FREE ESSAY ON THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD

THE ELIZABETHAN PERIOD

King Henry VIII was born in Greenwich on the 28th of January 1491 ( The British Monarchy,
pg.1 ). King Henry VIII became heir to the throne after the death of his elder brother,
Prince Arthur in 1502 and succeeded in 1509 ( The British Monarchy, pg.1 ).King Henry
VIII was very intelligent and often was described as a man of many words, and very
religious. In King Henry VIII's reign, he wrote a book that attacked Martin Luther and
supported the Roman Catholic Church, which had become a best seller ( The British
Monarchy, pg.1 ). In 1521, King Henry VIII was given the title of Defender of the Faith,
by the Pope ( The British Monarchy, pg.1 ). 
In the year of 1509, King Henry VIII married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon 
( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). King Henry VIII's wife, Catherine had only produced one
living child, a girl who was named Princess Mary ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). Princess
Mary was born in 1516 ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). King Henry VIII's wife was in her
forties in the 1520s and he was very desperate for a son ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ).
The Tudor dynasty had been established by conquest in 1485 while King Henry VIII was only
it's second monarch 
( The British Monarchy, pg.2). At this time, England had not had a ruling Queen, and the
dynasty was not secure enough to run the risk of handling the Crown on to a woman, which
was risking disputed secession or domination of a foreign power through marriage ( The
British Monarchy, pg.2 ). When King Henry VIII had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, which
was the sister of one of his many mistresses, he had tried to persuade the Pope to grant
him an annulment of his marriage on the grounds that the marriage had never been legal (
The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). By pressuring the Pope, and getting someone he had known to
become an Archbishop to help his situation and to hopefully persuade the church and pope,
his marriage was declared invalid and Anne Boleyn was crowned queen a week later ( The
British Monarchy, pg.2 ). In May of 1533, Queen Anne had married King Henry ( The British
Monarchy, pg.2 ). In May of 1533 Queen Anne married King Henry VIII and the Pope had
responded with excommunication ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). In an act in restraint of
appeals forbade appeals to Rome, stating that England was an empire, governed by one
supreme head and king who possessed 'whole and entire' authority within the realm, and
that no judgments or excommunication's in Rome were valid ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ).
The breach between the King and the Pope forced clergy, office-holders and others to
choose their allegiance, the most famous being Sir Thomas More, who was executed for
treason in 1535 ( The British Monarchy, pg.2 ). 
King Henry VIII's second marriage, which had risen hopes of having a male heir were
failed when she produced a daughter who was named Princess Elizabeth. Once Queen Anne had
the daughter, King Henry VIII charged her on charges of treason and she was executed (
The British Monarchy, pg.3 ). In 1537, King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, who finally
bore him a son. The son that Jane Seymour bore him, was named Edward VI, unfortunately 12
days after his birth, Queen Jane died, the year was 1537. After the death of Queen Jane,
King Henry VIII married Anne Cleves ( The British Monarchy, pg.4 ). Later, King Henry
VIII was married twice more, to Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr, both were killed (
The British Monarchy, pg.4 ). Neither of the two wives had produced a child, and King
Henry VIII died on the 28th of January in 1547 ( The British Monarchy, pg.4 ).
Elizabeth I was born on the 7th of September in 1533, and was the last of the Tudor
monarch ( The British Monarchy, pg.5 ). Her chances of succeeding to the throne were very
slim since she had a half-brother, Edward, and her were behind the Roman Catholic sister
Princess Mary ( The British Monarchy, pg.5 ). Elizabeth succeeded to the throne after the
deaths of her half-brother and her her-sister ( The British Monarchy, pg.5 ). Queen
Elizabeth had a glorious reign, besides settling with the church and pope, she also saved
England from religious wars. Also to Queen Elizabeth's credit, she established an East
India trading company in 1600 which made a big profit ( The British Monarchy, pg.5 ).
Queen Elizabeth made at least 25 progresses during her reign and also attended the first
performance of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Although many people become
confused over which Mary was the infamous Bloody Mary, the real Bloody Mary was Queen
Elizabeth's sister, Mary Tudor who created many prestestant martyrs (The British
Monarchy, pg.6 ). Queen Elizabeth was responsible for putting Mary, Queen of Scots in
jail because she was the focus of assassination plots, she was not very trustworthy,
could easily spark a rebellion, and was a temptation for potential invaders such as
Philip II ( The British Monarchy, pg.6 ). In 1588, the English navy scored a great
victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships, known as The Armada which
was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman Catholicism by conquest, as
Philip II believed he had a claim to the English throne through his marriage to Mary (
The British Monarchy, pg.6 ). Unfortunately, during Queen Elizabeth's long reign, the
nation suffered from high prices and sever economic depression especially in the
countryside, during the 1590s ( The British Monarchy, pg.6 ). Even though Queen Elizabeth
had won the great victory against the Spanish armada, the price was costly, very costly,
the approximate cost was about 5 million dollars. During Queen Elizabeth's reign, she
never chose to Mary once ( The British Monarchy, pg.6 ). On March the 24th in 1603 at
Richmond Palace, Queen Elizabeth died ( The British Monarchy, pg.7 ).
Mary, Queen of Scots, was originally known as Mary Stuart ( Compendium of Common
Knowledge, pg. 1). Mary was the daughter of James V of Scotland and Marie de ( Compendium
of Common Knowledge, pg. 1). Mary became the Queen of Scots from the time she was six
days old ( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1). Mary was not Bloody Mary, that was her
sister, and Mary was a staunch until she died ( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1).
Mary became Queen of France and Scotland by marrying the French heir, Francis II. Mary
was widowed in 1560 at the age of 18 and returned to Scotland the following year (
Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1). In 1566, Mary married Henry Stuart Lord Darnley,
son of the Countess of Lunnox, a granddaughter of Henry VIII ( Compendium of Common
Knowledge, 
pg. 1). Mary's husband was very unpopular and had the morals of an ape, was considered a
jerk, and later conspired against her ( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1). The two
had a son born in July of 1566 who they named James ( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg.
1). Mary's husband was almost killed in a basement when it exploded, but was killed and
was found in the garden stabbed and strangled ( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1).
Mary, Queen of Scots was accused for the murder. In May of 1568, after a variety of
military actions, and her third marriage (possibly by force to the earl Bothwell) she
threw herself on England's
( Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 1). Mary spent 19 years in England, with various
jailers at various houses. Elizabeth wouldn't agree to see her until Mary had been
cleared of accusation of murdering her husband, but Mary claimed that a foreign court had
no right to try her, but nothing was ever resolved in the investigation ( Compendium of
Common Knowledge, 
pg. 1). Many plots surrounded her on ways to take the throne with other countries help
but in 1586 she was tried in England by a panel of peers and justices , and was (
Compendium of Common Knowledge, pg. 2). Elizabeth tried to put off signing the death
warrant for as long as she could, but eventually Mary was executed at last on 7 February
1587, at Fotheringhay Castle 
( Compendium of Common Knowledge
Bibliography
The British Monarchy.Website.
http://www.royal.gov.uk/links/index.htm
Compendium of Common Knowledge.Website.
http://renaissance.dm.net/compendium/home