England during Elizabeth I Tudor
Elizabeth I’s reign was notable for its longevity. She was Queen for 44 years. Elizabeth came straight to the throne aged 25 out of near-imprisonment. Elizabeth aimed to accommodate the views of as many people as possible in a national Church. Continued adherence to Rome was impossible. The Roman Catholic Church had condemned the marriage of her mother, Anne Boleyn, to Henry VIII, and Elizabeth was their offspring.
When she became queen in 1558, Elizabeth I wanted to find a peaceful answer to the problems of the English Reformation. She wanted to bring together again those parts of English society which were in religious disagreement. And she wanted to make England prosperous. In some ways the kind of Protestantism finally agreed in 1559 remained closer to the Catholic religion than to other Protestant groups. But Elizabeth made sure that the Church was still under her authority, unlike politically dangerous forms of Protestantism in Europe. In a way, she made the Church part of the state machine.
The “parish”, the area served by one church, usually the same size as a village, became the unit of state administration. People had to go to church on Sundays by law and they were fined if they stayed away. This meant that the parish priest, the “parson” or “vicar”, became almost as powerful as the village squire. Elizabeth also arranged for a book of sermons to be used in church. Although most of the sermons consisted of Bible teaching, this book also taught the people that rebellion against the Crown was a sin against God.
The struggle between Catholics and Protestants continued to endanger Elizabeth’s position for the next thirty years. Both France and Spain were Catholic. Elizabeth and her advisers wanted to avoid open quarrels with both of them. This was not easy, because both the French and Spanish kings wanted to marry Elizabeth and so join England to their own country.
Mary, the Scottish queen, usually called “Queen of Scots”, was the heir to the English throne because she was Elizabeth’s closest living relative. Elizabeth, however, kept Mary as a prisoner for almost twenty years. During that time she discovered several secret Catholic plots, some of which clearly aimed at making Mary queen of England. When Elizabeth finally agreed to Mary’s execution in 1587, it was partly because Mary had named Philip as her heir to the throne of England, and because with this claim Philip of Spain had decided to invade England.
Philip decided to conquer England in 1587. He hoped that enough Catholics in England would be willing to help him but Spanish ships were defeated.
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Before and after the war with Spain Elizabeth followed two policies. She encouraged English sailors to continue to attack and destroy Spanish ships bringing gold, silver and other treasures back from the newly discovered continent of America. She also encouraged English traders to settle abroad and to create colonies. This second policy led directly to Britain’s colonial empire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
The first English colonists sailed to America and brought tobacco back to England. During Elizabeth’s reign many trade companies were established.
Ireland became England’s first important colony. The effect of English rule was greatest in the north, in Ulster, where the Irish tribes had fought longest. Here, after the Tudor conquest, lands were taken and sold to English and Scottish merchants. The native Irish were forced to leave or to work for these settlers.
Development of Parliament
During the Tudor period the changes in government, society and the economy of England were more far-reaching than they had been for centuries. The Tudor monarchs did not like governing through Parliament. Henry VII had used Parliament only for law making. He seldom called it together. Henry VIII had used it first to raise money for his military adventures, and then for his struggle with Rome.
Tudor monarchs were certainly not more democratic than earlier kings, but by using Parliament to strengthen their policy, they actually increased Parliament’s authority. Only two things persuaded Tudor monarchs not to get rid of Parliament altogether: they needed money and they needed the support of the merchants and landowners. In the early sixteenth century Parliament only met when the monarch ordered it. Sometimes it met twice in one year, but then it might not meet again for six years.
During the century power moved from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. The reason for this was simple. The Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Commons represented richer and more influential classes than the Lords. In fact, the idea of getting rid of the House of Lords, still a real question in British politics today, was first suggested in the sixteenth century.
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In order to control discussion in Parliament, the Crown appointed a “Speaker”. His job in Tudor times was to make sure that Parliament discussed what the monarch wanted Parliament to discuss, and that it made the decision which he or she wanted.
Until the end of the Tudor period Parliament was supposed to do three things: agree to the taxes needed; make the laws which the Crown suggested; and advise the Crown, but only when asked to do so. In order for Parliament to be able to do these things, MPs were given important rights: freedom of speech (that is freedom to speak their thoughts freely without fear), freedom from fear of arrest, and freedom to meet and speak to the monarch.
Life in Towns and Country
In the sixteenth century, however, this picture began to change rapidly. The population increased, the unused land was cleared for sheep, and large areas of forest were cut down to provide wood for the growing shipbuilding industry. England was beginning to experience greater social and economic problems than ever before.
The price of food and other goods rose steeply during the sixteenth and early seventeenth Centuries. But a greater problem was the sudden increase in population. In England and Wales the population almost doubled from 2.2 million in 1525 to four million in 1603. Twice the number of people needed twice the amount of food. It was not produced. Living conditions got worse as the population rose. It was harder for a man to find work, or to produce enough food for his family. Many people became unemployed. As life had become harder, the monasteries had given employment to many and provided food for the very poor. Without work to do, many people stole food in order to eat. It is thought that about 7,000 thieves were hanged during Henry VIII’s reign.
In 1563 Parliament made JPs responsible for deciding on fair wages and working hours. A worker was expected to start at five o’clock in the morning and work until seven or eight at night with two and a half hours allowed for meals.
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Good harvests through most of the century probably saved England from disaster, but there were bad ones between 1594 and 1597, making the problem of the poor worse again. In 1601 Parliament passed the first Poor Law. This made local people responsible for the poor in their own area. It gave power to JPs to raise money in the parish to provide food, housing and work for the poor and homeless of the same parish.
The pattern of employment was changing. The production of finished cloth, the most important of England’s products, reached its greatest importance during the sixteenth century.
The lives of rich and poor were very different. The rich ate good quality bread made from wheat, while the poor ate rough bread made from rye and barley.
By using coal instead of wood fires, Tudor England learnt how to make greatly improved steel, necessary for modem weapons. Henry VIII replaced the longbow with the musket, an early kind of hand-held gun. Muskets were not as effective as longbows, but gunpowder and bullets were cheaper than arrows, and the men cheaper to train. Improved steel was used for making knives and forks, clocks, watches, nails and pins.
Foreign visitors were surprised that women in England had greater freedom than anywhere else in Europe. Although they had to obey their husbands, they had self-confidence and were not kept hidden in their homes as women were in Spain and other countries.
Language and Culture
At the beginning of the Tudor period English was still spoken in a number of different ways. There were still reminders of the Saxon, Angle, Jute and Viking invasions in the different forms of language spoken in different parts of the country. However, London English had become accepted as standard English. Printing made this standard English more widely accepted amongst the literate population. For the first time, people started to think of London pronunciation as “correct” pronunciation. From Tudor times onwards the way people spoke began to show the difference between them. Educated people began to speak “correct” English, and uneducated people continued to speak the local dialect.
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Literacy increased greatly during the mid-sixteenth century, even though the religious houses, which had always provided traditional education, had closed. In fact, by the seventeenth century about half the population could read and write.
Literature, however, was England’s greatest art form. Playwrights like Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and William Shakespeare filled the theatres with their exciting new plays.
QUESTIONS FOR CONTROL
1. Why Henry VII is considered the establisher of the new monarchy in England?
2. What changes took place in England during the reign of Henry VII?
3. What is the difference between Henry VII and his son Henry VIII?
4. What were the reasons for Henry VIII for changing the authority of the Church?
5. What did Act of Supremacy of 1534 stated?
6. What was the peculiarity of the Reformation in England?
7. Why was the English Reformation a step further in the development of the country?
8. What happened with monasteries and monks during the period of Reformation?
9. How old was Edward VI when he became king of England?
10. How did Edward VI manage the country?
11. Who became the king after Edward VI?
12. Why was Mary Tudor called “Bloody Mary”?
13. How long was Elizabeth a queen of England?
14. How did she want to settle the problem of disagreement between the Catholics and Protestants? What was the result of her efforts?
15. What was “a parish”?
16. Why was Mary the Queen of Scots the heir to the English throne?
17. Why did Elizabeth finally agree to Mary’s execution?
18. Did Elizabeth I encourage foreign trade? What country did she consider to be her main trade rival and main enemy?
19. What parts of the world did English colonists begin to settle?
20. Did the Tudor monarchs like governing the country through Parliament?
21. What did Henry VII and Henry VIII use Parliament for?
22. Why did the House of Commons play a more important role in Parliament than the House of Lords?
23. Why did the Crown appoint a Speaker in Parliament?
24. What is the Speaker responsible for in today’s Parliament?
25. How did the country look at the end of the 15th century?
26. Was there much difference between the way of people’s life in towns and villages?
27. What facts show that family life in the 16th century was hard?
28. When London English was accepted as standard English?
29. How did literacy increase during the 16th century?
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