History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts by Robert Bucholz

On a recent long drive east through Indiana and Ohio  I have been reviewing the history of the Tudors and Stuarts, a series of lectures recorded by The Teaching Company and featuring Loyola History Professor Robert Bucholz.   It is an entertaining series of lectures that takes English history from the times of the Wars of the Roses prior to the reign of Henry Tudor, (aka Henry VII), through the Tudor dynasty and through the Stuart dynasty ending with Queen Anne in the 18th century.   It cleared up for me a stretch of English history that has been in my mind a bit fuzzy and colored by all the films I'd seen and all. 

Who is this man and where did he come from?

It all started as Bucholz states with what is known as the "the Great Chain of Being" which is a medieval concept of how society is supposed to be configured.  Kings rule according to divine right, by primogeniture, with the Church and the nobility on his right and left hand, and all the little people standing around below with caps off and respectful.  At least this is how it was supposed to be.  

A complicated series of succession crises occurred which led to the wars, the conflict being between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, which ended with the death of Richard III on Bosworth field.  (It was not clear what happened to his body until in the last year or so his body was discovered during excavations under what was now a parking lot in Leister).  Richard III was the bad king (or at least portrayed as such by the decidedly pro-Tudor Shakespeare) who was apparently responsible for the disappearance of the two princes held prisoner in the Tower of London.  "Princes?  What Princes?"

His death at Bosworth Field in 1485 led to the resolution of the conflict and the establishment of the house of Tudor under Henry VII. 

The Battle of Bosworth Field 1485

Henry married Elizabeth of York thus re-uniting the two families.  Henry VII ruled England from 1485 to 1509.  While the heir apparent, Arthur would have succeeded him, Arthur had since died, and Henry VIII in 1509 became king.  Henry married Catherine of Aragon, Arthur's widow and everything would have been just fine except no male heirs were forthcoming from Catherine though she did produce a female one, Mary. 
 

At least we think this is Catherine of Aragon (Spouse #1)  

What happened next is very much the story of the reformation in England, which began as Henry's desire to be divorced without the complicating factors of foreign policy and the ever present need for money with which to wage wars both offensive and defensive.  The monasteries were due to be taken down a notch because prior to Henry VIII they owned about 1/4 of all the lands of England.  As people died they regularly bequeathed their property to the Church in order to gain favorable treatment in the next world.  As a result some of the richest men in England were not the king but persons such as Cardinal Wolsey. 

 There was not a problem with getting a divorce or an annulment if you were an influential person such as Henry.  Poor Catherine of Aragon seemed only to produce female children in an age when it seemed male heirs were only suitable.  What was worse, she was obtained by Henry second hand, when his older brother Arthur and heir presumptive died, she was married to him in turn.  There were after all scriptural justifications for such a move, but later also scriptural justification for disqualifying her as a mate, and it all really depended on which part of the bible was most conveniently remembered.   All this would probably have sailed through the upper reaches of the church but for some diplomatic problems within the church.    The pope balked at this proposal partly because he was the political captive of other powers in Europe representing the interests of Catherine of Aragon.  For this reason the trial or whatever it was they were planning to have was delayed and delayed.

Henry decided, being kind of a theological wonk himself, that perhaps the Church was better served if it was under local management and proceeded to sever ties with Rome and set up a church in England with himself as the leader.  Furthermore this also had the convenient result that he became the proprietor of all the Church lands in England.  Meanwhile protestant ideas were infiltrating the court in the person of Ann Boleyn and her crowd.

Ann Boleyn (Spouse #2)

  After he managed his own divorce he was married to Ann Boleyn, who promptly presented him with ANOTHER female heir, the future Queen Elizabeth.    The king was not amused, and Boleyn was not sufficiently wary of her male friendships apart from the king and was convicted of adultery and promptly deprived of her head.  He then moved on to Jane Seymour, who provided him with a male heir and then quite as promptly died.  His much desired male heir was produced and his boy lived long enough to succeed Henry as king, but not much longer. 

He went through three more women before he died but produced no more heirs. The last one outlived him. These were  Anne of Cleves (annulled), Catherine Howard (beheaded), and Catherine Parr (his widow).

Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr (R to L).

Nor were his issue very fertile either.   When the son Edward VI died not quite old enough to rule himself he tried to place Lady Jane Grey, his cousin as a suitable Protestant heir, which countered the wishes of his father Henry, however other factions prevailed and she only got to keep the crown for 9 days, and her head for a short while longer. She was only 16 or 17 years old when she died.

Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary Tudor

Mary, his first daughter finally succeeded in 1553, a Catholic.  She did her best to stuff the reformation genie back in its bottle but to no avail. She burned a number of protestants in the process. She tried to produce an heir but failed.  Finally she died from ovarian cancer which she thought for a time was a pregnancy in 1558.    Elizabeth succeeded her and reigned  for more than 40 years, until her death in 1603. She produced no heirs and in fact never married but was celebrated as a great ruler, guiding England through the perilous struggles against Spain and its Armada, and the competition with other powers for a place in the New World.

Elizabeth I ( queen from 1558-1603)

The idea of female monarchs was still something of an innovation and never really caught on in the rest of Europe.  Maybe Ferdinand and Isabella were the closest thing to such a thing, but then they both had their separate domains.  With Elizabeth it was a resounding success.  Maybe looking about her at the wreckage caused by her father's many dalliances, she took a hands off approach to the very idea of marriage.  She took a cautious middle path between reform and anti-reform and ruled as a Protestant.  She managed to keep control of this explosive issue and it was only when the Stuarts took over that things began to unravel.  


  
Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1587) unlucky in her marriage to her cousin Henry Stuart, or Lord Darnley, who was later murdered possibly with her connivance. Later, being Catholic and thus on the losing side of the reformation in Scotland, Mary was forced to flee from her native Scotland to England in 1568, where she was imprisoned for the last 19 years of her life. 

 She was a Catholic heir to the throne of both Scotland and had a claim as well to the English throne, so she was a security risk.  Catholics in England along with foreign agents supported by France were actively plotting the assassination of Elizabeth and the placement of Mary on the throne.  When there came incontrovertible proof that Mary was complicit in these plots, Elizabeth very reluctantly consented to have Mary put to death.   When Elizabeth herself died years later,Mary's son, James VI of Scotland, raised as a Protestant, succeeded to the throne of England in 1603.

James VI of Scotland and James I of England

Within the thus constituted Church of England, there was a wide range of opinion as Protestant ideas continued to seep into the body politic, as the bible began to be read by the people in English and who were increasingly literate and increasingly of a mind to think for themselves.  King James, the Stuart brought in from Scotland, commissioned the translation of the bible which set the standard for the many translations to come.  Being a Scot, and a funny looking Scot at that who seemed a bit too friendly to his young male associates, he was not universally loved.  Also his financial woes took its toll on his idea of absolute power, which back then kings still insisted on.  He called parliament to gain their blessing on new taxes and revenue enhancements, but the parliament even though it was constituted of persons of high birth and influence created by the crown, began having the temerity to question some of the king's policies, especially in his insufficiently Protestant foreign policy.  He only called on Parliament when he needed money, and they had the nerve to sometimes say no. 

His son Charles, when he succeeded to the crown, was even worse.  His attitude was that he was king, okay?  so you subjects mind your own business.  His increasingly Protestant subjects might have put up with him forever except that he began forcing high church ritual on people who to put it mildly were suspicious of his popish affinities. 

It did not help that there was only one church and the king felt the need to be its chief proprietor.  The idea of religious freedom had yet to be born, and if you didn't like the Church of England and the way it was run, you were in a heap of trouble.  Thus did the Puritans, originally a term of abuse, choose to emigrate to America, and others remaining in England began to wonder about the wisdom of just blindly following the dictates of this king.  Once people started reading the bible for themselves and thinking for themselves, things started getting worse and worse for the king. 

Charles pressed his luck and came to the end of it, when he decided to impose the book of common prayer on the Scottish presbyterians.  The Scots took this badly and raised an army and moved South.  What was worse was the discovery that far from having the English people behind him, they weren't all that gung ho about defending the king.  In short, many English joined the rebellion and he was defeated by them.  Stopping short of removing the king, they proceeded to deprive him of any power.  When in his political captivity he persisted in plotting against them with the aid of Catholic powers abroad,  they came up with a new idea, the idea that the king himself could be guilty of treason.  So they lopped his head off in 1649 and the Puritan faction took over for the next 11 years in what became known as the commonwealth.

The execution of Charles I, January 30, 1649

At that time, the only legal church was the Church of England, with the king at its head.   Puritans were the more radical of the Protestants within that church who wished to distance themselves from the trappings of the Roman church, its idolatry, its rituals, and even the celebration of holidays such as Christmas.   Oliver Cromwell served as the "Lord Protector" of what they called "The Protectorate".

  At this point the Catholics and Old English of Ireland rebelled and were suppressed in a very sanguinary manner.   The army, having taken down the King, turned to other amusements in Ireland, whereever spoils might be found.  Oliver was talented militarily, but when it came to dealing with parliament he wasn't much better than the former King, and he finally dissolved Parliament and ruled as a dictator.   When he died He was succeeded by his son, whose legitimacy as protector was questioned by the army and he was deposed and went into exile in France.

A short time later in 1660, Charles II was restored as the king, the more extreme reforms of the Puritans were swept away, and the royalists, the high churchmen, and the Anglicans resumed control.  He ruled for 25 years until his death in 1685.

Although married to a Catholic, Charles II in the Declaration of Breda, swore that he would rule as an Anglican, which he did for the next 25 years.  12 of those surviving rebels that had signed the death warrant for Charles I and not fled into exile were sentenced to death. Oliver Cromwell was exhumed and hanged in chains at Tyburn.

Charles II was succeeded by his brother, James II, whose religious outlook was altogether different.  He was an unapologetic Catholic. 

James II

The Protestants did not view him with much approval, but figured they could wait for him to be succeeded by the next in line, Mary who was married to William of Orange in Holland.  However when Charles II had a son, the complexion of the succession changed.  With his pro-French foreign policy and the likelihood that a Catholic succession would occur, a revolution took place in 1688.  William of Orange invaded England and support for James II collapsed.  In 1690 he decisively defeated James in the Battle of the Boyne, where James tried to rally the largely Catholic sympathies of Ireland.

As co-rulers, William III and Mary II, were on the throne together until she died in 1694. His rule as successor was not obtained without giving Parliament further concessions, such as the British Bill of Rights.   William III met with an accident involving his horse tripping on a mole hole, and died a while later (1702).  He was succeeded by Queen Anne, who ruled for the next 12 years.

  This led to widespread Schadenfreude among the Jacobites, with  toasts to "the little gentleman in the black fur waistcoat."

Anne's reign, as it turned out, coincided with the War of the Spanish Succession.   In Spain the last Spanish Habsburg, Charles II finally died in 1700.  This ruler, perhaps the culmination of excessive inbreeding among the Habsburgs in general, was an unstable and weak monarch with a prominent lower jaw and not much else to recommend him.  One of his last acts was the naming of a successor in Philip of Anjou, thus throwing his lot with the French.   The Grand Alliance (consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, England,  the Dutch Republic, Savoy, and Portugal)  wished that Archduke Charles be on the throne in Spain, thus preventing the dynastic union of France and Spain. The interests on both sides of the question of the succession led to the War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted the next 14 years. 

The war has a complicated landscape.  The war was in a sense the first "World War" in everything but name, since the French and the Allies were fighting each other not only in Europe but also in the extensive colonial empires of the French, Spanish, English and Dutch.  The English Duke of Marlborough along with his ally prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Bavarian and French forces at a small Danube town known as Blindheim.  This knocked Bavaria out of the war, saved Vienna, though the war ground on for another 10 years.    For this achievement and several others later in the war, John Churchill was named the first Duke of Malborough, and began construction of the grand country home known as Blenheim Palace.  His wife, Sarah Churchill was a close associate of Queen Anne, but the relationship soured eventually owing to Sarah's Whig sympathies.  

The War of the Spanish Succession ended with the Treaty of Utrecht, which is actually a series of peace treaties between the various belligerents.  The Allies said okay, you can have Phillip V as king of Spain, but he can't succeed to the throne in France too.   Great Britain (it had performed the act of union in 1707) got Minorca and Gibraltar.   It later lost Minorca in 1756, getting it back in 1763, and then losing it again in 1782.   It got it back briefly in 1798, but gave it back permanently to Spain in 1802 at the Treaty of Amiens. Gibraltar, however, remains a British possession to this day. 

When Queen Anne died in 1714 having left behind her many miscarriages but no heirs,  the crown went by an act of Parliament to the nearest Protestant heir to the throne, which was the Elector of Hanover, George I.  Thus the Stuart dynasty ended and that of Hanover began.