The Renaissance
“A Rebirth of Everything”
Beginning in the late 1400s, the English
Renaissance marked changes in people’s
values, beliefs, and behavior.
Rediscovering Ancient Greece
and Rome
• “Renaissance” – translated as “rebirth”
– Renewed interest in classical learning
• Writings of ancient Greece and Rome
– Found knowledge in books hidden away in
monasteries for hundreds of years
– People became more curious about themselves and
the world around them
– Renewal of the human spirit- curiosity& creativity
Names for the Time Period
• Renaissance – Rebirth of the classics
• Age of Exploration – Exploring new
lands
– Ex. – Columbus, Raleigh, Cabot
• Age of Discovery – Discovering new
inventions and sciences
– Ex. – daVinci, Copernicus, Galen
• Reformation – Martin Luther
• Elizabethan Era – Queen Elizabeth I’s reign
Renaissance Man
• An energetic & productive human being who
is interested in science, literature, history, art,
and other subjects.
– Examples: Henry VIII, Leonardo daVinci
Thomas Jefferson
It all Began in Italy:
Italian Renaissance
• Began in Italy in 14th century – 16th century
• Wealth generated from banking & trade with
the East
– Example: Venice
Leonardo daVinci
Michelangelo Bonarati
Galileo Galilei
Raphael
Christopher Columbus
Religion
• Almost everyone in Europe and Britain was Roman
Catholic
– Church was rich a powerful in religious and political affairs
– Popes were patrons of artists, architects, and scholars
• Pope Julius II – Michelangelo and Sistine Chapel
– Vatican City – “Pope’s City”
Sistine Chapel
Humanism
• Definition: Intellectual movement.
Humanists went to old Latin & Greek classics
to discover answers to question like
– What is a human being?
– What is a good life?
– How do I lead a good life?
• Sought to harmonize the Bible with
the classics
– Used the classics to strengthen Christianity
Humanism continued…
• Plutarch – Aim of life is to attain virtue, not success
or money or fame
• Made subjects related to classical education (history,
literature, and philosophy) popular again
• These subjects are called the humanities
Two Friends -Two Humanists:
Erasmus
• Erasmus (1466?-1536)
Best-known
Renaissance Humanist
– Dutch monk who lived
outside the monastery –
loved to travel
– Taught at Cambridge
University
– Became friends with
Thomas More
Two Friends -Two Humanists:
Thomas More
• Lord Chancellor under Henry VIII
• Wrote in Latin poem, pamphlets, &
biographies
• Wrote Utopia – Analyzes the social,
economic, penal, and moral problems in
England, then describes an ideal,
nonexistent society where these problems
do not exist.
• A Man for All Seasons- Play by Robert
Bolt about More’s tragic standoff with
King Henry VIII – He would not
recognize Henry as the head of the Church
of England
– He was beheaded
The New Technology:
A Flood of Print
• Printing press transformed the way
information was exchanged during
the Renaissance.
– Before- all books were copied by hand
• Johannes Gutenberg (German) –
invented the movable-type printing
press
– 1st complete book – Latin Bible printed
in Mainz, Germany (1455)
The Reformation: Breaking with
the Catholic Church
• Reformation- Movement fueled by
a group of reformers who rejected
the authority of the pope and
Italian churchmen.
– Pope Paul III (Council of Trent
-1545)
• Used to investigate selling
of indulgences or religious
pardons, and other abuses
The Reformation: Breaking with
the Catholic Church
• 1530- Open break with the Roman Catholic
Church could not be avoided
– Strong feelings of patriotism made English people
resent financial burdens imposed on them by the
Pope.
– New religious ideas were coming to England from
Germany – Martin Luther
The Reformation: Breaking with
the Catholic Church
• Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Founded new kind of
Christianity, not based on
what the Pope said, but on
a personal understanding
of the Bible.
– Lutheran Church
– 95 Theses – was a list of
complaints against the
Catholic Church that was
nailed to the door of a
church in Wittenberg,
Germany
The Reformation: Breaking with
the Catholic Church
• Humanists ridiculed old superstitions,
ignorance, and idleness of monks and loose
living and personal wealth of priests and
bishops.
King versus Pope: All for an Heir
• King Henry VIII had six wives:
– He was first married to
Catherine of Aragon
(a Spanish Roman Catholic)
– Married for 24 years
– She could not produce a male
heir
• Only Mary ( a Catholic
daughter) – to become
“Bloody Mary”
• Henry asked Pope Clement II to declare that he and Catherine were not properly
married
– She was previously married to Henry’s brother Arthur for only 5 months before
he died.
• He got his religious advisors to dig up Biblical evidence in Leviticus that it was
unlawful to marry a dead brother’s spouse.
Henry VIII: Renaissance Man and
Executioner
• There were five Tudor rulers in England
– Henry’s grandfather, father, and three children
• Grandfather- Henry VII- Welsh nobleman who seized
the throne after England was totally exhausted by the
Wars of the Roses (began in 1455)
– Battle for the crown between the
» Lancaster (white rose)
» York (red rose)
King Henry VIII
• He was a coarse,
arrogant womanizer
• At an early age he was a
“Renaissance Man”
– Very attractive, athletic,
and intelligent
• Henry could cheat on his
wives but would not
tolerate infidelity from
them
– Anne Boleyn and
Katherine Howard
• He did create the Royal
Navy – put a stop to
foreign invasions
Henry VIII had Six Wives
(1509-1547)
• Catherine of Aragon
– Roman Catholic from Spain
– He divorced her; she died of natural causes
– Children – Mary (Catholic)
• Anne Boleyn
–
–
–
–
–
Lady-in-Waiting of Catherine of Aragon
Very bright, spirited, and beautiful
Believed in the Reformation
Beheaded when Henry grew tired of her
Children – Elizabeth (Protestant)
Henry VIII had Six Wives
(1509-1547)
• Jane Seymour
–
–
–
–
Lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn
Gentle, modest, and obedient
Died after birth of …
Children – Edward (sickly boy – died of
TB early)
• Anne of Cleves
– Sister of the German ruler
– Did not speak English
– Henry thought she was ugly; he agreed
to marry her sight unseen
– She agreed to a divorce and an
anullment
– Children - none
Henry VIII had Six Wives
(1509-1547)
• Katherine Howard
– Cousin of Anne Boleyn
– 15 or 16 when she married Henry
– After her marriage to the king,
she resumed a relationship with an
“old flame”
• She was discovered and arrested
• She was executed
– Children - none
Henry VIII had Six Wives
(1509-1547)
• Katherine Parr (Lady Jane Grey)
– She was in love with Jane Seymour’s
brother, Thomas but dared not refuse the
King
– Acted as a nurse to Henry in his old age
– Good to his children and helped him
reconcile with Catherine of Aragon’s
daughter, Mary
– Henry died on January 28, 1547. Within
months she married her true love, Thomas
Seymour
– She died of complications from childbirth
in 1548
– Children - none
Reasons for Divorce
• Catherine bore him only one
living child
– A daughter (Mary)
– She was too old to bare him
any more children (esp. a son)
– She had lost 5 children
previously
• Anne Boleyn (one of Catherine’s
ladies in waiting) caught his eye
and she would not have sex with
him unless they were married
– She used this to “play hard to
get” for a while
King versus Pope: All for an Heir
• Divorce was not allowed
according to the Catholic
Church
– Especially with the royalty
(until recently in Britain
with Charles and Diana)
– Pope refuses to grant
Henry’s request -1533
• Henry declares himself head of
the Church of England
– Appoints an Archbishop of
Canterbury (as the head of
the Church in England) and
he declared Henry and
Catherine’s marriage
invalid.
King versus Pope: All for an Heir
• Catherine refuses to accept the
annulment of their marriage
– She is put under house arrest in the
Tower of London and out of Henry’s
sight
•
Henry closes all monasteries and sells the riches,
buildings, and lands to his subjects.
King versus Pope: All for an Heir
• This is the beginning of
Protestantism in England
– People thought the Church
was not reformed enough –
They thought it was merely a
copy of Catholicism
• These people were the Puritans,
Presbyterians, etc.
• Wanted to get rid of things
considered “Popish”
– Bishops, prayer books,
priests’ vestments,
church bells, stained glass, etc.
Henry’s Children Become Monarchs
• Henry was survived by 3 children
– Mary – Daughter of Catherine of Aragon
• Catholic
– Elizabeth – Daughter of Anne Boleyn
• Protestant
– Edward – Son of Jane Seymour
Was crowned at age 9 after his father’s death
• Was a sickly boy, ruled in name only
• Died of tuberculosis
Mary Becomes Queen
1553-1558
• Strong-willed, devout Catholic
• ½ Spanish
• Wanted to avenge wrongs done to her mother
– Ruthlessly hunted down Protestants
• Burned approximately 300 at the stake for their faith
– Hence the nickname “Bloody Mary”
• Married King Phillip II of Spain (she was older)
• She died of a “fever” and childless
• After her death, her sister Elizabeth becomes queen.
Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen
1558-1603
• One of the most brilliant &
successful monarchs in
history
• Her 1st task- restore law and
order after Mary’s reign
– Re-established Church of
England
– Rejected the Pope’s authority
• He excommunicated her
• To keep Spain happy, she
pretended she might marry
her widowed brother-in-law
Phillip of Spain
Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen
1558-1603
• Resisted marriage all of her life,
but she had several lovers
– Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
– Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex
• “Virgin Queen” – she became so tired of her advisors
trying to force her to marry in order to beget an heir and
secure her throne that she refused altogether.
– Cut off her hair, painted her skin white, and
declared herself
the “Virgin Queen,” married to England
This gave Virginia its name
Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen
1558-1603
• She survived many plots against her life
– Many by her cousin, Mary Stuart, Mary
Queen of Scots
• Elizabeth did not have children and Mary was
heir to England’s throne because she was a
direct descendant of Henry VIII
• As a Catholic, Mary was deposed of her
throne in Protestant Scotland
• Elizabeth enduring Mary’s plots for 20
years, then was forced by Sir Francis
Walsingham to execute her
– Did not wish to kill Mary because Mary was
a “God anointed sovereign” and her kin
The Spanish Armada Sinks:
A Turning Point in History
• King Phillip of Spain used Mary, Queen of Scots’
execution as an excuse to invade England.
• He assembled a fleet of warships – Spanish Armada
– 1558-England’s Royal Navy destroyed the Armada
• Assured England’s and all of northern Europe’s independence form
powerful Catholic countries of the Mediterranean
• If Spain had won, North and South American would be speaking
Spanish, not English.
“I know I have the body of a weak and
feeble woman, but I have the heart and
stomach of a king, and of a king of
England too.”
Flood of Literature
• Religion and national identity started England
writing as never before.
• Elizabeth was a symbol of peace, security, &
prosperity to her subjects.
– Inspired authors
•
•
•
•
Gloriana
Diana
The Faerie Queene
Cynthia
Decline of the Renaissance
• Elizabeth dies without an heir
• Her 2nd cousin, James IV of
Scotland, becomes king (1603-1625)
– Son of Mary, Queen of Scots
– Wrote books about the Divine
Right of Kings & against the use
of tobacco
– Patron of Shakespeare (King’s
Men)
– Sponsored an English translation
of the Bible
• King James Bible
– Benevolent ruler; had problems
with pious puritanical-minded
merchants
The Renaissance Begins to Wane
• Charles I (James’ son) becomes king
– Self-destructive ruler
• His powerful subjects had him beheaded in 1649
• England was ruled by Parliament and a Puritan
dictator, Oliver Cromwell, for the next 11 years
• Charles II (Charles I son) returns from exile in France
• Milton is the last great writer of the Renaissance
– Paradise Lost
• English Renaissance ends