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in 1845 King Richard III Plantagenet of the House of York was defeated by Henry Tudor of the House of Lancaster in the "War of the Roses", a war between the House of Lancaster and York. It ended with the Battle of Bosworth Field and Henry began the Tudor era in England. -
Henry Tudor became king as Henry VII. He married Elisabeth of York, Richard's niece, to unite the two Houses.
Henry united the nation, strengthened the power of the throne and limited the power of the nobles. The system of government was called "The Tudor Despotism". -
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Henry VIII represented a model of the Renaissance man, intelligent and cultured. He married Catherine of Aragon that gave birth a daughter, Mary. This was a problem for his succession, as no queen had ever governed England. He forced the declaration of the marriage void and married Anne Boylen. This act was a major challenge of the Pope and led to the break with Rome. -
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In 1517 the german monk Martin Luther nailed his "95 theses" to the door of Wittenberg cathedral condemning the corruption of the Catholic Church. This act represented the start of the split in Christianity known as the Protestant Reformation.
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In 1534 The Act of Supremacy confirmed Henry VIII as supreme head od the Church of England and separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. The king suppressed the religious orders in England and confiscated and sold their property. -
Thomas More was a Renaissance intellectual and humanist and he opposed the Act of Supremacy. For this reason he was arrested for treason in 1534 and executed in 1535. -
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII and she had a daughter, Elisabeth. As the king wanted a boy for his succession Anne was accused falsely of adultery, incest and reason. She was executed in 1536 and henry married Jane Seymour who gave birth to a boy , Edward, that guaranteed The Tudor succession. -
Henry VIII died in 1547 and he was succeeded by his nine-year son under the control of a Council of Regency. He died young in 1553 when at the age of 15. -
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After Mary's persecutions, many protestants escaped to Geneva and Basel where they had contact with the ideas of John Calvin, a leader of the Reformation in Geneva. When Mary died, the Protestants returned to England and formed a Calvinistic group known as the Puritans, that wanted to "purify" the Church of England and remove all Catholic rituals and traditions. -
Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon was proclaimed queen in 1553. She was a devoted catholic and tried to restore Roman Catholicism in England. She was known as Bloody Mary as she ordered a terrible persecution of protestants and many were sent to stake and burned. -
