary escaped to a
stronghold in East Anglia and declared herself Queen. She focused on her right
of succession rather than on religion.
The nine day
queen was executed.
Mary
wanted to restore the authority of Rome in the
Counter Reformation.
Her
cousin, Charles V of Spain, encouraged Mary to marry his son, Philip, heir to
the Spanish Crown.
To
the English population this brought the threats of religious persecution and a
suppression of and fought freedoms.
1554
Mary
married Philip of Spain.
Born
in 1527, Philip became King of Spain on the abdication of his father Charles V.
He ruled over a unified Spain and all its dominions in the New World, as well
as the Netherlands and Naples and Sicily. In 1554 he married his second wife
Mary Tudor, Queen of England, by which marriage he and his father hoped to
bring the English church back within the Catholic fold. On Mary's death he
became the implacable enemy of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, which culminated
in his preparation of an immense fleet, the Armada, which was, however,
defeated in 1588.
The
marriage was not popular. Philip left England soon after the marriage, and Mary
was left childless.
Wyatt’s
Rebellion
against the marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain.
1556
Philip
became King of Spain.
At
first Mary had used subtlety hoping to encourage a return to the Papal fold.
She appointed her cousin, Cardinal Reginald Pole to negotiate with Rome as
legate, and procure a forgiveness of past sins and a return to the Roman
Church.
However Cardinal Pole was not trusted in Rome
and Pope Paul; IV rejected him and revoked his legacy.
Ironically
Mary found herself using her royal; power over the English church to defy the
wishes of Rome.
There
were also practical difficulties in returning to the traditional church, since religious objects had been disposed of and
religious buildings now used for other purposes.
The
Evangelicals continued to meet and resist the changes.
And
so it was that Mary and Cardinal Pole turned to force, earning Mary the
nickname Bloody Mary
·
There
followed the most intense persecution of the time in Europe
·
280
Protestants burned at the stake.
·
Possession
of heritable literature was subject to the death penalty
·
The
Heresy Laws were reenacted in 1554
·
Bishop
Latimer of Worcester, Bishiop Ridley of London and Archbishop Cranmer were
burned at the stake.
In
London there was some sympathy for stamping down on heresy. However
there was increasing sympathy for the victims of the persecution.
1563
John Foxes’s Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, known as the Book of
Martyrs, compiled the shocking stories of the persecutions.
1558
Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain
brought England into a disastrous war with France and in 1558 they captured
England’s last possession in France, Calais.
Mary died of influenza in 1558.
Elizabeth I, 1558-1603
Elizabeth became Queen at a time of
increased religious intolerance across Europe.
Yet Elizabeth
controlled policy more than any other Tudor and her reign did much to keep
England safe throughout her reign. Yet she failed in one crucial duty, to
produce an heir, which would prevent the long term continuity of her legacy (Robert Tombs, The English and their History, 2023,
179).
·
The
Act
of Supremacy 1558,
An Acte restoring to the Crowne thauncyent Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall
and Spirituall, and abolyshing
all Forreine Power repugnaunt
to the same
·
The
Act
of Uniformity 1559,
authorising a book of common prayer which was similar to the 1552 version but
which retained some Catholic elements
·
The
Thirty Nine Articles 1563
This
was the foundation of a unique religion which was later called Anglicanism. “It
looked Catholic and sounded Protestant.” It was a religious middle way. It was
a compromise and perhaps the foundation of the British spirit of compromise. It
contrasted to a time of polarisation in Europe, when the badges of Catholic and
Protestant started to be used for the first time (prior to that, the evolution
of the church was seen more as turbulent schisms occurring within a single
Christian church).
·
Elizabeth
promoted choral music – she retained the choir of King’s College Cambridge
which had been restored by Mary
·
She
promoted bell ringing which purists considered to be sinful
·
She
had no sympathy for hardliners from either wing of the religious divide
·
She
stopped heresy trials
The practical start date for parish
records.
1559
The Act of Uniformity laid the basis for
the Protestant Church in England.
There is an In Our Time podcast on William Cecil, the 1st
Baron Burghley, Elizabeth I's powerful Secretary of State who advanced
England's interests throughout her reign.
The two European Catholic powers, France
and the Habsburgs,
made peace. This made possible a grand Catholic Alliance to once and for all
get rid of Protestantism.
The pope urged Philip of Spain to invade
England.
However the danger was not an immediate one
since France and Spain remained competitors. Mastery of England would give
either of them a strategic advantage.
In this context, we are introduced to Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, wife of
the French dauphin, Francois (soon to be Francois II of France). The French
were effectively ruling Scotland in her name.
(Robert Tombs, The English and
their History, 2023, 183).
There is an In Our Time podcast on Mary Queen of Scots.
1560
Francois II
died shortly after coming to the French throne in December 1560 and there was a
power vacuum in France with an expansion of Protestantism, a popular Catholic
backlash and armed Protestants and Catholic factions. Mary was grief stricken.
1561
Mary Stewart
returned to Scotland and arrived at Leith on 19 August 1561. Having lived in
France, she could not have understood the complexities of Scottish politics,
torn between Catholic and Protestant factions. The protestants didn’t trust her
devout Catholicism. Mary tolerated the Protestant ascendancy. That she didn’t
appoint a Catholic council and ally herself closer to France, may be an
indication of her ambitions on the English throne.
Mary sent
William Maitland of Lethington to Elizabeth to
negotiate her succession to the English throne, but Elizabeth refused to name
her as heir.
1565
Mary Stewart
married her half cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a leading Catholic.
An open rebellion
was led by the Earl of Moray and protestant nobility but were eventually chased
around Scotland in the Chaseabout Raid and finally
fled to England.
Darnley became
more arrogant, demanding the Crown Matrimonial to jointly reign with Mary. Mary
refused, and Darnley entered into a secret conspiracy
with the Protestant rebels.
Darnley and his
conspirators stabbed Mary’s Catholic Private Secretary, Rizzio (of whom he was
jealous) to death in front of Mary at Holyrood House.
1566
Mary and
Darnley’s son James was born in Edinburgh Castle on 19 June 1566. He was
baptised at Stirling Castle into the Catholic faith, which alarmed the
Protestant factions.
Mary discussed
the problem of Darnley with her councillors. Darnley fled and became ill. On
his return to Edinburgh after a period of conciliation, he died in an
explosion, generally thought to have been instigated by James Hepburn, Earl of
Bothwell.
The Low
Countries rebelled against Spain.
1567
A Spanish Army
under Duke Alva crushed the Low Country revolt. Refugees streamed into
neighbouring countries including England and Scotland.
England allied
herself with the French Protestants. She also allied herself with Scottish
Protestants, as the Catholics in Scotland supported France.
In 1567 Mary
was abducted, willingly or not, and taken by Bothwell to Dunbar Castle. The
following month Mary and Bothwell were married in Edinburgh under Protestant
rites. 26 Scottish peers, the Lords of Congregation or
the confederate lords, turned against Mary and Bothwell and raised an army.
Mary was captured, denounced in Edinburgh, and imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle.
1568
Mary escaped from Loch Leven Castle and
fled to England and was interred in a succession of castles, including Bolton
Castle in Wensleydale.
1569
Soon after Mary’s arrival, a rebellion
began in the pro Catholic north of England led by the earls of Northumberland
and Westmoreland. The Rising of
the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern
Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England
to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of
Scots.
1570
The growth of Presbyterianism.
The papal bull, Regnans in excelsis excommunicated Eliabeth and
declared her a heretic.
1571
The Ridolfi plot
was discovered. It involved spies, codes, gold and the
Italian banker, Ridolfi. The Privy Council was so alarmed that it sanctioned
the use of torture.
1572
The revolt in the Netherlands flared up
again. England gave financial and military aid.
France lurched into religious anarchy
and there was a wholesale massacre of Protestants, the St Barthlomew Day’s
Massacre. There was apocalyptic terror
on the Continent.
1577
Religious conflict spread globally. Francis
Drake was sent to harry the Spanish colonies. He attacked Spanish vessels,
taking the treasure that they had brought back from abroad, and raided Spanish
and Portuguese ports. The Spanish called him ‘El Draque’
(The Dragon).
In his expedition of 1577 to 1580, he
became the first captain to safely circumnavigate the world, The Spanish
treasure he seized en route gave a 1,000% profit and
the Queen’s share equalled a year’s Crown revenue. He sailed in the Pelican,
which was later renamed the Golden Hind.
1579
Christopher Saxton’s country maps of
England and Wales.
1580
There was a papal backed Spanish and
Italian landing in Ireland.
Catholicism continued to be practised
among the gentry. It was particularly popular in Lancashire and Warwickshire.
There was a new generation of Catholic priests and the
Jesuits in particular were zealous in their efforts to convert and pave the way
for another Counter Reformation.
1581
Persecution reached a peak in the 1580s.
Recusancy (not attending Anglican services, especially by Catholics) became a
criminal offence.
The victims came to be seen as martyrs.
1583
The beginning of England’s
trans Atlantic interests
Newfoundland
claimed as a colony of England.
Elizabeth’s secretary Walsingham uncovered
a plot by Mary Stewart through his spies to place Mary Stewart on the throne.
1584
Virginia is the oldest designation for English
claims in North America. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore what is now the North
Carolina coast. They returned with word of a regional king (weroance)
named Wingina, who ruled a land supposedly called Wingandacoa.
It is also said that Virginia was named by Raleigh after the Virgin Queen.
"Virginia" was originally a
term used to refer to England's entire North American possession and claim
along the east coast from the 34th parallel (close to Cape Fear) north to 45th
parallel. This area included a large section of Canada and the shores of
Acadia.
In 1585, Raleigh sent his first
colonization mission to Roanoke Island (in present-day North Carolina) with
over 100 male settlers. However, when Sir Francis Drake arrived at the colony
in the summer of 1586, the colonists opted to return to England because there
was a lack of supply ships, abandoning the colony. Supply ships arrived at the
abandoned colony later in 1586; 15 soldiers were left behind to hold the
island, but no trace of these men was later found.
1586
William Camden’s Britannica was the
first topographical survey of England.
Mary Stewart through secret contacts
with Philip of Spain, plotted her escape from imprisonment and in July 1586,
her letter to the Catholic Anthony Babington finally agreed to an assignation
of Elizabeth, but the plot was uncovered and the
conspirators confessed.
1587
Elizabeth initially resisted Mary’s
execution, being wary of the consequences of the execution of a fellow Queen, but relented and signed the death warrant to have
Mary beheaded on 5 February 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire.
Drake was involved in the destruction of
a Spanish fleet at Cadiz in 1587, in what became known as ‘singeing Philip of
Spain’s beard’.
Philip II tended to be as cautious as Elizabeth,
but in or about March 1587, he had taken the decision to invade England through
a joint invasion by a Gran Armada.
Spain had 140 galleys and 60 or 70
warships to Elizabeth’s 40 ships. However the English
ships were more formidable warships of a permanent naval force. They were
commanded by experienced captains including Francis
Drake, John
Hawkins and Martin
Frobisher under the admiralship of Lord
Howard of Effingham.
1588
On 15 July 1588, the Spanish Armada, was
sighted.
On 27 July 1588, the Armada anchored off
Calais to wait for Parma’s 27,000 troops to join the invasion force.
On 28 July 1588, the English sent in
fire ships, which scattered part of the fleet.
On 29 July 1588, the English ships were
able to get in amongst the Spanish ships and inflict damage with their guns
The English fleet lost perhaps 100 men;
the Spanish Armada lost 12,000 men and a third of the fleet.
There is an In Our Time podcast on the Spanish Armada, the
fleet which attempted to invade Elizabethan England in 1588.
0n 18 August 1588, Elizabeth addressed
the troops at Tilbury: I
know I have the body 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.
The Protestants felt vindicated for
their rejection of Rome.
1595
War continued with Spain until 1604, and
in 1595, Spanish raiders burned Penzance.
The Nine Years War began in Ireland
against England.
The 1590s were years of economic duress
with four failed harvest and heavy taxation to fund the war. However
the danger of invasion had been repelled.
1600
The beginning of England’s
interests in India
The East India Company
began to trade in the Far East. The East India Company was chartered in 1599.
There is an In Our Time podcast on the
East India Company.
Population reached 4.8 million.
1601
The Poor Law placed legal obligation on
parishes to care for those unable to work. Three classes were introduced – the able bodied poor who were offered work in houses of
correction; the impotent; and persistent idlers.
See Poverty.
1603
Elizabeth’s motto was semper eadem, always the same. After 44 years of her reign,
there must have been a similar feeling of continuity as at the end of the reign
of Elizabeth II. However she was not immortal and she
had recklessly refused to contemplate planning for her succession. She died in
Richmond on 24 March 1603.
There is an In Our Time podcast on the death of Queen Elizabeth I and its immediate impact, as a foreign
monarch became King in the face of plots and plague.