The Tudor period

The Tudor period

Henry VII was the king of the england who improved his commercial power and domination of the news land like the Amiricas.

He married Elizabeth of york and in this way he reconciled the two house of the war of the roses and put an end to it.

He was a diplomat, cruel and reserved but she could understand his people and discovered the unfaithfulness of the noblemen so he divided the society in two new social classes: the gentry, the merchants, who help him to develop and improve the English commerce and power domination and to discover new land ( America) :  In fact to change the supremacy of the Spain and Portugal ( that discovered first America) Henry VII promoted the expedition of John and Sebastian Cabot in the north of the new country.

Henry VIII was the ideal renaissance king: he was a poet, a musician, and a sportsman.

With him there was the break between the church of Rome ( 1534) and he was supported by the new anticlericalism movement: the Lollards, who looked to Luther as an innovator: rome corruption, interference and dominance were intolerable. At First Henry VIII defended the Pope from Luther and was nominated difensor fidei, but then , because he wanted marry Anne Bolene. The pope refused this decision and the king didn't accept the Pope's authority and solved the question through the English clergy and parliament, and after the marriage in 1533 England was declared "empire"; in 1534 there was the Act of supremacy that declared Henry VIII the only supreme head on Earth of the Curch in England, and in 1536 the Pope's authority in England was extincted.

Edward VI couldn't reign because he was only 9 when became king of England; but his protector was his uncle, Edward Seymour, who made the Book of common prayer and the English translation of the Bible. Edward VI was killed by Mary, Chaterine d'Aragon's daughter.

Mary I was nominated Bloodymary; she was very cruel and persecuted protestant people, and tried to reintroduce the Catholicism in England, restoring the Latin Mass and the old ceremonies. She married Philip II of Spain, and she died in 1558 and left the nation humiliated by the war against France, ill.governated, religiously divided and deeply dependent to the spain.

Elizabeth I was the greatest queen of England; she was very tolerant and permitted the return of Protestantism among English people without the persecution.

In 1559 Parliament passed to another act of supremacy, in which was declared the supremacy and power of the queen, who had the temporary and religious power. Besides she stated that only Cranmer's Prayer book was to be used by English people and there was a little persecution against the catholic who wanted to danger her State.

With her there was the birth of the Theathre (Shakespeare), and the economic boom so England could enjoy a long period of peace and prosperity.

Mary queen of scots was a great rival of Elizabeth. She was the queen of Scotland and she married the king of France, Francis II in 1558, but he died the next year.

She must returned in Scotland that wasn't still a Catholic nation. She tried to reintroduce the Catholicism but she was imprisoned and substituted by James, meanwhile John Knox, a Scottish protestant reformer was able to exploit by preaching the Protestant doctrine.

Mary was a danger for the England so Elizabeth decided that she shoul have been beheaded, and ordered her execution in 1587.

Renaissance Humanism

In the field of the art, the artist didn't focus their object only in religious symbolism but Madonna, child and Saints were replaced by the human body and the nature ( Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian).

In the field of science copernico and Galileo opened new points of view of the universe, worked out new astronomical theories, medicine progressed thanks to the addition of the new science of anatomy which saw the most important contribution in Leonardo.

In the field of literature the most important European authors who influenced the English literature were Machiavelli ( "The prince"), the spaniard Miguel Cervantes ( "don Quixote"), the Duchman Erasmus ( ""The praise of Folly"), the Frenchman Montaigne ("Essays") amd Rabelòais ("Pantagruel").

The most important characteristic of the humanism culture was the the revival of interst in classical culture, with its humanistic ideals like the emphazisation of the man and the capacity of the human intelligence and the faith in the progress.

In italy the humanism reproposed the study of classical authors like Cicero, Tacito and Plato, in England instead The Renaissance was more meditative and individualistic, and it tried to reconcile the pagan spirit Of Italian Humanism with that of Christianity.

Many English authors wrote imitations of the Italian ones, like Petrarch. He was imitated by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who introduced  Petrarchan sonnet into England. This sonnet was also used by Earl of Surrey, who was also the first to use blank verse in English. But the two poets had to modified the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet because the English language has got scarcity of rhymes. Both of sonnets are composed of fourteen iambic pentameters, 14 lines of ten stressed or unstressed syllables. But the Italian sonnet's rhyme scheme was abba cde and the English one was composed by three quatrains plus the final couplet.