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The Six Wives of King Henry VIII






Catherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

Jane Seymour

Anne of Cleves

Catherine Howard

Catherine Parr

A mnemonic for the fates of Henry's wives is " divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived". An alternative version is " King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded: One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded". The doggerel, however, may be misleading. Firstly, Henry was never divorced from any of his wives; rather, his marriages to them were annulled. Secondly, four marriages, not two ended in annulments. The marriages to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were annulled shortly before their executions. Ironically the annulments undermined the process under which Boleyn and Howard were executed: annulments operate on the basis that there had never been a marriage. If they had never been married to him, they could not have committed adultery, one of the central charges brought against them. However this technicality did not stop their execution.

At about the same time as his marriage to Jane Seymour, Henry granted his assent to the Laws in Wales Act 1535, which legally annexed Wales, uniting England and Wales into one nation. The Act provided for the sole use of English in official proceedings in Wales, inconveniencing the numerous speakers of the Welsh language.

Along with Alfred the Great, Henry is traditionally called one of the founders of the Royal Navy. There are good reasons for this - his reign featured some naval warfare and, more significantly, large royal investment in shipbuilding (including a few spectacular 'great ships' such as the Mary Rose), dockyards (such as HMNB Portsmouth) and naval innovations (eg the use of cannon onboard ship).In the formal sense, however, the modern British navy, the Royal Navy, is largely a product of the naval side of the Napoleonic wars).

In modern times, Henry VIII has become one of the most popular historical kings of the English monarchy. This is mainly based on the common perception of his larger than life character as an over-eating, womanising bon vivant, which in turn is based on somewhat exaggerated stories of his life. In 2002, Henry VIII placed 40th in a BBC-sponsored poll on the 100 Greatest Britons.

Henry VIII was the subject of William Shakespeare's historical play, Henry VIII: All Is True, written once it was safe to do so (once his daughter Elizabeth I had died).

There have been many films about Henry and his court. Two that bear mention are The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), starring Charles Laughton, whose performance earned him an Academy Award, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1972), starring Keith Michell. He has also been a TV choice, both in drama and documentary, and in America and the UK. In drama, one notable example is the 1970 BBC series 'the Six Wives of Henry VIII', made up of 6 television plays, one per wife, each by a different author.

When Henry died in 1547 his nine year old son, Edward VI, inherited the throne. Under Cranmer and the Lord Protector Edward Seymour, also Edward's uncle, England became more Protestant. The political break with Rome had already happened under Henry and Edward wanted to make a religious break with Rome within the Church of England. The English Book of Common Prayer was introduced in 1549 (a second more radical one was put in its place in 1552); in churches stained glass, shrines, statues and other Catholic practices were done away with and the requirement of the clergy to be celibate was lifted. There were rebellions in Devon and Cornwall over the Prayer Book but these were put down. Grammar schools of Edward VI were just a beginning of plans carried out within Elizabethian era – endowing education out of confiscated lands of the Church. However the Protestant reforms Edward introduced were threatened when he died childless in 1553.

From 1553, under the reign of Henry's Roman Catholic daughter, Mary I, the Reformation legislation was repealed and England once again was turned into a Roman Catholic state. Mary's first Act of Parliament was to retroactively validate Henry's marriage to her mother and so legitimise her claim to the throne. On the advice of the Holy Roman Emperor she married his son, Phillip II of Spain; Mary wanted a child to prevent her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth from inheriting the Crown and thus returning England to Protestantism. However she never became pregnant. Insurrections broke out across the country when she refused advice that she marry an Englishman instead but these were crushed. Mary had Cranmer burned at the stake and Reginald Cardinal Pole was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in his place. The Marian Persecutions ensued and 283 Protestants were burnt at the stake for heresy, which is more than twice as many people executed for heresy in the previous 150 years. This resulted in the Queen becoming known as 'Bloody Mary'.

When Mary died childless in 1558 Elizabeth inherited the throne and sought to settle the religious turmoil the country had been through. Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland until 1603. Sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen (since she was never married), Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the Elizabethan era or the Golden Age and was marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide. Playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson all flourished during this era. Her reign coinsides in fact with the peak of Renaissance in England, which brought about considerable changes in the language, making it sound close to what we are used to: one marked feature was heavy Latinate and Greek borrowings (which lead to a sizable stock of words of ‘false’ etymology, like isle – island, could – should, would; or repeated assimilations from Latin – etymological doublets: sure- secure, blame – blaspheme, frail - fragile. The process had been so active that some purists of the time started protesting against ‘spoiling the mother tongue’). In addition, Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of North America took place under Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Virginia, an English colony in North America and afterwards a member of the United States, was named after Elizabeth I, the " Virgin Queen".

Elizabeth passed an Act of Supremacy 1559 which validated ten Acts which Mary had repealed and conferred on Elizabeth the title Supreme Governor of the Church of England. A provision for an Oath of Supremacy was included and the Act made it high treason for someone to refuse to take it. The Act of Uniformity 1559 was passed which forced people to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church and the Thirty-Nine Articles were established in Elizabeth's reign as the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. The Rising of the North emerged as the last Tudor rebellion against these changes.

One of achievements of Elizabethian era is undoubtfully breaking Spanish supremacy over high seas and victory over the Spanish Armada.

After the assassination of the Dutch Stadholder William I, England began to side openly with the United Provinces of the Netherlands, who were at the time rebelling against Spanish rule. This, together with economic conflict with Spain and English piracy against Spanish colonies (which included an English alliance with Islamic Morocco), led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1585 and in 1586 the Spanish ambassador was expelled from England for his participation in conspiracies against Elizabeth.

In her will, Mary had left Philip her claim to the English Throne; under force of the threat from Elizabeth's policies in the Netherlands and the east Atlantic, Philip set out his plans for an invasion of England. In April 1587, Sir Francis Drake burned part of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, delaying Philip's plans. In July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a grand fleet of 130 ships bearing over 30, 000 men, set sail in the expectation of conveying a Spanish invasion force under the command of the Duke of Parma across the English Channel from the Netherlands. Elizabeth encouraged her troops with a notable speech, known as the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, in which she famously declared, " I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too".

The Spanish attempt was defeated by the English fleet under Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake, aided by bad weather. (The memorial medal reads: Afflavit Deus et dissipantur –Господь дунул и они рассеялись) The Armada was forced to return to Spain, with appalling losses on the north and west coasts of Ireland; the victory tremendously increased Elizabeth's popularity.

In 1600 Elizabeth granted the charter to East Indian Company – at first a little and insignificant affair, in Victorian times to become a state within state.

Elizabeth proved to be one of the most popular monarchs in English or British history. She placed seventh in the 100 Greatest Britons poll, which was conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2002, outranking all other British monarchs. In 2005, in the History Channel documentary Britain's Greatest Monarch, a group of historians and commentators analysed twelve British monarchs and gave them overall marks out of 60 for greatness (they were marked out of 10 in six categories, such as military prowess and legacy). Elizabeth I was the winner, with 48 points. Elizabeth has been criticised for supporting the English slave trade. Her problems in Ireland also serve to blemish her record.

Elizabeth was a successful monarch, helping steady the nation even after inheriting an enormous national debt from her sister Mary. Under her, England managed to avoid a crippling Spanish invasion. Elizabeth was also able to prevent the outbreak of a religious or civil war on English soil. Her achievements, however, were greatly magnified after her death. She was depicted in later years as a great defender of Protestantism in Europe. In reality, however, she often wavered before coming to the aid of her Protestant allies. As Sir Walter said in relation to her foreign policy, " Her Majesty did all by halves".

Many artists glorified Elizabeth I and masked her age in their portraits. Elizabeth was often painted in rich and stylised gowns, often shown holding a sieve, a symbol of virginity.

Benjamin Britten wrote an opera, Gloriana, about the relationship between Elizabeth and Lord Essex, composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.Notable portrayals of Queen Elizabeth in film and television have been plentiful; in fact, she is the most filmed British monarch.

As a whole the historical period may be regarded as a prelude to the bourgeois revolution of the 17th century. This was reflected in all spheres of life and human thought.

 

The Tudor Dynasty, the Break with Rome feed-back tasks. Note: the questions are meant to provide kind of a rough plan for your examination answer; you are welcome to rearrange them in a more suitable way.

1. Explain what is: ‘The Wars of the Roses’;

‘Enclosures’;

‘Renaissance’

‘Spanish Armada’

2. Enlarge upon the statement: “Henry VII formed a new monarchy based upon a new relationship in the society...” What made it possible?

3. Enumerate notable events during Henry VIII’ reign.

4. Write out Reformation Parliament Acts which cut England’s political ties with Rome (you can use this list at the exam). Which of them was considered ‘the most important single piece of legislation’? What makes Henrician Reformation different from reformation movement in Europe?

5. Why did Mary I earn the title ‘Bloody Mary’?

6. Why is Elizabethian era considered Golden Age in England? Name as many reasons as possible.

7. Speak about Elizabeth I’ achievements.

8. Write out 3 dates you consider most important. What happened?

9. Tudor monarchs serve as a source of inspiration for film industry, artists etc. Why?

10. Learn the glossary: pauperisation, accumulation of capital, to be at the root of smth, political ties, grievance, consecration, sacrament, to expound, high treason, monk, nun, Scripture, to be celibate, to repeal, to validate, to circumnavigate the globe, supremacy.


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