The Tudors
Performer Heritage
Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton 2016
The Tudors
1. The Tudor dynasty
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Performer Heritage
Henry VII (1485-1509)
Henry VIII (1509-1547)
Edward VI (1547-1553)
Mary I (1553-1558)
Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
The Tudors
2. Henry VII (1485-1509)
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Came to the English throne when the Wars of the Roses ended.
Banned nobles from raising their own armies.
Had to deal with frequent Yorkist plots.
His foreign policy was cautious.
He married his son Arthur to the Spanish
princess, Catherine of Aragon, and two of his
daughters to the Kings of France and
Scotland.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
2. Henry VII (1485-1509)
He sponsored John Cabot to explore eastern America
and planted the Tudor flag in Nova Scotia.
During his reign
• Erasmus of Rotterdam brought the Humanism of
the Renaissance to the universities of Oxford and
Cambridge.
• Sir Thomas More moved England closer to
North-European origins of Protestantism.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
3. Henry VIII (1509-1547)
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Henry VII’s second son.
A natural sportsman, popular both with the English elite
and the English public.
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Called the ‘Golden Prince’ both for his
natural good looks and his chivalry and
education.
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Granted the title of ‘defender of the faith’
by the Pope in 1521 for his Latin treatise
defending the sacraments.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
3. Henry VIII (1509-1547)
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Married Catherine of Aragon who bore him a daughter, Mary.
Asked the Pope for a divorce to marry his pregnant mistress Anne
Boleyn.
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Broke with Rome when the Pope refused and
declared himself ‘Supreme Head of the Church
of England’ with the Act of Supremacy (1534).
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Monastic chapels became parish churches and
the land of the monasteries was sold.
The new merchant class had access
to a landed status.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
3. Henry VIII (1509-1547)
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Anne Boleyn gave him a daughter, Elizabeth.
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She was tried and executed for treason in 1536.
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Henry went on to have
four more wives and
one son, Edward, later
Edward VI, from Jane
Seymour.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
4. Edward VI (1547-1553)
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The son of Jane Seymour and Henry VIII.
Made Protestant doctrine more fully accepted.
Religious services were held in English
instead of Latin.
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The Book of Common Prayer, mainly
prepared by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, became
compulsory.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
5. Mary I (1547-1553)
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Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s
daughter.
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Refused to abandon the Catholic faith.
Tried to restore England to papal
obedience.
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Married the Catholic Philip II of Spain.
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The burning of Protestants earned her the nickname
‘Bloody Mary’ and alienated public opinion.
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Died without an heir.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
6. Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
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Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s daughter.
Became queen of a divided nation, the majority of which
was anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish.
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She was twenty-five and had a strong
personality, a lively intelligence and a
passionate character.
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She had received an excellent
education: she could speak French,
Latin and Italian.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
6. Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
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She consolidated the Reformation by reintroducing the Acts of
Supremacy and Uniformity.
She allowed tolerance in church and
ceremony ornaments.
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Was unmarried and used this as a
political weapon.
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Said that ‘the Queen was married to
her people’ and became the ‘Virgin
Queen’.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
6. Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
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Went on royal progresses to be seen and to get to
know her people.
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Inspired literature, music, drama and
poetry.
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Several portraits of the queen were
painted as part of royal propaganda,
showing her as a symbol of unity and
peace.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
6. Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
Danger from Scotland
• Mary, Queen of Scots, was the great-granddaughter of
Henry VII and had a claim to the English throne.
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She had married the Stuart Lord Darnley and had a
son, James.
When the court forced her to abdicate in favour of her
one-year-old son, she went to England hoping to
receive help from her cousin Elizabeth.
She was arrested and kept prisoner.
She started to conspire against Queen Elizabeth.
She was executed for treason in 1587.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
6. Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
• Recognised Spain as her main trade rival and enemy.
• Encouraged sea-captains Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh in
their piracy against Spanish ships and took a share of their
profits.
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Defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Managed to create a popular, majestic
image of a sovereign who had been the
defender of the nation and the
preserver of peace.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
7. The chain of being
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The Tudors inherited a general concept of order from the Middle
Ages.
They represented the universal order
as a chain of being.
The chain stretched from God’s
throne to the inanimate world: a
place for everything, and everything
in its place.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
7. The chain of being
There were three parts of the chain corresponding to each other:
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Macrocosm: the universe, nature and the skies.
Microcosm: the human body.
The body politic: the kingdom.
The universe was governed by divine will.
Subordination and unity were the
natural rules for the state.
The king or the queen became the
symbol of unity and stability.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
7. The chain of being
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The Chain of Being represents the social order of the time.
Anything that is outside the chain was considered to be
chaos/nothingness/madness/evil.
Therefore, by implication, if the chain is broken the order
in the world is broken and it can descend into chaos and
civil disorder.
Nothingness, chaos, madness, evil – all of these things
are outside the chain and are not considered to be made
by God.
Performer Heritage
The Tudors
8. Man in the chain of being
• Just below the angels.
•Could aspire to greater perfection
(angelic or god-like).
• Had spirit in common with angels.
•Shared the body (mortality) with
the lower creations.
•Had also feeling and
understanding.
Performer Heritage
• Had the unique
function of binding
together all the
levels of being.
The Tudors
9. The English Renaissance
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It meant the “rebirth” of intellectual and artistic energies.
Had a strong Protestant, and in some aspects, Puritan
basis
influenced by the Reformation.
The English literature of the period lacked the pagan
serenity of the Italian Renaissance and was less
committed to the visual arts.
This explains the baroque exuberance of the powerful
speeches of Marlowe’s and Shakespeare’s plays or in
Donne’s poetry.
Performer Heritage