The Early Tudors 1485 - 1558

The Tudor dynasty, which ruled between 1485 and 1603, transformed England and monarchs such as Henry VIII are larger-than-life figures who are instantly recognizable. But where did the Tudors come from and why were they so successful? This is where our course will begin as we examine the life and career of Henry Tudor against the background of the bloody civil war between York and Lancaster, known as the Wars of the Roses, which resulted in Henry's victory over Richard III at Bosworth in 1485 and, as Henry VII, his subsequent attempts to establish and consolidate the new dynasty.

From there the course will be primarily concerned with the English Reformation, launched by Henry VIII in the 1520s as he attempted to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. From being the ardent supporter of Catholic orthodoxy Henry used the rhetoric of Reformation to achieve his dynastic goals, initiating in the process the upheavals of the 1530s - the dissolution of the monasteries and the break with Rome etc. By the mid-1530s Henry had declared himself 'Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England' and we will consider the tortuous politics of his later reign as religious conservatives and radicals vied for his favour.

With Henry's death in 1547 his nine year old son, Edward, came to the throne and his short reign of six years witnessed the transformation of English religion in a radically Protestant direction, with two new Prayer Books issued in 1549 and 1552. Yet Edward's untimely death in 1553 brought his half-sister, Mary, to the throne, after a disastrous attempt by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland to replace her with his Protestant daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. Mary, a devout Catholic, immediately threw into reverse the religious policies of her predecessors and attempted to restore the Roman Catholic Church in England. Probably the most well-known and significant of her policies was the violent persecution of English Protestants which led to the burning of over 200 of them.

This course will lead students through these varied changes and upheavals whilst at the same time introducing some of the figures who served the various Tudor monarchs, such as Thomas Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Reginald Pole. We will also consider some of the victims of the various regimes, such as Thomas More and John Fisher, Anne Askew and the Protestants burnt under Mary. The period is one in which the 'fires of faith' burned brightly and during which Protestant England was created and established

Weekly Outline

1. Henry VII and the origins of the Tudor Dynasty

2. Marriage, Annulments and Reformations

3. Henry VIII - Supreme Head in Earth

4. England's Josiah - the reign of Edward VI

5. Fires of Faith - the England of Mary Tudor

Dr Andrew Lacey
April 2024

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