Introduction to Elizabethan England c1568-1603
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- Created on: 03-05-20 14:18
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- Introduction to Elizabethan England c1568-1603
- SCOTLAND
- ruled over by the Stuarts
- although their royal family was closely related to the Tudors, Scotland was a traditional enemy of England & the 2 countries had been at war many times
- Henry VIII had spent huge amounts of money on an invasion of Scotland in the 1540s
- Scotland's main ally was France (the Auld Alliance)
- the Protestant Reformation had spread there by late 1550s
- when Elizabeth became Queen, Scotland was ruled over by her young cousin, Mary Queen of Scots
- ruled over by the Stuarts
- IRELAND
- the English King had ruled as Lord of Ireland since the 12th century
- Henry VIII took more direct control in the 1940s, declaring himself to be the King of Ireland
- the English only ruled a small area around Dublin known as The Pale, with local chieftains retaining a lot of power
- most Irish people were Roman Catholic, so Ireland could easily be used by the enemy as a base for attacking England
- there were a number of rebellions here in the Tudor period
- English Protestant settlers began to colonise Ireland in so-called 'plantations'
- the English King had ruled as Lord of Ireland since the 12th century
- THE NETHERLANDS
- just across the English Channel, the Low Countries were ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs
- many English merchants sold their goods here
- the cloth market at Antwerp was particularly important to England's economy
- the Protestant Reformation spread here, as elsewhere in northern Europe, & there was along period of rebellion against Spain in which England became involved
- FRANCE
- a powerful country & England's traditional enemy
- English monarchs historically claimed to be the rightful rulers of France & the French intermittently paid a 'pension'- a kind of bribe to England
- Henry VIII went to war against France many times
- the French had a strong alliance with Scotland
- although the Roman Catholic Church remained strong here, Protestant ideas spread
- France was preoccupied with religious wars for much of Elizabeth's reign
- a powerful country & England's traditional enemy
- THE PAPACY
- the Pope was the head of the Roman Catholic Church. He lived in the Vatican in Rome
- the Catholic Church was enormously powerful & wealthy, & it was also corrupt
- people like Martin Luther started to criticise the Catholic Church in the early part of the 16th century
- this led to the Reformation
- those who protested became known as Protestants
- the Church in Western Europe split, with many northern Europe countries becoming Protestant
- England broke away from Rome in the 1530s under Henry VIII
- this led to the Reformation
- people like Martin Luther started to criticise the Catholic Church in the early part of the 16th century
- SPAIN
- a newly unified nation, Spain was the wealthiest & most powerful European country in the 16th century
- its ruler during the Elizabethan period was Elizabeth's brother-in-law, King Phillip II
- Spain built a large overseas empire in Central & South America
- it had close ties to the Holy Roman Empire
- it ruled over other territories, including the Low Countries, parts of Italy & from 1580, Portugal
- it was strongly Roman Catholic
- Spain had been a traditional ally of England but this changed & it became England's main enemy during Elizabeth's reign
- ENGLAND & WALES
- ruled over by the Tudors from 1485, after a long period of civil war known as the Wars of the Roses
- the monarch had a lot of power, but there was also a parliament & the nobility were powerful, too
- Government became far more bureaucratic & modern in this period
- the Church was rich & powerful, but it lost its political independence after England underwent a reformation when it broke away from the Catholic Church in the 1530s
- the Church became state-controlled & the power of the monarchy grew as a result
- as part of the English Reformation, the monasteries were dissolved in the 1530s
- this led to huge rebellion in the north called the Pilgrimage of Grace
- the break with Rome was followed by a lot of religious confusion & deep divisions between Catholics & Protestants
- at the start of the 16th century, there were about 2.7 million people living in the country
- the population had risen to over 4 million by the end of the Tudor period
- most people lived in the south east of England
- woollen cloth was England's most important industry & export product
- about 9/10 people lived in rural ares & most worked the land
- the growing trend was to enclose the land so it could be used for sheep farming rather than growing crops
- there were a few towns, like York & Norwich, but they were small by modern standards, only containing a few thousand inhabitants
- London was the most important settlement & its population quadrupled in the 16th century, to about 200 000 people
- communications were very slow & the roads were terrible
- the North, the West country & Wales were difficult to govern because of their distance from thier capital
- although most people were illiterate, education was growing
- there were 2 universities in England (Oxford & Cambridge) & Elizabeth founded Trinity College in Dublin
- a growing number of grammar schools were set up
- the invention of the printing press aided the spread of new ideas & books became more affordable
- SCOTLAND
- a powerful country & England's traditional enemy
- English monarchs historically claimed to be the rightful rulers of France & the French intermittently paid a 'pension'- a kind of bribe to England
- Henry VIII went to war against France many times
- the French had a strong alliance with Scotland
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