BRITISH MONARCHY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS

campaign; Catherine had bore his only son while he was away and Henry died

having never seen the child. The historian Rafael Holinshed, in Chronicles

of England , summed up Henry's reign as such: "This Henry was a king, of

life without spot, a prince whom all men loved, and of none disdained, e

captain against whom fortune never frowned, nor mischance once spurned,

whose people him so severe a justicer both loved and obeyed (and so humane

withal) that he left no offence unpunished, nor friendship unrewarded; a

terror to rebels, and suppressor of sedition, his virtues notable, his

qualities most praiseworthy."

HENRY VI (1422-61, 1470-71 AD)

Henry VI was the only child of Henry V and Catherine of Valois, born on

December 6, 1421. He married Margaret of Anjou in 1445; the union produced

one son, Edward, who was killed in battle one day before Henry's execution.

Henry came to the throne as an infant after the early death of his father;

in name, he was king of both England and France, but a protector ruled each

realm. He was educated by Richard Beauchamp beginning in 1428. The whole of

Henry's reign was involved with retaining both of his crowns - in the end,

he held neither.

Hostilities in France continued, but momentum swung to the French with

the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1428. The seventeen year old was

instrumental in rescuing the French Dauphin Charles in 1429; he was crowned

at Reims as Charles VII, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic.

English losses in Brittany (1449), Normandy (1450) and Gascony (1453) led

to the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War in 1453. Henry lost his claim

to all French soil except for Calais.

The Wars of the Roses began in full during Henry's reign. In 1453, Henry

had an attack of the hereditary mental illness that plagued the French

house of Valois; Richard, Duke of York, was made protector of the realm

during the illness. His wife Margaret, a rather headstrong woman, alienated

Richard upon Henry's recovery and Richard responded by attacking and

defeating the queen's forces at St. Albans in 1455. Richard captured the

king in 1460 and forced him to acknowledge Richard as heir to the crown.

Henry escaped, joined the Lancastvian forces and attacked at Towton in

March 1461, only to be defeated by the Yorks. Richard's son, Edward IV, was

proclaimed king; Margaret and Henry were exiled to Scotland. They were

captured in 1465 and imprisoned in the Tower of London until 1470. Henry

was briefly restored to power in Settember 1470. Edward, Prince of Wales,

died after his final victory at Tewkesbury on May 20, 1471 and Henry

returned to the Tower. The last Lancastrian king was murdered the following

day.

THE YORKISTS

The Yorkist conquest of the Lancastrians in 1461 did not put an end to

the Wars of the Roses, which rumbled on until the start of the sixteenth

century. Family disloyalty in the form of Richard III's betrayal of his

nephews, the young King Edward V and his brother, was part of his downfall.

Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne of Lancastrian descent, defeated

Richard III in battle and Richard was killed. With the marriage of Henry to

Elizabeth, the sister of the young Princes in the Tower, reconciliation was

finally achieved between the warring houses of Lancaster and York in the

form of the new Tudor dynasty, which combined their respective red and

white emblems to produce the Tudor rose.

EDWARD IV (1461-1470 and 1471-1483)

Edward IV was able to restore order, despite the temporary return to the

throne of Henry VI (reigned 1470-71, during which time Edward fled to the

Continent in exile) supported by the Earl of Warwick, 'the Kingmaker', who

had previously supported Edward and who was killed at the Battle of Barnet

in 1471. Edward also made peace with France; by a shrewd display of force

to exert pressure, Edward reached a profitable agreement with Louis XI at

Picquigny in 1475. At home, Edward relied heavily on his own personal

control in government, reviving the ancient custom of sitting in person 'on

the bench' (i.e. in judgement) to enforce justice. He sacked Lancastrian

office-holders and used his financial acumen to introduce tight management

of royal revenues to reduce the Crown's debt. Building closer relations

with the merchant community, he encouraged commercial treaties; he

successfully traded in wool on his own account to restore his family's

fortunes and enable the King to 'live of his own', paying the costs of the

country's administration from the Crown Estates profits and freeing him

from dependence on subsidies from Parliament. Edward rebuilt St George's

Chapel at Windsor (possibly seeing it as a mausoleum for the Yorkists, as

he was buried there) and a new great hall at Eltham Palace. Edward

collected illuminated manuscripts - his is the only intact medieval royal

collection to survive (in the British Library) - and patronised the new

invention of printing. Edward died in 1483, leaving by his marriage to

Elizabeth Woodville a 12-year-old son, Edward, to succeed him.

EDWARD V (April-June 1483)

Edward V was a minor, and his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was made

Protector. Richard had been loyal throughout to his brother Edward IV

including the events of 1470-71, Edward's exile and their brother's

rebellion (the Duke of Clarence, who was executed in 1478 by drowning,

reputedly in a barrel of Malmsey wine). However, he was suspicious of the

Woodville faction, possibly believing they were the cause of Clarence's

death. In response to an attempt by Elizabeth Woodville to take power,

Richard and Edward V entered London in May, with Edward's coronation fixed

for 22 June. However, in mid-June Richard assumed the throne as Richard III

(reigned 1483-85). Edward V and his younger brother Richard were declared

illegitimate, taken to the Royal apartments at the Tower of London (then a

Royal residence) and never seen again. (Skeletons, allegedly theirs, found

there in 1674 were later buried in Westminster Abbey.)

RICHARD III (1483-1485)

Richard III usurped the throne from the young Edward V, who disappeared

with his younger brother while under their ambitious uncle's supposed

protection. On becoming king, Richard attempted genuine reconciliation

with the Yorkists by showing consideration to Lancastrians purged from

office by Edward IV, and moved Henry VI's body to St George's Chapel at

Windsor. The first laws written entirely in English were passed during his

reign. In 1484, Richard's only legitimate son Edward predeceased him.

Before becoming king, Richard had had a strong power base in the north, and

his reliance on northerners during his reign was to increase resentment in

the south. Richard concluded a truce with Scotland to reduce his

commitments in the north. Nevertheless, resentment against Richard grew. On

7 August 1485, Henry Tudor (a direct descendant through his mother Margaret

Beaufort, of John of Gaunt, one of Edward III's younger sons) landed at

Milford Haven in Wales to claim the throne. On 22 August, in a two-hour

battle at Bosworth, Henry's forces (assisted by Lord Stanley's private army

of around 7,000 which was deliberately posted so that he could join the

winning side) defeated Richard's larger army and Richard was killed. Buried

without a monument in Leicester, Richard's bones were scattered during the

English Reformation.

THE TUDORS

The five sovereigns of the Tudor dynasty are among the most well-known

figures in Royal history. Of Welsh origin, Henry VII succeeded in ending

the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York to found the

highly successful Tudor house. Henry VII, his son Henry VIII and his three

children Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I ruled for 118 eventful years.

During this period, England developed into one of the leading European

colonial powers, with men such as Sir Walter Raleigh taking part in the

conquest of the New World. Nearer to home, campaigns in Ireland brought the

country under strict English control.

Culturally and socially, the Tudor period saw many changes. The Tudor

court played a prominent part in the cultural Renaissance taking place in

Europe, nurturing all-round individuals such as William Shakespeare, Edmund

Spenser and Cardinal Wolsey. The Tudor period also saw the turbulence of

two changes of official religion, resulting in the martyrdom of many

innocent believers of both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The fear of

Roman Catholicism induced by the Reformation was to last for several

centuries and to play an influential role in the history of the Succession.

THE TUDORS

1485 - 1603

HENRY VII = Elizabeth of York,

(1485–1509) dau. of EDWARD IV

Catherine of (1) = HENRY VIII = (2) Anne Boleyn, = (3)

Jane, dau. Margaret (1) = JAMES IV,

Aragon, dau. (1509–1547) dau. of Earl

of Sir John King of

Scotland

of FERDINAND V, of Wiltshire

Seymour

(1488–1513)

first King of Spain

ELIZABETH I

EDWARD VI JAMES V, = Mary of

MARY I (1547–1553)

(1558–1603) King of Scotland Lorraine,

(1553–1558)

(1513–1542) dau. of

Duke

of

Guise

MARY, =

Henry, Lord

Queen Darnley

of Scots

(1542–1567,

ex.1587)

THE STUARTS 1603 – 1714 Anne, dau. of =

JAMES VI OF SCOTLAND

FREDERICK II,

AND I OF ENGLAND

King of Denmark

(1567–1625)

(1603–1625)

Elizabeth = Frederick V, CHARLES I = Henrietta

Maria,

Elector Palatine (1625– dau.

of HENRY IV,

ex.1649)

King of France

Sophia = Ernest Augustus,

Elector of Hanover

CHARLES II

Mary = WILLIAM II JAMES II =

Anne Hyde,

(1649–1685)

of Orange (1685–

dau. of Earl of

GEORGE I

deposed 1688)

Clarendon

(1714–1727)

WILLIAM III = MARY II

ANNE

(1689–1702) (1689–1694)

(1702–1714)

Joint Sovereigns

HENRY VII (1485-1509 AD)

Henry VII, son of Edmund Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, was born in 1457.

He married Elizabeth of York in 1486, who bore him four children: Arthur,

Henry, Margaret and Mary. He died in 1509 after reigning 24 years.

Henry descended from John of Gaunt, through the latter's illicit affair

with Catherine Swynford; although he was a Lancastrian, he gained the

throne through personal battle. The Lancastrian victory at the Battle of

Bosworth in 1485 left Richard III slain in the field, York ambitions routed

and Henry proclaimed king. From the onset of his reign, Henry was

determined to bring order to England after 85 years of civil war. His

marriage to Elizabeth of York combined both the Lancaster and York factions

within the Tudor line, eliminating further discord in regards to

succession. He faced two insurrections during his reign, each centered

around "pretenders" who claimed a closer dynastic link to the Plantagenets

than Henry. Lambert Simnel posed as the Earl of Warwick, but his army was

defeated and he was eventually pardoned and forced to work in the king's

kitchen. Perkin Warbeck posed as Richard of York, Edward V's younger

brother (and co-prisoner in the Tower of London); Warbeck's support came

from the continent, and after repeated invasion attempts, Henry had him

imprisoned and executed.

Henry greatly strengthened the monarchy by employing many political

innovations to outmaneuver the nobility. The household staff rose beyond

mere servitude: Henry eschewed public appearances, therefore, staff members

were the few persons Henry saw on a regular basis. He created the Committee

of the Privy Council ,a forerunner of the modern cabinet) as an executive

advisory board; he established the Court of the Star Chamber to increase

royal involvement in civil and criminal cases; and as an alternative to a

revenue tax disbursement from Parliament, he imposed forced loans and

grants on the nobility. Henry's mistrust of the nobility derived from his

experiences in the Wars of the Roses - a majority remained dangerously

neutral until the very end. His skill at by-passing Parliament (and thus,

the will of the nobility) played a crucial role in his success at

renovating government.

Henry's political acumen was also evident in his handling of foreign

affairs. He played Spain off of France by arranging the marriage of his

eldest son, Arthur, to Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and

Isabella. Arthur died within months and Henry secured a papal dispensation

for Catherine to marry Arthur's brother, the future Henry VIII; this single

event had the widest-ranging effect of all Henry's actions: Henry VIII's

annulment from Catherine was the impetus for the separation of the Church

of England from the body of Roman Catholicism. The marriage of Henry's

daughter, Margaret, to James IV of Scotland would also have later

repercussions, as the marriage connected the royal families of both England

and Scotland, leading the Stuarts to the throne after the extinction of the

Tudor dynasty. Henry encouraged trade and commerce by subsidizing ship

building and entering into lucrative trade agreements, thereby increasing

the wealth of both crown and nation.

Henry failed to appeal to the general populace: he maintained a distance

between king and subject. He brought the nobility to heel out of necessity

to transform the medieval government that he inherited into an efficient

tool for conducting royal business. Law and trade replaced feudal

obligation as the Middle Ages began evolving into the modern world. Francis

Bacon, in his history of Henry VII, described the king as such: "He was of

a high mind, and loved his own will and his own way; as one that revered

himself, and would reign indeed. Had he been a private man he would have

been termed proud: But in a wise Prince, it was but keeping of distance;

which indeed he did towards all; not admitting any near or full approach

either to his power or to his secrets. For he was governed by none."

HENRY VIII (1509-47 AD)

Henry VIII, born in 1491, was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth

of York. The significance of Henry's reign is, at times, overshadowed by

his six marriages: dispensing with these forthwith enables a deeper search

into the major themes of the reign. He married Catherine of Aragon (widow

of his brother, Arthur) in 1509, divorcing her in 1533; the union produced

one daughter, Mary. Henry married the pregnant Anne Boleyn in 1533; she

gave him another daughter, Elizabeth, but was executed for infidelity (a

treasonous charge in the king's consort) in May 1536. He married Jane

Seymour by the end of the same month, who died giving birth to Henry's lone

male heir, Edward, in October 1536. Early in 1540, Henry arranged a

marriage with Anne of Cleves, after viewing Hans Holbein's beautiful

portrait of the German princess. In person, alas, Henry found her homely

and the marriage was never consummated. In July 1540, he married the

adulterous Catherine Howard - she was executed for infidelity in March

1542. Catherine Parr became his wife in 1543, providing for the needs of

both Henry and his children until his death in 1547.

The court life initiated by his father evolved into a cornerstone of

Tudor government in the reign of Henry VIII. After his father's staunch,

stolid rule, the energetic, youthful and handsome king avoided governing in

person, much preferring to journey the countryside hunting and reviewing

his subjects. Matters of state were left in the hands of others, most

notably Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Cardinal Wolsey virtually ruled

England until his failure to secure the papal annulment that Henry needed

to marry Anne Boleyn in 1533. Wolsey was quite capable as Lord Chancellor,

but his own interests were served more than that of the king: as powerful

as he was, he still was subject to Henry's favor - losing Henry's

confidence proved to be his downfall. The early part of Henry's reign,

however, saw the young king invade France, defeat Scottish forces at the

Battle of Foldden Field (in which James IV of Scotland was slain), and

write a treatise denouncing Martin Luther's Reformist ideals, for which the

pope awarded Henry the title "Defender of the Faith".

The 1530's witnessed Henry's growing involvement in government, and a

series of events which greatly altered England, as well as the whole of

Western Christendom: the separation of the Church of England from Roman

Catholicism. The separation was actually a by-product of Henry's obsession

with producing a male heir; Catherine of Aragon failed to produce a male

and the need to maintain dynastic legitimacy forced Henry to seek an

annulment from the pope in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey tried

repeatedly to secure a legal annulment from Pope Clement VII, but Clement

was beholden to the Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and nephew of Catherine.

Henry summoned the Reformation Parliament in 1529, which passed 137

statutes in seven years and exercised an influence in political and

ecclesiastic affairs which was unknown to feudal parliaments. Religious

reform movements had already taken hold in England, but on a small scale:

the Lollards had been in existence since the mid-fourteenth century and the

ideas of Luther and Zwingli circulated within intellectual groups, but

continental Protestantism had yet to find favor with the English people.

The break from Rome was accomplished through law, not social outcry; Henry,

as Supreme Head of the Church of England, acknowledged this by slight

alterations in worship ritual instead of a wholesale reworking of religious

dogma. England moved into an era of "conformity of mind" with the new royal

supremacy (much akin to the absolutism of France's Louis XIV): by 1536, all

ecclesiastical and government officials were required to publicly approve

of the break with Rome and take an oath of loyalty. The king moved away

from the medieval idea of ruler as chief lawmaker and overseer of civil

behavior, to the modern idea of ruler as the ideological icon of the state.

The remainder of Henry's reign was anticlimactic. Anne Boleyn lasted only

three years before her execution; she was replaced by Jane Seymour, who

laid Henry's dynastic problems to rest with the birth of Edward VI.

Fragmented noble factions involved in the Wars of the Roses found

themselves reduced to vying for the king's favor in court. Reformist

factions won the king's confidence and vastly benefiting from Henry's

dissolution of the monasteries, as monastic lands and revenues went either

to the crown or the nobility. The royal staff continued the rise in status

that began under Henry VII, eventually to rival the power of the nobility.

Two men, in particular, were prominent figures through the latter stages of

Henry's reign: Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer. Cromwell, an efficient

administrator, succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor, creating new

governmental departments for the varying types of revenue and establishing

parish priest's duty of recording births, baptisms, marriages and deaths.

Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, dealt with and guided changes in

ecclesiastical policy and oversaw the dissolution of the monasteries.

Henry VIII built upon the innovations instituted by his father. The break

with Rome, coupled with an increase in governmental bureaucracy, led to the

royal supremacy that would last until the execution of Charles I and the

establishment of the Commonwealth one hundred years after Henry's death.

Henry was beloved by his subjects, facing only one major insurrection, the

Pilgrimage of Grace, enacted by the northernmost counties in retaliation to

the break with Rome and the poor economic state of the region. History

remembers Henry in much the same way as Piero Pasqualigo, a Venetian

ambassador: "... he is in every respect a most accomplished prince."

EDWARD VI (1547-1553 AD)

Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was born in 1537. He

ascended the throne at age nine, upon the death of his father. He was

betrothed to his cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, but deteriorating English-

Scot relations prohibited their marriage. The frail, Protestant boy died of

consumption at age sixteen having never married. Edward's reign was beset

by problems from the onset. Ascending the throne while stillin his minority

presented a backdrop for factional in fighting and power plays. Henry VIII,

in his last days, sought to eliminate this potential problem by decreeing

that a Council of Regency would govern until the child came of age, but

Edward Seymour (Edward VI's uncle) gained the upper hand. The Council

offered Seymour the Protectorship of the realm and the Dukedom of Somerset;

he genuinely cared for both the boy and the realm, but used the

Protectorship, as well as Edward's religious radicalism, to further his

Protestant interests. The Book of Common Prayer, the eloquent work of

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, was instituted in 1549 as a handbook to the new

style of worship that skated controversial issues in an effort to pacify

Catholics. Henrician treason and heresy laws were repealed, transforming

England into a haven for continental heretics. Catholics were pleased with

the softer version of Protestantism, but radical Protestants clamored for

further reforms, adding to the ever-present factional discord. Economic

hardship plagued England during Edward's rule and foreign relations were in

a state of disarray. The new faith and the dissolution of the monasteries

left a considerable amount of ecclesiastical officials out of work, at a

time when unemployment soared; enclosure of monastic lands deprived many

peasants of their means of subsistence. The coinage lost value as new coins

were minted from inferior metals, as specie from the New World flooded

English markets. A French/Scottish alliance threatened England, prompting

Somerset to invade Scotland, where Scottish forces were trounced at Pinkie.

Then general unrest and factional maneuvering proved Somerset's undoing; he

was executed in September 1552. Thus began one of the most corrupt eras of

English political history. The author of this corruption was the Earl of

Warwick, John Dudley. Dudley was an ambitious political survivor driven by

the desire to become the largest landowner in England. Dudley coerced

Edward by claiming that the boy had reached manhood on his 12th birthday

and was now ready to rule; Dudley also held Edward's purse strings. Dudley

was created Duke of Northumberland and virtually ruled England, although he

had no official title. The Council, under his leadership, systematically

confiscated church territories, as the recent wave of radical Protestantism

seemed a logical, and justifiable, continuation of Henrician reform.

Northumberland's ambitions grew in proportion to his gains of power: he

desperately sought to connect himself to the royal family. Northumberland

was given the opportunity to indulge in king making - the practice by which

an influential noble named the next successor, such as Richard Neville

during the Wars of the Roses - when Edward was diagnosed with consumption

in January 1553. Henry VIII named the line of succession in his will;next

in line after Edward were his sisters Mary and Elizabeth, followed by the

descendants of Henry's sister, Mary: Frances Grey and her children.

Northumberland convinced Edward that his Catholic sister, Mary, would ruin

the Protestant reforms enacted throughout the reign; in actuality, he knew

Mary would restore Catholicism and return the confiscated Church

territories which were making the Council very rich. Northumberland's

appeal to Edward's radicalism worked as intended: the dying lad declared

his sisters to be bastards and passed the succession to Frances Grey's

daughter, Lady Jane Grey, one of the boy's only true friends.

Northumberland impelled the Greys to consent to a marriage between his son,

Guildford and Lady Jane. Edward died on July 6, 1553, leaving a disputed

succession. Jane, against her wishes, was declared queen by the Council.

Mary retreated to Framlingham in Suffolk and claimed the throne.

Northumberland took an army to capture Mary, but bungled the escapade. The

Council abandoned Northumberland as Mary collected popular support and rode

triumphantly into London. Jane after a reign of only nine days, was

imprisoned in the Tower of London until her 1554 execution at the hands of

her cousin Mary. Edward was a highly intellectual and pious lad who fell

prey to the machinations of his powerful Council of Regency. His frailty

led to an early death. Had he lived into manhood, he potentially could have

become one of England's greatest kings. Jane Austen wrote, "This Man was on

the whole of a very amiable character...", to which Beckett added, " as

docile as a lamb, if indeed his gentleness did not amount to absolute

sheepishness."

LADY JANE GREY (10-19 July 1553)

The Accession of Lady Jane Grey was engineered by the powerful Duke of

Northumberland, President of the King's Council, in the interests of

promoting his own dynastic line. Northumberland persuaded the sickly Edward

VI to name Lady Jane Grey as his heir. As one of Henry VIII's great-nieces,

the young girl was a genuine claimant to the throne. Northumberland then

married his own son, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane. On the death of

Edward, Jane assumed the throne and her claim was recognised by the

Council. Despite this, the country rallied to Mary, Catherine of Aragon's

daughter and a devout Roman Catholic. Jane reigned for only nine days and

was later executed with her husband in 1554.

MARY I (1553-1558)

Mary I was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own

right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and

stubborn, her character was moulded by her earlier years: an Act of

Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the

succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother

Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death),

whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English

Protestant Church.

Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme

Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow

reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary also revived the old heresy laws to

secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a

religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different

religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). As a

result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart

from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and

author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics

were mostly poor and self-taught people. Apart from making Mary deeply

unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for

the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of

Mary's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests

of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off

after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these

possessions voluntarily as Mary invited them to do.

Aged 37 at her accession, Mary wished to marry and have children, thus

leaving a Catholic heir to consolidate her religious reforms, and removing

her half-sister Elizabeth (a focus for Protestant opposition) from direct

succession. Mary's decision to marry Philip, King of Spain from 1556, in

1554 was very unpopular; the protest from the Commons prompted Mary's reply

that Parliament was 'not accustomed to use such language to the Kings of

England' and that in her marriage 'she would choose as God inspired her'.

The marriage was childless, Philip spent most of it on the continent,

England obtained no share in the Spanish monopolies in New World trade and

the alliance with Spain dragged England into a war with France. Popular

discontent grew when Calais, the last vestige of England's possessions in

France dating from William the Conqueror's time, was captured by the French

in 1558. Dogged by ill health, Mary died later that year, possibly from

cancer, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH I (1558-1603)

Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7

September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne

Boleyn. Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of

succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward

was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-

sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her

illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a

failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November

1558. She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had

inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness from both parents. Her

45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English

history. During it a secure Church of England was established. Its

doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between

Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Elizabeth herself refused to 'make

windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the

rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity. Most of

her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her

church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those

which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century.

Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political

judgement and chose her ministers well; these included Burghley (Secretary

of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of

intelligence and also a Secretary of State). Overall, Elizabeth's

administration consisted of some 600 officials administering the great

offices of state, and a similar number dealing with the Crown lands (which

funded the administrative costs). Social and economic regulation and law

and order remained in the hands of the sheriffs at local level, supported

by unpaid justices of the peace.

Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, including

those of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly

to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of

colonisation and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by

establishing the East India Company in 1600.

The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as

Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high

point, theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The image of Elizabeth's reign is

one of triumph and success. The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana',

'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen'. Investing in expensive clothes

and jewellery (to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns), she

cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as

'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth

made at least 25 progresses during her reign.

However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty

for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from

France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-

70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from

their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after

plots against her life were discovered. One such plot involved Mary, Queen

of Scots, who had fled to England in 1568 after her second husband's murder

and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his

murder. As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as

Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible

assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586. Mary was also a

temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. In a letter of 1586 to

Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned ... to take my life and ruin my

kingdom ... I never proceeded so harshly against you.' Despite Elizabeth's

reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her

advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587.

In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory

over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The

Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman

Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the

English throne through his marriage to Mary.

During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices

and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the

1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had

been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though

she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts

to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost

over Ј5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not

match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to

some Ј392,000. Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged

war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16

sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the

period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto

legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define

Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he

would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages (as

in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain); marrying a fellow

countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth

used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic

policies. However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who

sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was,

in essence, 'married'. Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the

so-called 'Golden Speech' of 1601 when she told MPs: 'There is no jewel, be

it of never so high a price, which I set before this jewel; I mean your

love.' She seems to have been very popular with the vast majority of her

subjects.

Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive

leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home

and abroad. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a

legend in her lifetime. The date of her accession was a national holiday

for two hundred years.

THE STUARTS

The Stuarts were the first kings of the United Kingdom. King James I of

England who began the period was also King James VI of Scotland, thus

combining the two thrones for the first time.

The Stuart dynasty reigned in England and Scotland from 1603 to 1714, a

period which saw a flourishing Court culture but also much upheaval and

instability, of plague, fire and war. It was an age of intense religious

debate and radical politics. Both contributed to a bloody civil war in the

mid-seventeenth century between Crown and Parliament (the Cavaliers and the

Roundheads), resulting in a parliamentary victory for Oliver Cromwell and

the dramatic execution of King Charles I. There was a short-lived republic,

the first time that the country had experienced such an event. The

Restoration of the Crown was soon followed by another 'Glorious'

Revolution. William and Mary of Orange ascended the throne as joint

monarchs and defenders of Protestantism, followed by Queen Anne, the second

of James II's daughters.

The end of the Stuart line with the death of Queen Anne led to the

drawing up of the Act of Settlement in 1701, which provided that only

Protestants could hold the throne. The next in line according to the

provisions of this act was George of Hanover, yet Stuart princes remained

in the wings. The Stuart legacy was to linger on in the form of claimants

to the Crown for another century.

JAMES I (1603-25 AD)

James I was born in 1566 to Mary Queen of Scots and her second husband,

Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. He descended from the Tudors through Margaret,

daughter of Henry VII : both Mary Queen of Scots and Henry Stewart were

grandchildren of Margaret Tudor. James ascended the Scottish throne upon

the abdication of his mother in 1567, but Scotland was ruled by regent

untilJames reached his majority. He married Anne of Denmark in 1589, who

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