THE RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance is the modern name for the revival and spread of learning that took place from the 1400s onwards. It began in Italy, and spread throughout Europe. The works of ancient Greek and Roman writers and philosophers were widely read. Artists developed new styles of painting, including the use of perspective, or the illusion of distance. The speed with which these new ideas spread was due to the use of printing presses which began at this time. The Renaissance came to England in the reign of Henry VII, who invited Italian scholars and artists to his court. It found its greatest expression in literature: the Tudor period was a time of great poetry. It was also a time of major musical activity, especially the composition of Italian-style madrigals for groups of singers.
FRENCH AND SCOTS DEFEATED
In 1511 Pope Julius II asked Henry VIII, the King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor to help him drive the French out of Italy. Henry agreed, hoping to reconquer some of England's frontier territories in France. His first expedition failed, but in 1513 he led a second expedition and at Guingates (Thérouanne) he won a short battle known as the Battle of Spurs after the speed at which the French fled. In that year the Scots invaded England to aid France. At Flodden Field, in Northumberland, the Scots faced an English army half its size but led by an experienced general, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey. English cannon, arrows and tactics won the day. The Scots lost King James IV and 10,000 men.
HENRY, DIVORCE AND THE CHURCH
After 18 years of marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII had no male heir, only a daughter, Mary, born in 1516. No queen had ever ruled all England, and the Wars of the Roses showed the damage that could be caused by disputes over the succession to the throne. In 1527 Henry decided to divorce Catherine, who was unlikely to bear more children, and find a wife who could give him a son and so secure the Tudor dynasty. Henry ordered Cardinal Wolsey to ask the Pope to grant a divorce. The Pope refused, and Wolsey fell from power. So that Henry could grant himself a divorce, he decided to separate the Church in England from the authority of the Pope, a move carried out by a series of Acts of Parliament. Meanwhile Henry had married a lady of the court, Anne Boleyn. In 1533 the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, declared Henry's marriage with Catherine invalid (using the original widow) and his marriage with Anne legal. Anne soon produced a child, but it was another girl, Elizabeth. Once again Henry was disappointed, and, not having a son, he turned against Anne. In 1536 a charge of adultery was brought against Anne. She was accused of treason, tried and beheaded. Henry then married Jane Seymour who produced the longed-for son which they named Edward.
HENRY CLOSES THE MONASTERIES
English monasteries were in decline in the 1500s, and many of them were badly run. Henry's first attack against them came from Wolsey, who obtained papal permission to suppress 40 of the smaller monasteries. In 1536 Henry ordered nearly 400 of the remaining small ones to be dissolved, and took over their land and property. The rest of the smaller monasteries were then dissolved and the monks pensioned off. This move was so beneficial to Henry's finances that in 1539 Henr decided to dissolve the larger monasteries. Monasteries resisted were destroyed and their monks brutally killed. Henry gained still more wealth by selling off the monastery lands to rich nobles, but the charity and care which the monks had given to the poor and needy was a great loss.
UNION WITH WALES
In 1536 Henry VIII decided that Wales should be united with England. By the Act of Union it became part of England. An Act in 1541 gave Wales the right to send members to the English Parliament in Winchester. The Welsh shires were created by the Tudors, and English law was extended to Wales, with English as the official language of the law courts.
HENRY, KING OF IRELAND
Having made himself Supreme Head of the Church in England, Henry VIII decided to extend his powers to Ireland, where the English owned large estates including most of Leinster and Meath. In 1541, an Irish Parliament was called in Dublin and gave Henry the title of King of Ireland. More than 40 Irish chiefs and Anglo-Irish nobles surrendered their lands to the King and received them back as vassals, the same terms by which English barons held their lands. Henry tried but failed to force Protestantism on Catholic Ireland.
HENRY'S FAILURES IN MARRIAGE
After Jane Seymour's death, Henry's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, arranged a marriage with a German princess, Anne of Cleves. The marriage was to ally England with the Protestant princes of northern Germany - an alliance on which Cromwell was very keen. Henry had never met Anne, but as part of the marriage arrangements he received a portrait of her. One story has it that when Anne arrived she was so plain that the disappointed Henry described her as ''the Flanders more''. However, there is no reason to believe the painting falsely flattered her face.
The marriage was soon dissolved, and Henry married Catherine Howard, a beautiful young noblewoman. Catherine was unfaithful to him, and Henry had her beheaded. Henry's last marriage was to a widow, Catherine Parr, who knew how to manage him, and who outlived him. Henry died in 1547. He left behind a son, Edward VI, who was a sickly child of only 10 years of age, and two unmarried daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. This meant that the succession to the throne was far from secure.
FOCUS ON THE MARY ROSE
The Mary Rose was Henry VIII's greatest warship. It could carry 200 crew, 185 soldiers and 30 gunners. There were some 140 cannon and hand guns. But it capsized and sank before Henry's eyes a few kilometres from Portsmouth Harbour during an engagement with a French invasion fleet on July 19th, 1545. The wreck was located in about 12 metres of water in 1971 by Alexander McKee and raised in 1982 with the current Prince of Wales in attendance. Among the artefacts recovered were cannons, longbows, gold coins and sail maker's and barber-surgeon's tools. The remains are now housed in Portsmouth alongside HMS Victory in an exciting display of Britain's maritime history.
THE REFORMATION
Although Henry VIII had broken ties with the Pope, he still supported the beliefs and customs of the Roman Catholic faith. During the reign of his son Edward VI, England was to move steadily away from Catholicism and towards the Protestant religion, in the movement later known throughout Europe as the Reformation. The Reformation had started in Germany in 1517 when Martin Luther protested against certain elaborate practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Forty years later, half of Europe was Protestant.
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