The Tudors. Learn about: Tudor life and times and how they shaped the Britain of today. David Loades. Mei Trow. Making Everything Easier!

Transcription

1 Making Everything Easier! The Tudors Learn about: Tudor life and times and how they shaped the Britain of today Henry VIII and his unlucky wives The turbulent private and political life of Elizabeth I The bloody battles, rampant diseases and religious divides of the period David Loades Historian and lecturer Mei Trow Historian and author

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3 The Tudors FOR DUMmIES

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5 The Tudors FOR DUMmIES by David Loades and Mei Trow A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication

6 The Tudors For Dummies Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd The Atrium Southern Gate Chichester West Sussex PO19 8SQ England (for orders and customer service enquires): Visit our Home Page on Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex, England Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS, UK, without the permission in writing of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England, or ed to permreq@wiley.co.uk, or faxed to (44) Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER, THE AUTHOR, AND ANYONE ELSE INVOLVED IN PREPARING THIS WORK MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFI- CALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PRO- MOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PRO- FESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at , outside the U.S. at , or fax For technical support, please visit Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: (paperback), (ebk), (ebk), (ebk) Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow

7 About the Authors Professor David Loades studied history at Cambridge, where he researched under the great Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, and spent his entire working life teaching history at various universities including St Andrews, Durham and North Wales. He is Professor Emeritus, University of Wales, and for the duration of his directorship of the British Academy John Foxe Project, was Research Professor at the University of Sheffield. He is currently a member of the History Faculty of the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has just completed a book on Mary Tudor and is currently writing a biography of Henry VIII, as well as a book on the mid-tudor navy. Mei Trow is an historian and criminologist who has written a number of books on the more colourful personalities from history, such as Spartacus, Vlad the Impaler, Boudicca, El Cid and Kit Marlowe. Mei is also a novelist with two crime detective series to his credit and a third in development. He regularly appears on the Discovery and History Channels as an expert and presenter.

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9 Authors Acknowledgements Writing a For Dummies book has been a very different experience from writing the many other books I have published, but whatever I write owes much to my pupils during a lifetime of teaching. In this instance my first debt must be to my wife, Judith, who has worked her way through each chapter. I also thank Juliet Atkins, without whose technical skills the format would have been impossible for me. My greatest debt is to the For Dummies team: to Nicole Hermitage, who invited me to contribute to the series (and who must often have had second thoughts!), and to Brian who made my work more lucid. Finally, my greatest debt is to Steve Edwards who has taken this book every step of the way and who has demonstrated the patience of Job in seeing it through from start to finish! David Loades My thanks as always to Carol, my wife, for all her hard work and technical know-how in putting The Tudors For Dummies together. My thanks also to Steve Edwards and his team, for their support and guidance. Mei Trow

10 Publisher s Acknowledgements We re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Commissioning, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Steve Edwards Development Editor: Brian Kramer Commissioning Editor: Nicole Hermitage Assistant Editor: Ben Kemble Copy Editor: Andy Finch Technical Editor: Dr Janet Dickinson Proofreader: Charlie Wilson Production Manager: Daniel Mersey Cover Photos: The Art Gallery Collection/ Alamy Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( Composition Services Project Coordinator: Lynsey Stanford Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Joyce Haughey Proofreader: Rebecca Denoncour Indexer: Claudia Bourbeau Special Help Brand Reviewer: Jennifer Bingham Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

11 Contents at a Glance Introduction... 1 Part I: Encountering the Early Tudors... 7 Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors...9 Chapter 2: Starting a Dynasty: Henry VII...29 Part II: Handling Henry VIII Chapter 3: Being Bluff King Hal: Henry VIII...55 Chapter 4: Running the Kingdom, Henry s Way...69 Chapter 5: Six Weddings and Two Funerals: Henry VIII s Wives and Girlfriends...83 Chapter 6: Building a New Church: Henry and Religion Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary Chapter 7: Ruling from the Nursery: Edward VI and His Protectors Chapter 8: Encouraging Protestantism Chapter 9: Changing with the Times: Edward, John, Jane and Mary Chapter 10: Returning to the Old Faith: Mary I Chapter 11: Ending the Dream: The Last of Mary Part IV: Ending with Elizabeth Chapter 12: Dancing with Elizabeth Chapter 13: Choosing the Middle Way between Protestants and Catholics Chapter 14: Gunning for Elizabeth Chapter 15: Facing the Armada Chapter 16: Ending an Era: Part V: The Part of Tens Chapter 17: Ten Top Tudor People Chapter 18: Ten Things the Tudors Did for Us Chapter 19: Ten Top Tudor Buildings Chapter 20: Ten Major Tudor Events Chapter 21: Ten Tudor Firsts Index

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13 Table of Contents Introduction... 1 About This Book...1 Conventions Used in This Book...2 Foolish Assumptions...3 How This Book Is Organised...3 Part I: Encountering the Early Tudors...3 Part II: Handling Henry VIII...4 Part III: Remembering the Forgotten Tudors: Edward VI and Mary...4 Part IV: Ending with Elizabeth...4 Part V: The Part of Tens...5 Icons Used in This Book...5 Where to Go from Here...6 Part I: Encountering the Early Tudors... 7 Chapter 1: Touring the Time of the Tudors Looking at the Tudor Kingdom...10 Getting to Know the Family...10 Cruising the Royal Court...12 Mingling with the monarch...12 Breaking down the Court...13 Taking in Tudor Beliefs...16 Seeing How the Masses Lived...17 Following in father s footsteps...17 Visiting the average village...17 Chartering towns...19 Paying the price...19 Trading at home and overseas...20 Building Dream Homes...21 Tutoring the Tudors: Education...21 Dying in Tudor England...22 Coping with Crime...23 Acting Up...24 Pleasing the crowd...25 Hum me a few bars: Tudor music...25 Strictly... Tudor style...26 Suits You, Sir...26

14 xii The Tudors For Dummies Chapter 2: Starting a Dynasty: Henry VII Becoming King...29 Escaping the fallout of the Wars of the Roses...29 Hanging out in France...30 Securing the throne...32 Bucking for the throne...32 Angling for French support...33 Killing a king: Bosworth Field, Making a Fresh Start...35 Reckoning Henry...35 Reckoning England...36 Removing everything to do with Richard Handing out the honours...37 Positioning Parliament...37 Getting married...39 Ruling the Kingdom...39 Choosing the right men...40 Rousting the rebels: Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck...40 Pursuing peace and prosperity...41 Figuring out finances...48 Meeting Henry, the Human...49 Passing On at the Palace...50 Part II: Handling Henry VIII Chapter 3: Being Bluff King Hal: Henry VIII Getting to Know Prince Henry...55 Rocking round the cradle...55 Educating Henry: Tutors for Tudors...56 Moving up after Arthur s death...57 Seeking Riches and Power...57 Taking on the French...58 Fencing with Francis I...59 Putting on a sideshow...60 Fighting the French (again!)...61 Making Politics Personal...61 Playing Away from Home...62 Playing away I the other Boleyn girl...63 Playing away II Bessie Blount...63 Leading an Active Life: Henry s Hobbies...63 Jousting for boys and men...64 A-hunting he would go...64 I ll see your three castles and raise you!...64 Who but my lady greensleeves?...65 Did you hear the one about...?...66

15 Table of Contents xiii Growing Old (Not So) Gracefully: The Ageing Henry VIII...66 Climb up on my knee, sonny boy!...67 Unwieldy lies the body that wears the crown...67 The king is dead long live the king...68 Chapter 4: Running the Kingdom, Henry s Way Managing Like a Monarch...69 Getting in your face...69 Who calls the shots?...70 Trying to go it alone...70 Meeting the King s Advisers...72 Working with Wolsey...72 Carrying on with Cromwell...76 Telling Friend from Foe...78 Offending Henry...79 Meeting Henry s enemies...79 Selling the Image...81 Painting power...81 Reflecting greatness in buildings...82 Punching above his weight...82 Chapter 5: Six Weddings and Two Funerals: Henry VIII s Wives and Girlfriends Courting Catherine of Aragon...84 Joining Team Tudor...84 Striking a match...85 Making babies, losing babies...85 Hitting the rocks...86 Hedging his Bess...87 Getting Heady with Anne Boleyn...87 Courting commotion...87 Getting his own way to hell...88 Déjà vu...89 Falling out of love: A losing game...90 Punishing Anne: Off with her head!...90 Marrying Jane Seymour...92 Plain Jane...92 It s a boy!...92 Taking leave: A dying shame...93 Tripping Up with Anne of Cleves...93 Making a big mistake...94 Dealing with the fallout...94 Getting another divorce...95 Lusting After Catherine Howard...95 Falling for a temptress...95 Pushing the limits...96 Reaching the end of the line...96