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Humanism (or "New Learning") questioned old orders of ideas and introduced new solutions, such as the heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus.
The Tudors represented the universal order as a fixed, complete, and closed chain of being. There was the macrocosm (the universe), the microcosm (the human body), and the body politic (the kingdom). The hierarchy started from spiritual elements to material beings where the man was in the middle, outlined by homo copula Mundi of Ficino. -
After the Wars of the Roses had ended, Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, creating a new family emblem, the Tudor rose. He was strict, didn't let nobles raise their armies, and made possible the planting of the Tudor flag in Nova Scotia. When he died in 1509, he left England economically stable and allied to France and Scotland. -
The drama firstly started as a liturgical service.
Later, it evolved to Miracle (life of saints) and Mystery play (any scene taken from the scripture).
When it became too elaborate, the scandalized priests forbade it, moving on to the cities.
Abruptly, the actors were no longer priests, creating a new kind of drama: the Morality play whose purpose was didactic, and the stage divided into hell, earth, and heaven.
Then, the Interlude, a short version of a morality play. -
The heir of the throne, Henry VIII, was previously appointed as the "defender of the faith" by the pope. In 1534 he declared himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England with the Act of Supremacy, transferring the pope's powers to the archbishop of Canterbury. He married six wives in his whole life whose destiny has been: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived? -
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Neither Catherine of Aragon nor Anne Boleyn could give him an heir, but Jane Seymour accomplished it: she gave birth to Edward VI. During his reign, religious services were in English, and the Book of Common Prayer became compulsory. -
When Edward VI died by consumption in 1553, his cousin Lady Jane Grey was taken prisoner by "Bloody" Mary, Catherine of Aragon's daughter, at Tower of London. She restored Catholic rituals and heresy laws, marrying Philip II of Spain. -
When Mary I fell ill, she left her throne to Elizabeth.
Her reign is considered England's golden age of stability, religious toleration, and victory at sea. She betrayed her cousin Mary when she saw a threat and regarded marriage as dangerous since her mother, Anne Boleyn, died from it. She also reintroduced the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity and allowed tolerance. Additionally, she defeated the Spanish armada led by Philip II and increased the trading of slaves in South America. -
Many of his characters are from the aristocracy and connected by family ties, often in contrasting forms.
The place is usually abroad because he could express himself freely.
They all analyse emotions and behaviour while exploring love, art, time, death, almost always leaving some questions open.
His rich and vivid descriptive style is conversational, characterised by image clusters. He also invented a lot of new words. -
He was born in Canterbury in 1564, living a dissolute life, even working for the Queen.
He concentrated on man as opposed to God and on the prevailing ambitions over morality.
In one of his most dramatic masterpieces written in soliloquy, Doctor Faustus, the only way to reach salvation is death. The main character makes a pact with Lucifer to govern nature and death through necromancy. After his death, he would have spent eternity in hell. The moral is that ambition can only lead to damnation. -
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564 and attended the local grammar school. In 1584 he went to London, becoming one of the most successful playwrights. His performances were at the Globe Theatre built by his company. Spending the rest of his life in his hometown, he died in 1616.
Shakespeare's sonnets were composed of three quatrains and a final couplet. He wrote the first section to guide the Earl of Southampton, whereas the second is for a dark lady. -
James I, Mary of Scots' son and Elizabeth's heir, became the first Stuart king and joined England and Wales to Scotland, creating Great Britain, based on a common currency, whose flag was the Union Jack. He was Protestant, believed in witchcraft, and thought to be the representative of God on Earth. Since the Catholics were left out, they organized the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament on 5th November 1605, but guards found out and executed them. -
He was born in London in 1572. Many people noticed his talent as a religious thinker and preacher, so they convinced him to take holy orders in the Anglican Church, virtually ceasing to be a poet.
He is known as the most remarkable representative of Metaphysical poetry, which combines passions with reasoning. -
He was a committed Protestant. During his life, he married Mary Powell, who divorced for his presumption. He also became blind and supported the new Commonwealth, being later imprisoned by the restored monarchy.
His most successful work, Paradise Lost, tells the biblical story of Adam and Eve, with the war between God and Lucifer.
Being the evil itself and a loser, Satan shouldn't have described as a courageous leader, but as Milton was a rebel against the king, so was Satan. -
They considered leisure, theatres, and poverty sinful.
In addition, they believed in the Calvinist theory of predestination: only God's grace could save man, requiring him a holy life of hard work and discipline. -
James's son, Charles I, started the Civil War after the Petition of Right in 1628 (no imprisonments without trials or taxes without consent), and the Parliament refused to obey.
Bloody battles between the Royalists and Parliamentarians raged from 1642 to 1649.
The Royalists, also called Roundheads, sided with the king, whereas the Parliamentarians were composed of people from middle-class society. -
The Restoration was a period of innovation.
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Thomas Hobbes defended absolute monarchy in Leviathan because the selfishness of humankind would ruin the country.
During that age, scientists put their hypotheses through experiments, from particular to universal. -
The Parliamentarian army, the New Model Army, was guided by Oliver Cromwell, who captured and executed the king, forming the Rump Parliament.
After doing that, he abolished the monarchy and the House of Lords, declaring a republic, the Commonwealth, and censorship.
Moreover, he defeated Charles II, King of Scotland, claiming himself as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In 1655, he divided the country into eleven military regions under puritan rules. -
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Coming back from France, Charles II established a court devoted to pleasure in England. He owned the Royal Society, an association of intellectuals whose motto 'nullius in verba' meant that nobody should trust other men's words.
Landowners gained back their powers, and a newly elected Parliament, the Cavalier one, was created.
Also, the Treaty of Dover was a joint war with France against Holland, which meant more than that: the succession of James II, Charles's Catholic brother, was assured. -
Thanks to the Stuart dynasty, theatres were made legal again. They became roofed, lit with candles, and women could play, whereas the actors had a contract.
People used to go to the theatre to talk and feel fashionable: that's why comedy of manners was the most successful genre.
It made fun of a highly sophisticated society, and the main characters were more interested in vices than moral virtues.
One of the playwrights of Restoration comedy was William Congreve. -
The Great Fire of London of 1666 destroyed part of the city that Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt, altogether with the St Paul's Cathedral, through financial aid of France. Everything is described inside Samuel Pepys' Diary. -
The Treaty of Dover assured a joint war with France against Holland, which meant more than that: the succession of James II, Charles's Catholic brother, was assured. -
Isaac Newton published the laws of motion and gravity in his work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687).
New scientific discoveries became written in English instead of Latin.
It was a new era of confidence and belief in human progress, freeing the minds from religio, as Lucretius would say. -
To counter his two Protestant daughters, Mary and Anne, he married a Catholic woman and had a son.
That's where the two opposing parties in Parliament, the Whigs, and the Tories, called out for help to William of Orange, husband of Mary, who made James flee to France. -
In 1689, after being chosen by the Parliament, William and Mary became joint monarchs as William III and Mary II: without bloodshed, it was called Bloodless or Glorious Revolution that paved the way to a constitutional monarchy. -
The Toleration Act in 1689 granted freedom of worship to dissenting Protestants -
The Bill of Rights in 1689 declared that monarchy could not rule without the consent of the Parliament.
It included a list of King James's misdeeds, 13 articles that outlined specific freedoms, and confirmation that William and Mary were rightful successors.
Furthermore, it's believed that it was inspired byJohn Locke.
Additionally, it inspired the American Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Constitution, and the U.S. Bill of Rights. -
John Locke, in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), insisted that human knowledge is achieved by individual experience through senses by using a famous metaphor: tabula rasa - everything comes from environment and experiences. His political writings, Two Treatises of Government (1690), were published anonymously to avoid scandal. Here he claimed that all people have innate rights and that government should exist to protect them. -
His comedy The Way of the World (1700) is considered a masterpiece. It reflects the world of Restoration society, taking place in one of the main character's homes and in a chocolate house, a house that allowed gambling and attracted high-class young males.
Millamant and Mirabell are human beings whose wit is expressed by understanding themselves and others.
The plot deals with the inheritance of money and analyses social conventions: marriage is a battle for supremacy between the two spouses. -
When William III and Mary II died, they had no children, but the Act of Settlement in 1701 excluded Catholics from the throne, so Anne became the new Queen.
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