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The origins of the dynasty
From the War of the Two Roses to the seventieth century
The dinasty was composed of five principal members, who succeded on the throne for centuries; they played a very important role in the transformation of England, taking the country to become one of the greatest world powers.
The members were:
The members
After the long War of the Two Roses (1455-1485), Henry VII finally ended the conflicts between the two houses (of the York and of the Lancaster) with a marriage policy. He was a descendant of the Lancaster and he married Elizabeth of York, who was a member of the York house.
History of the dynasty
YORK
LANCASTER
With the Tudor dynasty, England:
During his reign he created a new power and balance in England . He reduced the supremacy of the nobles, because they were very powerful and rich, and gave more importance to the middle classes. He tried to increase his standing in Europe by marring his eldest son Arthur to Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the king of Spain. Henry VII made the Tudor dynasty strong and feared.
His reign also coincided with the period of great geographical explorations. In 1492 Columbus, while he was looking for a way to reach Asia, discovered a new land, which was later named America. Henry VII promoted the expeditions of John and Sebastian Cabot to North America. These exploratory voyages didn’t finish with Henry VII, but also continued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Henry was very good at extorting money from his subjects on many pretexts, including war with France or war with Scotland. He came to the throne without any personal experience in estate management or financial administration. Henry VII introduced stability to the financial administration of England by keeping the same financial advisors throughout his reign. Henry VII improved tax collection in the realm by introducing ruthlessly efficient mechanisms of taxation.
Elizabeth was the queen consort of Henry VII, she was born in1466 and was the eldest child of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Elizabeth was 19 when she married 29-year-old Henry VII in 1486: it was a happy marriage.
The historians describe Elizabeth as one of the beauties of her age with her blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, Arthur, in 1486. Out of her eight children, only four survived childhood: Arthur Prince of Wales, Margaret Queen of Scotland, Henry VIII and Mary Tudor Queen of France. Elizabeth was crowned queen on the 25th of November 1487. She died on the 11th of February 1503 on her 37th Birthday from a postpartum infection.
Henry VIII- young age
Henry VIII was born in 1491 in Greenwich. He was the second member of the Tudor dynasty on the throne, from the young age of 18.
He was called the Golden Prince: he was a resourceful man, that transpired a new high-reverence image of the Renaissance monarch: he was good looking and focused both on his own passions, such as sports, arts, humanistic subjects and theology, and on the increase of the kingdom power.
His interest in theology was born as a result of the education received in his young age: he was a second-born, son of Henry VII, so he should have had an ecclesiastical career, but when his elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, Henry became the heir to the throne.
During his life, he was married to six different women: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr. From all these weddings he had numerous sons and daughters.
While he was married to Catherine of Aragon, he led an important military career, joining the Aragonese line against France and in support of the Pope.
Henry nominated the archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey, his official minister for military affairs and administration of the Kingdom.
The figure of the ideal monarch became less and less strong because of different problematic dynamics:
After the inconvenient of the male heir, Henry started to lose interest for Catherine of Aragon and to become infatueted with Anne Boleyn, a queen's lady-in-waiting.
The king asked the Church to divorce from Catherine, but Pope Clement VII refused his proposal and that marked the beginning of their conflicts.
Afterwards, in 1534, he decided to marry a pregnant Anne Boleyn without the Church's consent, and with the help of Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, he definitely broke with Rome, by declaring himself the “Supreme Head of the Church of England” with the so called Act of Supremacy, a treaty recognised by the parliament itself.
The treaty did not modify the doctrinal aspects of the religion, it just imposed the clergy obedience to the king and not to the Pope anymore, so it clarified the superiority of the temporal power on the religious one.
This provided the King many benefits and advantages:
This Act is a clear example of absolute monarchy, in which the king took advantage of the Parliament’s power to enact laws for personal use.
The new policy of the king aroused polemics and stir, but all the opponents were violently repressed: they were imprisoned and often even decapitated.
The most famous case of opposition was the one of Thomas More, humanist and chancellor of the Kingdom who, in disagreement with the choice of Henry VIII, resigned from his position refusing to recognize him as head of the Church of England.
He also composed the opera “Utopia” in which he described a perfect state, as a form of disapproval of the political system of Henry VIII. After being accused of treason and imprisoned, Moro was sentenced to death in 1535: his head was hung on the London Bridge as a warning to any other protesters.
Today Thomas More is recognised as saint both from the Catholic Church and the Anglican one.
The king from this moment had a series of marital adventures that made him appear both a monster and a laughingstock.
In 1543 the King of England married his sixth and last wife, the wealthy widow Catherine Parr. The woman had the merit of reconciling Henry with his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.
Henry decided to marry Catherine Howard. Suspected of having extramarital relations, she was sentenced to death in 1542.
In January 1540 he married his fourth wife, Anne of Clèves, but the union lasted only 5 months.
In 1536 Henry VIII married Jane Seymour. In 1537 she gave birth to a son, Prince Edward.
In 1536 Anne Boleyn was sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft and of treason.
The last years of Henry's life were marked not only by a physical decline, caused by problems with obesity and diabetes, but also by mental disorders.
In 1547 King Henry VIII died and was buried in Windsor Castle next to his third wife Jane Seymour.
KNOWUNITY. ENCICLOPEDIA.BRITANNICA.COM.
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