How many years the Tudors ruled. English kings of the 16th century. Tudor dynasty

Tatiana Cooper

THE TUDOR DYNASTY

© Copyright: Tatiana Cooper, 2016

Tatiana Cooper

THE TUDOR DYNASTY

Introduction

Part I. Henry VIII

At the origins of the dynasty

War of the Scarlet and White Rose

Overthrow of Richard III

Henry VII and the impostors

New King Henry VIII

First wife: Ekaterina of Aragonskaya

Henry the Warrior

Heinrich the Peacemaker

New ally

Heinrich the lover

Second wife: Anne Boleyn

Reformation of the church

Rise of Robert Asuka

Third wife: Jane Seymour

Fourth wife: Anna Klevskaya

Fifth wife: Catherine Howard

War with Scotland

Sixth wife: Ekaterina Parr

The further fate of Hampton Court

Part 2. Elizabeth I

Good news

Happy childhood

Teaching royal children

Reconciliation with the father

The Seymour Brothers Intrigues and Their Fall

Climbing John Dudley

Testament and death of King Edward

Interregnum

Queen of Nine Days Jane Gray

Queen Mary I's first steps

The uprising of Thomas Wyatt Jr.

The massacre of Jane and her family

Elizabeth's conclusion

Maria's marriage

Massacre of Protestants

War with France

Queen Mary's illness and death

Queen Elizabeth's first steps

Coronation

Mating games

Foreign applicants

Rival Maria Stewart

Northern uprising of 1569

1571 Ridolfi conspiracy

Duke of Anjou

Loss of an ally

1586 Babington Conspiracy

War with Spain

Spanish Armada

Death of favorite Robert Dudley

Continuation of the war with Spain

9-year war with Ireland

Fall of favorite Robert Devereux

The last years of Elizabeth's reign

Heir's question

Death of the queen

The subsequent fate of Hatfield House

Mysteries of Elizabeth

Introduction

Agree, there is something magical in slowly walking through a medieval palace and feeling the energy left here, imagining how its inhabitants lived hundreds of years ago, feeling their joy from the ups of fate and pain from the bitterness of defeat, and listening to the silence of the walls, who unwittingly witnessed the endless drama of life. But can we fully disclose their secrets, or just approach them carefully, slightly opening the thick veil of time?

On the banks of the Thames, in the rich suburb of London's Richmond, there is one of the most amazing and well-preserved medieval palaces in England - Hampton Court, which served as the main royal residence for 235 years (from 1525 to 1760) and witnessed the reign of three British dynasties - the Tudors, the Stuarts and Hanover.

Today, thousands of tourists flock here in an endless daily stream. But what is interesting, as soon as you flow into this huge river of people, you no longer notice it - your attention is entirely riveted to the architectural luxury and grandeur of a truly royal structure. Passing through a huge gate made of metal lace, you immediately find yourself in a completely different world - a kind of symbiosis of gloomy medieval architecture, perpendicular Gothic style of the Tudor era, Italian palazzo with decorations of the Renaissance, as well as the Baroque style, in which the French Versailles was built.

But who was behind this unique architectural creation? Who lived here and created these magnificent forms? I invite you to walk with me through the thickness of the centuries and through the keyhole to look into the mysterious historical past.

In 1514, these lands, belonging to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, were bought by the powerful English Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530), who within seven years, spending 200 thousand gold crowns, turned an ordinary house into the most elegant palace in England. But only in order to present it to King Henry VIII four years later. But why and why? This story is as wonderful as it is tragic, and certainly worthy of your precious attention.

The mere fact that Wolsey was made first the Archbishop of York (the second most important chair in the English Church), and then the cardinal and the representative of the Roman Catholic Church in England, giving him the seniority even over the Archbishop of Canterbury, is already an extraordinary fact. Not to mention, he became Chief Minister, Lord Chancellor, and also a friend and favorite of King Henry VIII. It is hard to imagine that the son of a simple butcher from Ipswich could achieve such a rapid ascent up the royal career ladder. But nevertheless, this is so, and it happened thanks to intelligence, organizational talents, hard work, ambition, as well as Thomas's understanding with the king.

Wolsey began with the fact that after school he went to Oxford to study theology and rose there to the dean of the theological faculty. Then he worked as a secretary for one of the most influential bishops - Richard Fox, who already then noted his service zeal, outstanding intelligence and readiness to perform the most difficult tasks. And in 1507 he was promoted to royal chaplain at the court of Henry VII. He was lucky - at that time the king tried to curb the power of the clan nobility, and preferred people of simpler origin.

But only under the next king, Henry VIII, Thomas Wolsey expected a real career take-off - from the royal almoner, responsible for charity, to the cardinal and Lord Chancellor of the country. By 1514, he controlled almost all the internal and ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom. But why? Yes, simply because the young Heinrich was not at all interested in the affairs of state administration, and he was more interested in feasts, hunting and knightly trips to France. Thanks to this, Wolsey received such unlimited power and freedom of action that he was sometimes even called the second king. True, many nobles were outraged that a man of low birth came to power, who monopolized the royal court and no longer took into account the opinion of the Privy Council.

It was then that, for the money received from bribes, Wolsey bought up land for the construction of his future palace, which became the expression of its entire essence - a simple English clergyman tried to show foreign ambassadors that he knows how to live no worse than any Roman cardinal. And when, ten years later, the construction work was completed, he really had something to show. The first Main Courtyard with 44 guest rooms was ready, then the second courtyard with a gate house, a chapel-tower and his private rooms, as well as state apartments for the royal family, where Henry VIII stayed during his visits.

But ironically, as soon as the castle gates opened for guests, Wolsey fell out of favor. For the first time in 16 years, he was unable to fulfill another whim of the king - this time to agree with the Pope to annul his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. And so, in anticipation of a hopeless business, Wolsey presented his beloved brainchild to Henry. But even this generous and noble gesture did not help him, and soon he lost absolutely everything - titles, positions, possessions, and was even declared a traitor to the English crown. But how did it happen that his best friend, kind king, turned out to be so cruel and ungrateful after so many years of his faithful service, zeal and effort?

The story of Henry VIII is the most moving and bloody soap opera ever played on the European stage, and Henry is one of the most prominent monarchs ever to sit on the English throne. For the man behind the centuries-old myth is still a true psychological mystery.

The English and Spanish archives store many documents in which Henry appears before us as a faithful spouse, an excellent athlete, scientist and defender of the Catholic faith. But this story has long been forgotten by everyone - the noble warrior prince had to go into the shadows and fade so that the legendary bloodthirsty tyrant was born. How did it happen that a smart and charming boy-prince turned into the tyrant of Henry VIII, a voluptuous polygamist who stained himself with the blood of numerous executions? The answer to this question should be sought in the historical vicissitudes of the Tudor dynasty.

Part

... Henry

At the origins of the dynasty

At the time of Henry's birth, the Tudors were a new and not yet rooted dynasty founded by his father, Henry VII. But her inheritance was not intended at all for Henry, who was just a fallback, but for his older brother Arthur, the Prince of Wales. Arthur was raised separately from the rest of the royal children - at the age of six he was sent to Ludlow Castle in Welsh, where his own court was organized for him. Here he began his preparations for the future administration of the state, and he received an education worthy of a Renaissance prince and heir to the crown. While little Henry grew up in London's Elton Palace and received a modern, but not royal, upbringing - the father was preparing his son for the ordination. His mother Elizabeth and sisters Margaret and Maria simply idolized him, and his grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, watched over his upbringing. And here it must be said that it was the love of the women around him that made Henry a romantic, paving the way for great passions and atrocities in the future. It was the family and the female environment that shaped his character, so unusual for a monarch of the 16th century. Even after becoming king, Henry will put love above all other priorities and values, which will lead to world-famous fatal consequences.

But the world into which little Henry came was filled not only with female love - it was also saturated with cruelty, violence and betrayal. The bloody civil war, called the Scarlet and White Rose and lasted for 32 years, was already over, but its echoes still had tragic consequences. After the death of the last king from the centuries-old Plantagenet dynasty, Richard II, two royal branches fought for the English throne - Yorks and Lancaster, leading their genealogy from the younger sons of King Edward III - John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Edmund Langley, Duke of York.

But how did the Tudors, who had a rather distant relationship to the royal dynasty of the Plantagenets, enter the historical scene? After all, it was Henry VII who was to put an end to the war of the Scarlet and White Rose and found a new great dynasty. There was not a drop of royal blood in the blood of his grandfather Owen Tudor - he was just the son of a robber hiding in the mountains of Wales. Owen himself served as a soldier during the hundred-year war with France, which was renewed by the Lancaster king Henry V. Taking advantage of the dementia of the French king, Henry claimed his rights to the French throne, and brought with him not only victory, but also his wife, Princess Catherine de Valois. However, he did not calm down, and during the siege of one of the French cities, unexpectedly, at the age of 36, he died of dysentery. It was after his death that the famous Jeanne d'Arc led the French resistance against the British dominance in the country.

In the meantime, the Queen Dowager Catherine de Valois drew attention to a very handsome young man who received a place of servant from her son, the Lancaster Infant Henry VI. This man was Owen Tudor. The queen was so fascinated by this ambitious Welshman that she bore him six children. And although they were all half-brothers and sisters of the Infanta King, this line was considered illegal, since evidence of the marriage of Catherine and Owen was never found. Despite this, all future Tudor claims to the English throne were based precisely on the statements of Owen Tudor that they were married. The Tudors later also claimed the French throne - through the grandmother of Catherine de Valois, but the French have since held on tightly to it.

When Catherine died in 1437, her son Henry VI was only 13 years old, and barons ruled the country on his behalf. To get rid of the competition, they hid the queen's lover, Owen Tudor, in prison. But after 5 years, when the king came of age, he returned his stepfather to the court and made his half-brothers Edmond and Jasper Tudors not only his advisers, but also granted them castles and titles - Earl of Richmond and Earl of Pembroke, respectively. However, this was not enough for the ambitious Owen, and he made sure to intermarry with the Lancaster once again - by marrying his son Edmond to 13-year-old Marguerite Beaufort. True, Margarita was also an illegitimate descendant of Lancaster and was excluded from the list of possible heirs to the English throne - her grandfather, John Beaufort, was the illegitimate son of John of Gaunt and his mistress, the royal maid of honor Catherine Swinford. Who cares, though? The main thing is to have reasons for seizing the throne!

But Margarita quickly became a widow - after the marriage, Edmond was captured by the representatives of the York faction and died of the bubonic plague. Fortunately for all the Tudors, Margaret, at the age of 13, managed to become pregnant, and on January 28, 1457, a boy appeared at Pembroke Castle, who later became the first Tudor king, Henry VII. In the meantime, continuous misfortunes awaited him. At the age of 4, he had to flee with his uncle Jasper to the French Duchy of Brittany, where they became prisoners of the Duke Francis. And his grandfather Owen Tudor was caught and beheaded in the market square.

But why? What happened? Yes, just long-term luck turned away from Lancaster. A significant part of English society began to show dissatisfaction with the failures in the Hundred Years War and the policies pursued by Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou. It was she who led the Lancaster faction and was one of the main figures in a series of dynastic wars, while her husband suffered from frequent bouts of insanity.

War of the Scarlet and White Rose

It all started with the fact that in May 1455, Margaret of Anjou demanded that the Grand Council exclude the York faction, led by Richard, Duke of York, from it, and thereby ignited the spark civil conflict... But by this she only brought misfortune to her entire family. In response, Richard of York demanded for himself first a regency over the incapacitated king, and later the English crown. The basis for this claim was the dubious legitimacy of the entire Lancaster dynasty - after all, King Henry IV's grandfather Bolenbrock seized the throne illegally in 1399. He forcibly forced the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty (and his cousin) Richard II to abdicate, sending him to a distant castle and starving him there.

The confrontation quickly turned into an open war. In the first battle of St Albans, the Yorkists celebrated victory, and the English Parliament declared Richard of York the protector of the kingdom and heir to Henry VI. However, five years later, he died in another battle at Wakefield, and his son Edward led the faction. As a result of subsequent hostilities, the main forces of the Lancaster were defeated, and King Henry VI and his wife Margaret fled the country. The Yorkists celebrated their victory by crowning the 17-year-old king, Edward IV.

However, three years later, Edward did something that in the future paved the green street for Henry Tudor to the English throne. He was trapped by an attractive 25-year-old widow who was trying to reclaim her deceased husband's property. She turned the head of the tall handsome king and persuaded him to enter into a secret engagement with her. Her name was Eleanor Butler. This was the beginning of the chain of events that changed the entire history of England.

A year later, in 1464, another young and attractive widow did the same thing, and Edward was again caught in the net. The lady's name was Elizabeth Woodville, and this time it was no longer an engagement, but a marriage. And since she was a commoner, her coronation in Westminster Abbey caused a scandal throughout Europe - after all, "no king can marry for love," and even more so on a commoner. In those days, it was considered something vile and disgusting. And when Edward began to shower Elizabeth's relatives with honors, riches and titles, the whole English nobility was already enraged. It's good that they did not know about Edward's promise to marry Eleanor Butler, who was hidden in a monastery in time, where she soon died safely.

As a result, after ten years of reign, the female seducer Edward lost all support, and in 1470 active hostilities between the representatives of the Scarlet and White Rose resumed. Edward's younger brother, the Duke of Clarence, along with Earl Warrick, went over to the Lancaster clan and returned to the throne of Henry VI, who by that time was already an old man who had lost his mind. King Edward had to flee to Burgundy.

However, after a few months, thanks to the strong support of London merchants, to whom he owed a lot of money, he was able to return and regain his crown. True, he was even more supported by the wives and daughters of merchants, who found him romantically attractive, which could not be said about the crazy old man Heinrich. During subsequent battles, Henry was captured and hidden in the Tower, and his only son, Edward, was killed. Heinrich was never seen again, although the official report mentioned that he died "of pure discontent and melancholy." This was the end of the Lancaster dynasty, apart from a thin thread - Marguerite Beaufort and her 15-year-old son Henry Tudor ...

And our handsome King Edward reigned peacefully for another 12 years, after which, unexpectedly for everyone, he died in 1483 from an unknown disease, leaving inconsolable not only the widow Elizabeth Woodville, who bore him ten children, but also three mistresses with another dozen illegitimate children. In the will of the deceased king, a successor was named - his eldest son Edward, 12-year-old Prince of Wales, who will rule with the help of the guardian and regent of the kingdom. This man was appointed the brother and vice-regent of the king - Richard of Gloucester, then living in York.

However, Elizabeth considered that there was a more suitable person to rule the kingdom - herself, and therefore immediately sent members of her family to Ludlow Castle, where the Prince of Wales traditionally lived. He had to come to London and take the throne before Richard suspects a change in plans. But the legal regent, too, did not sit idly by and went to intercept the prince, who, accompanied by relatives, as he was told, was supposed to pass through Northampton. Only on arrival, Richard realized that he had been deceived - the prince was not there, and weapons and armor were found in the luggage of his relatives. Is it an attempted coup? No, he must nip it in the bud! A search was urgently organized, and when the heir was found in the family home of the dowager queen, Richard solemnly escorted his nephew to the Tower of London to prepare for the coronation.

And then the bomb exploded! A little secret of the deceased king was revealed - his engagement to Eleanor Butler. It's time to speak to the priest Robert Stilengton, before whom he promised to marry. And if this is true, then the king's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was a clear bigamy, which implied that the young Prince Edward was illegitimate and could not become king. Robert Stilengton was not just a priest - he was the king's confidante, archbishop, seal keeper and Lord Chancellor of England. But he made one small mistake, befriending the king's ambitious brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Thus, who went over to the Lancasters. And although the "prodigal" brother repented and returned back, Edward was relentless. He executed him for treason without any trial or investigation, although the report wrote that "the Duke of Clarence drowned in a barrel of sweet wine."

Stilengton, who was sent to the Tower for a year, kept his mouth shut after his release - perhaps recalling the destructive power of wine. And now, after the death of Edward, he spoke, and the Parliament believed him. Since Edward's children were illegitimate, and the Duke of Clarence "drowned", Richard became the only legitimate heir. On June 25, 1483, he reluctantly agreed to ascend the throne. Yes, exactly so: he "reluctantly agreed", after which, by his act Titulus Regius, declared all the children of Edward IV illegitimate, and he himself was crowned under the name of Richard III.

Now, for the Prince of Wales and his younger brother Richard, the Tower of London turned into a prison, and soon the boys disappeared altogether. Did Richard kill them? Until now, no one really knows what happened to them. But later on he will be blamed for all the palace murders - they will say about him that, clearing his way to the throne, he personally killed the Lancaster King Henry VI and his son (whose widow he incidentally married), then killed his brother the Duke of Clarence, not to mention about native nephews. The surviving depiction of Richard III, a hunchbacked, sinister and ruthless tyrant, is in fact a caricature drawn after his death and immortalized by the greatest Tudor propagandist, William Shakespeare. He also invented the title "War of the Scarlet and White Rose", which was not used during the war itself - roses were the simple distinctive icons of the two warring factions.

But now the war of the Scarlet and White Rose has turned into a war within the White Rose. Among the supporters of the Yorks, there were many disillusioned with his rule - Richard distributed posts, wealth only to those whom he trusted and whom he met in the north of England, leaving many southerners aside. But his main rival was a boy who lived on the other side of the Channel, or rather no longer a boy - 26-year-old Heinrich Tudor, Earl of Richmond. And since Richard had no children, he was essentially the only heir to the great Plantagenet dynasty. As he wrote french writer Philippe de Commines in his Memoirs: “The Lord very quickly sent King Richard an enemy who had not a penny to his heart and, it seems, no rights to the crown of England - in general, there was nothing worthy but honor; but he suffered for a long time and spent most of his life as a prisoner ... ”.

Overthrowing Richard

Within four months, the people rebelled against the new king. The cynical disappearance of young children of royal blood shocked everyone so that an unexpected alliance arose between angry Yorks and Lancaster. There was a conspiracy behind Richard and his wife Anne Neville. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort, and Queen Dowager Elizabeth Woodville, whose children disappeared in the Tower, decided to betrothed their children - Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York. Such a marriage union was supposed to attract the support of both Lancaster and York, as well as heal the wounds of a devastated and torn country by dynastic strife - because now the blood of both rival families will flow in the veins of their sons.

Hearing about the disappearance of the royal heirs, Henry Tudor agreed to this proposal, and at the end of 1483 publicly vowed in Rennes, in the event of the seizure of the English throne, to marry Elizabeth of York. But his first campaign with French mercenaries in England ended unsuccessfully. Still on the ship, learning about the defeat and execution of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who had raised a rebellion against Richard III, he canceled the landing and returned to Brittany. Only two years later, Henry recruited a French army of 2 thousand people, and on August 1, 1485, he landed in Wales, where, taking advantage of his Welsh origin, he gained another 3 thousand supporters.

Richard arrived on the battlefield as the rightful king of England - before that, he conducted a coronation ceremony, thereby confirming his right to inherit the throne. And on August 22, 1485, at Bosworth Field, in central England, two contenders for the English throne came together - Richard III, known as the hunchback king, and the illegitimate Lancaster offspring, Henry Tudor.

Richard himself led his 8,000-strong army forward in order to quickly defeat the Lancasters and personally kill their leader. He was already literally at the distance of an outstretched sword from Henry, when his horse unexpectedly got bogged down in the mud, and he himself was dragged to the ground and literally beaten to death. One of the blows with a halberd was so strong that an iron helmet pierced his head. Then Richard, who had only been king for one day, was thrown into a ditch and covered with earth, where he lay for no more than 500 years. His remains were found only in 2012 in the parking lot of one of the supermarkets - they lay under a large white letter R, which means "reserved". Ironically, his name begins with the same letter ...

Scientists have conducted research on the remains - his skull was pierced 11 times. And by the way, he was not any hunchback - he had the usual scoliosis of the spine. The DNA of the remains was compared to the two living descendants of Richard's sister, Anna of York. It turned out to be a complete coincidence! These two descendants turned out to be a London carpenter from Canada, Michael Ibsen and Wendy Dulding from Australia, who met for the first time at their ancestor's funeral. Interestingly, it was Michael who made the coffin for burial - or rather a special box made of English oak, in which kings were buried earlier. Then, in 2015, the funeral of Richard's remains was held in the city of Leicester - exactly 530 years after his terrible death. Interestingly, Richard is the only king who has his own fan club. And the members of this club are still trying to whiten his name!

So, the crown of England was found literally lying under a bush, after which they safely hoisted it on the head of Henry, who became king of England by right of conquest, like the Norman Duke William I the Conqueror. This is how the beginning of the new Tudor dynasty was laid, which in the future brought the country power and wealth.

Then in London, by parliamentary decree, Henry established the throne for himself and his descendants, and without any special justification. To consolidate his victory and found a new dynasty, he married the sister of the missing princes, Elizabeth of York, and ascended the English throne as Henry VII. His wife belonged to the Plantagenet family, and their future sons were already becoming the legitimate heirs to the throne by all standards. The red and white roses combined and became a single, red and white Tudor rose.

Henry quickly realized what needed to be done to successfully rule England - since all the nobility had been destroyed by that time, it was necessary to conquer public opinion. The feather is much more powerful than the sword, and he chose the feather. Firstly, he could not be allowed to be accused of murdering the king, and therefore Henry dated his ascension to the throne the day before. Thus, it was Richard who fought against the king, not Henry. It was Henry who was the king, and Richard was the traitor. Second, it was necessary to destroy all evidence that the marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville was illegal, and that his wife Elizabeth was their illegitimate daughter. All documents were removed from the archives and burned, including the Act of Parliament transferring the crown to Richard. Henry's orders were carried out so flawlessly that a single document was subsequently found that shed light on this mystery.

Henry

and impostors

During these three years, scientists have conducted research and compared the mitochondrial DNA of the found remains with the two living descendants of Richard's sister, Anna of York. It turned out to be a complete coincidence! These two descendants were the London carpenter Michael Ibsen from Canada and Wendy Duldig from Australia, who soon met for the first time. Interestingly, it was Michael who made the coffin for his royal ancestor, or rather a special box made of English oak, in which kings were buried earlier.

Although it is believed that Henry VII united the Scarlet and White Rose and stopped civil war, in fact, the war continued for a long time, as Henry made himself many enemies. Yes, the entire York nobility was killed, their vast lands in the North were confiscated - along with castles and family houses. But now their children were eager for power - the numerous nephews of Richard III (he had 3 brothers and 3 sisters). And they believed that they had every right to the throne. After all, they are the heirs of the great Plantagenet dynasty! Who is Henry Tudor? Great-grandson of a Welsh outlaw? But this great-grandson held on to the throne with a stranglehold, and throughout his reign he suppressed any rebellion, sometimes with cunning, and sometimes with the help of executions ...

Two years later, the eldest son of Elizabeth of York, the sister of Richard III, John de la Paul, Earl of Lincoln, tried to return the crown to the Yorks. V Last year Richard's reign, it was he who was declared the next contender for the throne, as the closest adult relative of the king. He was granted large land holdings and income from the Duchy of Cornwall. He also participated in the Battle of Bosworth - of course on the side of his uncle Richard, but after the defeat he had to reconcile with the new king, who even granted him forgiveness, although the rest of Richard's supporters were declared traitors. His cousin, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, the 10-year-old son of the Duke of Clarence, who was allegedly drowned in wine, was less fortunate. The rightful heir to the Yorks was too dangerous for Henry, and therefore he was simply sent to the Tower.

John de la Paul did not appreciate the king's mercy, and two years later he revolted against him. It all started with the fact that the Irish priest Richard Simon introduced him to his 10-year-old pupil Lambert Simnel, very similar to the young Warwick (later it was rumored that Simnel could be the son of the loving King Edward IV). Supporters of the York Party decided to marry Simnel off to Warwick in order to put him on the throne. Obviously, the Yorkists hoped that Henry had already executed the boy, and now he will not be able to present evidence of his existence. But they were wrong. The Earl of Warwick was alive ...

It is still not entirely clear why John de la Paul did not demand the English crown for himself, but used the services of an impostor. Perhaps, in case of defeat, he hoped to be pardoned again? Or did he simply prefer to be a “gray eminence” and rule the country with the help of a puppet? Or, perhaps, simply on someone else's back to enter the throne, and then push aside an accomplice? One way or another, the boy was well prepared for this role - he spoke competently, had good manners and was trained in the rules of court etiquette. One of his contemporaries even remarked: "If he had a chance to rule, he would rule like an enlightened sovereign."

Royal dynasty Tudors ruled England in 1485-1603 The first monarch of the Tudor dynasty was Henry VII. This dynasty disappeared with the death of Elizabeth I.

First king Tudor dynasty - Henry VII won the crown by defeating the unpopular Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. His victory ended the War of the Scarlet and White Rose - the struggle for the throne between the families of York (whose emblem was the white rose) and Lancaster (their emblem was the red rose) ... For 30 years of war in England, five kings were replaced.

Rule of the Tudors:

Henry VII came from the Lancaster family. He had to fight numerous conspiracies and rebellions, his first son and heir died as a child. Fortunately, by the time of Henry's death in 1509, his second son, Henry, was old enough to inherit the throne. Henry VIII sought to acquire a son, heir to the Tudor throne. He married three times and broke up with the Pope before his son Edward was born. This happened 27 years after Henry VIII became king. Edward VI was only nine years old when his father died in 1546. Edward was still too young to rule the country.

After Edward's death in 1553, his only heirs were two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. Maria I married Prince Philip of Spain, but five years later she died childless. When Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, she proved that a woman can successfully rule a country. Elizabeth never married and became the last ruler of the Tudor dynasty.

Targets outside England:

The Tudors ruled England quite successfully. At the same time, they tried to take control of the entire territory of the British Isles. Their ancestors were from Wales, and under the Tudor rule, Welsh landowners might well have succeeded in England. In 1536 Wales was given the opportunity to create a local government on the English model; English became the official language, making life difficult for the common people of Wales.

Henry VIII proclaimed himself king of Ireland in 1541 (until then, English kings were considered only lords of Ireland). Mary I and Elizabeth I tried to strengthen the power of England by giving Irish lands to English settlers. This led to six major uprisings in Ireland during Elizabeth's reign.

The independent kingdom of Scotland was ruled by the kings of the Stuart dynasty. The Scots more than once had to repel the attacks of the British trying to conquer them. In 1503, Henry VII tried to achieve peace by marrying his daughter Margaret to King James IV of Scotland. But this marriage did not bring peace, Henry VIII's attempts to capture Scotland were unsuccessful. After the death of Elizabeth I, the great-grandson of Margaret Tudor, James VI, became James I, the first king of England from the Stuart dynasty.

Life in the Tudor era:

During the Tudor era, most people still lived in villages, and power was concentrated in the hands of local landowners. The wealthy could afford to buy luxury items such as silk, spices, cotton, furs and carpets, which were brought to England from abroad. But simple people led the same life as several centuries ago. They often fell prey to disease; every fifth child died before even a year. Poverty was a serious problem. The beggars were subjected to severe punishments, the thieves were executed. Only at the end of the Tudor era, in 1601, did the new laws on the poor make the life of the poor somewhat easier.

Although some villages had schools, most of the children of the poor did not study, but worked with their parents in the fields. Boys from wealthy families attended high schools in cities, and girls learned only to read and prepared for their future married life, helping their mothers around the house.

Time for a change:

During the Tudor era, the population grew, but so did food prices. There was not enough work for everyone, there was unemployment. Printed books became cheaper and more accessible, information began to spread much faster, and the number of literate people increased. The most popular Bible was in English. Printed paintings began to appear.

The Reformation spread throughout Europe, the church gradually changed. The Reformation was the process of transformation of the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the emergence of Protestant churches. After a quarrel with Pope, Henry VIII declared himself the head of the Anglican Church, destroyed all the monasteries and sold their lands.

Mary I again declared Catholicism the official religion of England and persecuted Protestants. The Anglican Church during the reign of Elizabeth chose the middle path. However, the desire of the Scottish Queen Mary to seize the English throne and the attempts of the Spanish King Philip II, a Catholic, to invade England, forced the Queen to pass harsh laws against Catholics, who had finally lost popularity. During the Tudor era, seafarers and travelers explored new sea routes and discovered new lands. They brought new goods to England such as tobacco and potatoes. Some researchers settled in North America - this is how the first English colonies appeared.

Annotation. The article is devoted to brief history Tudor dynasty (1485-1603)The century of the Tudor dynasty is considered the best period in the history of England,HenryViilaid the foundations of a rich and prosperous state, his son HeinrichVIIIseparated the English Church from Rome and proclaimed himself the head of the English Church, the reign of his daughter ElizabethIcalled the "golden age".
Keywords: England, Tudors, history.

The founder of the Tudor dynasty in England is considered to be Henry VII, from his birth to accession to the throne he bore the name Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. On the line of his father, the ruler belonged to the ancient Welsh family, which took the name of the Tudors in honor of Henry's great-great-grandfather, Tudur ap Goronvy.

He received power in 1485, on August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth, King Richard's army was defeated, the last one died... Henry was proclaimed king of England right on the site of the battlefield.

The beginning of the reign of Henry VII was accompanied by the first outbreak of an epidemic of a mysterious disease (presumably brought in by his mercenaries from France) with a high mortality rate - the so-called "sweating fever", which was perceived by the people as a bad omen. After the coronation, in fulfillment of this promise, Henry married the niece of Richard III and daughter of Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, announcing the unification of the formerly warring houses. Previously, she was predicted to be the wife of her uncle, Richard III, but the marriage was not concluded: Richard had to publicly refute rumors of his involvement in the death of Queen Anne Neville, in order to marry Elizabeth, in addition, it would be difficult to obtain church permission for such a closely related marriage. ...

Immediately after his accession to the throne, Henry passed through parliament the repeal of the Titulus Regius, adopted under Richard, which declared Elizabeth and the other children of Edward IV illegitimate; the act was ordered "to be removed from the archives of parliament, burned and consigned to eternal oblivion" (one list of it still survived). Although marriage to Elizabeth was a condition of support for Henry from parliament, it is known that he delayed its conclusion until January 1486, and crowned his wife only at the end of 1487, when her son was born. The combined scarlet and white rose (which is still present on the British coat of arms) was adopted as the emblem (badge) of the Tudor dynasty. By naming his eldest son Arthur in honor of the legendary Celtic King Arthur, Henry emphasized both the Welsh origin of his family and the desire to start the era of England's greatness with a new dynasty.

Henry VII was a very thrifty king, and he very skillfully consolidated the budget of England, which was ruined during the War of the Scarlet and White Rose.

Among the memorable events of the reign of Henry VII is also the expedition of the Italian to the English service Giovanni Caboto in America, supported by him, and the discovery of Newfauland. Also, at the request of Henry, the famous historian Polydor Virgil began to write "History of England". The beginning of the Tudor era in historiography is often considered both the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the English Renaissance.

Henry VII had 4 children, sons Arthur and Henry, and daughters Margaret and Mary, he strengthened the position of England by marrying his eldest son Arthur to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and Margaret by marrying King James 6 of Scotland, this step was made in order to neutralize hostile relations between the two British lands.

But soon, due to certain circumstances, Arthur died. His brother Henry VIII married Catherine, only Princess Mary survived in marriage with her of all the children, Henry tried to marry his daughter to a French dauphin, but soon he found himself a mistress, Anne Boleyn. The girl insisted on the king's divorce from his wife, and he succumbed, he used the church, but she recognized the legality of the marriage of Catherine and Henry, and refused to divorce. The young king still found a way to divorce Catherine of Aragon. On May 23, 1533, the new government recognized the marriage of Catherine and Henry as illegal, and their daughter Mary was declared a bastard, but now Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, became the heir to the throne.

The divorce from Catherine caused England to break with Rome, and in 1534 Henry was declared head of the Church of England. The king cheated on Anna, and once, being pregnant, the queen caught him cheating, from the worries began premature birth, and a dead child was born.

Soon, Anna got bored with the king and he found himself a new passion, the maid of honor of the queen known as Jane Seymour. The king suspected Anna of treason and sentenced her to death, executed her and her brother, Anna's father was released and deprived of all titles and privileges. Soon, Henry married Jane Seymour, they did not live long in marriage, after the birth of the Edward princes, the queen fell ill and died of the so-called postpartum fever. While Jane was queen, she was able to return to the court Princess Mary, and Princess Elizabeth, the king accepted his daughters, whom he had once rejected. After the death of Jane on October 24, 1537, the king could not come to his senses for a long time, he loved his wife very much, and that is why, before his death, he bequeathed to bury him next to her.

After Jane, the king had 3 more wives. On January 6, 1540, the king married Anna of Cleves, the king did not want this marriage, the next morning after the first wedding night, the king said: “She is not Mila at all and she smells bad. I left her the same as she was before I went to bed with her. "

Anna was a Lutheran by faith, and many people who adhered to Catholicism did not trust Anna and wanted to get rid of her faster. Nevertheless, she really liked life in the English court, she fell in love with music and dancing, gradually mastered English, became a wonderful stepmother for Prince Edward, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Mary, who at first disliked her stepmother, gradually they became very friends, but the queen could not help noticing the coldness in her husband's attitude to her, remembering the previous wives of the king, she was afraid that she might comprehend the fate of Anne Boleyn. In June 1540, the king sent Anna to Richmond, allegedly because of the impending plague, the issue of divorce was decided in parliament by that matter, no claims were made against Anna herself, the king's plans were only a desire to divorce Anna in order to marry Catherine Howard ...

When, on July 6, 1540, Charles Brandon and Stephen Gardiner came to Anna to persuade her to agree to the annulment of the marriage, she unconditionally succumbed to all demands. In gratitude, the king "gladly recognized her as his beloved sister," gave her a substantial annual income of four thousand pounds and presented her with several wealthy estates, including Hever Castle, once owned by the family of Anne Boleyn, on condition that she remained in England. ... On July 9, 1540, the marriage of Henry VIII and Anna of Cleves was declared invalid.

After the divorce, the king left Anna in his family. Now she, as his "beloved sister", was one of the first ladies at court after Queen Catherine and the daughters of Henry. In addition, the "loving brother" allowed her to remarry if she so desired. Anna, in response, allowed him to control her correspondence with her family. At his request, she sent a letter to Duke William, saying that she was completely happy and satisfied with her status as a "relative of the king."

Anna celebrated the new year 1541 with the newly acquired family at Hampton Court. Heinrich, who until recently could not bear Anna as a wife, now warmly welcomed her as a "sister". The courtiers loved her for her good nature, and after the execution of Catherine Howard, many hoped that the king would marry Anna again. To the envoys of the Duke of Cleves, who appealed to the king with a request to “take her back,” Archbishop Thomas Cranmer replied that this was out of the question.

Despite the royal permission to marry anyone, Anna neglected this privilege. She was quite satisfied with her position in society and the fact that she did not depend on anyone except Henry, with whom she developed friendly relations... For a woman of that era, she possessed unprecedented freedom and clearly did not intend to give it up.

Soon she had enemies, more enemies were not the queen herself, but her very influential uncle, the duke, rumors appeared that the wife was not loyal to the king, it was even said that Catherine Howard and Francis Derem were engaged if the queen informed the king about it , then their marriage under English law would be invalidated.

The last marriage of the king took place on Catherine Parr, the woman by that time already had a second husband, after his death, Henry began persistently courting Katrina. Lady Latimer's first reaction to the king's proposal to be his "consolation in old age" was fright. However, Henry did not abandon his intention to marry Catherine and, ultimately, she gave her consent.

On July 12, 1543, the wedding took place at the Royal Chapel of Hampton Court. The wedding was played at Windsor, where the royal court remained until August.

From the very first days of her life together with Henry, Catherine tried to create conditions for a normal family life for him. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the executed Anne Boleyn, enjoyed her special favor.

A strong friendship developed between the stepmother and stepdaughter - they were in active correspondence and often arranged philosophical conversations. With another daughter of Henry - Princess Mary, the queen had a less affectionate relationship. The reason for this was the religious intolerance of the Catholic Mary towards the Protestant Catherine Parr. Prince Edward was not immediately imbued with love for his stepmother, however, she managed to attract him to her side. In addition, the queen closely followed the training of the heir to the throne.

In 1545-1546, the king's health deteriorated so much that he could no longer fully engage in solving state problems. However, the king's suspiciousness and suspicion, on the contrary, began to acquire a threatening character. Catherine several times was, as they say, on the verge of death: the queen had influential enemies, and, in the end, the king could believe them, and not his wife. At that time, the executions of queens in England were no longer surprising. The king made a decision on the arrest of Catherine several times, and each time he refused this step. The reason for the royal disfavor was mainly the radical Protestantism of Catherine, who was fascinated by the ideas of Luther. On January 28, 1547, at two o'clock in the morning, Henry VIII died. And in May of the same year, the Queen Dowager married Thomas Seymour, Jane Seymour's brother.

Thomas Seymour was a far-sighted man and, having made an offer to Lady Catherine, he hoped to become the regent's spouse. However, his hopes were dashed. In addition, Henry's daughters - Princess Elizabeth and Mary - reacted to the marriage very hostilely. Edward, on the other hand, expressed his admiration for the fact that his beloved uncle and equally beloved stepmother had started a family.

The family life of Lord Seymour and the former queen was not happy. Catherine, already elderly and withered, was jealous of her attractive husband for all the young beauties. There is a version that the young Princess Elizabeth also felt love for Thomas Seymour, and the latter reciprocated her. However, this assumption has no serious evidence.

True, when Catherine became pregnant, Thomas Seymour again turned into a devoted spouse. At the end of August 1548, their daughter Mary was born. Catherine Parr herself died on September 5, 1548 from childbirth fever, sharing the fate of many women of her era.

Despite the fact that Parr was married four times, Mary Seymour was her only child. Almost nothing is known about her further fate; when her father was executed and his estate confiscated, she was left an orphan raised by a close friend of the queen, the Duchess of Suffolk. She was last mentioned in 1550 at the age of two; perhaps she died in childhood or lived a life in obscurity (which there are a number of guesses based on ambiguous arguments).

After the death of Henry VIII, the throne was inherited by his only heir, Prince Edward, but the boy died at the age of 15, it was believed in the will that he appointed Jane Gray as his successor, the new queen, but 9 days after her reign, she was overthrown from the throne by the legal heiress Mary Tudor.

During the crisis of succession to the throne, Mary managed to avoid reprisals and fled to East Anglia. Military operation against Mary was unsuccessful. Jane Gray did not have wide support in the English elite and managed to stay on the throne for only 9 days, after which the crown passed to Mary.

After the reign of Henry VIII, who declared himself the head of the Church and was excommunicated by the Pope, more than half of the churches and monasteries in the country were destroyed. After Edward, whose entourage plundered the treasury, a difficult task fell to the lot of Mary. She got a poor country, which needed to be revived from poverty.

During the first six months on the throne, Mary executed 16-year-old Jane Gray, her husband Guildford Dudley and her father-in-law, John Dudley. Being by nature not prone to cruelty, Maria could not decide for a long time to send her relative to the chopping block. Maria understood that Jane was only a pawn in the hands of others and did not at all strive to become a queen. At first, the trial of Jane Gray and her husband was planned as an empty formality - Maria hoped to immediately pardon the young couple. But the fate of the "queen of nine days" was decided by the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt, which began in January 1554. Jane Gray and Guildford Dudley were beheaded at the Tower on February 12, 1554.

She again brought closer to her those people who had recently been against her, knowing that they were able to help her in governing the country. She began the restoration of the Catholic faith in the state, the reconstruction of monasteries. At the same time, during the period of her reign, there were a large number of executions of Protestants.

From February 1555, bonfires were lit in England. In total, about three hundred people were burned, among them ardent Protestants, church hierarchs - Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer and others, on whose conscience was both the Reformation in England and the schism within the country. It was ordered not to spare even those who, facing the fire, agreed to convert to Catholicism. Subsequently, during the reign of Elizabeth I, the nickname for her sister was invented - Mary the Bloody.

In the summer of 1554, Mary married Philip, the son of Charles V. He was twelve years younger than his wife. According to the marriage contract, Philip did not have the right to interfere in the government; children born of this marriage became heirs to the English throne. In the event of the untimely death of the queen, Philip had to return back to Spain.

The people disliked the queen's new husband. Although the queen tried through parliament to pass a decision to consider Philip the king of England, the parliament refused her in this.

The Spanish king was pompous and arrogant; the retinue who arrived with him behaved defiantly. Bloody clashes began in the streets between the British and the Spaniards. In early November 1558, Queen Mary felt her days were numbered. The council insisted that she officially appoint her sister as heiress, but the queen resisted: she knew that Elizabeth would return Protestantism, hated by Mary, to England. Only under pressure from Philip did Maria yield to the demand of her advisers, realizing that otherwise the country could plunge into the chaos of a civil war.

The Queen died on November 17, 1558, remaining in history as the Bloody Mary (or Bloody Mary). Elizabeth, having received the news of her sister's death, said: “The Lord decided so. His works are marvelous in our eyes. "

So, the last representative of the family Elizabeth Tudor, she had a difficult family, at 2 years 8 months the future queen lost her mother, Anne Boleyn was executed on May 19, 1536, the girl was declared illegitimate, but despite this, the best teachers of Cambridge were engaged in her upbringing and education. Elizabeth's own sister Maria held her in the Tower for 2 months, and very much resisted and did not want to give the throne to the legitimate heiress.

After analyzing the features of the rule of this legendary English dynasty, one can only understand one thing: the Tudors keep many secrets and questions, not all can be found answers, all this is covered with a layer of time, a layer of history ...

1. Griffiths Ralph A., Thomas Roger. The formation of the Tudor dynasty. Series "Historical Silhouettes". Rostov-on-Don: "Phoenix", 1997 - 320 p.
2. Tenenbaum B. The Great Tudors. The Golden Age / Boris Tenenbaum. - M .: Yauza: Eksmo, 2013 .-- 416 p. - (Geniuses of power).
3. Meyer G.J. The Tudors. New York, Delacorte Press, 2010.517 p.
4. The Oxford History of Britain, ed. by Kenneth O. Morgan. Oxford University Press, 1993.697 p.

During the Middle Ages, in almost all countries there was a long and bloody competition for power between all kinds of dukes, earls and kings. England was no exception, where fourteenth-century feuds escalated into a bloody war between the Lancaster and York dynasties in the fifteenth century, which was later called the War of the Scarlet and White Rose. When the Tudors come to power, England is on the brink of a crisis, not only political, but also social and economic. A new dynasty that toughly coped with internal problems - during this period an absolute monarchy was established in the country.

The Tudors are one of the branches of the long-standing Koichlen family, which had the right to own all the lands of Britain. The rule of the dynasty falls on the Renaissance, when England begins to take an active part in international politics and at the end of the fifteenth century even sends an expedition to America, beginning its colonization.

The Tudors in England were in power for more than a century - from the coronation of Henry II, while it took place in 1485, and until the death of his granddaughter, Elizabeth, in 1603. For the country, the change in political course was a turning point from the times of troubles to the modern era, where the flourishing of culture takes place under the auspices of the royal court. Internal strife between the aristocrats ended when Henry VII married Elizabeth, thus uniting the houses of Lancaster and York, forming the Tudor family.

The reign of Henry VII contributed to the strengthening of the economy of England - he established large fines instead of punishments for bribery and other offenses, which contributed to the replenishment of the treasury, and also, with the help of courts with special status and powers, exposed most of the conspiracies, electing less noble nobles as advisers. When Henry VIII was in power, the Reformation movement began, as a result of which the English church practically separated from Rome, religion becomes a secular activity, and most decisions regarding the appointment of priests are coordinated with the king. During the time of Edward VI, the Reformation flourished and laws were passed confirming the new rules of worship.

Bloody Mary Tudor was not a supporter of reforms, therefore she canceled the church laws adopted by her predecessor and returned the parishes to the old priests. This was the reason for the uprising, after the failure of which rigid norms again begin to operate against heretics, and the English Church again turns to submission to Rome. The queen is famous for the fact that in the first year of her reign, other possible pretenders to the throne were executed, and also the adherents of Protestantism were severely punished, because the news of her death was celebrated by ordinary residents with festive festivities.

After Mary, the throne passes to her sister Elizabeth, while she adhered to more democratic views on religion and reconciled Protestants and Catholics with one of the first decrees. Under Elizabeth, England became the main naval power, having won this status from Spain. The only woman with whom Ivan the Terrible had a long correspondence, implying the conclusion of a profitable marriage, was the Queen of England, and it was under her patronage that the Royal Troupe was assembled, where William Shakespeare performed.

After the death of Elizabeth, the throne passes to the Scottish king James VI, who was the son of Mary Stuart. Thus ended the period of Tudor rule, and the heyday of the Stuarts, the descendants of Walter, began.

The Tudor era (1485-1603) is often considered the best period in English history. Henry VII laid the foundations for a wealthy state and a powerful monarchy. His son, Henry VIII, maintained a magnificent courtyard and separated the Anglican Church from Rome. Finally, his daughter Elizabeth defeated the most powerful Spanish flotilla at that time.

However, there is another side to the coin: Henry VIII spent the wealth accumulated by his father. Elizabeth weakened the government by selling government posts and positions so as not to ask for money from parliament. And while her government tried to help the poor and homeless at a time when prices rose faster than wages, its actions were often ruthless.

NEW MONARCHY

Henry VII is less well known than Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. But he was far more important in creating a new type of monarchy than either of them. He shared the views of a growing class of merchants and landowners, and based royalty on a sense of business acumen.

Henry VIII firmly believed that wars hurt trade and production, and trade and production were good for the state, so he avoided military conflicts with both Scotland and France.

During the War of the Roses, England's trade position was severely shaken. Germany seized trade with the Baltic and northern Europe, although ties with Italy and France remained, they were very weak compared to the pre-war period. The only way to Europe remained through the Netherlands and Belgium.

Henry was lucky: most of the old nobility perished in recent wars, and their lands were given to the king. To establish the king's exclusive power, Henry forbade anyone but himself to keep an army.

The force of the law was greatly shaken by the disobedience of the nobility and soldiers. Heinrich tried the guilty and encouraged fines as punishment, because it brought money to the treasury.

Henry's goal was a financially independent monarchy. In this he was helped by the lands inherited from the dead nobles, and the taxes that he collected for the needs of non-existent wars. He never spent money unnecessarily. The only thing on which he spent them with pleasure was the construction of a merchant fleet. After his death, £ 2 million remained, approximately 15 years of annual income.

However, his son, Henry VIII, was unlike his father. He was cruel, vicious and wasteful. He wanted to become an influential person in Europe, but did not succeed in this, since during the years of wars in England a lot had changed: France and Spain were now much stronger states, and Spain was united with the Roman Empire, which at that time ruled most of Europe. ... Henry VIII wanted England to oppose the power of these two powers. He tried to conclude an alliance with Spain, but was not successful; then he united with France, but when he received nothing there, he again began to negotiate with Spain.

Henry's disappointment knew no bounds. He spent all the money his father had saved on building and maintaining the royal court and unnecessary wars. Gold and silver from the newly discovered America have added heat to the fire. Henry reduced the amount of silver in coins and money depreciated so quickly that in a quarter of a century the pound fell seven times in value.

REFORMATION

Henry VIII was always looking for new sources of income. His father became rich by taking the lands of the nobles, but the lands belonging to the Church and monasteries were not touched. The church, meanwhile, owned a huge amount of land, and monasteries were no longer as important to the country's economy as they were two centuries ago. In addition, monasteries were unpopular, because many monks followed a far from ascetic lifestyle.

Henry did not like the taxes and fees charged by the Church. It was an international organization that the king could not fully control, and money went to Rome, which reduced the income brought to the treasury. Henry was not the only ruler of Europe who wanted to "centralize" state power and control the Church, but he had additional reasons for wanting to do so.

In 1510, Henry VIII married Catherine of the Aragon dynasty, the widow of his older brother Arthur, but by 1526 he still had no heir and no chance of his appearance. Henry tried to persuade the pope to divorce them from Catherine, however, he did not divorce them, being under the influence of Charles V, King of Spain and a relative of Catherine.

Then Henry took a different path: in 1531 he persuaded the bishops to recognize him as the head of the English Church. This was enshrined in a law passed in 1534. Now Henry was able to divorce Katherine and marry his new passion, Anne Boleyn.

Henry's break with Rome was political, not religious. Henry disapproved of the Reformation ideas expressed by Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Geneva. He still adhered to the Catholic faith.

Like his father, Henry ruled the country with the help of his advisers, but he decided to formalize the break with Rome through parliament. A series of laws passed in 1532-36 made England a Protestant country, although the majority of the population was still Catholic.

But the Reformation of Henry VIII did not stop there. After the people accepted secession from Rome, Henry took another step: with his new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, he conducted a census of church property. In 1536-39, 560 monasteries were closed. Henry gave or sold the land thus acquired to a new class of landowners and merchants.

Henry proved that the break with Rome was neither a diplomatic nor a religious disaster. He remained faithful to Catholicism and even executed Protestants who refused to accept him. He died in 1547, leaving behind three children. Mary, the eldest, was the daughter of Catherine of the Aragon dynasty, Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII's second wife, and Edward, nine, was the son of Jane Seymour, Henry's only wife he truly loved.

RESISTANCE OF CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS

Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, was a child when he took the throne, so the country was ruled by a council. All members of the council belonged to the new Protestant nobility created by the Tudors.

Most of the English, meanwhile, were Catholic. Less than half of England's population were Protestants who were allowed to dominate matters of religion. In 1552, a new prayer book was published, which was sent to all parish churches. Most of the people were not particularly forced to change their faith, however, they were happy to get rid of things like "indulgences" that forgive some of their sins.

After Edward's death in 1553, power passed to the Catholic Mary, daughter of the first wife of Henry VIII. A group of Protestant nobles attempted to plant Lady Jane Gray, a Protestant, on the throne, but their attempt was unsuccessful.

Maria was not shrewd and flexible enough in her beliefs and policies. She could not marry an Englishman, who would inevitably be inferior to her in position, and marriage with a foreigner could cause England to move under the control of another country.

Mary chose the king of Spain, Philip, as her husband. It was not the best choice: Catholic and foreigner. However, Mary took the unusual step of asking parliamentary permission for this marriage. Parliament, although reluctant, approved the marriage, but recognized King Philip as their king only until the death of Mary.

The short-sighted Mary burned about three hundred Protestants during her five-year reign. The discontent of the people grew, and only her own death saved Mary from the inevitable uprising.

Elizabeth became Queen of England in 1558. She wanted to find a peaceful solution to the problems of the English Reformation. She wanted to unite England with a single faith and make it a prosperous country. The variant of Protestantism that was finally arrived at in 1559 was closer to Catholicism than other Protestant denominations, but the Church was still under state rule.

The administrative unit of England was now the parish, usually the village, and the village priest became almost the most powerful person in the parish.

The confrontation between Catholics and Protestants continued to threaten the position of Elizabeth I for the next three decades. Powerful France and Spain, as well as other Catholic countries, could attack England at any moment. Inside England itself, Elizabeth was threatened by her own Catholic nobles, who wanted to overthrow the queen and enthroned Mary, Queen of Scots, who was Catholic.

Elizabeth held Mary captive for almost twenty years, and when she openly called the Spanish king Philip her heir to the English throne, Elizabeth had to cut off the head of the Queen of Scots. This decision was approved by the population. By 1585, most Englishmen believed that being Catholic was an enemy of England. This rejection of everything Catholic has become an important political force.

FOREIGN POLICY

During the Tudor era, from 1485 to 1603, England's foreign policy changed several times, but by the end of the sixteenth century, some basic principles had been developed. Like Henry VII, Elizabeth I considered trade to be the most important foreign policy affair. For them, any country that was a rival in international trade became a bitter enemy of England. This idea remained the basis of English foreign policy until the nineteenth century.

Elizabeth continued the work of her grandfather, Henry VII. She considered her main rival, and, accordingly, the enemy, Spain, which in those years was at war with the Netherlands, which protested against the rule of the Spaniards. Spanish troops could only reach the Netherlands by sea, which meant passing through the English Channel. Elizabeth allowed the Danes to enter English bays, from which they could attack Spanish ships. When the Danes began to lose the war, England helped them both with money and troops.

In addition, English ships attacked Spanish ships when they returned from the Spanish colonies in America, loaded with gold and silver, because Spain refused England the right to trade with their colonies. Although these ships were pirate, some of their booty went to the treasury. Elizabeth apologized to Spanish king, but left her share in the treasury. Philip knew, of course, that Elizabeth encouraged the actions of the "sea wolves", the most famous of which were Francis Drake, Don Hawkins, and Martin Forbisher.

Philip decided to invade England in 1587 because without it, he believed, he would not have been able to suppress the resistance in the Netherlands. He built a huge flotilla, the Armada, and sent it to the shores of England. Francis Drake attacked and destroyed part of the flotilla, forcing the Spaniards to retreat.

However, the Spanish king built a new flotilla, most of whose ships were designed for transporting soldiers rather than naval combat. In 1588, this flotilla was defeated by English warships, greatly aided by bad weather that threw most of the ships onto the rocky shores of Scotland and Ireland. Be that as it may, this was not the end of the war between England and Spain, which ended only with the death of Elizabeth.

In the meantime, the trade was going very well. By the end of the sixteenth century, England traded with the Scandinavian countries, the Ottoman Empire, Africa, India and, of course, America. Elizabeth encouraged the resettlement of the British to new lands and the formation of colonies.

WALES, IRELAND AND SCOTLAND

However, the Tudors also sought to maintain order and control the land immediately surrounding England.

Wales

Unlike Henry VII, half Welsh, his son, Henry VIII, did not share his father's love for the country. He wanted to completely control Wales and convert its inhabitants into British.

He reformed the name change for the Welsh, who, unlike the English, did not use surnames. In 1536-43 Wales became part of England, united by the central government. English law was now in force in Wales, and he himself was divided according to the system of English counties. The representatives of Wales worked in the English parliament, and English became the official language. The Welsh language survived only thanks to the Welsh Bible and the small population that still used it in everyday speech.

Ireland

Things were much worse in Ireland. Henry VIII sought to seize power in Ireland, as he did in Wales, and persuaded the Irish Parliament to recognize him as king. Henry's mistake was that he tried to impose the Reformation on the Irish, however, unlike England, the monasteries and the church in Ireland were still important social and economic objects, and the Irish nobles were afraid of taking church lands.

Ireland was a tasty morsel for other Catholic countries, and England could not afford to leave her alone. During the Tudor period, England fought with Ireland four times, and eventually won and brought Ireland under the control of the English parliament. The effect of the British power was especially strong in the north of Ireland, in Ulster, where the Irish tribes fought especially desperately. Here, after the victory, the land was sold to the British, and the Irish were forced to move or work for new owners. This marked the beginning of a war between Catholics and Protestants in the second half of the twentieth century.

Scotland

The Scottish kings tried to create the same centralized monarchy that existed in England, but it was not so easy because Scotland was poorer and the Scottish-English border and mountains were practically not controlled by the government.

The Scots, aware of their weakness, avoided conflicts with England, but Henry VIII was relentless in his desire to conquer Scotland. In 1513, English forces defeated the Scottish forces, but King James V, like many Scots, still wanted to be on the Catholic, more powerful side of Europe.

Henry VIII sent a new army to Scotland to force James V to accept the rule of the English king. Scotland suffered heavy losses, and its king died soon after. Henry wanted to marry his son Edward to Mary, Queen of Scots, but the Scottish Parliament did not approve of this marriage and Mary was married off to the French king in 1558.

SCOTCH REFORMATION

Mary, Queen of Scots, returned as a widow to her kingdom in 1561. She was Catholic, but during her time in France, Scotland became officially and popularly Protestant.

Scottish nobles who supported the idea of ​​an alliance with England favored Protestantism for both political and economic reasons. The new religion brought Scotland closer to England and alienated from France. The Scottish monarch could take property of the Church, which was twice his own. In addition, he could give part of the land to the nobles. Unlike the British, the Scots did not allow the monarch to fully control the Church after the Reformation. This was possible because Mary was not in Scotland during the Scottish Reformation and she could not intervene. Nova Scotia was a much more democratic organization than its counterpart in England because there were no bishops in it. The Church taught the importance of personal faith and Bible study, which led to the spread of literacy in Scotland. As a result, the Scots were the most educated nation in Europe until the end of the nineteenth century.

Mary was Catholic, but she did not try to bring Catholicism back to power. She soon married again Lord Darnley, a Scottish Catholic. When she got tired of him, she agreed to his murder and married the murderer, Bothwell. Scottish society was shocked and Mary was forced to flee to England, where she remained a prisoner for nearly twenty years before she was finally executed.

SCOTTISH KING ON THE ENGLISH THRONE

Mary's son, James VI, became king in 1578 at the age of twelve. He was highly intelligent from an early age. He knew that, as Elizabeth's only relative, he could inherit the English throne after her death. He was also aware that the alliance of the Catholic France and Spain might lead to their invasion of England, so he had to maintain friendship with them. He managed to keep the peace both there and there, remaining officially a Protestant ally of England.

James VI is remembered as a weak and shrewd ruler. However, he was not when he ruled only Scotland. He more or less dealt with both Protestants and Catholics and began to partially restrain the authority of the Church. Like the Tudors, he believed in the sole rule of the king, so he made decisions with the help of his close advisers, not parliament. But he did not possess the wealth and military might of the Tudors.

James VI's greatest victory was his ascension to the English throne after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Few people in England were delighted with the idea of ​​a king - a native of the wild northern province. The fact that he was accepted proves that no one doubted his abilities as a diplomat and ruler.

PARLIAMENT

The Tudors did not like to rule the country with parliament. Henry VII used parliament only to create new laws. He rarely convened it, and only when he had business for him. Henry VIII used parliament first to raise money for his wars and then to fight Rome. He wanted to make sure that the powerful representatives of cities and villages supported him, because they, in turn, controlled public opinion.

Perhaps Henry did not realize that by calling parliament to create the laws of the Reformation, he was giving him more power than any other monarch. The Tudors, of course, were not more democratic than the earlier kings, but by using parliament to strengthen their decisions, they actually increased political influence parliament.

Only two circumstances forced the Tudors to endure parliament: they needed money and the support of landowners and merchants. In 1566, Queen Elizabeth told the French ambassador that the three parliaments she had already convened were sufficient for any government and she would no longer convene them.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, parliament met only by order of the monarch. Sometimes it met twice a year, and sometimes it took six years from session to session. In the first forty-four years of the Tudor rule, Parliament met only twenty-two times. Henry VIII convened parliament more frequently to create a legal basis for the Reformation of the church. But Elizabeth, like her grandfather Henry VII, tried not to use parliament in public affairs and from 1559 to 1603 convened it only thirteen times.

During the Tudor century, power within parliament shifted from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. The reason for this was simple: the members of the House of Commons represented richer and more influential classes of society than the members of the House of Lords. The House of Commons became much more numerous, partly due to the emergence of more cities in England, partly due to the annexation of Wales. A speaker appeared in both chambers, who supervised and guided the discussion in the right channel, and also strove for the parliament to come to the decision necessary for the monarchy.

Parliament did not really represent the people. Very few members of parliament lived in the area they represented, so the government and its representatives were concentrated mainly in London.

Until the end of the Tudor rule, parliament was charged with the following duties: to recognize new taxes, create laws proposed by the monarch, and give advice to the monarch, but only if he so wishes. In order for members of parliament to do this, they were given important rights: freedom of speech, freedom from arrest, and the opportunity to meet with the monarch.

The Tudors did their best to avoid asking parliament for money, so they tried to find new sources of income that were not always far-sighted. Elizabeth sold "monopolies", which gave the exclusive right to trade certain goods with a certain country, as well as government posts. These measures led to the weakening of the state apparatus and the trading position of England.

There was also no answer to the question about the limits of the power of parliament. Both the Tudors and the members of parliament thought that it was the monarchs who decided what was in the power of parliament and what exactly it should discuss. However, in the sixteenth century, the monarchs consulted with parliament on almost any issue, which led parliament to believe that it has the right to discuss and decide on government issues. This led to an imminent war between the monarchy and parliament.