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1485
Henry VII
Rise of the Tudor dynasty -
Period: 1485 to
English Renaissance
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1492
Columbus’s arrival in America
Beginning of western colonialism and slave trade -
1509
Henry VIII
He embodied the ideal Renaissance monarch, he was a good governor and a cultured man. -
1534
Act of Supremacy
Henry VIII pronounces himself head of the Church. This led to the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church -
1547
Edward VI
The son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour -
1553
Mary I
She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon (first wife), She reintroduced the Catholic religion, she is knows as Bloody Mary for her persecutions against the Protestants. When she died many Protestants returned to England and formed a group called the Puritans. They were extreme Protestants and wanted to “purify” the Church of England and remove Catholic practeses -
1558
Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne
The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII second wife) . She was a brilliant and intelligent monarch whose political skill and strength led to the foundation and rise of the English nation. It was a period of political stability and economic prosperity. She reintroduced the Protestant religion but she was tolerant with Catholics -
Period: 1559 to
Reign of Elizabeth I
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Defeat of the Spanish Armada
War with Spain, it was a symbolic demonstration of sea power and superiority over Spain -
Shakespeare sonnets and plays
He is considered the greatest playwright of English literature. He wrote sonnets and comedies (a Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, …)/ tragedies (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, …) /histories (Henry VI, Richard III, …).
During the Elizabethan Age the theatre had a remarkable development (Elizabethan theatre), Shakespeare was the most important exponent (Globe theatre) -
James I ascended to the throne
The Beginning of Stuart dynasty (Elizabeth died unmarried and childless).The son of Mary Stuart queen of Scots, a Catholic pretender to the English throne as a descendent of Henry VII. She was kept prisoner by Elisabeth for 19 years and then sentenced to death.
James I was the first to unite the whole British Isles into one kingdom. He considered himself above the law and Parliament. He reinforced the Anglican Church but disappointed both Catholics and Protestants -
Gunpowder Plot
Some radical Catholics, who included Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up Parliament using gunpowder. The plot was stopped and Fawkes was imprisoned and executed. -
The Mayflower arrives in North America
As both Catholics and Puritans were forbidden to practice religion, some of them left England. A group of Puritans, known as the Pilgrim Fathers, left with their families aboard the Mayflower across the Atlantic. They established a colony with its own government. It was the beginning of colonization of Notrh America