The Tudor Age

1485–1603

The Tudor age includes the Elizabethan era from 1558–1603. The Tudor age also traditionally represents the end of the Middle Ages in England. It is also the period where the population of England finally recovered from the Black Death of 1347, with the population of around 2 million in 1485 doubling to 4 million by 1600. The growing population stimulated economic growth, accelerated the commercialisation of agriculture, increased the production and export of wool, encouraged trade, and promoted the growth of London.

The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with the reign of Henry VII. Under the Tudor dynasty, art, architecture trade, exploration and commerce flourished.

The Tudor dynasty began with Henry VII who became king of England by defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485), the culmination of the Wars of the Roses, thus ending Plantagenet rule. Henry engaged in a number of administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives.

Historians agree that the great theme of Tudor history was the Reformation, the transformation of England from Catholicism to Protestantism. The Reformation transformed English religion during the Tudor period. The five sovereigns, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, had entirely different approaches, with Henry VIII replacing the pope as the head of the Church of England but maintaining Catholic doctrines, Edward imposing a very strict Protestantism, Mary attempting to reinstate Catholicism, and Elizabeth arriving at a compromise position that defined the not-quite-Protestant Church of England. It began with the insistent demands of Henry VIII for an annulment of his marriage that Pope Clement VII refused to grant.

Upon Henry VII's death in 1509, his son, Henry VIII ascended to the throne and ruled until his death in 1547. Henry VIII, flamboyant, energetic, militaristic and headstrong, remains one of the most visible kings of England, primarily because of his six marriages, all of which were designed to produce a male heir, and his heavy retribution in executing many top officials and aristocrats. In foreign-policy, he focused on fighting France—with minimal success—and had to deal with Scotland, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire, often with military mobilisation or actual highly expensive warfare that led to high taxes. The chief military success came over Scotland.

The main policy development was Henry's taking full control of the Church of England. This followed from his break from Rome, which was caused by the refusal of the Pope to annul his original marriage. Henry thereby introduced a very mild variation of the Protestant Reformation. There were two main aspects. First Henry rejected the Pope as the head of the Church in England, insisting that national sovereignty required the Absolute supremacy of the king. Henry worked closely with Parliament in passing a series of laws that implemented the break.

The king had an annual income of about £100,000, but he needed much more in order to suppress rebellions and finance his foreign adventures. In 1533, for example, military expenditures on the northern border cost £25,000, while the 1534 rebellion in Ireland cost £38,000. Suppressing the Pilgrimage of Grace cost £50,000, and the king's new palaces were expensive. Meanwhile, customs revenue was slipping. The Church had an annual revenue of about £300,000; a new tax of 10% was imposed which brought in about £30,000. To get even larger sums it was proposed to seize the lands owned by monasteries, some of which the monks farmed and most of which was leased to local gentry. Taking ownership meant the rents went to the king. Selling the land to the gentry at a bargain price brought in £1 million in one-time revenue and gave the gentry a stake in the administration.

Henry VIII's health deteriorated rapidly in 1546 and when he died in 1547 he was succeeded by his 9 year old son, Edward, who became Edward VI. The short reign of Edward VI marked the triumph of Protestantism in England. Somerset, the elder brother of the late Queen Jane Seymour (married to Henry VIII) and uncle to King Edward VI had a successful military career. When the boy king was crowned, Somerset became Lord Protector of the realm and in effect ruled England from 1547 to 1549. The new Protestant orthodoxy for the Church of England was expressed in the Forty-Two Articles of Faith in 1553. But when the king suddenly died, Dudley's last-minute efforts to make his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey the new sovereign failed after only nine days of her reign. Queen Mary took over and had him beheaded and had Jane Grey beheaded after Thomas Wyatt's Protestant rebellion against the marriage of the queen and Philip II of Spain less than a year later.

Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII by Catherine of Aragon (the first wife); she closely identified with her Catholic, Spanish heritage. She was next in line for the throne. However, in 1553 as Edward VI lay dying, he and the Duke of Northumberland plotted to make his first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, the new monarch. Northumberland wanted to keep control of the government, and promote Protestantism. Edward signed a devise to alter the succession, but that was not legal, for only Parliament could amend its own acts. Edward's Privy Council kept his death secret for three days to install Lady Jane, but Northumberland had neglected to take control of Princess Mary. She fled and organised a band of supporters, who proclaimed her Queen across the country. The Privy Council abandoned Northumberland, and proclaimed Mary to be the sovereign after nine days of the pretended Jane Grey. Queen Mary imprisoned Lady Jane and executed Northumberland.

Mary is remembered for her vigorous efforts to restore Roman Catholicism after Edward's short-lived crusade to minimise Catholicism in England. Protestant historians have long denigrated her reign, emphasising that in just five years she burned several hundred Protestants at the stake in the Marian persecutions. However, a historiographical revisionism since the 1980s has to some degree improved her reputation among scholars.[48][49] Christopher Haigh's bold reappraisal of the religious history of Mary's reign painted the revival of religious festivities and a general satisfaction, if not enthusiasm, at the return of the old Catholic practices.[50] Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor Elizabeth I.



Although Mary's rule was ultimately ineffectual and unpopular, her innovations regarding fiscal reform, naval expansion, and colonial exploration were later lauded as Elizabethan accomplishments. Mary died in 1603 and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth. Historians often depict Elizabeth's reign as the golden age in English history in terms of political, social and cultural development, and in comparison with Continental Europe. Calling her 'Gloriana' and using the symbol of Britannia starting in 1572, marked the Elizabethan age as a renaissance that inspired national pride through classical ideals, international expansion, and naval triumph over the hated and feared Spanish. Elizabeth's reign marks the decisive turning point in English religious history, as a predominantly Catholic nation at the beginning of her reign was predominantly Protestant by the end. Although Elizabeth executed 250 Catholic priests, she also executed some extreme Puritans, and on the whole she sought a moderately conservative position that mixed Royal control of the church (with no people role), combined with predominantly Catholic ritual, and a predominantly Calvinist theology. Mary died in 1603 and being childless she was succeeded by James of Scotland.

Tudor Cuisine

The main staple during the Tudor period remained bread, typically prepared from a mixture of rye and wheat flours. Meat was eaten from Sundays to Thursdays, and fish was eaten on Fridays and Saturdays and during Lent. New foods were being brought from the newly discovered Americas, such as tomatoes and potatoes. The rich commonly held banquets that consisted of a large variety of courses. Ale and wine were the common drinks of the time.

The common vegetables used in the Tudor period were onions and cabbages. However, nearer the end of the Tudor period, new foods were brought over from the Americas; these included tomatoes and potatoes. Herbs were often used by rich Tudors to flavour their meals. They created separate herb gardens to grow what they needed, such as parsley, mint, rosemary, thyme, and sage. Fruit was also eaten as part of the meal as ingredients or eaten separately. Some of the fruit eaten were apples, gooseberries, grapes, oranges, and plums. However, dietaries of the time believed that eating too much unprocessed fruit was bad for the humours. Grand (great) sallets (salads) were commonly served that mixed herbs with hard-boiled eggs, fish and cheese.

Most dishes were either eaten from or transferred from a communal plate. As a result, having clean hands was very important Therefore, they were advised to wash their hands out in the open where everyone could see, to make sure that they were clean. Most meals were served with individual bowls of water near the diner, so that fingers could be washed frequently. Diners would ware a cloth draped over their non-dominant shoulder so that the hand could be cleaned after washing.

The Elizabethan age also sees the rise of dining out as an experience. Indeed, by the time Shakespeare was producing his plays, eating or dining out was commonplace. Before the 1400s, there were no public eating-houses in the City of London. Before this, there were cookshops that acted as the fast food of the times. Eating-houses (the fore-runners of restaurants) appear around the 1550s.