InfoBritain - Travel Through History In The UK :
Later Tudors
Later Tudors
When Henry the Eighth died in 1547 he was succeeded by his young son Edward, who was largely subservient first to the Duke of Somerset and then the Duke of Northumberland, who acted as Lord Protectors. During his brief reign Edward and his protectors tried to strengthen the Protestant Reformation begun by his father Henry. Edward was to die in 1553, and an effort was made to replace him with another protestant. Lady Jane Grey. She was staying in the New Inn, Gloucester when the proclamation ofher succession was made, a hotel which continues to take guests today - rooms can be booked through InfoBritain. But only seventeen days after becoming queen Jane was deposed by Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry the Eighth. Lady Jane's supporter the Duke of Northumberland was arrested at Kings College in Cambridge, and executed in London. Mary started a violent effort to return England to Catholicism, burning hundreds of people for holding protestant ideas. In October 1555 the protestant bishops Latimer and Ridley were burnt at the stake in what is now Broad Street, Oxford, and archbishop Cranmer suffered the same fate in March 1556. Many ordinary people also suffered execution, including apparantly, a poor blind woman who saved up for a Bible and paid people to read it to her. Understandably Mary was not a popular monarch. Even by the standards of the time her methods were brutal.
Meanwhile the future Queen Elizabeth the First, Henry's protestant second daughter, was held a virtual prisoner and constantly lived in fear of execution. She was released from close confinement in 1555 and returned to her childhood home of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. It was here on the 17th of November 1558 that a messenger arrived from London with the news that Mary had died. It is an English tradition that Elizabeth was given the news while she was standing or sitting beside an ancient oak tree in the grounds of Hatfield House. She is supposed to have quoted from Psalm 118, "A domino factum est mirabilis in oculis nostris" or "this is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes." The oak tree is a potent symbol of England. Ancient Britons are said to have worshipped the trees, and in years to come the ships that would spread English power around the world would be built of oak. The oak is perhaps as redolent of England as the white cliffs of the south coast. Perhaps Elizabeth sat under an oak, and perhaps she didn't, but true or not the symbolism involving the oak gives the story its power. There is an oak at Hatfield identified as the Queen Elizabeth Oak, the tree under which Elizabeth is supposed to have hoped for a brighter future.
An English oak
Elizabeth was crowned in January 1559, and her reign generally found an uneasy balance in the wars of religion between catholics and protestants. Ritual was changed to try and keep both groups happy. There were catholic risings, notably the rising of the northern earls in 1569, which was brutally put down. It was still necessary for catholic priests to operate secretly. This is demonstrated by the continued use of special hiding places called priest holes. A priest hole can be seen at Scotney Castle near Lamberhurst in Kent. This hiding place was used by a Jesuit priest in the 1590s. There is also a priest hole at No 10 The Shambles, in York, the former home of Margaret Clitherow who was executed in 1586 for harbouring priests. Most of the time, however, the situation was kept under control, partly through Elizabeth's tendency towards conciliation, partly through the efforts of Chancellor Walsingham's agents. Towards the end of the reign the country was united by an external threat from Spain. The scattering of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was a moment of intense national self awareness for England. Elizabeth's reign is remembered for this moment of glory, and also for other maritime triumphs such as Drake's 1577 - 81 voyage in the Golden Hinde, the first English ship to enter the Pacific, and the second ship to make a circumnavigation of the world, behind Magellan.
Elizabeth the First (Picture in Public Domain)
The reign also had an air of unreality about it. One manifestation of this unreal atmosphere could be seen in the efforts of what today would be called spin doctors making sure that Elizabeth was reflected in the best light possible. Particularly in Elizabeth's later years many other castles in the air were built. Some involved unrealistic overseas adventures; the Earl of Essex took a fleet to the Azores in a futile attempt to bring the Spanish empire to its knees; Raleigh's settlement in Roanoke Virginia lasted only two years; the idea for a settlement in Ireland to bring "civilisation" to the country was a disaster, the effects of which linger to this day. Shakespeare wrote lovely dreams for a midsummer night, against a backdrop of failed harvests and hardship. The atmosphere of pipe dreams can also be seen in some of the architecture of the period. "Prodigy houses" were built, resplendent in pinnacles, towers and gables, their purpose to receive the queen when she went on her travels. Unfortunately the houses were being built at a time when Elizabeth was restricting her royal progresses to short distances. Some of the prodigy houses, such as Longleat in Wiltshire, and Wollaton Hall near Nottingham still survive. Wollaton Hall has a particularly poignant story, since the house created for Sir Robert Willoughby at ruinous expense to impress the queen never received a visit from her.
Elizabeth is an interesting illustration of the importance of appearance over substance. If her reign was characterised by an air of unreality, then Elizabeth also had the power to conjure substance out words and spirit alone; this is an undoubted talent of great politicians. Just as Winston Churchill's famous speeches gave Britain the strength to resist Hitler's Germany in 1940, Elizabeth was able to use oratory to rally her troops at Tilbury in 1588 as the Armada sailed along the channel:
"I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too..."
Elizabeth died in 1603, and despite much persuasion never married. Many tried to win her, and the man who had the best chance was probably Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Dudley spent a fortune on Kenilworth Castle in an unsuccessful effort to impress the Queen Without any heirs, the Tudor dynesty came to an end. It was decided that the crown should pass James Stuart, King James the Sixth of Scotland. Click here to read more about Queen Elizabeth the First.