TUDOR POLITICS AND CULTURE

 

TUDOR POLITICS AND CULTURE

 

The main source of political authority in the Tudor age was the monarch.  The monarch was unelected and decided solely by genes and heredity (although there had been some exceptions).  Ruling families did change, however, as when Richard III was defeated at Bosworth by Henry Tudor in 1485.  Weak kings like Richard II and Henry VI had been deposed in favour of another branch of the same family.  Family trees were vital in establishing one’s lineage and thus one’s personal entitlement, or lack of it.  Thus, the Middle Ages were essentially static as summed up in the feudal system itself which was vertically stratified by ties of family and blood. 

However, the king did not rule alone.  After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William set about creating a land register known as The Doomsday Book.  This was intended to help the monarch know what land there was and which of Duke William’s followers would get what.  This meant that the effort to tax the landed aristocracy would be greatly eased.  William’s feudal aristocracy then went about consolidating his rule, mopping up remaining resistance, and expanding his rule into intractable areas like Wales and Scotland.  The Norman kings were eventually supplanted by the Plantagenets, a related dynasty of French origin.

The greatest achievement of the Middle Ages was Magna Carta (Great Charter) whereby the barons forced the king to be bound by law rather than being a law in himself.  This meant that crimes like arbitrary imprisonment were now illegal and could not be managed without a legal writ, a fair trial by judge (and possibly jury).  The Magna Carta was signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215 to placate the barons and avoid civil war.

Another important source of power in a religious age was the church.  The monarch and archbishop of Canterbury had come into conflict during the reign of Henry II when he clashed with Thomas a Beckett in 1170 over the rights of the church.  Thomas was murdered by some of Henry’s knights then canonised by Pope Alexander III.  By the time of the Tudors dependence of English monarchs in the Pope was challenged and removed.

Notions of right and left and political parties were largely absent in the Tudor age.  The king was the single most important source of authority, but his power was circumscribed by other important elements within the state such as the church, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.  The House of Lords consisted of the 60 most important Bishops, Dukes, Barons, landowning aristocrats who were dependent on the king for their titles and therefore rarely criticised him/her openly.  The House of Commons was slightly more independent since it consisted of some members who had been elected by the people they served.  However, only those with significant properties were allowed to vote.

During the reign of Henry VIII the king came to realise that he needed parliament to sign his statutes into law because it seemed to offer the stamp of public approval.  However, the monarch also retained a veto over any law that parliament approved.  During the reign of Elizabeth I, the queen used her veto to strike down laws proposed by parliament forbidding hunting and blood sports on Sunday, arguing that people still needed to relax and enjoy such pursuits.

There was no discernible right or left wing in politics because political concepts like political parties, democracy, voting, polls, movements did not exist or were in their infancy.  One of the shifts in the Tudor age was the appearance of female monarchs.  Before Mary and Elizabeth there had been no female monarchs in England apart from Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, who had been monarch for some time in all but name during her husband’s nervous debility.  Henry VIII struggled to produce a male heir but eventually did so when Jane Seymour gave birth to Edward.  The problem for female monarchs was how to stay a queen when powerful male suitors were vying to become king.  Mary married Phillip II but failed to produce an heir and died prematurely.  Elizabeth never married although she had been asked by parliament to do so, there were also many suitable candidates.  Elizabeth’s refusal to marry meant that the Tudor dynasty was doomed and a new dynasty, the Stuarts, now bound Scotland to England.

Essential to the sovereign’s rule was the Privy Council which consisted of 19 members in 1540 and 40 in 1553.  The monarch could use the privy council to circumvent the legislature and enact laws by mere proclamation.  It was not until after Henry VIII’s death that the legislative pre-eminence of parliament was restored.  The Star Chamber, an adjunct of the Privy Council, consisted of Privy Counsellors and common law judges and was intended to supplement the judicial activities of the common law and equity courts.  The Star Chamber functioned as a court of appeal, ensuring the fair enforcement of laws against the English upper classes who were so powerful as to be virtually above the law.  It also functioned as an equity court, passing judgement on those whose actions were morally reprehensible but not actually violating the letter of the law, like perjury, challenges to duels, forgery and fraud.  The Star Chamber did not employ torture although the privy council sometimes did.  It was not allowed to use the death penalty, but it did enforce unusual punishments, imprison, whip, mutilate, and fine heavily.

There was also the rise of local government, a movement which began with Thomas Cromwell, to deal with difficult regions such as the Scottish borders, the Welsh marches and the West.  A council created to deal with issues in Devon and Cornwall was dissolved after just 5 years, having served its purpose.

The church negotiated the twin challenges of Roman Catholicism and Puritanism.  During Elizabeth’s reign Catholic priests had to be smuggled into England and concealed.  Many surviving homes of the era contained priest holes where a priest could be hidden if a search began.  Puritanism was mainly derived from continental models provided by Luther, Calvin and Zwingli.  It depended for its impetus on the newly translated English language bible which culminated in the Authorised version of 1611.  Members of the congregation no longer depended on a priest’s interpretation of scripture, but each could make their own understanding and come to diverse conclusions. 

Bishops like Whitgift attempted to stamp out Puritanism within the church using the court of High Commission.  By the end of Elizabeth’s reign puritanism within the church had been stamped out but it was to become resurgent during Stuart times and maintain a deadly threat to the authority of the king. 

The Tudor age was also one of Renaissance and Italian forms and modes began to spread and influence.  English fine art was unremarkable at this time and mainly consisted of foreigners like the court portraitist Hans Holbein of Basle and other foreigners such as Vincent Volpe from Italy, Flemish artists Hans Eworth and Antonio Moro and the German Gerhard Flicke.  Fashion was bright and flamboyant but probably offered little comfort to the wearer.  English achievements in architecture were more fundamental.  Many leading colleges such as Jesus College (1496), Christ’s College (1505), and St. John’s College were founded in Cambridge and Brasenose College (1509), Corpus Christi College (1517) and Christ Church (1525) in Oxford.  Much was owed to foreign artists and workmen such as the Italian sculptor Torregiano who built Henry VII’s tomb at Westminster and an early Tudor palace at Sutton Place in Surrey was designed by another Italian, Trevisiano.  However, many buildings were of native design and features such as a central hall, gatehouses with a crenelated turret and the use of brick were all features of Tudor architecture.  In music, the introduction of madrigal and canzonetta from Italy inspired new composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Dowland and Thomas Morley.  Two more important composers, famed for their church music, were Orlando Gibbons and William Bird.  At this time England led all of Europe in this field.

The most important achievements of the Tudor age were in the field of literature, achievements of world-historical importance.  The leading poet of the early Tudor period was Sir Thomas Wyatt who is said to have first imported the sonnet form into England and to have been the lover of Anne Boleyn.  This sonnet was the Petrarchan sonnet named after the Tuscan poet and consisted of an octave and a sestet, separated by a turn.  The form was later refined by William Shakespeare, the most important poet and playwright of this or any age.  His contemporary Christopher Marlowe also wrote superb poetry although the construction of his plays was inferior to Shakespeare.  Another early pioneer was Thomas Kyd and his play The Spanish Tragedy, a play with a revenge theme which influenced Hamlet.  Courtiers like Sir Walter Raleigh also turned out a distinguished sonnet.