The Tudors and the Stuarts, 1485 to 1714

14 stops68 facts

The argument running through these two centuries is about who decides — first over religion, then over government. Henry VIII founds a church in order to be its head, and the country changes faith more than once as his children take the throne in turn. Elizabeth I sees off an armada in 1588. Then the quarrel moves from the altar to the Crown: Charles I recalls a Parliament he cannot control in 1640, loses the war that follows and then his head, and the country spends a decade as a republic under Cromwell. The monarchy returns in 1660. The settlement of 1689 finally writes down what a king may not do.

What is in this era

  1. The break with RomeWhy Henry VIII founded the Church of England, the powers it handed the Crown, the execution of Anne Boleyn, and what Protestants believed.
  2. From Henry VII to ElizabethThe Tudor line from Henry VII through Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary to Elizabeth I, and the divorce of Catherine of Aragon.
  3. Five of the Six WivesWhat became of five of Henry VIII's six wives: Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr.
  4. Mary, Elizabeth and the ReformationWhose daughters Mary and Elizabeth I were, why Mary is remembered as Bloody Mary, and the name for the movement against the Pope’s authority.
  5. Elizabeth IThe defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the voyage round the world in the Golden Hind, the Globe Theatre, and the Reformation in Scotland.
  6. Shakespeare and the Scottish QueenWilliam Shakespeare's Hamlet, growing pride in being English under Elizabeth I, and the imprisonment and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
  7. James VI and IThe death of Elizabeth I in 1603 brings one king to two thrones, and the plantations settle Protestants on land in Ireland.
  8. The English Civil WarCharles I recalls Parliament in 1640 to ask for funds, war breaks out in 1642, and a Scottish army invades England.
  9. Cromwell and the RepublicThe revolt in Ireland, Parliament’s victory in the civil war, the execution of Charles I, and the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658.
  10. The Republic Without a KingThe Battles of Marston Moor and Naseby, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's defeat of the Scots, and Charles II's escape after Worcester.
  11. The RestorationThe monarchy returns in 1660, the Great Plague empties London, the Habeas Corpus Act passes, and St Paul’s Cathedral is rebuilt.
  12. The Glorious RevolutionThe death of Charles II in 1685, the revolution that brought William of Orange to the throne, and the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
  13. The Bill of RightsThe settlement of 1689 between Crown and Parliament, the start of the Tories, a press free of licensing from 1695, and the Jews and Huguenots who settled here.
  14. Constitutional Monarchy and ParliamentHow the Bill of Rights and the Glorious Revolution created constitutional monarchy, Parliament's five-year term, the Whigs and Tories, and pocket boroughs.

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