Henry believed that monks and nuns were living lives of luxury and idleness.
He also contended that closing the monasteries was a safe way for the Crown
to acquire a lot of money and lands, much of which he later sold. Much of
acquired land was sold to Catholics, but when Mary became monarch (flip
to Chapter 10), asking them to return the land to the Church was impractical
after they'd held it for almost 20 years.
Elizabeth I's Ascension (1558)
After 1558 the future of the English Church was Protestant rather than
Catholic, and its governors were gentlemen rather than nobles or clergy. The
future also held friendship with Scotland and hostility to Spain.
Having a woman on the throne was nothing new for England, but unlike
her sister Mary, Elizabeth was a remarkable woman. Elizabeth's court was
secular, highly educated and Protestant. From her mother Anne Boleyn, she
inherited the ability to use gender and sexuality as weapons, which made
her a highly original ruler. Indeed, much of Elizabeth's foreign policy through
to 1581 was about marriage negotiations as much as security. Her frequent
changes of mind allowed her to retain control in the male-dominated world of
politics. (Only in relation to Robert Dudley did her desire almost overcome
her political sense, as we describe in Chapter 13.)
Her Church Settlement of 1559 was revolutionary and against the advice of
her councillors, but it reflected her own tastes and opinions. Few were happy
with it. But Elizabeth believed that God had given her the realm of England
to rule, and she would allow no interference (Chapter 14 has more on these
issues).
Elizabeth was also one of the great image creators of the English monarchy.
Many portraits of her survive that show her love of pearls and the elegant
hands of which she was so proud. She was Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. Her
inviolate body became the symbol of a realm free from invasion and foreign
power.
Birth of William Shakespeare (1564)
William was born to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden in April 1564 and was
baptised in Holy Trinity church, Stratford-upon-Avon. He was the eldest of
eight children, five of whom survived, but little is known about their upbring-
ing. At 18 he married the pregnant Anne Hathaway. Scholars know little of his
religion and even less about his education. But a travelling theatre company,
The Queen's Men, visited Stratford in 1587, and William may have joined
them at that point. Certainly by 1595 he had joined The Chamberlain's
Men company.
Historians don't know when he began to write � or why � but he did write
poems dedicated to his patron, the Earl of Southampton. The first authentic
dramatic work was a version of Richard III debuting in 1595. He was quickly in
demand and within two years bought a substantial house in Stratford, where
his wife and family continued to live in spite of his many commitments in
London.
He was well-known during his lifetime in the world of London theatres and
at court. His gift with words and empathy with the human situation ensured
that his plays survive as a monument to Elizabethan culture and to the
English language in general. He died in 1616, but his work survives as the
crowning achievement of the English Renaissance.
Conflict with the Papacy (1570)
In 1570, Pope Pius V issued the papal bull Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicat-
ing and deposing Elizabeth I. Philip II like many others thought Pius's move
was a mistake because it created problems for English Catholics:
Before 1570, the English Catholics saw themselves as loyal Englishmen
who disagreed with the Elizabethan religious settlement and looked to
Mary, Queen of Scots, as the heir to the throne. They wanted Elizabeth
to acknowledge Mary but weren't prepared to help Mary, by conspiracy
or in any other way.
After 1570, in principle the option to help was no longer open to
English Catholics. If they accepted the pope's authority, they couldn't
accept Elizabeth as monarch, and thus became potential traitors to the
English Crown.
Elizabeth had no idea how many Catholics lived in her dominions or how
seriously they would take the bull. Most conformed to her conservative
Protestant Church Settlement and became an identifiable and manageable
problem (as we relate in Chapter 14). But how should she identify individuals
who supported the papacy, because for them Regnans in Excelsis was a decla-
ration against Elizabeth?
The bull forced the Queen to support the Protestant side in the religious
division, which was opening up throughout Europe. Eventually Elizabeth's
Protestant support led to war with Spain (check out Chapter 16).
War with Spain (1585)
The extraordinary thing about the war between England and Spain is that
it took so long to happen! Elizabeth had been backing pirates raiding the
Spanish colonies since the mid-1560s. English trade with the Low Countries
was embargoed, English volunteers were fighting the Spanish alongside the
Dutch rebels and Francis Drake had out-paced Philip, King of Spain, in his
round-the-world voyage. Elizabeth professed goodwill towards Philip with
one hand, but then knighted Francis Drake with the other.
Philip was exasperated but held back because he knew the quality of
the English soldiers and seamen. He also had enough to deal with in
the Low Countries with North African pirates and with the Turks in the
Mediterranean. His acquisition of Portugal in 1580 only added to his prob-
lems. Spain's naval power was essentially for the defence of its coastline, but
after 1580 Philip's priorities changed: partly due to his success in Portugal,
partly to the brazen way in which Elizabeth welcomed Francis Drake and
partly to Philip's continued success in getting his silver supplies through
from the New World.
When a Catholic assassin killed William the Silent, the Dutch lost their leader
and chief inspiration. The English Council was alarmed and feared England
would be next on Philip's hit list (as we relate in Chapter 16). The war was
finally on!
England's Defeat of the Spanish
Armada (1588)
England was already a great sea power before encountering the Spanish
Armada, but 1588 reinforced her supremacy and gave her sea dogs huge con-
fidence (turn to Chapter 16 for more details).
Philip's attack was planned as a glorified raid to conquer southern England
and force a regime change, although with Mary Queen of Scots dead, who
Philip planned to install in Elizabeth's place is unclear. The Marquis of Santa
Cruz, a great sea commander but a poor administrator, was placed in charge
of preparations. Chapter 20: Ten Major Tudor Events 319 In England the preparations were being carefully monitored. The English navy was strengthened, arms stockpiled and arrangements made for musters. A counter-attack was also prepared, and on 19 April 1587, just weeks before the Armada was intended to sail, Drake struck at Cadiz and destroyed supply ships that were loaded and waiting in the harbour for the order to sail north. The surprise and destruction were complete. No Armada was able to sail in 1587.
When Santa Cruz died, he was replaced by the efficient Duke of Medina Sidonia, and soon the Armada was ready to leave Lisbon. The Armada entered the western approaches and then a major flaw was revealed. Medina had instructions where to rendezvous with the Duke of Palma, but he had no idea how he was to do so. Medina received no news from the duke until the ships reached Calais and the news was bad: it would be at least a week before the army of Flanders would be ready. The Armada simply had to stay where it was.
The same night Lord Howard of Effingham sent in fireships at Calais and scattered the Armada along the Flanders banks. The next day Effingham sent in the warships and pounded the Spanish. The ensuing Battle of Gravelines demonstrated the superiority of the English gunners and resulted in a com- prehensive defeat of the Spanish and the loss of about 16,000 Spanish men. 320 Part V: The Part of Tens
Ten Tudor Firsts In This Chapter
Appreciating Tudor ingenuity
Marvelling at new ideas and inventions
Bringing new discoveries back to England
M any people talk of the Tudor period as being the beginning of the
modern world, at least in England. Things aren't quite that clear cut,
but the years 1485�1603 did witness a great number of new inventions and
discoveries. Many of these weren't just `firsts' for the Tudor world; they were
new arrivals that in some cases are still with us in one form or another, or
which changed forever established ways of doing things.
This chapter highlights ten of the most significant and long-lasting Tudor
`firsts'. So grab a coffee, and maybe a few tomatoes to nibble, and read on!
Sailing into the First Dry Dock, Portsmouth (1495)
The only way to repair ships in the Middle Ages was to careen, which meant
tilting them by shifting the weight of cargo and/or guns so that the keel was
out of the water for long enough to get the work done. This method was very
dodgy � when they careened the Royal George (the British flagship) in 1782 it
sank with a huge loss of life.
You could wait for a very high tide and drag a damaged ship as far onto the
foreshore as possible and start work on it, but even then, water would still
be present in the bilges and the hold, and carpenters would sometimes have
to work waist-deep. The next problem was then to wait for another high tide
before you could get the ship afloat again.
In 1495, a man called Robert Brygandine hit upon a solution to this prob-
lem. Working with the architect Sir Reginald Bray, Brygandine put the idea
of building a dry dock to Henry VII. Because Henry was keen to build up
his navy and Bray was the designer of the magnificent Henry VII Chapel in
Westminster Abbey (see Chapter 2), this was a marriage made in heaven.
The first Portsmouth dry dock isn't there any more, but if you're visiting the
Mary Rose (see Chapter 3) take a walk along to the Victory (Lord Nelson's
flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar) and you'll be standing where the dock was
built. It was made of wood and stone, with walls packed with earth. A ship
could sail in, the gates were shut,and the water was then pumped out, with
the gates keeping the sea back. The result? Carpenters and shipwrights could
work in peace and in the dry.
Only royal ships could use this brilliant invention and it remained in use until
1623. It set Portsmouth up as the shipbuilding heart of the Royal Navy for
centuries.
Building the First Printing Press
in England, London (1500)
Setting up the first printing press in England was the brainchild of Jan van
Wynkyn of Worth in Alsace, Germany who came to England either in 1476 or
1481. The pronunciation of Worth ended in a `d' sound, which was handy for
a printer, so he came to be known as Wynkyn de Word � cool or what?
Wynkyn worked for the printer William Caxton in Westminster, near the
Abbey, and he became a rival to another printer, John Lettou. In 1495,
Wynkyn took over Caxton's print shop before moving to Fleet Street five
years later.
Wynkyn is famous for more firsts than almost anybody. He was the first to
use italic type in 1528 and the first to print music with type, working with
Ranulf Higdon in the book Polychronicon as early as 1495. He was also the
first to have a bookstall in St Paul's churchyard, which became the centre of
the English book trade.
The Tudor age was an age of patrons � you'd get nowhere without somebody
powerful to open career doors for you � and Wynkyn's patron was the clever,
intellectual Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.
The `father of Fleet Street', as Wynkyn came to be known, printed 500 books
that ran to 800 editions in his lifetime, providing cheaper books for the mass
market. A lot of these books were religious, as you'd expect from a period
full of religious problems, but he also printed poetry and books for kids, with
illustrations.
Wynkyn's moveable type set the pattern for centuries of printing and his
base in Fleet Street went on to make the place the newspaper capital of the
world by the 19th century.
Publishing the First Cookery Book, London (1500)
One of Wynkyn's rivals in the early London printing trade was Richard
Pynson, who became royal printer to Henry VIII (so, successful as he was, eat
your heart out Wynkyn de Word, because you didn't get the top job!). All the
key documents of Henry's early reign were printed by Pynson.
Centuries later, in 2002, the Marquess of Bath was having a clear out of his
huge library at the family home at Longleat, when he came across a book
called The Boke of Cookery. He nearly threw it out. It turned out that his book
is the only known copy of the work in the world, and it tells us a lot about the
food of the Tudors.
A lot of Pynson's book is about great feasts that earlier kings � Henry IV,
Henry V and so on � enjoyed. This focus is as typical of `celebrity chefs' then
as now � getting as much recognition from the top brass as they can.
In 2006, two of the recipes from The Boke of Cookery were made in BBC TV's
Breakfast Show. `Pommes Moled' is Apple Pudding. It's got apples (!), rice,
almonds, sugar, saffron, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger in it, and sounds
scrummy! Another dish, `Saracen Bruet for Ten Messes' (Turkish Stew), may
sound a little bit un-PC today, but it's a sort of goulash. Rabbit, partridge,
chicken, red wine, cloves, mace, pine nuts, currants, ginger, sugar and cin-
namon were thrown in (careful though, 21st century reader � this recipe may
contain nuts!).
Playing the First Lottery in England (1569)
Defending a country was expensive. Navies and armies had to be paid, guns
and other weapons made and maintained. And don't get us started on the
cost of fortifications! Rulers could raise extra cash from taxation, but people
didn't like taxes and might rebel rather than pay them.