House of Tudor

Delice Bette | April 2, 2023

Summary

The Tudor dynasty (1485 – 1603) is an English dynasty founded by Henry VII, who became king after the Battle of Bosworth, when he overthrew Richard III, the last representative of the York dynasty in the Wars of the Roses. Henry VII reigned from 1485 to 1509 and was succeeded by Henry VIII (king from 1509 to 1547), Edward VI (1547-1553), Mary (1553-1558), Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Elizabeth died without issue, the throne of England being taken by her cousin, James VI of Scotland, the son of her beheaded enemy, Mary Stuart. James thus became King of England (the first of the Stuart dynasty) as James I of England.

The House of Tudor is descended in the maternal line of Henry VII of England from John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, one of the illegitimate children of Prince John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (third surviving son of Edward III of England), conceived with his mistress, Katerina Swynford. The offspring of an illegitimate English royal child would normally have no claim to the throne, but the situation became complicated when Gaunt and Swynford finally married in 1399, when John Beaufort was 25. The Church retroactively declared Beaufort legitimate by a papal bull of the same year, confirmed by an Act of Parliament in 1397. A later proclamation by John de Gaunt”s legitimate son, Henry IV of England, also recognised the legitimacy of Beaufort”s descendants, but declared them ineligible to ever inherit the throne. However, the Beaufort family remained allied with Gaunt”s legitimate descendants from his first marriage, from the House of Lancaster.

On 1 November 1455, John Beaufort”s niece, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, married King Henry VI of England”s half-brother, Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond. It was his father, Owen Tudor, who abandoned Welsh patronymic practices and adopted the surname. When he did so, he did not, as was customary, choose his father”s name, Maredudd, but chose his grandfather”s name, Tewdur (Welsh) or Tudor. Owen Tudor was bodyguard to the widowed Queen Catherine of Valois, whose husband, Henry V of England, died in 1422. Evidence suggests that the two married in secret in 1429. Their two sons, Edmund and Jasper, were among the staunch supporters of the House of Lancaster in the struggle against the House of York.

Henry VI ennobled his half-brothers. Edmund became Earl of Richmond and married Margaret Beaufort, great-granddaughter of John de Gaunt, progenitor of the House of Lancaster. Jasper became Earl of Pembroke and by 1460 had amassed so many offices in Wales that he became the country”s virtual viceroy. Edmund died in November 1456. On 28 January 1457, his widow, who had just turned 14, gave birth to a son, Henry VII of England, in her brother-in-law”s house at Pembroke Castle.

Henry Tudor spent his childhood at Raglan Castle, the home of William Herbert, the first Earl of Pembroke and a noted Yorkist. After the assassination of Henry VI of England and his son Edward in 1471, Henry became the person on whom the House of Lancaster could rely. Concerned for his nephew”s life, Jasper Tudor took Henry to Britain to keep him safe. Lady Margaret remained in England and remarried, living quietly while championing the cause of the House of Lancaster and her son. Taking advantage of King Richard III of England”s growing lack of popularity, she was able to forge an alliance with disaffected Yorkists in support of her son. Fourteen years later, Henry and Jasper sailed from the mouth of the Seine to Milford Haven, where they defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. After this victory, Henry Tudor proclaimed himself King Henry VII of England.

Henry”s first concern was to secure his throne. On 18 January 1486 at Westminster Abbey, he honoured the promise he had made three years earlier and married Elizabeth of York. The two were third cousins, both being great-great-grandchildren of John de Gaunt. The marriage united the feuding houses of Lancaster and York and gave his children a firm basis to claim the throne. The unification of the two houses is symbolised by the Tudor Rose emblem, combining the white rose of the House of York with the red rose of the House of Lancaster.

Henry VII and Queen Elizabeth had several children, but only four survived: Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry, Duke of Richmond, Margaret, who married James IV of Scotland, and Mary, who married Louis XII of France. One of Henry VII”s aims was to secure the dynasty by marrying Margaret to King James IV of Scotland and his eldest son Arthur to Catherine of Aragon, forming a strong alliance with the monarchy of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. However, four months after their marriage, Arthur died, leaving his brother Henry the sole heir to the throne. Henry VII obtained a papal dispensation allowing his son to marry Arthur”s widow; however Henry VII chose to postpone the marriage for some time.

Henry VII chose to limit his involvement in European politics. He participated in the war only twice, the first time in 1489 during the Breton Crisis and the British invasion, and the second in 1496 – 1497, where he lent his support to the revenge of the Scotsman Perkin Warbeck and his invasion of northern England. Henry VII made peace with France in 1497 and the war with Scotland was abandoned because of the Western Rebellion of 1497. Henry VII also made peace with James IV in 1502, paving the way for him to marry his daughter Margaret.

One of Henry VII”s main concerns during his reign was the re-accumulation of funds in the royal treasury. England had never been one of Europe”s wealthy countries, and after the Wars of the Roses, the treasury was almost empty. Through his economic strategy, he was able to leave a considerable sum to his son and heir to the throne, Henry VIII. Although it is debated whether Henry VII was a great king, he was certainly a successful one: he restored the country”s finances, strengthened the judiciary and managed to remove all challengers to the throne and ensure the continuity of his family.

The new king, Henry VIII of England married Catherine of Aragon on 11 June 1509; they were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 24 June the same year. Catherine was the wife of Henry”s older brother, which made their marriage troubled from the start. A papal dispensation had to be granted before Henry could marry Catherine, and the marriage negotiations took some time. Despite the fact that Henry”s father died before he could marry Catherine, he was determined to do so from the beginning. When Henry came to the throne, he took little interest in government, being more occupied with sport and the luxurious life of the court. He let Chancellor Wolsey rule the kingdom for the first two years, and when he became interested in military strategy, Henry became more concerned with ruling the kingdom like a true king.

In his youth, Henry was described as a gentle man who acted more like an interlocutor than a king. He was a generous man and offered gifts and titles to all subjects who served him with confidence.

Unfortunately, Catherine was unable to provide Henry with any male heirs; Catherine”s first child was a daughter, who died in childbirth, and her second was a son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall, who died 52 days after birth. Several other children were stillborn or died in childbirth until Mary was born in 1516. When it became clear to Henry that the Tudor dynasty was in danger, he consulted his minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, about the possibility of an annulment of his marriage to Catherine. Along with Henry”s concern about not having an heir, it was also clear that he was beginning to distance himself from his wife, who was showing signs of ageing as she was six years older than him. Wolsey visited Rome, where he hoped to obtain the Pope”s consent to an annulment. However, the church was reluctant about the papal dispensation it had offered several years earlier and felt pressure from Catherine”s nephew, Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, who opposed the annulment and supported his aunt.

Caterina challenged the proceedings, a protracted legal battle ensued. Wolsey was no longer the king”s favourite after failing to get the annulment, so Henry appointed Thomas Cronwell in his place. Despite his failure to produce the results Henry wanted, Wolsey remained preoccupied with the matter, but he never foresaw that Henry would marry Anne Boleyn, with whom the king had fallen madly in love while she was lady-in-waiting in Queen Catherine”s household. It is not known exactly how involved Wolsey was in the Reformation, but it was clear Henry”s mad desire to marry Anne Boleyn through his participation in the Schism. Henry”s preoccupation with having a male heir in his family line was growing by the day, prompting him to seek an annulment sooner or later, even if Anne did not appear in his life.

Wolsey began a secret plot to force Anne into exile, beginning communication with Queen Catherine and the Pope to that end. When this was discovered, Heric ordered Wolsey”s arrest and had he not died suddenly in 1530, he would have been executed for treason.

To allow Henry to annul his marriage to Catherine, the English Parliament passed laws severing relations with Rome, and declared him Supreme Head of the Church of England. It was the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cromwell, who annulled Henry and Catherine”s marriage. Catherine was removed from court and spent the remaining three years of her life in various houses in England under supervision, similar to house arrest. This allowed Henry to marry Anne Boleyn, the daughter of a diplomat, Sir Thomas Boleyn. On 7 September 1533, Anne gave birth to her first child, Elizabeth, naming her in honour of Henry”s mother. Anne had several other pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or stillbirth. In May 1536, Anne was arrested along with six other courtiers. Thomas Cromwell intervened claiming that Anne had had several lovers during her marriage to Henry. Anne Boleyn was charged with treason, witchcraft and adultery (the charges were most likely trumped up) and was executed in May 1536.

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Protestant Alliance

Henry married for the third time Jane Seymour, daughter of the Wiltshire knight, with whom he had fallen in love when she was lady-in-waiting in Queen Anne”s household. In 1537, Jane gave birth to a son, who would become King Edward VI of England. Jane died of childbed fever just days after giving birth, leaving Henry devastated. Henry considered Jane his ”true” wife, the only one who had given him the heir he so desperately wanted.

Thomas Cromwell, appointed Earl of Essex, suggests a marriage to a German Protestant princess Anne of Cleves, sister of the Duke of Cleves, who was seen as an important ally in the event of a Roman Catholic attack on England. Hans Holbein the Younger was sent to Cleves to paint a portrait of Anne for the king. Although he is said to have painted her in a flattering light, it is unlikely that the portrait was wildly inaccurate, as Holbein remained a favourite at court. After looking at Holbein”s painted portrait and asking for descriptions from the courtiers, Henry agreed to the marriage. After Anne”s arrival in England, Henry finds her completely unattractive. Nevertheless, the marriage takes place on 6 January 1540.

Soon the king wants to annul the marriage not only because the two were not getting along, but also because the Duke of Cleves was engaged in a dispute with the Holy Roman Empire, with whom Henry wanted peace. Queen Anne was smart enough not to prevent Henry”s attempt to annul the marriage. When questioned, she confessed that the marriage was never consummated. Henry said he went into the room every night and kissed his new bride on the forehead before bed. All impediments to an annulment were thus removed. The marriage was dissolved and Anne was given the title “The King”s Sister” and Hever Castle, the former Boleyn residence. Cromwell, meanwhile, fell into disgrace for his role in arranging the marriage; he was subsequently beheaded.

His fifth marriage to the Catholic Catherine Howard, granddaughter of Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, who was promoted by Norfolk itself in the belief that Henry would restore Catholicism to England. He was absolutely delighted with his new queen. Shortly after her marriage, Queen Catherine had an affair with the courtier Thomas Culpeper. She also employs Francis Dereham, the man she was previously engaged to and had an affair with before her marriage, as her secretary. Thomas Cramwell, who opposed the Roman Catholic Howard family, brought evidence of Queen Catherine”s activities to the King”s attention. Although Henry initially refused to believe the claims, he allowed Cramwell to conduct an investigation, which led to Queen Catherine”s involvement. When questioned, the queen may have admitted to a contract with Dereham before she married, which would have rendered her marriage to Henry invalid, but she claimed Dereham forced her into an adulterous relationship. At the same time, Dereham exposed the Queen”s relationship with Thomas Culpeper. As with Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard could not be charged with adultery since the marriage was officially void. Again, this point was ignored and Catherine was executed on 13 February 1542. When she died she was between 17 and 22 (opinions differ as to her year of birth).

By the time Henry married another Protestant, Chaterine Parr in 1543, the old Roman Catholic councils, including the powerful Duke of Norfolk, had lost their power and influence. The Duke was still a devout Catholic, and had almost succeeded in persuading Henry to arrest Chaterine for preaching Lutheran doctrine to Henry. However, she managed to reconcile with the king, swearing that she had argued with him on the subject of religion only to take his mind off the pain he was suffering from, due to his ulcerated leg. It was also she who helped him reconcile with his daughters, Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth.

In the last years of his life, Henry became obese and had to be moved with the help of a mechanical invention. He was covered with painful abscesses and possibly suffered from gout. His obesity began in 1536 when he suffered an accident that left him with leg injuries. This prevented him from exercising and gradually they became ulcerated. Without grieving they hastened his death at the age of 55 on 28 January 1547 at Whitehall Palace. One credible theory suggests that the medical symptoms of Henry and his elder sister Margaret Tudor were characteristic of untreated type II diabetes.

In his will, Henry reinstated his daughters from his two annulled marriages to Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn in the line of succession, but did not recognize them as legitimate daughters (since his marriages were annulled, legally, they never took place, so the two daughters were illegitimate). In the event that all three of his children died without heirs, the will stipulated that the descendants of his elder sister Mary would have priority over the descendants of his younger sister Margaret, Queen of Scots. Nine-year-old Edward, son of Jane Seymour, inherited the throne as Edward VI of England. Unfortunately, the young king”s reign was usually in a constant squabble between nobles trying to consolidate their position in the kingdom.

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Duke of Somerset of England

Although Henry specified the group of men to act as regents during Edward”s minority, Edward Seymour, the little king”s uncle, quickly took over and proclaimed himself Duke of Somerset on 15 February 1547. Somerset aimed to unite England with Scotland through Edward”s marriage to the young Queen Mary of Scotland, which was intended to force the English Reformation on the Church of Scotland. Somerset led a large and well-equipped army into Scotland, where he and the Scottish regent James Hamilton, 2nd Duke of Arran, clashed at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh on 10 September 1547. Somerset”s army defeated the Scots, but young Queen Mary was secretly transported to France, where she was betrothed to the Dauphin, the future Francis II of France. Despite Somerset”s disappointment, his victory at Pinkie Cleugh made him seem unassailable.

In the meantime, Edward VI, despite being only a nine-year-old child, was able to establish religious reform. In 1549, Eduard ordered the publication of the Book of Common Prayer, which contained worship formulas for daily church services. The controversial book was not looked upon favourably by any Catholic reformers or conservatives, and was especially condemned in Devon and Cornwall, where the Catholic tradition was strongest. This provoked the Prayer Book Revolt, where non-conformist groups in Cornwall gathered. The rebellion worried Somerset, who had become Lord Protector, so he sent an army to break up the rebellion. Several Cornish people were slaughtered. The rebellion did not persuade Edward to deal with the problem carefully but reinforced his attitude towards the nonconformists. This extended to his older sister, Mary Tudor, who was a devout and pious Catholic. Although she was called before the Privy Council several times to get her to renounce her faith and stop listening to Catholic liturgy, Maria refused each time.

Edward had a good relationship with his sister Elizabeth, who was a Protestant, but their relationship strained when Elizabeth was accused of having an affair with the Duke of Somerset”s son, Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley and husband of Henry”s last wife, Chaterine Parr. Elizabeth was interviewed by one of Edward”s advisers, and was found not guilty, despite the coerced confessions of her servants, Chaterine Ashley and Thomas Parry. Thomas Seymour was arrested and beheaded on 20 March 1549.

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A problematic succession

Somerset was beginning to lose its luster. After Edward VI was forcibly removed from Windsor Castle with the intention of keeping him in power, Somerset was removed from power by members of the council, led by his rival, John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, who had proclaimed himself Duke of Nothumberland. Northumberland became Lord Protector, but preferred not to use this title, learning from the mistakes of his prodecessor. Northumberland was angry and ambitious, and aimed to secure the Protestant religion while enriching himself with money and land. He ordered the church to be stripped of all traditional Catholic symbols.

A revision of the Book of Common Prayer had been published in 1552. When Edward VI fell ill in 1553, his advisers saw the imminent possibility of Mary”s ascension, and feared it would overturn all the reforms made during Edward”s reign. Surprisingly, even Eduard feared the return of Catholicism to the country. He wrote a new will, cancelling his father”s will of 1544. It offered the succession to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, niece of Henry VIII”s sister Mary, who, after the death of Louis XII of France in 1515, married King Henry VIII”s favourite, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.

Lady Jane”s mother was Lady Frances Brandon, daughter of Suffolk and Princess Mary. Northumberland married Jane to Guildford”s youngest son Dudley, enabling her to obtain a much-needed Protestant succession. Most of Edward”s advisers signed the succession devise, and when Edward VI died on 6 July 1553 after a long battle with tuberculosis, Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen.

However, support for the Tudor dynasty – even from a Catholic member – messed up Northumberland”s plans, and Jane, who never wanted to accept the crown, was dismissed after just nine days. Mary Tudor was welcomed by her supporters in a triumphal procession to London, accompanied by her younger sister Elizabeth.

Maria announced her intention to marry the Spanish Prince Philip, son of her mother”s grandson Charles V. The prospect of an alliance with Spain proved unpopular with the English, who feared that Spain would use England and involve her in wars. Popular discontent grew; a Protestant at court, Thomas Wyatt, led a revolt against the queen with the aim of deposing her and replacing her with his sister Elizabeth. The plot was discovered, and Wyatt”s supporters were killed. Wyatt himself was tortured, in the hope that he would declare Elizabeth”s involvement and that Mary could execute her for treason. Wyatt did not implicate Elizabeth and was beheaded. Elizabeth spent time in various prisons, including the Tower of London.

Mary married Philip at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554. Philip found her unattractive, and spent very little time with her. Although Mary thought she was pregnant several times during her five-year reign, she never gave birth. Devastated because she rarely saw her husband, and angry because she failed to produce an heir, Mary became a cruel woman. She was determined to restore the Catholic faith in England and secure her throne from Protestant threats, burning many Protestants at the stake between 1555 and 1558. Because of her actions against Protestants, Mary was called Mary the Bloody.

Mary”s dream of resurrecting the Catholic Tudor dynasty was over, and her popularity declined further when she lost the last piece of English land in France: Calais. The town was taken over by the Duke of Guise on 7 January 1558. Mary”s reign, introduced a new coinage system that would be used well into the 18th century, and her marriage to Philip created new trade routes for England. Mary”s rule brought a series of measures in the areas of inflation, budget deficits, poverty, crisis and trade to her kingdom. She explored the commercial potential of markets in Russia, Africa and the Baltics and overhauled the customs system. Mary welcomed Russia”s first ambassador to England, forging relations between the two countries for the first time. Had she lived a little longer, the Catholic religion she had tried so hard to re-establish in England might have taken deeper root. Mary died on 17 November 1558 at the age of 42. Elizabeth Tudor, aged 25, succeeded her to the throne, bearing the name Elizabeth I of England.

By the time Elizabeth became queen, fear had formed among Mary”s appointed council members, due to the fact that many of them had participated in several plots against Elizabeth, such as locking her in the Tower of London, trying to force her to marry a foreign prince with the thought of exiling her, and even pressuring her to kill her. In response to their fear, he chose the Protestant Sir William Cecil, former secretary to the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland, as his chief minister.

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Early years

Elizabeth had a long and troubled road to the throne. She had been an excellent pupil, well educated in Latin, French, Italian and Greek, and was a gifted writer. After Thomas Wyatt”s rebellion, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After they found her not involved, she was released and retired to the country until the death of her sister, Maira I of England.

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Rise of the Church of England

Elizabeth was a moderate Protestant, the daughter of Anne Boleyn who played a key role in the Reformation of 1520. At her coronation in January 1559, many of the Catholic bishops – appointed by Mary I of England, who expelled the vast majority of Protestant clergy when she became queen – refused to perform the ceremony in the Protestant religion. Eventually the Bishop of Carlisle, Owen Oglethorpe, performed the ceremony, but when Owen tried to perform the traditional parts of Catholicism, Elizabeth got up and left. After the coronation, two important acts were introduced into Parliament: the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy, establishing the Protestant Church of England and creating Elizabeth Governor Superm of the Church of England. These Acts, also known as the Elizabethan Religious Establishment, made attendance at services compulsory every Sunday; imposed an oath on clergymen that they had to recognise the independence of the Church of England from the Catholic Church, and recognise Elizabeth as Supreme Governor. Elizabeth made it clear that if they refused to take the oath the first time, they would be given a second opportunity, after which, if the oath was not taken, the persons concerned would be deprived of their personal property and dismissed from office.

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The pressure of marriage

Although Elizabeth was only 25 when she came to the throne, she was aware of her place as queen and her responsibilities as a Servant of God. She let no one challenge her authority as queen, although many people who felt she was weak suggested marriage. Her popularity was extremely high, but the Privy Council, Parliament and her subjects were of the opinion that she should choose a husband. Without an heir, the Tudor dynasty was ending. There was a risk of war between rivals if Elizabeth died childless.

Many suitors from almost every nation in Europe sent their ambassadors to introduce their potential suitors. The risk of death had been near in 1564 when Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox; when her health was in danger, Elizabeth appointed Robert Dudley as Lord Protector in case of death. After recovering, she named Dudley Earl of Leicester, in the hope that she could marry him to Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Mary rejected him, and instead married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, a descendant of Henry VII of England, giving him the opportunity to aspire to the English throne. Although many Catholics were loyal to Elizabeth, many felt that since Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate after her parents” marriage was annulled, so Mary Stuart was the one to inherit the throne. Despite this, Elizabeth did not name Mary as heir.

During his reign there were numerous threats against the Tudor dynasty. In 1569, a group of Earls led by Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Percy, servant to the Earl of Northumberland, attempted to depose Elizabeth by cornering her with Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1571, the Protestant-turned-Catholic Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, planned to marry Mary, Queen of Scots, and then replace Elizabeth with Mary. The plot, hatched by Roberto Ridolfi, was discovered and Norfolk was beheaded. The next major revolt took place in 1601, when Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, tried to raise the people of London against Elizabeth”s government. The people of London proved peaceful, and Essex and most of his rebels were executed. Threats also came from across the border. In 1570, Pope Pius V, issued a papal bull, Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicating Elizabeth and releasing her subjects from her power. Elizabeth was under pressure from Parliament, which wanted her to order the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, to prevent any further attempts to endanger her; although, faced with several official requests, she wavered on the decision to execute an anointed queen. Eventually, she was convinced (by traitors), of Mary”s complicity in the conspiracies against her, and signed her death warrant in 1586. Mary was executed at Fotheringay Castle on 8 February 1587, to the outrage of Catholic Europe.

There is much debate that Elizabeth never married. It was rumoured that she was in love with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and that she had given birth to an illegitimate child. This rumour was just one of many that swirled around their long friendship. However, she focused more on the disasters that the women in her family had suffered, such as Lady Jane Grey, who suffered from marrying into the royal family. Her sister Mary, who married Philip, and who brought contempt for the country and many of her subjects despised Spain and Philip, fearing that he was trying to take complete control of the country. Her father”s contempt for Anne de Claves had caused Elizabeth to refuse to accept any man she had never seen, thus eliminating a large number of suitors.

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Last hopes for an heir to the Tudors

Despite Elizabeth”s uncertainty, she never married. The closest she came to marriage was between 1579 and 1581, when she was courted by Francis, Duke of Anjou, son of Henry II of France and Catherine de” Medici. Despite Elizabeth”s government constantly demanding that she marry in the early years of her reign, she decided not to marry the French prince because of his mother, Catherine de” Medici, who was suspected of ordering the St Bartholomew”s Day massacre of tens of thousands of French Huguenot Protestants in 1572. Elizabeth publicly declared that she was against the marriage, learning from her sister”s mistakes and sending the Duke of Anjou back to France. Elizabeth knew that a continuation of the Tudor dynasty was now impossible; she was 48 in 1581 and too old to have children. The most dangerous threat to the Tudor dynasty during her reign was the Armada of Sapnia in 1588. Launched by Elizabeth”s old suitor, Philip II of Spain, it was now commanded by Alonso de Guzman El Bueno, seventh Duke of Medina Sidonia. The Spanish and the Dutch Republic outnumbered the British by 22 galleons and 108 armed ships; however, the Spanish lost due to bad weather conditions in the English Channel and poor planning and logistics to their enemies: Sir Francis Drake and Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham.

As Elizabeth aged, the running of the country continued to benefit the people. In response to the famine in England due to poor harvests, in 1590, Elizabeth introduced the Poor Law, allowing peasants who were too ill to work a certain amount of money from the state. All the money Elizabeth borrowed from Parliament in 12 or 13 parliamentary sessions was repaid. Elizabeth died childless at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603. She never named a successor. However, Sir Robert Cecil corresponded with the Protestant King James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart, and he was named successor to the English throne.

Sources

1. Dinastia Tudor
2. House of Tudor
3. ^ a b c d e To the Tudor period belongs the elevation of the English-ruled state in Ireland from a Lordship to a Kingdom (1541) under Henry VIII.
4. ^ Dopo la fine della Guerra delle due rose, nel gennaio 1486 Enrico VII sposò Elisabetta di York per rafforzare il suo diritto al trono
5. ^ Enrico VII Tudor era erede dei Lancaster, in quanto figlio di Margaret Beaufort, contessa di Richmond e Derby. I Lancaster erano, insieme agli York, uno dei due rami cadetti dei Plantageneti, e dichiarandosi loro erede, Enrico si assicurò il diritto al trono d”Inghilterra.
6. ^ Il 22 agosto 1485 il re Riccardo III di York venne sconfitto e ucciso nella battaglia di Bosworth Field contro Enrico Tudor, il quale conquistò senza troppe difficoltà la Corona inglese e il 30 ottobre dello stesso anno venne incoronato re d”Inghilterra.
7. Wagner, John A.; Schmid, Susan Walters (2012). Encyclopedia of Tudor England (em inglês). [S.l.]: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598842982
8. ^ [a b] Putney, Albert H., s. 56