Civi séance 4
The Regency Council
Henry VIII (died 28 January 1547)
Edward VI (born 1537) ‘Protector of all the realms and dominions
of the King’s majesty that now is, and … governor of his most royal person.’
Edward Seymour
John Russell: Earl of Bedford
John Dudley: Earl of Warwick, Lord Chamberlain
Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop of Canterbury
The Scottish War
Somerset resumed the war against Scotland
10 September 1547: English victory at the Battle of Pinkie
1548: France sent troops to defend Edinburgh
1549: French attack on Boulogne
Somerset withdrew troops from Scotland
Mary Stuart sent to France and betrothed to Dauphin Francis
Edwardian Reformation: a move towards Calvinism
The reforming faction was split between moderates and radicals
—> influenced by the new doctrines from Geneva (led by Jean Calvin) or Zurich (led by Ulrich Zwingli)
Somerset chose the moderate path, lest Charles V should intervene
Abolition of Chantries Acts 1545 & 1547
=> 2,374 chantries and guild chapels suppressed the money was meant to go to charitable causes, but most of it was misappropriated by influential courtiers
The Six Articles and the Act of Treasons repealed in 1547
Peter Martyr Vermigli and Martin Bucer invited to England
(Cranmer and Somerset organized the removal and Sdoemstersuect tion of images in churches )
March 1548: parliamentary statute stipulating that communion will be celebrated in two kinds
January 1549: Act of Uniformity => the Book of Common Prayer, imposed in all churches
Confession became optional
Clerical celibacy was abolished
Calvinist change of the Eucharist=> no transubstantiation, but formulation left ambiguous
The Western Rising and other rebellions
May 1549: simultaneous revolts in Cornwall and Devon against the BCP
“Kill all the gentlemen and we will have the Six Articles up again, and ceremonies as they were in King Henry's time.”
June 1549: Somerset ordered the rebellion to be crushed at the siege of Exeter
June and July 1549: similar rebellions in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and one in Norfolk led by Robert Kett
Somerset => Northumberland
By passing laws against enclosures(converting common land into private property), Somerset had attracted popularity among the poor, but alienated the nobles.
Somerset had no other option but to surrender to Warwick.
October 1551: Warwick had Somerset executed for treason and promoted himself Duke of Northumberland.
Northumberland had met the radical reformer John Knox during the Scottish campaign
November 1550: “stripping the altars” = replacing richly decorated altars by simple wooden tables
1552: more radical version of the Book of Common Prayer:
• “mass” replaced by “communion service”
• “the body” and “the blood” replaced by “the bread” and “the cup”
• transubstantiation: “Take and eat this, in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.”
The BCP was enforced by the Second Act of Uniformity 1552
The Council of Trent 1545-1563
The Forty-Two Articles
issued by royal mandate in June 1553 affirmed predestination rejected purgatory, pardons, worshipping and adoration as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints” as “grounded upon no warrant of scripture, but rather epugnant to the word of God.”
widely accepted in the South-East, resisted in the North
Northumberland’s achievements
put an end to the Scottish war
terminated the French conflict by letting Henri II buy back Boulogne
issued coins of better quality to guarantee stability of royal finances
but the nobles continued to make great profits, while the Crown was close to bankruptcy
The Nine Days Queen
6 July 1553: Edward died but his death was kept secret for several days
10 July: Lady Jane Grey officially proclaimed Queen Mary rallied Catholic supporters and marched on London
19 July: the Privy Council ruled in favour of the rightful heir and Jane was arrested
25 July: Northumberland handed himself in
3 August: Mary entered London in triumph
22 August: Northumberland was executed
November: Jane, her husband and Cranmer sentenced to death but not executed
Mary I: a promising start
Mary let the Privy Council (led by Norfolk) govern of the realm and consulted with the imperial ambassador
She appointed new Catholic bishops using Henrician supremacy
Oct. 1553: summoned Parliament to legitimise the return to Catholicism
The First Statute of Repeal => all protestant changes illegal
With the help of Cardinal Reginald Pole, she negotiated papal dispensation on confiscated lands:
The Spanish Match
Mary wanted an alliance with the Habsburgs => Philip II
Parliament saw it as a threat to independence; idem for the rapprochement with the Pope
January 1554: terms of the marriage guaranteed that Mary alone would retain royal power
Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion in Kent aiming to depose the Queen
Wyatt executed as well as Lady Jane Grey and her husband
April 1554: marriage terms ratified by the Act for the Marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain
25 July 1554: Royal wedding at Winchester Cathedral
Marian Exiles
800 hundred people went into voluntary exile mainly to Swiss and German cities that had adopted reformed religion:
Frankfurt •
Strasbourg •
Basel •
Marian Martyrs
Nov. 1554–Jan. 1555: Revival of the Heresy Acts
March 1556: Thomas Cranmer’s execution
283 people were burnt alive between 1555 and 1558
Mary and R. Pole wanted to provoke conversions not martyrdoms
Heresy executions served Protestant propaganda and paved the
way for a more radicalised form of Reformation
John Foxe, Actes & Monuments, 1563
Reginald Pole became archbishop of Canterbury after Cranmer’s death
He encouraged the creation of colleges to form better-educated priests
He refused the aid of Jesuit missionaries
The tide is turning…
May 1555: election of a strongly anti-Spanish Pope, Paul IV
October 1555: abdication of Charles V, diving his empire between his son Philip II and his younger brother Ferdinand I
Philip II sent troops against papal states and in 1557 against France (supported by Mary)
January 1558: loss of Calais, the last English possession in France
17 November 1558: deaths of Queen Mary and Reginald Pole
Mary Tudor: success and failure
Mary Tudor was very popular at the beginning of her reign
Her moderate restoration of Catholicism was impeded by quarrels with Rome, but she managed to secure a dispensation on confiscated lands and cardinal Pole tried to implement a constructive program of counter-reformation, investing in education of the clergy
Mary reverted to the rule by the Privy Council, a practice that was to influence later reigns.
Her marriage to Philip II did more to alienate her people’s sympathy than her executions of Protestants.
In 1555 and 1556: the worst harvests due to heavy rain and floods. Between 1555 and 1558: outbreak of “the new ague” (influenza) causing the death of an estimated 10%-20% of the population.
The shift in international relations estranged Mary and Pole from the Pope, and loyalty to Philip caused the symbolic loss of Calais.
The legend of “Bloody Mary”
At Mary’s coronation, the imperial ambassador thought that she was too “good” to be a good ruler, as she rested her decisions on morality and religion rather than political calculation and compromise.
Protestant historiography, starting with the Book of Martyrs, overemphasised Mary’s repression of Protestants.
During Mary’s reign (or more precisely between 1555 and 1558), 283 heretics were burned. A high figure when compared with the 81 heretics burned during the 36 years of Henry VIII’s reign; but much less impressive when compared with the estimated 57,000executions ordered by the king during the same period.
At Mary’s funeral, the bishop of Winchester declared she had been “a queen and by the same title a king also”.