The Rise and Fall of the Tudor Dynasty: An Era of Change and Conquest

The Rise of the Tudors

The Tudor’s dynasty ruled in England for nearly 120 years after the victory of the Wars of the two Roses ended in 1485 after the Battle of Bosworth. Under the reign of the Tudors the naval supremacy of England was established all over the globe, strengthened by the creation of a strong fleet, the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the conquest of overseas colonies.
During the reign of Henry VIII England officially became Protestant thanks to the act of supremacy which in 1534 determined a fracture with the catholic Church and the pope of Rome. The causes of the rupture were mainly personal, in fact he was married to Catherine of Aragon, widow of his older brother, but she gave him only a daughter, Mary, who unfortunately for his projects was a female, and then not the male heir that he deeply desired. For this reason he decided to remarry, by having his previous marriage declared invalid by the pope, but he had no intention of collaborating and firmly opposed to it. Then the king decided to act without the papal approval, by breaking with the catholic Church and marrying Anne Boleyn who at the time was already pregnant and gave birth to Elizabeth in 1533. The king quickly got rid of Anne and after her execution remarried another four times, finally succeeding in having a male son, Edward, by Jane Seymour. By proclaiming the act of supremacy Henry VIII became the “Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England” and gained the right of appointing bishops, to decide on matters of faith and to impose his will on the monasteries. In order to gain new lands he took the ones of the monks by dissolving monastic orders to increase his power and the amount of territories possessed by noblemens, causing the damage of closing some monasteries that used to provide schools and hospitals for common and even poor people. After the king’s death Edward VI obtained the throne, guided by two of his uncles due to his very young age, Unfortunately his son died very young and his short reign only led to the promulgation of the Book of Common Prayer, written in english instead of latin in 1549. In addition there were some changes in the society that determined a slow improvement in the condition of the mercantile middle class caused by a significant development of commerce.

The Reign of Mary I

Mary I was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, she was catholic and refused to change her faith while becoming queen of England, she was married to Philip of Spain. So she restored the traditional faith in the country and the papal obedience without showing any form of religious tolerance and pursuing protestants, more than 300 people were killed and for that reason the queen earned the nickname of “Bloody Mary”.

The Era of Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I became the Queen of England in 1558 after the death of her stepsister Mary I, she was the daughter of Henry VII and Anne Boleyn. She received an excellent education and for this reason she encouraged the development of the culture during her reign for example encouraging the theatre, literature and music. Unlike Mary, Queen Elizabeth I supported the Protestantism and she consequently emanated in 1559 a second act of supremacy to definitely establish a fracture with the Church of Rome, even if she wasn’t catholic she showed religious tolerance to every confession which guaranteed a long period of peace and stability across the country. In addition she was very attached to her subjects and she never married, for these reasons she was unofficially entitled with the nickname of “Virgin queen”, because she was considered “married to the people”. The fact of not getting married was used as a way of not losing her power and also as a political weapon to assure a certain number of allies between princes from all Europe that desired to have the chance of getting married with her. In english history her contribution has been very significant, in fact she encouraged English sailors’ piracy against Spain and then consecuted to destroy the Spanish Armada, with less ships that however were smaller, faster and armed with long-range guns, establishing definitely the supremacy of England overseas, that allowed the foundation of many colonies, the first of whose was Virginia, which took her name by the nickname “Virgin Queen” of Elizabeth I. Because of her numerous enemies she couldn’t voyage over the country so she had her portraits distributed all over the country.