Tag: Protestant

Discussion Questions – ‘The Last Tudor’ by Philippa Gregory

~ Helene Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Philippa Gregory 'The Last Tudor'

  1. What role do faith and religion play during the time period represented in The Last Tudor? What is the relationship between religion and politics, and how does this relationship affect the cultural climate of England? Is the country mostly united in their faith or divided? What impact does this have on the royals of England?
  • After the Henrician Reformation, there was the mid-Tudor crisis, already with differences of faith across England.
  • Edward VI was a devout Protestant as he had been raised, Mary I was a devout Catholic as her mother Katherine of Aragon had been, and Elizabeth I looked for a middle way in religion having seen the chaos of her brother’s and sister’s reigns.
  • Edward VI altered his Device for the Succession to stop Mary I succeeding to the throne and returning the English church to Rome.
  • Politics was based on religion – generally people who supported Edward VI and Jane Grey were protestant, and those who supported Mary I were Catholic, although Mary I did at first also attract the support of protestants as the real claimant to the throne by Henry VIII’s will.
  1. What is “the true religion” according to Lady Jane Grey? Why does Jane believe that she and her family do not need to earn their place in heaven as others do? Does her faith ultimately serve her well? Discuss.
  • Jane Grey believes the true religion is protestant – each is influenced in religion in the way that they were raised.
  • Protestants believe in pre-destination – that it is already decided whether you go to heaven or hell before you’re even born and you can’t influence that through good works.
  • Good works leading to heaven is a Catholic doctrine.
  • Jane Grey relies on her faith and it ultimately helps her to die, but she wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place if she wasn’t staunchly Protestant.
  • Edward VI settles the succession on Jane Grey because she is Protestant, rather than his Catholic half-sister Mary I.

Continue reading “Discussion Questions – ‘The Last Tudor’ by Philippa Gregory” →

Elizabeth I Episode 2 Starring Lily Cole

~ Helene Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Episode 2 – The Enemy Within, aired 16.05.2017

Elizabeth I c.1563 Hampden portrait by Steven van der Meulen
Elizabeth I c.1563 Hampden portrait by Steven van der Meulen

Aged 25 Elizabeth is queen but not safe

1559 Elizabeth crowned queen, but her path to power had been a long battle

She had survived but could never drop her guard

War was raging across Europe as Catholics and Protestants tore each other apart – Elizabeth was plunged into the middle of the battle

Elizabeth most powerful protestant monarch surrounded by catholic enemies

 

Privy council believed Elizabeth needed to marry

Elizabeth declared she was already married to England – sounded great, but just words

Queen had a good reason for not wanting to wed – would reduce her power, wanted to be a real queen not queen in name only

Understandable but left a huge problem – who would rule if she suddenly died?

Continue reading “Elizabeth I Episode 2 Starring Lily Cole” →

Spotlight – Thomas Cromwell

~ Helene Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Name: Thomas Cromwell

Title/s: Earl of Essex / Knight of the Garter / Lord Privy Seal / Baron Cromwell

Birth / Death: c.1485 – 28 July 1540

Spouse: Elizabeth Wyckes 1489-1528

Children: Gregory Baron Cromwell 1520-1551 / Anne Cromwell ?-1528 / Grace Cromwell ?-1528

Parents: Walter & Katherine Cromwell (dates unknown)

Siblings: Katherine Williams / Elizabeth Wellyfed (dates unknown)

Noble Connections: Cromwell was first in the service of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, before moving into the service of Henry VIII. He was liked by Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second queen, and assisted in achieving her marriage, as well as her execution 3 years later. His son, Gregory, married the sister of Henry VIII’s third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell also promoted the marriage of Henry VIII to Princess Anne of Cleves. Continue reading “Spotlight – Thomas Cromwell” →

Analysis of Elizabeth I’s Speech at Tilbury before the Spanish Armada 1588

~ Helene Harrison ~ 12 Comments

For this post analysing the speech made by Elizabeth I at Tilbury in Essex before the Spanish Armada in 1588, I have used a copy taken from the British Library website (http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item102878.html), which is also written below.

“My loving people,

We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”

Continue reading “Analysis of Elizabeth I’s Speech at Tilbury before the Spanish Armada 1588” →

She Wolves – Episode 3 – Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I 21.03.2012

~ Helene Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Edward VI by William Scrots 1550.
Edward VI by William Scrots 1550.

1553 only heirs to the Tudor throne were women – next three monarchs would be women
6 July 1553 Greenwich Palace Edward VI was the only son of Henry VIII and he died – political crisis as no one left to claim the title King of England
Women were not equipped to rule – weaker, more sinful, less rational, unable to fight or make law
Women who tried to take power were seen as unnatural or monstrous
English crown had always been worn by a man
Henry VIII had gone to extreme lengths to have a son to succeed him – declared his daughters bastards after getting rid of their mothers
Henry’s hopes rested on his son’s shoulders
His heir wasn’t clear – uncertain future, two half-sisters and seven cousins, but all of them were women
Which woman would it be?
Mary and Elizabeth knew that under Henry VIII’s will the crown should pass first to Mary then to Elizabeth if Edward died without heirs.
Edward VI was a protestant and Mary I a Catholic Continue reading “She Wolves – Episode 3 – Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I 21.03.2012” →

Witchcraft and the Reformation

~ Helene Harrison ~ 1 Comment

 

Title page of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library)
Title page of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library)

Witch-hunts were irrevocably tied in to the Reformation. Both Catholic and Protestant countries had cases, but they increased in number during the pivotal period of the Reformation. This was the second half of the sixteenth century. James Sharpe claimed that witchcraft operated ‘within the context of the reformation and counter-reformation’.[i] Witchcraft did not become a major factor in people’s lives until the Reformation, and it died out as the religious situation across Europe settled down and stabilised. In England, for example, the last person executed for witchcraft was Jane Wenham in 1712.[ii] This was a time when England was settled and unified with Scotland. It was probably the most peaceful time to be English.

In some Catholic countries, like Italy, Spain and Portugal, there were actually relatively few witch trials. However, Pope Sixtus IV still felt that the danger was enough to warrant him approving an Inquisition to deal with them.[iii] However, Pope Alexander IV explicitly stopped an Inquisition from dealing with witches as early as 1258. This was possibly because the Church still had its power, whereas in the later period that power was slowly slipping away. The Inquisition, although originally allowed to deal with Jews and Moors in Spain, widened out to include heresy like Protestants, and then witches. Continue reading “Witchcraft and the Reformation” →

Witchcraft in the 16th and 17th Centuries

~ Helene Harrison ~ 5 Comments

How do Historians Account for the Comparative Differences in Witch Hunting and the Witchcraze Throughout Europe?

Title page of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library)
Title page of the seventh Cologne edition of the Malleus Maleficarum, 1520 (from the University of Sydney Library)

The witchcraze was a period in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where so-called ‘witches’ were hunted and punished for practising witchcraft. This belief in witchcraft was most noticeable in Scotland and continental Europe as this is where the majority of accusations took place.[1] This essay will look at several different areas of witchcraft and the witchcraze, including where beliefs did and did not take hold, the proportion of men and women who were accused, the influence of the Protestant Reformation and the prosecution of witches across Europe. Historians tend to agree that the witchcraze took off in Protestant areas more than Catholic areas, and also that it was largely female-identified. Historians also agree that there were different punishments for witchcraft in different countries, with some being stricter than others. However, there are some problems in analysing the differences in the witchcraze in different countries because for some countries it is difficult to access the trial records and historians do not even agree on the number of people who were executed as witches in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at the height of the witchcraze.

The witchcraze had more of an effect in some countries than others but the questions that were asked to accused witches by the interrogators and the authorities were often given the same or very similar answers all across the globe, and it was this which first gave rise to the idea that the witchcraze was an ‘international conspiracy’.[2] Continue reading “Witchcraft in the 16th and 17th Centuries” →

Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrich Zwingli & John Knox

~ Helene Harrison ~ 2 Comments

Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1528.
Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1528.

Martin Luther 1483-1546

Germany – monk, priest, reformer, author & professor of theology
Rejected five of the seven sacraments – sale of indulgences, confession, pilgrimages, prayers to Saints and the Catholic Mass.
Salvation achieved through faith not good works.
Transubstantiation – real body and blood of Christ.
Denied Papal authority.
Importance of the Scriptures.
Bible should be in the vernacular.
For clerical marriage.
Works:- * Ninety-Five Theses (1517) * Appeal to the German Nobility (1520) * Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) * Freedom of a Christian (1520) * On Secular Authority (1523) * Bondage of the Will (1525) * Small and Large Catechisms (1529) Continue reading “Martin Luther, John Calvin, Huldrich Zwingli & John Knox” →

Timeline of the Scottish Reformation

~ Helene Harrison ~ 1 Comment

 

John Knox 1572.
John Knox 1572.

1514 – Probable date of birth of John Knox.

1536 – Knox is ordained as a priest.

1542 – James V dies and is succeeded by his daughter, Mary Queen of Scots.

James V dies and his successor is his first daughter, Mary, who becomes Mary Queen of Scots. The Stuarts were known for being Catholics, and that is partially why Henry VIII didn’t wish for the succession to pass to the children of his sister Margaret (the mother of James V). Mary was only a year old when she succeeded to the throne and at one point there were plans to marry her to the future Edward VI of England.

1543 – Knox converts to Protestantism.

1545 – Knox becomes an associate and bodyguard to George Wishart.

1546 – Wishart is executed / martyred. Continue reading “Timeline of the Scottish Reformation” →

Timeline of the German Reformation

~ Helene Harrison ~ 2 Comments

 

Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1528.
Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach 1528.

1510 – Luther is sent to Rome on monastic business and sees the corruption of the Church.

1517 – Luther posts his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenburg in Germany, formally beginning the Protestant Reformation in Europe:-

The disputation protests against clerical abuses like pluralism, absenteeism, baptism and the sale of indulgences (the idea that people could buy a place in heaven for their souls, and to forgive their sins).

1518 – Luther defends his beliefs in front of Augustinians, and refuses to recant. Frederick the Wise protects him from being handed over to Rome.

1519 – Luther debates papal infallibility and begins a New Testament sermon series.

1520 – Luther is told by papal bull to recant within 60 days or be excommunicated, but he instead burns the bull and writes three texts:- Continue reading “Timeline of the German Reformation” →