BHIST2070: Early Modern England Lecture Notes Review

Comprehensive flashcard deck containing 200 practice vocabulary cards grounded verbatim in the BHIST2070 lecture notes on Early Modern England, European state systems, the Tudor dynasty, the English Reformation, Elizabethan society, the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and Thomas More's Utopia.

Monarch

A supreme ruler whose title literally translates to 'ruled by one'; historically the most powerful individual in the state, though power gradually became shared with parliament.

Crown Succession Pact of 2013

A legal pact enacted in 2013 (applying from 2011 onwards) declaring that succession to the British Crown is no longer determined by gender, allowing the eldest child regardless of sex to inherit the throne.

Catholic Succession Ban

The constitutional prohibition disqualifying Roman Catholics or anyone who marries a Roman Catholic from succeeding to the English throne, established due to historical conflicts with Catholic European powers.

Princess Alexandra of Hanover

A royal figure who was removed from the British line of succession after converting to Roman Catholicism.

'Bloody Mary'

The historical epithet given to Queen Mary I due to her severe persecutions and executions of Protestants while attempting to restore Roman Catholicism in England.

Financial Revolution

The transformative fiscal development that allowed England to raise funds rapidly for warfare by enabling the government to borrow money and strengthen military forces.

Humanism

The Renaissance intellectual movement focused on classical scholarship, literary learning, and civic critique, exemplified by figures such as Sir Thomas More.

Island Mentality

The English cultural perspective shaped by geography, viewing surrounding water bodies as natural protection against foreign invasions and as vital conduits for maritime trade.

English Wool Trade

The commercial lifeblood and primary maritime shipping export of Early Modern England, facilitating international commerce across continental Europe.

Primary Region of Royal Control

The wealthiest, most populous, and most agriculturally fertile southeastern zone of England, centered on Essex, Middlesex, Kent, and the capital of London.

Fielden Areas

Communal agricultural regions characterized by shared common land, arable open fields, and an expectation of mutual cooperation among farming inhabitants.

Forest Areas

A classification used by historians to describe less communal, often rockier or hillier English lands developed differently from agricultural open fields.

Demesne

The portion of a manorial estate retained and directly controlled by the lord for his own economic profit and production.

Landownership (Early Modern England)

The fundamental foundation of societal and economic power in England, which conferred voting rights, judicial appointments, parliamentary seats, and natural resource profits.

Justice of the Peace (JP)

A local judicial official and unpaid Crown representative appointed from among landed gentlemen to preside over local courts and administer county affairs.

Coverture

The common-law doctrine dictating that a woman's legal rights and real property were transferred entirely to her husband upon marriage.

Monasteries (Pre-Reformation England)

Extensive religious institutions housing monks that were among the wealthiest institutional landholders in England until abolished and dismantled under Henry VIII.

Leasehold

A formal written contractual agreement permitting a tenant to hold, farm, and occupy landed property for a defined duration in exchange for rent.

Lease for Three Lives

A specialized leasehold contract lasting for the natural lives of three named persons, allowing land tenancies to pass stably down generations of a family.

Serfs

Unfree agricultural labourers legally bound to manorial land, subject to compulsory labour dues, and dependent on their lord's permission to leave or marry.

Primogeniture

The strict legal principle of inheritance stipulating that all landed estates, titles, and royal succession pass exclusively to the eldest surviving son.

Partible Inheritance

An inheritance system in which an estate is partitioned equally among multiple sons or heirs, contrasted with the English custom of primogeniture.

Market Town

A designated rural urban settlement legally chartered to host regular markets for the sale and distribution of surrounding agricultural produce and manufactured goods.

London City Walls

The perimeter fortifications of London that provided physical defense, regulated access and commerce, and helped prevent the entry and spread of infectious disease.

House of Lords

The upper chamber of the English Parliament, consisting of hereditary temporal peers and clerical bishops, possessing the constitutional authority to veto legislation.

Temporal Lords

Secular aristocratic peers—such as dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons—who held hereditary seats in the House of Lords.

Duke

The highest and most prestigious title of nobility in the English hereditary peerage, ranking immediately below the monarch.

Marquess

The second-highest rank in the English peerage, positioned directly below a duke and above an earl.

Earl

The third rank in the British peerage hierarchy, positioned below a marquess and above a viscount.

Viscount

The fourth rank of the English hereditary peerage, positioned immediately above a baron and below an earl.

Baron

The lowest and most numerous rank within the English peerage, holding an automatic hereditary seat in the House of Lords.

Knights

Members of the upper landed gentry who originally held land through military service to the monarch and held the personal honorific title of 'Sir'.

Gentlemen

High-status landed commoners who lived off property rents without performing manual labour, frequently serving as Justices of the Peace.

Yeoman

Substantial, prosperous independent farmers who owned or leased sizable estates, employed labourers, and were considered the economic 'backbone of the country.'

Husbandman

A small-scale farmer holding less property than a yeoman, who relied heavily on livestock, worked alongside family members, and occasionally employed labourers.

Cottager

A poor rural inhabitant who resided in a small cottage on another's estate in exchange for providing seasonal or daily agricultural labour.

Labourer

The lowest rank of free rural society, consisting of landless individuals whose livelihood depended entirely on selling manual physical work.

Sumptuary Laws

Parliamentary statutes prescribing acceptable dress, fabrics, furs, and ornamentation for individuals based strictly upon their social rank and hierarchy.

Social Deference

The rigid behavioral etiquette of early modern society requiring individuals to show outward submission to social superiors, such as lowering or removing one's hat.

Nuclear Family

The predominant household model in Early Modern England, typically consisting of a married man, a woman, and their immediate children.

Christian Worldview (Early Modern Europe)

The universal cultural framework where nearly all citizens were baptized believers, society was organized around reaching heaven, and atheism was unintelligible.

Aristotelian Cosmography

The geocentric cosmological theory asserting that the Earth remains motionless at the center of the universe, surrounded by concentric celestial spheres.

Organic Metaphor of Society

The early modern conceptual model comparing human society to a biological body, where every rank fulfills a distinct, necessary, and unequal function.

Great Chain of Being

The universal philosophical concept positing a strict, divinely ordained hierarchical continuum encompassing all existence from God down to inanimate matter.

Black Death (1347–1350)

The catastrophic bubonic plague pandemic that eradicated one-third to one-half of Europe's population, sparking severe labour shortages that effectively ended serfdom.

Hundred Years War (1337–1453)

The protracted conflict between England and France over continental territorial claims, resulting in French victory and the crystallizing of national identities.

Fall of Constantinople (1453)

The Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine capital, prompting Greek-speaking scholars to flee to Western Europe and help spark the Renaissance.

Hereditary Monarchy

A monarchical governance model, exemplified by France, where the sovereign crown passes automatically through dynastic succession to the monarch's direct heir.

Composite Monarchy (Joint Monarchy)

A political union, such as Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella, where distinct kingdoms are united under one dynasty while maintaining separate domestic administrations.

Fragmented Empire

A decentralized political entity, exemplified by the Holy Roman Empire, composed of numerous quasi-independent duchies, principalities, and imperial cities.

Papal States

The theocratic territory in central Italy governed directly by the Pope as temporal sovereign and ecclesiastical head of the Roman Catholic Church.

'New Monarchies'

Renaissance-era European states characterized by royal centralization, professionalized bureaucracies, permanent standing armies, and expanded royal revenues.

Court Surveillance of Nobility

The centralizing monarchical strategy of compelling powerful aristocrats to attend the royal court to monitor their activities and prevent regional conspiracies.

Union of Castile and Aragon (1469)

The dynastic marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, establishing a joint foreign policy while preserving separate internal administrations.

Ferdinand II and Isabella I

The Catholic Monarchs of Spain who unified Castile and Aragon, established the Spanish Inquisition, completed the Reconquista, and funded Columbus's voyage.

Spanish Inquisition (1478)

An ecclesiastical tribunal established by Ferdinand and Isabella to detect and eliminate heresy, celebrated by historians for its robust archival documentation.

Heresy

Any religious belief, opinion, or practice that deviates from or contradicts orthodox Church dogma.

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492)

The royal decree issued by Ferdinand and Isabella requiring all practicing Jews to convert to Roman Catholicism or leave Spain.

Conquest of Granada (1492)

The military conquest of the last Islamic emirate on the Iberian Peninsula by Ferdinand and Isabella, completing the centuries-long Reconquista.

Conversion or Expulsion of Spanish Muslims (1502)

The royal policy mandating that all remaining Islamic subjects within the Spanish kingdoms convert to Christianity or face exile.

Spanish Nobility's View on Labour

The pervasive aristocratic cultural mentality in early modern Spain that despised manual work and commercial labour as dishonourable.

Christopher Columbus (1492)

The Genoese explorer sponsored by Spain whose Atlantic voyage initiated European colonization and global trade networks in the Americas.

'Gold, God, and Glory'

The historical phrase summarizing the economic, religious, and personal prestige motivations that drove Iberian overseas voyages of discovery.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

A treaty arbitrated by the Papacy dividing non-European lands between Spain and Portugal, granting Spain the Americas and Portugal Africa, Asia, and Brazil.

Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor)

The Habsburg ruler who unified an enormous dynastic empire encompassing Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries, Austria, and Spanish America.

House of Valois

The French royal ruling dynasty (1328–1589) that oversaw territorial consolidation, fought the Italian Wars, and centralized French royal authority.

Louis XII of France

The Valois monarch (reigned 1498–1515) who engaged France in the Italian Wars and pursued territorial integration of regions like Brittany.

Estates-General

The weak, infrequently convened advisory assembly of France comprising representatives from the clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Three Estates of the Realm

The traditional tripartite division of European society consisting of those who pray (clergy), those who fight (nobility), and those who work (commoners).

'Auld Alliance'

The historic mutual defense alliance between Scotland and France directed against their common adversary, England, lasting from 1295 to 1560.

Holy Roman Empire (HRE)

The complex, decentralized elective confederation of Central European states famously characterized by Voltaire as 'not holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.'

House of Habsburg

The prominent Central European dynasty based in Austria that dominated the Holy Roman Empire and Spain through strategic dynastic marriages.

Maximilian I

The Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 1493–1519) who expanded his family's global territorial reach through advantageous dynastic marriages.

Republic of Venice

A wealthy northern Italian maritime republic ruled by a Doge, renowned for dominating the Middle Eastern spice trade and pioneering resident embassies.

Vasco da Gama (1498)

The Portuguese navigator who sailed around the southern coast of Africa into the Indian Ocean, establishing a direct oceanic spice trade route to India.

Battle of Bosworth Field (1485)

The decisive conflict ending the Plantagenet dynasty where King Richard III was killed and Henry Tudor claimed the English throne as Henry VII.

Wars of the Roses (1455–1485)

The intermittent civil wars fought between the rival royal branches of York and Lancaster for the possession of the English crown.

House of Plantagenet

The royal dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of England from 1154 until the defeat and death of Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485.

House of Tudor

The royal ruling dynasty of England established by Henry VII in 1485, presiding over modern state development until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.

Edward III

The English king (reigned 1327–1377) whose large family of six surviving sons gave rise to the competing dynastic branches that fought the Wars of the Roses.

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

A surprise English victory during the Hundred Years War where Henry V's outnumbered forces defeated the French army, making him heir to the French throne.

Henry VI

The ineffective Lancastrian king who suffered bouts of mental instability, lost English territories in France, and was deposed during the Wars of the Roses.

Port of Calais

The sole remaining continental French territory held by England following the Hundred Years War, serving as a symbolic foothold until lost in 1558.

Edward IV

The Yorkist Duke who successfully deposed Henry VI in 1461 to seize the English crown as the first Yorkist monarch.

Edward V

The twelve-year-old Yorkist king who inherited the throne in 1483 but was set aside and confined to the Tower of London by his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester.

Richard III

The Duke of Gloucester who seized the crown from his nephew Edward V in 1483 and was killed two years later at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Princes in the Tower

Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances after being confined in the Tower of London by Richard III.

Titulus Regius

The parliamentary declaration procured by Richard III declaring Edward IV's marriage invalid, which bastardized his nephews and justified Richard's succession.

Henry VII (Henry Tudor)

The first Tudor monarch (reigned 1485–1509) who secured the throne through conquest, consolidated royal power, and restored government finances.

Predating of Henry VII's Reign

Henry VII's political tactic of dating his reign to the day before Bosworth Field, allowing him to legally convict his opponents of treason.

Act of Attainder

A legislative act passed by Parliament that declared a person guilty of treason without a trial, resulting in execution and forfeiture of their landed estates.

Lambert Simnel

A lowborn Oxford youth coached by Yorkist conspirators to impersonate royal blood as 'King Edward VI', crowned in Dublin before his rebellion was defeated.

Elizabeth of York

The eldest daughter of Edward IV whose marriage to Henry VII united the houses of York and Lancaster and stabilized the Tudor succession.

Arthur, Prince of Wales

The eldest son of Henry VII whose marriage to Catherine of Aragon forged an alliance with Spain until his sudden death in 1502.

Treaty of Medina del Campo (1489)

A diplomatic marriage agreement between England and Spain that arranged the betrothal of Arthur Tudor and Catherine of Aragon against France.

Crown Wardship

The lucrative feudal prerogative enabling the monarch to seize control of the lands and arranged marriages of underage aristocratic heirs.

Privy Council

The inner circle of noble advisors and royal ministers who advised the monarch, determined state policy, and managed national administration.

Court of Star Chamber

A royal prerogative court operating in the Palace of Westminster capable of judging and disciplining wealthy aristocrats beyond the reach of local common-law courts.

Court of Equity

A court such as the Star Chamber that possessed the power to deliver fair judgments and grant royal mercy by setting aside strict legal technicalities.

The King's Great Matter

The political and theological crisis provoked by Henry VIII's desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn.