Sunday, November 15, 2015

                                             The House of Tudor
                              This is a remarkable                                                                               and fascinating era 
                             that is filled with interesting facts. 

                               Henry VII 
                                                      ( 1485 to 1509 )



                        Up first in the Tudor period is Henry VII. He started the Tudor age by combining the houses of Lancaster and York by defeating Richard 111 and marrying Elizabeth of York the niece of Richard 111.  Gutenberg and the printing press became more popular leading to a mass production of books and poorer people read and bought books more often.





                                                          Henry VIII
                                                               ( 1509 to 1547 )





                                             
                                                                                       
                    Henry VIII is most well known for having six wives.The first wife, Catherine of  Aragon , was pregnant seven times but only one child survived to become an adult.  Her name was Mary Tudor.  Because Catherine of Aragon did not provide him with an heir, Henry asked the church for a divorce but no permission was granted because Catholics were not allowed to get divorced. Henry, who was angry, concluded that he should start a new church, with himself as the head. He granted himself a divorce. This church later became known as the Protestant church.  

Henry's second wife,  called Anne Boleyn, started out as a lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon. She had a daughter named Elizabeth 1 who we will talk about later. Since Anne did not have a son, she was falsely accused of treason so Henry could get remarried and have a son.  She was tried and beheaded. 

The third wife, Jane Seymour ,was Anne Boleyn 's lady-in-waiting.  She bore a healthy son named Edward but, sadly, she died after giving birth to him.  She was also Henry's favorite wife and he requested to be buried beside her when he later died.  

Anne of Cleves was Henry's fourth wife.  She lived in Germany so Henry's advisers had an artist, Holbein, do a painting of her so Henry would know how she would look.  The artist made Anne look more attractive then she really was . When Henry first put eyes on here he thought she was ugly and smelled bad and he divorced her not long after.

 Catherine Howard was Henry's fifth wife.  She was accused of treason  because she was having a relationship with one of Henry's favorite advisers, which was really true this time and she was beheaded with her lover.

Henry's last wife was Catherine Parr. She was married to Henry because he was sick and lonely and wanted a companion.  She was married to four men before Henry.  Now, how do we memorize all of his six wives? well with a poem of course! The poem is divorced,beheaded,died,divorced,beheaded,survived.
                                         


Edward VII

(1547 to 1553)





After Henry VIII died his son,Edward, became king.
he was only nine when he became king.Unfortunately, when Edward VI was 15 years old 
he died and handed the throne to Lady Jane Grey who was a strong Protestant like himself. 



Lady Jane Grey
( July 10 to 19 1553)





Lady Jane Grey aka "the nine day queen", earned that nickname because
she ruled for a short nine days. It happened because a rebellion came up 
and the people wanted Mary Tudor, the so called "rightful heir", to be their queen.
Also she was forced by her greedy parents to become queen. When Mary had
Lady Jane Grey killed by beheading. Lady Jane was only sixteen. Although,
Elizabeth 1 was a  Protestant too, Edward VI believed that Lady Jane was a stronger 
Protestant than his half-sister. 


Mary Tudor
(1553 to 1558)





Did you ever wonder why this queen was nicknamed "Mary Bloody, Mary" ?
Queen Mary was a very strict Catholic and she wanted everybody in England to convert to
 being a Catholic but many refused. She had many innocent people burned at the stake because of their stubbornness for refusing to change their religion . That is why she is now known as Bloody Mary. Also she imprisoned her younger sister, Elizabeth, believed that she planned to overtake her.
Luckily Elizabeth was not beheaded although she was kept at Tower of London , a prison. Queen
Mary wed a Spanish king, King Phillip, who was several years younger than herself. She became falsely pregnant several times, though the last time the "pregnancy" was actually a cancer in her belly from which she died . That leaves Elizabeth to become Queen of  England. 



Elizabeth 1
(1558 to 1603)




Elizabeth never got married although, her advisers argued for her to get a spouse so she could have an heir. Cleverly, she left all of her suitors on tender hooks never agreeing or disagreeing to their proposals.  England was weak from Mary Tudor's reign and if Elizabeth refused a proposal there was no reason why a prince or king couldn't over-take England. Also she never married because she knew that if she wed, then her husband would rule and she didn't like that way. She was the first queen to rule alone.  The state of Virginia was named after this virgin queen.  At the time she was the longest ruling monarch.  Since she had no heirs, the Tudor period came to an end with her passing.



  





                        

1 comment:

  1. Very informative and professionally done blog. I learned so much! I especially enjoyed the song as a way to remember the outcome for his many wives. Poor things- he was quite a beast.

    ReplyDelete