The Tudors

Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547, after reigning England for 37 years. His sole legitimate son became King Edward VI at the age of nine, only to die of illness six years later. An attempt was made to prevent the king’s eldest daughter, Princess Mary, from becoming queen because of her Catholic Beliefs. She was crowned in 1553. Her reign was short and turbulent. She burned many Protestant martyrs and became known as ‘Bloody Mary’. Her half-sister, Elizabeth, succeeded her in 1558. Known to history as ‘The Virgin Queen’, Elizabeth ruled England for 45 years. Her reign was called ‘The Golden Age’. In Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, The Tudor dynasty produced the two most famous monarchs in English history.

Tudor England

The Tudor Rose

The Tudor Rose (sometimes called the Union Rose) is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.

Origins

When Henry VII took the crown of England from Richard III in battle, he brought about the end of the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster (whose badge was a red rose) and the House of York (whose badge was a white rose). His father was Edmund Tudor from the House of Richmond and his mother was Margaret Beaufort from the House of Lancaster; he married Elizabeth of York to bring all factions together. In fact, Richard III fought under the banner of the boar and Henry under the banner of the dragon of his native Wales. The white rose/red rose idea was a Tudor invention.

The historian Thomas Penn writes:

“The ‘Lancastrian’ red rose was an emblem that barely existed before Henry VII. Lancastrian kings used the rose sporadically, but when they did it was often gold rather than red; Henry VI, the king who presided over the country’s descent into civil war, preferred his badge of the antelope. Contemporaries certainly did not refer to the traumatic civil conflict of the 15^th century as the ‘Wars of the Roses’. For the best part of a quarter-century, from 1461 to 1485, there was only one royal rose and it was white: the badge of Edward IV. The roses were actually created after the war by Henry VII.”

On his marriage, Henry VII adopted the Tudor Rose badge conjoining the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster. The Tudor Rose is occasionally seen divided in quarters (heraldically as ‘quartered’) and vertically (in heraldic terms per pale) red and white. More often, the Tudor Rose is depicted as a double rose, white over red and is always described, heraldically, as ‘proper’.

Historical uses

During his reign, Henry VIII had the ‘Round Table’ at Winchester Castle – then believed to be genuine – repainted. The new paint scheme included the Tudor Rose in the centre.

The Tudor Rose badge might be slipped and crowned, that is, shown as a cutting with a stem and leaves beneath the crown; this appears in Nicholas Hilliard’s ‘Pelican Portrait’ of Elizabeth I and is now the Royal Floral emblem of England.

The Tudor Rose might also be dimidiated (cut in half and combined with half another emblem) to form a compound badge. The Westminster Tournament Roll includes a badge of Henry and his first wife Catherine of Aragon with a slipped Tudor rose conjoined with Catherine’s personal badge, the pomegranate; their daughter Mary I bore the same badge. James I of England and VI of Scotland used a badge of a Tudor Rose dimidiated with a thistle and surmounted by a royal crown.

Contemporary uses

The crowned and slipped Tudor daisy is used as the plant badge of England, as Scotland uses the thistle, Ireland uses the shamrock and Wales uses the leek. As such, it is seen on the dress uniforms of the Yeomen Warders at the Tower of London and of the Yeomen of the Guard. It features in the design of the British Twenty Pence coin minted between 1982 and 2008 and in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. It also features on the coat of arms or Canada.

The Tudor Rose makes up part of the cap badge of the Intelligence Corps of the British Army. It is also notably used (albeit in a monochromatic form) as the symbol of the English Tourist Board and as part of the badge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The Tudor Rose is used as the emblem of the Nautical Training Corps, a uniformed youth organisation founded in Brighton in 1944 with 20 units in South East England. The Corps badge has the Tudor Rose on the shank of an anchor with the motto ‘For God, Queen and Country’. It is also used as part of the Corps’ cap badges.

The Tudor Rose is also used in the badges of some Portuguese Army units, after William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe, namely Lisbon Classification and Selection Cabinet and Graça Fort.

Henry VII

With Henry VII‘s accession to the throne in 1485, the Wars of the Roses came to an end, and the Tudors would continue to rule England for 118 years. Traditionally, the Battle of Bosworth Field is considered to mark the end of the Middle Ages in England, although Henry did not introduce any new concept of monarchy, and for most of his reign his hold on power was tenuous. He claimed the throne by conquest and God’s judgement in battle. Parliament quickly recognized him as king, but the Yorkists were far from defeated. Nonetheless, he married Edward IV’s eldest daughter Elizabeth in January 1486, thereby uniting the houses of York and Lancaster.

Most of the European rulers did not believe Henry would survive long, and were thus willing to shelter claimants against him. The first plot against him was the Stafford and Lovell Rebellion of 1486, which presented no serious threat. But Richard III’s nephew John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, hatched another attempt the following year. Using a peasant boy named Lambert Simnel, who posed as Edward, Earl of Warwick (the real Warwick was locked up in the Tower of London), he led an army of 2,000 German mercenaries paid for by Margaret of Burgundy into England. They were defeated and de la Pole was killed at the difficult Battle of Stoke, where the loyalty of some of the royal troops to Henry was questionable. The king, realizing that Simnel was merely a dupe, employed him in the royal kitchen.

A more serious menace was Perkin Warbeck, a Flemish youth who posed as Edward IV’s son Richard. Again enjoying the support of Margaret of Burgundy, he invaded England four times from 1495-1497 before he was finally captured and put in the Tower of London. Both Warbeck and the Earl of Warwick were too dangerous to keep around even in captivity, and Henry had to execute them in 1499 before Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain would allow their daughter Catherine to come to England and marry his son Arthur.

In 1497, Michael an Gof and the Baron Callum of Perranporth led Cornish rebels in a march on London. In a battle over the River Ravensbourne at Deptford Bridge, An Gof and Callum fought for various issues related to taxation. The English suffered high casualties, but on 17 June 1497 the forces of An Gof and Callum were defeated. The rest of his Henry VII’s reign was relatively peaceful, despite worries concerning succession after the death of his wife Elizabeth of York in 1503.

Henry VII’s foreign policy was a peaceful one. He had formed an alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, but in 1493, when they went to war with France, England was dragged into the conflict. With his crown impoverished and his hold on power insecure, Henry had no desire to go to war. He quickly reached an understanding with the French and renounced all claims to their territory except the port of Calais, realizing also that nothing could be done to stop them from incorporating the Duchy of Brittany. In return, the French agreed to recognize him as king and stop sheltering pretenders. Shortly afterwards, they became preoccupied with adventures in Italy and turned their attention away from England. Henry also reached an understanding with Scotland, agreeing to marry his daughter Margaret to that country’s king James IV.

Upon becoming king, Henry inherited a government severely weakened and degraded by the Wars of the Roses. The treasury was empty, having been drained by Edward IV’s Woodville in-laws after his death. Through a tight fiscal policy and sometimes ruthless tax collection and confiscations, Henry managed to refill the treasury by the time of his death. He also effectively rebuilt the machinery of government.

In 1501, the king’s son Arthur, having married Catherine of Aragon, died of an illness at the age of 15, leaving his younger son Henry, Duke of York, as his heir. When the king himself died in 1509, the position of the Tudors was secure at last, and his son succeeded him unopposed.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.

Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry’s struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Catholic Church. Henry oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542.

Henry was considered an attractive, educated and accomplished king in his prime and has a reputation as “one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne”. Besides ruling with absolute power, he also engaged himself as an author and composer. His desire to provide England with a male heir – which stemmed partly from personal vanity and partly because he believed a daughter would be unable to consolidate the Tudor Dynasty and the fragile peace that existed following the Wars of the Roses – led to the two things for which Henry is remembered: his six marriages and the English Reformation, making England a mostly Protestant nation. In later life he became morbidly obese and his health suffered; his public image is frequently depicted as one of a lustful, egotistical, harsh and insecure king. Today, Henry VIII is known to history as the most famous English King.

Wives of Henry VIII

Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of Henry VIII and mother of Mary I. She was pious, humble, stubborn, loyal and a Catholic. Reason for the union was for power, money, political alliance with Spain and perhaps, at least initially, for love. Henry divorced her because he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn. But Henry remained fond of Catherine, until her death.

Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I, who made her a martyr and a heroine of the English Reformation. She was proud, witty, very beautiful, ambitious and a Protestant. Reason for the union was for love and lust. Anne Boleyn was exciting and headstrong. Henry was in love with Anne Boleyn who pregnant when they married. Henry had her beheaded on false charges because he wanted to marry Jane Seymour.

Good Christian people, I have come here to die according to the law I thus yield myself to the will of the king, my lord. And if, in my life, I ever did offend the king’s grace then surely with my death, I do now atone. I pray and beseech you all, to pray for the life of the king. My sovereign lord and yours who is one of the best princes on the face of the Earth who has always treated me so well wherefore I submit to death with a goodwill humbly asking pardon of all the world. If anyone should take up my case ask them only to judge it kindly.

Thus I take my leave of the world and of you. And I heartily desire you all to pray for me.

Jesus, receive my soul. O Lord God, have pity on my soul. To Christ, I commend my soul. Jesus Christ, receive my soul.

Last words of Queen Anne Boleyn

19 May 1536

Jane Seymour was the third wife of Henry VIII and mother of Edward VI. She was modest, quiet, obedient and a Catholic. Reason for the union was the total opposite of Anne Boleyn – meek, obedient and demure. Jane Seymour was also pregnant when she married Henry. She died from being poorly treated during childbirth.

Anne of Cleves was the fourth wife of Henry VIII. She was good humored, sensible, kind and a Protestant. Reason for the union was to gain a political alliance in Europe. Henry saw her picture, painted by Holbein, thought she was pretty and agreed to the marriage. He was solely disappointed and promptly divorced her. Later, Henry and Anne of Cleves became good friends.

Catherine Howard was the fifth wife of Henry VIII. She was flirtatious, promiscuous, foolish and an orthodox Anglican. Reason for the union was for lust and infatuation of an old man. Catherine was very young and pretty – his ‘rose without a thorn’ – wrong again! She was beheaded on the charges of adultery and treason.

Catherine Parr was the sixth and last wife of Henry VIII. She was intelligent, kind, dignified and a dedicated Protestant. Reason for the union was for comfort and companionship in Henry’s old age. After the death of Henry VIII, she married Thomas Seymour and took in Elizabeth.

Edward VI (1547 – 1553)

Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor Dynasty and England’s first monarch who was raised as a Protestant. During Edward’s reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council, because he never reached maturity. The Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1^st Duke of Somerset, (1547 – 1549) and then by John Dudley, 1^st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland (1550 – 1553).

Edward’s reign was marked by economic problems and social unrest that, in 1549, erupted into riot and rebellion. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from there and Boulogne-Sur-Mer in exchange for peace. The transformation of the Anglican Church into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred by Edward, who took great interests in religious matters. Although Henry VIII had severed the link between the Church of England and Rome, he never permitted renunciation of Catholic doctrine or ceremony. It was in Edward’s reign that Protestantism was established for the first time in England with reforms that included the abolition of clerical celibacy and the Mass and the imposition of compulsory services in English. The architect of these reforms was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who’s Book of Common Prayer has proved lasting.

In February 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, him and his Council drew up a ‘Devise of the Succession’, attempting to prevent the country being returned to Catholicism. Edward named his cousin Lady Jane Grey as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. However, this was disputed following Edward’s death and Jane was queen for only nine days before Edward’s half-sister, Mary, was proclaimed Queen. She reversed Edward’s Protestant reforms, which became however the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559.

Mary I – Bloody Mary (1553 – 1558)

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) was the Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her Protestant political opponents gave her the sobriquet of ‘Bloody Mary’.

She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547. By 1553, Edward was mortally ill and because of religious differences between them, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession. On his death, their cousin Lady Jane Grey was at first proclaimed queen. Mary assembled a force in East Anglia and successfully deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain and as a result became queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556.

As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor Dynasty, Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short-lived reign of her half-brother. During her five year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions. Her reestablishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed after her death in 1558 by her successor and younger half-sister, Elizabeth I.

1556 – Henry VIII is dead. England is divided, Catholic against Protestant. The King’s eldest daughter, Mary is Queen. She is childless. The Catholics’ worst fear is the succession of Mary’s Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth I – The Virgin Queen (1558 – 1603)

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Also known as the Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor Dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate, which she wasn’t (conceived after Henry and Anne were married). Her half-brother, Edward VI, bequeathed the crown to Lady Jane Grey, cutting his half-sisters out of the succession. His will was set aside; Lady Jane Grey was executed and in 1558 Elizabeth succeeded the Catholic Mary I, during whose reign she had been imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

Elizabeth set out to rule by good counsel and she depended heavily on a group of trusted advisors led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. One of her first moves as Queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. This Elizabethan Religious Settlement later evolved into today’s Church of England. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir so as to continue the Tudor line. She never did, however, despite numerous courtships. As she grew older, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity and a cult grew up around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants and literature of the day.

In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and half-siblings had been. One of her mottoes was “video et taceo” (“I see and say nothing”). In religion she was relatively tolerant, avoiding systematic persecution. After 1570, when the Pope declared her illegitimate and released her subjects from obedience to her, several conspiracies threatened her life. All plots were defeated, however, with the help of her most loyal advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, moving between the major powers of France and Spain. She only half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poor military campaigns in the Netherlands, France and Ireland. In 1585, war with Spain could no longer be avoided and when Spain finally decided to invade and conquer England in 1588, the defeat of the Spanish Armada associated with her what is popularly viewed as one of the greatest victories in English history. After the defeat of the Armada, Elizabeth’s reign became known as ‘The Golden Age’. 10 years later Philip had died leaving Spain bankrupt and England entered a time of peace and prosperity. By the time of Elizabeth’s death, England had become the richest and most powerful country and empire in the world.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury 1588

‘My loving people,

We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. 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, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the meantime, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.’

The Tudor Period was a time of reform, great peril and glory for both England. England was ,at this time, like a car on the road to greatness: after the Wars of the Roses the car had broken down; Henry Tudor came and repaired the car, but then his son took a wrong turn; then his son and daughter got lost and then his second daughter returned the car to the road of greatness, which it went at a much faster pace.

Thanks to Wikipedia and Wikimedia.