Catholicism towards Protestant ideology. He tried to pass a law to correct this error in popular thinking in the 1540s. It did not work. Instead his earlier comments about reading the Bible for themselves encouraged the English people to criticize their priests, and Church teachings, and to be in favor of further changes.
Henry VIII. was followed by his children Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary Tudor (1553-1558), and Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Real religious change came in his son Edward's time. People call his switch tc Protestant theology \a devout Catholic like her Spanish mother Catherine of Aragon. When she became Queen after Edward she married Philip II of Spain and attempted to forcibly reconvert England to Roman Catholicism. Many people were persecuted for their Protestant religious views. At least 300 Protestants were burnt as heretics. People call her \Mary\Mary i also remembered as the monarch who lost the French port of Calais, the last British possession on the Continent, during a renewed war with France. Thanks to Mary, Protestantism and nationalism were now forever synonymous. The reign of Elizabeth I, a Protestant Queen, was greeted with relief and a high tide of nationalism. England has been Protestant ever since.
III. Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Elizabeth was 25 when she came to the throne. She was Henry VIII 's daughter by Ann Boleyn whom he beheaded. She reigned England,
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Wales and Ireland for 45 years and she remained single. She made political use of the offers of marriage made by Philip II of Spain and others. Elizabeth's reign was a time of confident English nationalism and of great achievements in literature and other arts, in exploration and in battle. 1. Elizabeth and Parliament
Generally speaking, Elizabeth was able to work with Parliament. This was because the Puritans in the House of Commons were still loyal to the Queen although they demanded further religious reform; and Elizabeth only called Parliament at infrequent intervals when she needed its political support. Besides, Elizabeth avoided troubling Parliament too often for pounds by making strict economies at Court. But Elizabeth's relationship with Parliament was often turbulent. Parliament had grown in status since Henry, I 's day and hoped to receive recognition of this in two ways. It wished its cus-tomary right of free speech confirmed in writing; and it wanted to be allowed to start discussion of important questions at will, not by invitation. Elizabeth would not permit either thing. They conflicted with her royal prerogative to decide certain important questions herself. Elizabeth treated 5 questions as personal and private. These were her religion, her marriage, her foreign policy, the succession to the throne, and her finance. 2. Elizabeth's Religious Reform
Elizabeth's religious reform was a compromise of views. She broke Mary's ties with Rome and restored her father's independent Church of England, i. e. keeping to Catholic doctrines and practices but to be free of
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the Papal control. Elizabeth desired \to the Established religion, but that opinion should be left free.\settlement was unacceptable to both the extreme Protestants known as Puritans and to ardent Catholics.
Elizabeth I spent nearly 20 years resisting Catholic attempts to either dethrone or assassinate her. Some Catholics wished to put her Catholic cousin Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, on the throne and return to Catholicism.
Mary was a devout Catholic and also the next heir to the English throne, and had a powerful following of Catholic lords. Sent to France as a child, she returned a young widow and in 1565 married her cousin, Lord Darnley. But she became far too intimate with her private secretary, Rizzio. Lord Darnley became very jealous and stabbed Rizzio to death at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh. Shortly afterwards Darnley himself was killed, and Mary then married Lord Both well The nobles believed that Darnley had been murdered by Both well and that the Queen herself was an accomplice. They raised a rebellion and forced Mary to abdicate in favour of her son, James VI.
On fleeing to England, however, she was detained by Elizabeth in 1568 and languished in prison while plots were fermented, mostly involving the assistance of Spain. Elizabeth tried and executed Mary, after much delay and hesitation, in 1587, thus removing the conspirators' focal point. The defeat of the Spanish Armada the following year put an end to Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth.
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3. Elizabeth's Foreign Policy
For nearly 30 years Elizabeth successfully played off against each other the two great Catholic powers, France and Spain, and prevented England from getting involved in any major European conflict.
Through her marriage alliances which were never materialized, Elizabeth managed to maintain a friendly relationship with France. So England was able to face the danger from Spain.
After Mary Queen of Scots was executed in 1587, Philip II of Spain, with the blessing of the Pope, made an attempt to invade England in July, 1588, to overthrow the heretical Queen of England, to bring England back to Catholicism and to stop English assistance to the Netherlands where Protestant rebels were in revolt against their Spanish masters.
Philip dispatched a fleet of 130 vessels to land in and conquer England. The Armada (the Spanish fleet) sailed up the English Channel. But they proved no match for the more manoeuvrable smaller British ships and, having suffered heavy losses, they were dispersed by a strong gale. Driven further and further north, they were forced to sail round the North of Scotland and down the coast of Ireland. Many of the ships, however, were wrecked in their passage, and only 53 returned to their home ports.
The destruction of the Spanish Armada showed England's superiority as a naval power. The English victory meant a decisive check to the formidable (Counter-Reformation) attempt of Catholicism to recover the northern countries of Europe, and it also enabled England to become a great
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trading and colonizing country in the years to come.
When Elizabeth I died without an heir in March, 1603, she was succeeded by her kinsman King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. King James VI of Scotland was also James I of England, where he was the first of the Stuarts to take the throne.
IV. The English Renaissance
Renaissance was the revival of classical literature and artistic styles in European history. The word is from French, meaning \first applied by the Swiss historian Jakob Burckhardt in 1860. Renaissance was the transitional period between the Middle Ages and modern times, covering the years c1350-c1650. The Renaissance was a period of significant achievement and change. It saw the challenge of the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church by the Reformation, the rise of Humanism, the growth of large nation-states, the far-ranging voyages of exploration, and a new emphasis on the importance of the individual.
The Renaissance began in northern Italy in the early 14th century, and was typified by the universal genius of Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519).
In England1 the Renaissance was usually thought of as beginning with the accession of the House of Tudor to the throne in 1485. Politically, this marks the end of the period of civil war among the old feudal aristocracy in
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