English Renaisssnce

Henry Tudor/Henry VII

• negotiated favorable commercial treaties abroad

• built up the nation’s merchant fleet

• financed expeditions that established English claims in the Americas

Arthur

• Henry VII successor

• Married Catherine of Aragon —> created political alliance with New World rival

• died 5 months after getting married

Henry VIII

• Successes Arthur

• Married Catherine of Aragon —> births Mary

• created the Church of England when he wanted to divorce Catherine because he wanted a male heir —> separated from Catholic

• Married Anne Boleyn after divorcing Catherine

• He had 6 wives

• Edward VI —> only male heir (succeeded at 9 but died at 15)

Martin Luther

• critiziced Roman Catholic church

• 95 theses

• led to the formation Protestant churches

Protestant churches

Protesters that split from Rome because they disagreed with the corruption

Church of England

• Church deviant from Roman Catholic church made by Henry VIII so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon

Anne Boleyn

• Henry VIII second wife

Edward VI

• Henry VIII only male heir —> king at 9, died at 15

Puritans

• radical Protestants who sought to further reform and “purify” the church of all Roman practices.

Bloody Mary

• Catherine’s daughter

• took the throne after Edward

• Brought back Roman Catholicism

• Persecuted Protestants\

Elizabeth I

• Tudor dynasty

• daughter of Anne Boleyn

• took the throne after Mary

• Kept England out of costly wars, ended the unpopular Spanish alliance, and encouraged overseas adventures.

• Elizabethan Era —> England’s Golden Age

Sir Francis Drake

circumnavigation of the globe

Mary Stuart

• queen of Scotland

• Cousin of Elizabeth I

• Catholics considered her the rightful heir to the throne instead of Elizabeth.

• Got beheaded by Elizabeth

• Philip II sent Armada —> they lost —> Elizabeth remained queen

James I

• Stuart dynasty

• succeeded Elizabeth

• supported the Church of England —> angered Catholic and Protestant extremists

• Catholic group plotted to kill him —> Gunpowder Plot

• Aroused opposition n the Puritan dominated House of Commons

• Wanted Catholic style High Church rituals in the Anglican Church

Gunpowder Plot

unsuccessful plan by a Catholic to kill and blow up Parliament under the rule of James I

Charles I

• James I son and successor

• dismisssed Parliament for 11 years

• Persecution against Puritans —> they fleeded to North America

• Led to rebellion in Scottish Presbyterian churches bc he wanted to mix them with Anglican practice

• Was forced to reconvene Parliament and lost a lot of his powers

• Responded with a show of military force —> civil war

English Civil War

Royalists (Catholics, Anglicans, and the nobility) vs. supporters of the Parliament (Puritans, small landowners, and the middle class)

General Oliver Cromwell

• leader of devout Puritan army that defeated the Royalists

• Parliament and him established a commonwealth

• Theatres closed, most forms of recreation were suspended, and Sunday was a strict day of prayer

Charles II

• son of Charles I

• returned from exile to assume the throne after Cromwell’s son was bad at ruling

• His reign began the Restoration

Renaissance

• marked by a surge of creative energy and the emergence of a worldview more modern than medieval

• people became more curious about life on earth rather than the afterlife

• emphasis was placed on the individual and the development of human potential

• well rounded person who cultivated his talents to the fullest

• Began in Italy in the 14th century —> got to England in the 15th century

• Took hold when Henry VII took the throne

• Reached full flower during the reign of Elizabeth I

Shakespeare, Galileo, and Columbus

Prominent figures in the Renaissance

Gutenberg’s printing press

by the 16th century more than half of England’s population could read

Sir Philip Sidney

• Elizabeth poet protégé

Sir Walter Raleigh

• attempt to establish a colony in Virginia

• Elizabeth poet protégé

• wrote pastoral poems

• Friends with Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

• wrote the epic “The Faerie Queene” in honor of Elizabeth

• wrote sonnet “Amoretti”

pastoral poems

poem that porttrays shepherds and rustic life in and idealized manner using courtly language —> formal poetry

sonnet

• popular verse form that came from Italy

• highly intricate

• 14 line verse

• love lyric

Shakespearean sonnet

• The English sonnet

Sir Thomas Wyatt

• introduced the sonnet to England

Amelia Lanier

mysterious dark lady to who Shakespeare’s sonnets might have been addressed

mystery, miracle, and morality plays

• medieval

• provided actors and writers to develop their craft within biblical story outlines already familiar to audiences

interludes

• ridiculed the manners and customs of commoners

• had little to do with the Bible

• paved the way for later Elizabethan dramatists to write plays with secular themes

Latin and Greek dramas

• were revived during the Renaissance

• studied at Oxford and Cambridge

Globe Theatre

• one of England’s first theatres

• with sitting space on the ground in front of the stage and balconies

tragedies, comedies, and histories

Shakespeare wrote:

Christopher Marlowe

• first playwright to exploit the potential of the English language as a dramatic medium

• his tragedies were the hallmark of the finest Elizabethan and 17th century dramas

• wrote pastoral poems

masque

• plays with elaborate scenery, costumes, music, and dance

• all the actors wore masks 

Humanism

• the importance of the individual

• the spiritual value of beauty in nature and art

• power of human reason to decide what was good and right

humanists

• taught and studied humanities —> art, history, philosophy, etc

Erasmus

• led christian humanists

• dutch monk

• studied ancient Greek and hebrew to read the classics and the Bible in the original language

• sharpy criticized European society

Sir Thomas More

• saw much to criticize in the way the world was being run and believed that humans could do better

• published Utopia

translations

Earl of Surrey —> Virgil’s Aenid

George Chapman —> Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey

• the church had resisted translatng the Latin Bible into languages people could understand on the ground that it would diminish church authority and lead to heresy

King James Bible

• principal Protestant Bible in English for more than 200 years

John Wycliffe

• translated the first English version of the Bible in the 14th century

William Tyndale

• English translator

• fled the continent but got burned at the stake

John Milton

• Paradise Lost

• One of the earliest writers to be influenced by the King James Bible

• rich and complex styles mixed with religious themes

John Bunyan

• uneducated tinker and preacher who spent many years in jail for his religious beliefs

• wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress —> lacks the grandeur of Paradise Lost but its deeply felt simplicity made it one of the most widely read books in the English language

Ben Jonson

• Shakespeare’s friend and rival

• playwright and poet

• wanted to imitate the graceful craftsmanship of classical forms

• his plays provided satiric, somewhat cynical commentary on the lives of ordinary Londoners

• is masques attracted aristrocratic audiences

Cavaliers

• Ben Jonson’s followers

• Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and Sir John Suckling

• themes of love, war, chivaly, and loyalty to the throne + carpe diem

• limited, human-focused subjects

metaphysical poets

• John Donne —> their representative

• employed unusual imagery

• elaborate metaphors

• irregular meter

• intense poems of death, physical love, and religious devotion

• vasteness of the universe and life’s complexities

• blend of intellect and passion

John Donne

• Representative of the metaphysical poets

• Ben Jonson’s contemporary