, .' COVER STORY

- IC What made 's most controversial king tick? Was he vain, voluble, a spendthrift? And did he love his wife? Chris Sldcbnore, whds been investigating Richard's secret life for a forthcoming book, reveals all

> History Magazine 51 Richard liked He was generous the finer (when the mood took him) The Crowland Chronicle-writ­ stones'' to be used in the chamber things in life ten in Lincolnshire's Crowland of the Guildhall. These were Abheyfrom the 7th to 15th displayed at a council meeting centuries - describes how a weeklater, where it was also D tails that survive from Richard's court suggest that the Richard intended to "pass over declared how Richard" for the ki:ig was no po-faced ascetic but a spendthrift who enjoyed the pomp of Christmas" in 1483. very great favour he bears towards this city, intended to life's luxuries. Yet this terse assessment contra­ Richard had his own troupe of players and minstrels, dicts surviving contemporary bestow and make the borough of while he ordered that one of Edward Y's own servants be records, which tell us that the Southwark part of the liberty of retained, for "his expert ability and cunning in the science king spent £764 17s 6d (the the City, and also to give £10,000 of music," ordering that he "take and seize for us and in our equivalent of over £380,000 (£Sm) towards the building of name all such singing men and children". today) for "certain plate ... for our walls and ditches around the Richard also seems to have appreciated good fashion year's gifts against Christmas last said borough". sense. Jn 1484 he sent the Trish Earl ofDe smond a parcel past and for other jewels," while Intriguingly, this huge including gowns of velvet and doth of gold "to show unto he gave £100 (£50,000) to ''our financial gift never materialised you ... our intent and pleasure for to have you to use the wdbclovcd servants the grooms -and the aldermen of London manner of our English habit and clothing". and pages of our chamber. .. for a failed to raise the matter again. The king's extravagance excited comment from the most reward against the Feast of Did the evening's festivities unlikelv of sources. Thomas Langton - who served as Christmas". inspire Richard to make this bishop ~(St David's, Salisbury and Winchester - praised At a Whitehall banquet lo magnanimous gesture - only to the king in a letter written shortly after his accession to the mark the epiphany celebrations conveniently forget about it in the throne in the summer of 1483, describing how "he contents of 6 January 1484, Richard gave cold light of day? the people where he goes best that ever did prince... on my the mayor and aldermen of troth I liked never the conditions of any prince so well as London a gold cup "garnished his: God hath sent him to us for the weal of us all". with pearls and other precious However, in the final line, the bishop added a note ofcaution: "Sensual pleasure holds sway to an increasing extent, but I do not consider that this detracts from what I have said." Be regarded hbnseU He loved as a ntan of York

The dispute over where Richard's and its authorities "our special his wife remains should be interred has power and authority to ask, made it all the way Lo the high gather and levy all and any sum (at least, that's court this year. But can contem­ of money for the time" in order to porary sources shed any light on "sustain and bear the charge of where the king hiimdfwished to the finding of a hundred priests what he claimed) be buried? now being of our foundation," Perhaps they can. Though the the priests still remained unpaid king is known to have supported for their services. several religious institutions - Richard now demanded that Unlike his brother Edward JV, famed for his debauchery induding St George's Chapel at they be paid from the Duchy of and mistresses, Richard seems to have been a devout Windsor, and his own founda­ Lancaster. "We not willing our family man. He was fond of his only legitimate son, tions at Middleham in Yorkshire said priests to be unpaid of their Edward, whom he described as "our dearest first born son and Queen's College, Cambridge wages, seeing by their prayers we Edward, whose outstanding qualities, with which he is - he does seem to have placed trust to be made the more singularly endowed for his age, give great and, by the particular emphasis on his acceptable to God and his saints." favour of God, undoubted hope offuture uprightness". relationship with York, and its 'l'he connection between Edward's premature death in April 1484 proved famous Minster. Richard's establishment of the devastating to both Richard and his wife, Anne. The news In one document, Richard foundation at York and the clearly came unexpectedly, for, according to the Crowland described the ~great zeal and salvation of his own soul could Chronicle, "on hearing news of this, at Nottingham, where tender affection that we bear in hardly be any clearer. Could this they were then residing, you might have seen his father our heart unto our faithful and indicate that Richard's real and mother in a state almost bordering on madness, by true subjects the mayor, sheriffs intention in creating this new reason oftheir sudden grief". and citizens ofthe city ofYork". religious institution was to follow Several months later, in September 1484, when wrap­ Shortly after his coronation, he the growing trend for 15th-cen­ ping up payments for the prince's disbanded household, travelled northwards to the city, tury aristocrats across Europe to Richard continued to describe Edward as "our dearest son holding a spectacular ceremony establish their own chantry the prince". When Anne herself died on 16 March 1485, in the Minster, to which he foundations and ultimately rumours swirled that Richard had planned to poison his donated a "great cross standing mausoleums? Richard, Duke of wife. Yet the records show a very different side to the king on six bases ... with images of the York, had done just that at who, just days before her death, refers lo her as "our most crucifixion and the two thieves, Fotheringay, Northamptonshire, dear wife the queen". together with other images near and Edward IV was to follow suit The king professed in his proclamations his distaste of the foot and many precious at Windsor. "horrible adultery and bawds, provoking the high stones, rubies and sapphires". After Richard's death, the indignation and displeasure of God," instead prcferri ng Richard's greatest display of archbishop there remembered "the way of truth and virtue," and even declared to his affection to the city came on fondly how "our most Christian bishops that "our principal intent and fervent desire is to 23 September 1484, when he prince, King Richard Ill... sec virtue and cleanness ofliving to be advanced, in­ unveiled plans for a chantry founded and ordained a most creased and multiplied, and vices and all other things foundation at York Minster, celebrated college of a hundred repugnant to virtue... to be repressed and annulled". which would house a hundred chaplains, primarily at his own Yet this did not prevent Richard himself from fathering priests to support the Minster, expense". The foundation was at least two illegitimate children. One was John of and practise the "worship of God, not to last long, however. By 1493, Gloucester, whom Richard evidently thought highly of, our Lady, Saint George and Saint "timber from the house con­ appointing him captain of Calais, on account of his Ninian". The massive project structed by King Richard III «liveliness of mind, activity ofbody and inclination to all involve;;d the construction of six from the establishing of chantry good customs". The other was Katherine Plantagenet, who altars for the king's chaplains, priests" had been broken up Richard married off to William, Earl ofHuntingdon, together with a separate building and sold. making a generous financial provision to the couple. to house them. Several months after his original grant, however, Richard was forced to write a letter to the authorities of the Duchy of .. Lancaster. Unpublished and When Anne died, rumours swirled that unremarked upon by historians Richard had planned to poison her. who have written on Richard's plans for a foundation at York, Yet just days before her death he refers the letter states that in spite of giving to the dean ofthe Minster to her as ·our most dear wife the queen· > BBC History Magazine 53 Cover story He was convinced Hewasa of his right to rule formidable Upon the birth ofEdward IV's eldest son, .Edward, in 1470, Richard had sworn publicly that the young baby, • "first begotten son of our rnvereign lord," was "to be , 1ery and undoubted heir to our said lord as to the crowns and warrior realms ofEngland and France and lordship oflreland... In case hereafter it happen you by God's disposition to The records reveal that Richard that whenever a difficult overlive our sovereign lord; I shall then take and accept had begun his military training and dangerous policy had to you for the very true and rightwise king of England." at an early age. In March 1465, he undertaken, it would be Richard was, of course, to break this solemn vow in his brother Edward IV spent over entrusted lo his discretion spectacular style- but how did he justify going back on £20 (£10,000) for "sheaves of and generalship". his word to himself and his peers? The archives provide arrows" and hows, "to the use of The records of Richard's reign some clues. our brethren the dukes of are littered with payments for According to a lengthy explanation set down in Clarence and Glouce.~ter". military weapons and equip­ parliament in 1484, Richard proved that Edward IV had Richard first saw military ment: for instance, he spent £560 already been contracted to marry Lady Eleanor 'l'albol action in the battles ofBarnel­ (£280,000) on 157 complete suits before his union with Queen Elizabeth Woodville. As wherc one source indicates he of armour, and a further £64 19s a result, his son Edward V was in fact illegitimate, so was wounded-and Tewkesbury. Id (£32,000) on 2,228lbs of unable to take the Lhrone. Two days after he had seized the His fighting skills were praised by saltpetre for making gunpowder. crown, Richard wrote how men had wrongly sworn an one poet, who described Richard In 1485 Richard ordered that oath to Edward V that had been "ignorantly given". as a young Hector. In 1480, Edward Benstead, a gentleman In early January 1484, Richard had no qualms in Richard wrote to the French king usher of the chamber, was sent to repaying a Cambridgeshire bailiff for wildfowl purchased Louis XI, thanking him for "Lhe the Tower to "shoot certain our for Edward V's aborted coronation, merely describing the great bombard which you caused guns we have been making there planned ceremony as "the time we stood protector of this to be presented to me, for I have for their prove and assay". our realm while Edward bastard son unto our 1,;ntirely always taken and still take grea l Richard also ordered beloved brother Edward IV was called king of this realm". pleasure in artillery and I assure that a "long scaling In another document in the archives, Richard merely you it will be a special treasure bridge" under described how he was now the "true and u ndoubtcd king tome", construction at of this realm ofEngland by divine and human right," Richard later took the Tower be having "taken the royal dignity and power and the rule a leading role in the defence of put through and governance of the same realm for the Scottish borders, and by 1483 its paces. himself... from Edward the the Italian visitor Dominic Bastard, formerly ca lied Mancini was stating that "such Edward the fifth ... the was his renown in warfare, sam1,; Edward legitimately having been removed by usu'rpat"ion", It seems that Richard, for one, was absolutely convinced of his right to rule. Be was hell-bent He threw on crushing his foes

a good where the king was so engrossed in The most detailed description of Richard TJI and his court comes from conversation that "he hardly touched an eyewitness account left to us by his food, but talked with me all the party Niclas von Popplau, a Silesian knight time. He asked me about his imperial who visited the king while he was majesty [Maxmillian I], all kings and staying at Middleham Castle in princes of the empire whom I knew North Yorkshire in May 1484. Popplau's well, about their habits, fortune, actions Details of the receipts for Richard III\ text, still only available in its original and virtues. To which I answered coronation banquet survive, and they German, deserves a full English everything that could add to their suggest that the king's accession to the translation, as it gives us our best honour and high standing. Then the throne in the summer of 1483 was understanding of Richard by someone king was silent for a while, and then he celebrated in some style. The banquet who met him face to face. Popplau began again to ask me questions, about comprised 75 different dishes over three suggested that Richard was "three many matters and deeds.» courses, to be served to 1,200 "messes" fingers taller than I, but a bit slimmer When Popplau began to discuss a (shared tables) that would feed around and not as thickset as T am, and much recent defeat of the Ottoman Turks in 3,000 people in total. more lightly built. He has quite Hungary, Richard suddenly became The guests tucked into 30 bulls, slender arms and thighs, and also "very pleased" and answered: "I would 140 sheep, 100 calves, six boars, 12 fatted a great heart". like my kingdom and land to lie where pigs, 200 suckling pigs, eight hart deer, Popplau was entertained by the king the land and kingdom ofthe king of 140 bucks, eight roe deer and fawns. In in h.is royal tent, where he witnessed Hungary lies, on the Turkish frontier addition, the lower ranks at the banquet Richard's bed, "decorated from top to itself. Then I would certainly, with my would be treated to 288 marrow bones, hottom with red Samite [luxurious silk own people alone, without the help of 72 ox feet, and 144 calves' feet. fabric] and a gold piece" with a table other kings, princes or lords, properly For the fish dishes, the caterer ordered "covered all around with silk cloths of drive away not only the Turks, but a 11 400 lampreys, 350 pikes, four porpoises, gold embroidered with gold. The king my enemies and opponents." For 40 bream, 30 salmon cut into thin slices, set himself at the table and he wore a Richard, it was a dream that proved 100 trout, 40 carp, 480 freshwater crayfish, collar ofan order set with many large impossible to fulfil. m 200 cod and salt fish, another 36 other 'sea pearls, almost like strawberries, and fish', 100 tench, and 200 mullet. diamonds. The collar was quite as wide The banquet also included 1,000 geese, as a man's hand," Popplau noted. 800 rabbits, 800 chickens, with another Richard requested that his German 400 chickens 'to stew', in addition to visitor sit next to him at dinner, 300 sparrows or larks, 2,400 pigeons, 1,000 capons, 800 rails (a large, fat bird), 40 cygnets, 16 dozen heron, 48 peacocks, eight dozen of both cranes and pheasants, .. six dozen bitterns, 240 quails, three dozen egrets, 12 dozen curlews and 120 'piper At the banquet chicks' - probably young pigeons. Richard was so To spice the dishes, 28lbs of pepper, Chris Skidmore MP is an author and 8lbs of saffron costing 48 shillings, 28lbs engrossed in historian who also serves as Conservative of cinnamon costing 60 shillings, 4lhs of MP for Kingswood. His forthcoming book fresh ginger and 12lhs of powdered ginger conversation that The Lives ofRichard JJ1 will be published in were employed, though the most popular 2015. He will be talking about Richard III at seasoning seems to have been the sweet 'he hardly BBC History Magazine's History Weekend in variety, with 150lbs of Madeira sugar October - see historyweekcnd.com imported from Portugal, l50lbs of touched his food, almonds and 200lbs of raisins making up talked with DISCOVER MORE the largest oflhe orders for spices in the but BOOK kitchen. Dessert included 300lbs of dates, me all the time' ► Bosworth: The Birth of the Tudors IO0lbs of prunes, 1,000 oranges and by Chris Skidmore (Orion, 2014) 12 gallons ofstrawberries, decorated LISTEN AGAIN with 100 leaves of"purc.: gold". ► Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the battle of Bosworth on In Our Time at l;J[;)t;l e RADIO bbc. co.uk/programmes/ b01ghc43 '

BBC History Magazine 55

gra us

year is substantially a Tudor achievement: 'sheep's clothing', 'fleshpots', 'the powers that be: and Eric Ives asks what it is about the Tudors that 200 other expressions in use today. We don't read Chaucer and Langland in encourages academics, writers, filmmakers, the original, but we can and do read television producers - and, of course, the More and Shakespeare. The new sources appear to reveal general public - to keep coming back for more a familiar scene: parliament, an established church, England emerging to European status, overseas interests, class, inflation, poverty. Familiarity VER SINCE 1900, A better reason for the fascination L~ does, however, bring , , .. more than two that Tudor England has a high density danger. The books or articles of'memorable people', not least its environment of Tudor have appeared on m onarchs. However this was no England is alien as average every day 'flowering of the English spirit'. Quite well as similar. We E on the history of simply, we know more. We visit Tudor must not make the British Isles houses. Portraits show what Tudor assumptions which between 1485 an

22 BBC History Magazine - - -- The Tudors: Introduction

The explanation is not a 'golden age' but 'the economy, stupid'. From the mid-14th century, western Europe's population shrank because of plague and war. A century later plague began to recede in England and the population increased. In other words, the Tudors arrived with, or were soon followed by, an economic boom, another example of their phenomenal luck evcr)"vhere Free weekly except in the bedroom. Particularly from the 1540s, the expanding labour podcasts force made sustained growth possible: You can listen to edited interviews with consumer goods such as stockings, pots our Tudor historians on the BBC and pans, new or enlarged industries History Magazine pod cast, which is -mining, glass and paper-making, the now released on a weekly basis. 'new draperies; luxury trades including theatre. And all was underpinned by 1 StevenGunndiscusses Henry VII, the survivor and stabiliser political stability. Religious changes did available to download from 15 July not lead to civil war. Mary Tudor's was appear to be a series of seminal the only successful rebellion; otherwise 2 GeorgeBernardon HenryVIII, developments, for instance the Church the elite stayed loyal. the scourge of papal power of England. But the Tudor church only As always there was a downside, available to download from 22 July lasted a century. What we have today a vicious downside. Harrison noted effectively dales from 1660 and it calls higher rents, the pressures of a money 3 Ralph Houlbrooke on Edward VI, itselfAnglican precisely because it is not economy and less concern for the poor. the boy king and religious zealot the Church ofEngland. Parliamenb The increase in population meant that available to download from 29 July became more important, but only a . 4 Anna Whitelock on Mary I, name and tradition links them to the Tudor rulers wielded the forgotten trailblazer current institution. available to download from 5 August Tudor rulers wielded more personal more personal power power than any before or since. None 5 Susan Doran on Elizabeth I, would recognise modern monarchs as than any before or since the great unifier monarchs at all. National identity was available to download from 12 August strengthened by the 1588 victory over prices rose and this was made worse Spain, but in Tudor parlance, 'country' by currency manipulation. TI1e gap All our podcasts can be downloaded is as likely to mean 'county'; after all, in between the comfortable and the poor free of charge from our website, or you can subscribe via iTunes terms of travelling time, England was widened significantly. A village :J www.historyextra.com/ 25 times larger than it is today. The economy had always needed resident podcast-page colonies, the church and the law written poor to provide seasonal labour. Now about by Ralcgh, Hooker and Coke, are structural unemployment became not the colonies, church and law we endemic. The 1590s were horrendous as know. England in the 16th century and the cost of the war fed inflation. Special Tudor England Loday are "two countries Suffering was made infinitely worse separated by a common language''. by bad harvests; in some years paupers audio book died in the streets. Nevertheless, the We have also produced an audiobook Zest for living England of 1600 was enormously containing lengthier, more in-depth Notwithstanding the dangers of wealthier than in 1500. An insular, interviews with our experts on the empathy, Tudor .England docs have a agricultural country was becoming Tudor kings and queens and their good feel about it, an ebullience and a a country with a growing trade and momentous legacies. You can zest for living. The truculence of the age industry sector. New families - Russells, download it from our website now al www.historyextra.com/ is one facet of that, the attitude to Spencers, Cecils, Cavendishs - were :J audiobooks/tudors martyrdom another. It is the great age forging ahead to lead the country and for just£ 1.99 of English music and drama, notable would do so until the 20th century. architecture, widening horizons and for Tudor England was exciting to live in, BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE many a measurable advance in comfort and that makes il exciting to study, ~C!.ftlf'S and civility. In the 1570s William warts and all. m THE TUDORS Harrison listed the changes in his -AUDIOBOOK - The Tudors audiobook village: "the multitude of chimneys Eric Ives is an expert on the Tudor period . gets down .,, nowadays" (betler warmth and ~ He is emeritus professor of English history to serious ~ comfon ), "the amendment oflodging" at the . His new detail on ~ (beds and bedding) and "the exchange book The Reformation Experience will be H the dynasty ~ of vessel" (pewter instead of wood). published by Lion Hudson

BBC History Mngazine 23

He may not win many popularity contests but, says Steven Gunn, Henry VII set the blueprint for a dynasty that was to make England a global power

F.NRY VII is the politics easier to navigate for a competent one. Richard Empson, Edmund Dudley-were inscrutable Tudor. Henry expanded the crown's land~, drove up the forerunners of the meritocratic statesmen Less charismatic than lhe customs by encouraging trade and to come: Cromwell, Paget, Cecil, Bacon and Henry Vlll or Elizabeth, attacking smuggling, and began to reform the the rest. He tied his family by marriage into less tragic than Edward taxes voted by parliament in time,of war, the network of European dynasties, had H or Mary, he stands no tapping economic growth without retarding it hili say in the politics of Italy, France and the realistic chance in a Most in a way many governments might envy. Netherlands, and pursued alliances that Famous Tudor competition. But that is no The demands of the royal conscience and favoured English trade, above all the cloth reason to forget him. those of troubled subjects combined to make exports on which so many of his peoples' We should admire Henry first for his justice a key to good kingship. Henry offered jobs depended. tenacity. When he was propelled from exile to his people faster and more effective decisions lt used to be said that the Middle Ages the English throne in 1485 by the sudden death in their lawsuits at the centre, through the rnded with Henry's reign. That is a gross ofEdward IV, Richard ITI's sei7.ure of the crown expanding judicial activity of the king's simplification but we should not lose sight of and the bloody battle of Bosworth, six of the council, which would develop into the courts the changes afoot. Henry's government first last nine English kings had been deposed. And ofStar Chamber and Requests. made widespread use of printing, first the average was getting worse: each of the last He did the same in regions far from welcomed Italian renaissance artists and gave four had lost the crown; one of them, the Westminster, with revivified councils to the heirs to the throne a classical education and hapless Henry VI, twice. oversee Wales and the north. In the counties, first sent permanent diplomatic representatives One quarter French, one quarter Welsh, one justices of the peace were more numerous and to multiple foreign courts. Hu; was the first quarter descended from John of Gaunt by his better supervised. In small towns and villages administration to establish the navy with big mistress; Henry's claim to the throne of the urge for stability coming up from below new warships as a permanent arm of the state, England was hardly compelling. Yet he the first to legislate against enclosure to defend defeated pretender after pretender - Henry VII was the first the common people at a time of economic Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbcck, change and the first to patronise voyages of Edmund de la Pule -and clung onto English king to pass the discovery to claim England's place among the power. He made a virtue ofhealing old European global empires. divisions hy marrying Edward's crown on successfully to Henry made the first secure peace with daughter Elizabeth ofYork-a match France after the Hundred Years'War and the symbolised by the red and white Tudor his son in nearly a century first secure peace with the Scots after the rose- and breeding sons to succeed Scottish Wars ofindependence. The marriage him. And even when two sons out of three - stirred by patchy population growth, alliance by which his daughter Margaret died, he saw HenryVIII safely onto the throne, industrial development and the µ10bile, restless married James IV of Scots would lead to the the first king to pass the crown on successfully youth that came with them - met the union of the crowns a century later in the to his son in nearly a c.:ntury. determination to enforce order coming down person of his great-great-grandson James VI from the king and his councillors. and I, and beyond that to the making of the No laughing matter Henry's achievements may nQt be . How's that for a long-term Henry was not just a survivor but a stabiliser. as spectacular as those of his son and achievement? m He was less trusting, less generous and less grandchildren, but he laid the foundations for relaxed than many of his subjects might have every aspect oflater Tudor rule. '.[he calculated liked: he is only recorded as laughing in public magnificence of Richmond Palace and his Steven Gunn teaches British once. He put more faith in those he had seen chapel at Westminster paved the way for and European history between tested in the crises of 1483-89 than in young Hampton Court and Nonsuch. 1330 and 1700 at Merton noblemen who thought they ought to govern He spread everywhere the family badges College, Oxford because of their titles and blood. He took more that would brand English kingship for the advice than previous kings from lawyers and next century and survive to mark coins, financial administrators, men who told him tourist board signs and parliamentary what the crown's powers were and how he buildings to the present day. His patronage Books might use them to tighten his grip on the both of church reformers like Bilihop John ► Henry VII by Sean Cunningham (Routledge, 2007/ kingdom. He used fines for disobedience or for Fisher and the Franciscan Observant~ and of ► EarlyTudorGovernment, 1485-1558 offences against his rights as a means of lawyers who attacked the church's jurisdiction by Steven Gunn (Macmillan, 1995} lie political controL His richer subjects did not and skimmed off its wealth foreshadowed ~ like it, but losing your money to Henry VU was the mix of piety and power-play in the ~ better than losing your head to Henry VITI. coming Reformation. His use of parliament H On the podcast ~trcngthcncd the crown both financially ~ ~c to address problems in government and Steven Gunn discusses Henry VII in our new .! and 1111ts ability to do justice. Wealth could not society prepared it for its role in the bigger weekly podcast (in the edition that's live 15 Julyl ~ guarantee the s.ifety of an incompetent king, changes ahead. His low-born but talented :J www.historyextra.com/podcast-page ~ but it could make domestic and international ministers - Reynold Bray, Thomas Lovell,

BBC History Magazine 25

Heniy VIII was a warrior king in eveiy respect, says George Bernard, taking the fight to Frenchmen, Scots, his counsellors, wives and, above all, Rome

ENRYVITJ's most striking Catholic while a minority wholeheartedly years after her marriage to Henry would be action and his lasting accepted the changes but wanted much more executed for !reasonably committing adultery; legacy was his break with far-reaching reform. thirdly, Jane Seymour, dying soon after giving Rome. In the 1530s he In many ways, Henry's influence proved birth to Edward; next, Anne of Cleves, a threw off papal decisive when it fell to Queen Elizabeth to marriage arranged for diplomatic reasons but H jurisdiction, declared determine the church of her realm. True, annulled as soon as foreign policy allowed himself supreme head the liturgy would now be in English; but since Henry found her physically repellent; of the church on earth under Christ and the ambiguities and ambivalences ofliturgy then Catherine Howard, much too young, and denounced the usurpation of the pope and and doctrine were not unlike those of the also destroyed because she had committed the superstitions of his church. church of Henry's later years, just when adultery; and finally a more harmonious Ofcourse, in many ways the church in Elizabeth was growing up. A Church of marriage to Katherine Parr. England was already monarchical, with England that is, uniquely, no longer Catholic Too often, the popular image of Henry VIII bishops long nominated by the crown but not Protcstan t in any full sense, is very has been of bluff king Hal, affable and from the monarch's circle of counsellors and much Henry's legacy. pleasure-loving. Yet there was a darker side. diplomats. But so boldly, persistently and Henry was also a warrior king. In 1513, Henry was exceptionally skilled in attracting vigorously to proclaim the royal supremacy 1523 and in the mid-1540s he launched the devoted service of remarkably capable was something new. invasions of France and continued to claim counsellors - Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Henry's daughter Mary reverted to papal that he was rightfully king of France. Bold in . He was very astute at obedience during her brief reign. Yet following ambition, cautious in practice, he was prepared allowing his ministers to take public Mary's death in 1558, her half-sister, Elizabeth, to spend a fortune, not least the windfall of the responsibility for unpopular policies - from pursued Henry's policy of rejecting the dissolved monasteries' lands, on military taxation to the dissolution of the monasteries. authority ofthe papacy. Since then In fact, no other Tudor ruler was as successful the Church of England has remained Henry was very astute in leaving the impression that others were independent. And that has hugely responsible - so much so that many have been affected English relations with, and at diverting public deceived in to thinking that he was a weak man attitudes to, the rulers and peoples of manipulated by factions. Yet that he repeatedly continental Europe. Nothing any responsibility for unpopular destroyed his closest advisers, when in his eyes other Tudor monarch did mattered policies to his ministers they had served their turn, argues that it was as much. indeed Henry who brought them down. Henry did not just break with When facing opposition - or simply Rome. He saw himself as an Old Testament campaigns which achieved little, both in refusal openly to comply-no other Tudor prophet king, called upon by God to purify the France and in Scotland. And he left an ruler was quite so ruthless as Henry. Far from church. And in the 1530s the monasteries were appalling financial legacy to those who ruled being a feeble monarch open to exploitation, dissolved and the practice of pilgrimage - the realm in the minority of his son, Edward. he was an implacable king who, by the end journeys to the sites ofshrines ofsaints- Henry was a passionate builder. Few of the 1530s, had turned into was brought to an end. Both measures had monarchs have invested so much in grand a tyrant.m immense consequences. A society with men palaces and hunting lodges. The hall of and women who, at least in principle, turn 1 Hamplon Court, which he largely rebuilt in the George Bernard is a professor of their face from the world and devote early 1530s, testifies to his ambitions. And his history, specialising in the Tudors themselves exclusively to the worship of God extraordinary collection did not merely leave and the Reformation at the is qualitatively different from one which has its mark on contemporary architecture. The University of Southampton no monks and nuns. design of Nonsuch Palace, in which Henry was closely involved, had a huge influence on the Inunenseconsequences great 'prodigy houses' of Elizabethan England, Books Henry was also mu·ch involved in the and is reflected in the eclectic style ofWollaton, ► The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and codification of what Christians should believe. Hardwick and Kirby halls. the Remaking of the English Church by Although he had broken from Rome, dissolved Henry was also much interested in painting, GW Bernard (Yale University Press, 2005/ monasteries and effectively abolished and attracted to England Hans Holbein, one of ► Henry VIII by JJ Scarisbrick (Yale pilgrimage, he rejected the Lutheran doctrine the greatest artists of the age. Holbein's image University Press, 2011 J of justification-by-faith-alone and remained of Henry VIIl has had an immense impact: no ► Henry VIII by Lucy Wooding devoted to the mass. Henry also authorised the English king is more recognisable. (Routledge, 2008/ publication and the reading in church of the And then there are Henry's six wives, a Bible in English translation, a measure which real-life soap opera that wrilers of fiction H On the podcast over time has had immense consequences. would be hard-pressed to surpass. First, George Bernard discusses Henry VIII in our new Henry's was thus a remarkably hybrid Catherine ofAragon, loyal to the end, but weekly podcast lin the edition that's live 22 Julyl c(1urch. Probably very few agreed fully with the repudiated by Henry after he had fallen in love ::J www.historyextra.com/podcast-page king; most would have preferred to remain with ; secondly, Anne, who three

BBC History Magazine 27

- - .

The Tudors: Ed\Va~ ~ ~

He may have ruled for just six years but, as Ralph Houlbrooke explains, Edward VI found ample time to steer England towards Protestantism

TEDWARDVI'S Northumberland in 1551, led the government After the marriage treaty with France, Westminster Abbey as lord president of the privy council from Edward was encouraged to attend the privy coronation in February February 1550. council. In 1551-53 he wrote various papers 1547, archbishop Thomas Edward's now fervent Protestantism demonstrating his dose interest in the making Cranmer supposedly encouraged Northumberland to support of policy. In January 1553, however, he began A urged the nine-year-old reformers more militant than Cranmer, to suffer from the illness that caused his death supreme head of the especially John Hooper, who wanted to get rid on 6 July. At some stage he wrote a "devise for church to follow the example of Josiah, the of surviving elements of Catholic priestly dress, the succession" that omitted his sisters Mary young king of ancient Judah, in seeing God and John Knox, who bitterly criticised the and Elizabeth and, in it.s final form, made Lady truly worshipped and idolatry destroyed. retention of kneeling to receive holy Jane Grey his successor. Mary Tudor's fervent Cranmer's exhortation was a sign of things communion in the 1552 prayer book. Catholicism was widely thought to be Edward's to come: far from reversing Henry VIII's break In March 1551 the 13-year-old king told his chief reason for altering the succession. with Rome, Edward would go on to quicken Catholic elder sister Mary that he could no However, the illegitimacy ofboth Mary and the pace of his father's religious reforms. The longer bear her disobedience in having mass Elizabeth was the chief pretext mentioned in result was that England would, for the first celebrated in her household. His strong letters patent that gave effect to the devise. time, become an officially Protestant country feelings on the issue embarrassed his advisers We shall never know for certain whether during the six-year reign of the boy king. when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Edward, Northumberland or some other Henry VIII had ended the pope's Mary's cousin, allegedly threatened war ifshe adviser first planned the succession scheme. ecclesiastical supremacy, but he kept the mass. were not allowed her mass, Needing insurance But the king clearly made it his own, and Edward didn't share his father's devotion to against Charles's hostility, the government insisted upon it in face ofstrong objections. a rite that, for Protestants, was the prime Had Mary Tudor lived longer as queen, example of idolatry, and in 1547, the Edward's reign might have come to seem a Chantries Act condemned intercessory Edward told his Catholic disruptive but ultimately rather unimportant masses for the dead. Then, the 1548 Order of elder sister Mary that interlude in English history. In the event, Mary Communion and the two prayer books of died in 1558 and Elizabeth succeeded her. 1549 and 1552 cut the heart out of the mass he could no longer Elizabeth did not share the hopes of and finally abolished it altogether. English further reform that the Puritans inherited replaced Latin in parish church services, while bear her disobedience from the Edwardian radicals. However, the the removal of a host of'idolatrous' religious in hearing the Mass Elizabethan religious settlement was a images, abolition of many 'superstitious' modified version of Edward's legacy. Urged ceremonies, and replacement of stone altars by Sir William Cecil - her principal secretary by communion tables transformed the agreed in July 1551 a treaty with France who had served under Northumberland - outward face of religion. providing for Edward's eventual marriage to Elizabeth helped the Scottish lords of the one of King Henri II's daughters. It now congregation who threw off French tutelage Fervent refonn seemed safe to try once more to end Mary's and introduced a Calvinist Reformation. Edward remained a minor throughout his mass, and then arrest Somerset, who was tried John Knox, exile in Edward's England, was its reign. His maternal uncle, Edward Seymour, for treasonable plotting and executed in leading architect. m Duke ofSo merset, was protector of the king's January 1552. But Henri II was not a close or realms from 1547-49. He combined strong trusted ally: There were soon renewed fears of Ralph Houlbrooke taught history support for religiou.~ reform with a resolve to French schemes against England. at the University of Reading. His address social and economic ills such as the A sharp fall in English doth exports during books include Death, Religion and supposedly widespread enclosure ofland for the early 1550s -when England's relations the Family in England, 1480-1750 conversion to pasture. His 1547 invasion of with Charles V, overlord ofAntwerp, London's IOUP, 1998) Scotland resumed the 'rough wooing' begun by main trading partner, were already frosty­ Henry VIII in order to achieve Mary Stewart's prompted the formation of a partnership marriage to Edward. Seymour also tried to between London merchants and the court Books enlist Scottish support for an ambitious vision under Northumberland's patronage to ► Tudor Church Militant: Edward VI and the of a united and Protestant Britain. However, finance a quest for new markets by way of the Protestant Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch French help for the Scots ensured its failure. North-East Passage (along the Russian Arctic /Allen Lane: The Penguin Press, 1999/ ► Edward VI: The Lost King of England Unsellling religious changes and coast). The expedition that set off in May 1553, by Chris Skidmore !Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2007) economic grievances triggered a formidable watched by Edward from Greenwich Palace, wave of rebeUions in J 549. Somerset's never reached China as intended, but sympathetic response to some economic resulted in the opening of a profitable trade nd li On thepodcast d~ma s, coupled with his arrogance towards with Rwsia. This venture, and the stimulus it his feUow councillors, led in October to his Ralph Houlbrooke discusses Edward VI in our gave to English advances in navigation and weekly podcasl lin the edition that's live 29 July) arre5I at WiJ1clsor and removal from the ~ cartography, played a key part in launching the :J www.historyextra.com/podcast-page prolectorship. John Dudley, created Duke of Elizabethan age of exploration.

BBC History Magazine 29

The Tudors: Mary I

Anna Whitelock explains how the popular perception of 'Bloody Mary' hides a pioneering monarch who achieved great things during her reign

ARY WAS the Tudor was in anye her mooste noble progenytours leave London and, in a speech at the Guildhall, trailblazer. Never before kynges ofthys Rea/me." The act made Mary's attacked Thomas Wyatt, the rebel leader, as a had a queen worn the queenship equal to that of a king in law. wicked traitor, defended her religion and crown of England. She And so in statute, in ceremony and in ritual, choice of husband, and called on Londoners to won the throne against the Mary drew on the precedents of her male stand firm in support. "I doubt not but we shall M odds, preserving the Tudor predecessors and fashioned them for give these rebels a short and speedy overthrow." line ofsuccession and queenship. There was no guidance for the The rebel.~ were compelled to lay down their establishing precedents for female rule. Her coronation of a woman as a ruler in her own arms and to sue for mercy. In her speech Mary significance has long been overlooked. right but Mary's ceremony invested her with all promised to submit the treaty before the Until recently Mary has been the forgotten the power exercised by her ancestors. Mary people for ratification- a step her male Tudor - overshadowed by her famous sister, notably revived the tradition of touching a predecessors had never taken. Elizabeth. She has been condemned as one of sufferer ofscrofula (known as the king's evil) Mary's reign is of course most noted for the the most reviled women in history. 'Bloody and followed other practices such as blessing burning of nearly 300 men, women and Mary' is regarded as a bigoted, half Spanish cramp rings (also used for healing) as well as children. While this cannot and should not be tyrant whose reign was an unmitigated failure washing the feet of the poor on Maundy expunged from accounts of her reign, it is notable only for the burning ofnearly Thursday. Such rituals had never been important to consider the wider context and 300 Protestants and her unpopular marriage performed by a worn an and were considered her religious policy more generally. to Philip of Spain. priestly acts that only God's representative on The restoration of Catholicism was neither Mary was of course never meant to be earth, a male monarch, could perform. inept nor backward-looking. Cardinal queen, and her father, Henry VJII, had gone to Although inhabiting what was traditionally Reginald Pole succeeded in reinstating the great-infamous - lengths to guard against her a male world of monarchy, the personality of papacy and launched an effective propaganda accession. While Henry finally campaign through pulpit and press and, as has acknowledged Mary's claim to the The 1nost notorious aspect of been recently argued, the most notorious throne in the last years of his reign, aspect of the reign - the burnings - proved Edward VI ignored his father's will the reign - the burnings - devastatingly effective. if Mary had lived or if and, determined to preserve a she had managed to produce a Catholic heir, Protestant church, wrote his Catholic proved devastatingly effective there seems little doubt that England would sister out of the succession. Upon his have been successfully recatholiciscd and the death in July 1553 was the monarch continued to he the key to the historical judgement on Mary would have been proclaimed queen. Ten days later and against determination and execution of policy. The very different. extraordinary odds, Marywon her rightful Marian regime was, in short, an emphatically Mary ruled with the full measure of royal throne. The scale of her achievement is often personal monarchy. Mary was closely involved majesty and achieved much of what she had set overlooked. Mary had led the only successful in government and the key policies of the reign out to do. Her reign redefined the contours of revolt against central government in 16th­ ~ the marriage, the reunion with Rome and the English monarchy. She made it possible for century England and was the only Tudor, save war with France. Far from being distanced queens to rule as kings and established the for Henry VII, who had to fight forthe throne. from politics and policy making as has been gender-free authority of the crown. m She had duded capture, mobilised a counter­ claimed, Mary was at its heart. As the Venetian coup and in the moment of crisis proved ambassador described, she rose "at daybreak courageous, decisive and politically adept. when, after saying her prayers and hearing Anna Whitelock is a lecturer in mass in private, she transacts business early modern history at Royal Setting precedents incessantly until after midnight''. Holloway, University of London. Yet despite her triumphant accession, Mary's Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain has long She wrote Mary Tudor: England's ~tat us as England's first crowned queen was a been seen as a failme, exemplified by the loss of First Queen [Bloomsbury, 20091. matter of great speculation and uncertainty. Calais, England's last territory in France in Many questioned whether indeed a woman 1558. In spite of this, Mary's marriage can be could wear the crown. The language, image, seen as a calculated and successful political act. Books and expectations ofEnglisb monarchy and She chose a husband distant from English ► Mary Tudor: England"s First Queen by Anna royal majesty were unequivocally male. So, in disputes and intrigues and his powers were Whitelock [Bloomsbury, 2009) the following months the practice and power carefully circumscribed by legislation and a ► Mary Tudor: Old and New Perspectives by of a queen regnant were hammered out. It was highly favourable marriage treaty. While more Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman [Pa/grave Macmillan, 2011) ffi a debate over which Mary presided and her work needs to be done on the role in i decisions would become precedents for the government of.Philip and his Spanish ~ future. The status ofa queen regnant was laid entourage, Mary did remain legally and H On the podcast out !n a highly significant statute passed in the I effectively sole queen throughout her reign. Anna Whitelock discusses Mary in our new ~ parliament of April J 554: "An Acte declari11ge Mary defeated a rebellion against the weekly podcast lin the edition live on 5 August) ; that the Regal/ power ofthy s renlmeis in the Spanish marriage, again securing popular :J www.historyextra.com/podcast-page " Q1tenes Maiestie as fully and nbso/11telyas ever it support in a moment of crisis. She refu~ed to

BBC History Magazine 31

Susan Doran examines the life of a queen beset by enemies- on all sides, who somehow emerged to unite her countiy as a Protestant martial power

LIZA RF.TH I faced more depending on the preferences of the beginning the process which would eventually difficulties as a monarch community and its minister. Elizabeth would lead to the establishment of the British empire. than any other Tudor. have no truck with those zealous Protestants Of course Elizabeth's fame also rests on her Born the daughter of who attempted to introduce the more austere virginity. Admittedly, during the reign the fact Henry VIII and Anne discipline of Calvinist Geneva into England. In that she remained single was a source of E Boleyn on 7 September consequence, notwithstanding the strength of political anxiety as well as strength. However it 1533, Elizabeth's right to Catholic opinion at the outset of her reign, the had two important positive results. The first is rule as queen of England never went Protestant form of worship imposed by her Act that her heir was to be James VI, who united in unchallenged. Protestants (notably John Knox) of Uniformity gained in popularity over time his person Scotland and England, a crucially initially claimed female rule was unnatural or and became embedded in English lay culture. important event in the development of British monstrous, while Roman Catholics judged v\1hen Puritans tried to outlaw the Prayer history. The second is that it transformed the Elizabeth a bastard since they refused to Book's use in 1645, there was extensive passive queen into a cultural icon. Her portraits of the recognise her father's marriage to her mother. resistance, and it was speedily restored ( with 1580s and 90s depict the archetypal Elizabeth: Unlike her father and brother, whose amendments) at the Restoration of Charles II . alone, majestic, expressionless, and imperial, legitimacy was never questioned, Elizabeth had Protestantism in England also survived her virginity on show through a variety of to confront dynastic challenges at her accession because Elizabeth was successful in seeing off symbols whether pearls, cherries, a sieve, a which continued almost until her death. the Catholic threat.At home she prevented or crescent moon, or an ermine. Another difficulty for Elizabeth was that she suppressed Catholic rebellion, conspiracy and This Virgin Queen is not only immediately inherited a realm ill at ease with itself The disobedience without descending into tyranny recognisable; it has made Elizabeth a source of religious persecution under her sister, Mary, or intense religious persecution. Tt is of course fascination for centuries. Biographers and had divided communities and traumatised true that she signed the death warrant of Mary psychologists have felt the need to investigate English Protestants and their how she could dismiss social and political sympathisers. The economic recession, Elizabeth had to confront norms and refuse marriage. The prurient dreadful harvests, and devastating want to know if her courtiers - Leicester, .Essex epidemics of the mid-1550s created dynastic challenges at her and Hatton -were her lovers. Early (mainly uncertainties and shattered the lives of male) biographers and historians sought to many ordinary people. The accession which continued explain how her rejection of love and humiliating French capture of Calais almost until her death motherhood affected her character. Feminists (England's last continental possession) were attracted to the sight of a woman defying in January 1558 punctured confidence conventions and ruling alone. Everyone wants in England's military power and Queen ofScots, hut her reluctance to do so is to know how Elizabeth could rule successfully international prestige. legendary. It's also true that Jesuits, seminary in a man's world without a husband. Her From these problems Elizabeth emerged priests and their harbourers were imprisoned sister, Mary, may have marked out a new path triumphant. She confounded her Catholic or executed under Elizabeth, but these as England's first queen regnant; but enemies, imposed her will on the political prosecutions mainly occurred in the 1580s Elizabeth broke entirely new ground as an scene, turned England into a strong Protestant when Spain and the pope were thought to be unmarried one. m state, presided over a glittering court culture, using Catholic priests to destabilise the realm. and died in her bed at the age of 69. Her By the standards of the age - and compared to unusual situation as an unmarried queen her father and siblings - Elizabeth was a model Susan Doran teaches at Oxford - the only one in British history - created a of religious tolerance. Thanks to her, English University and is the author of mystique around her that has survived to the history was not scarred by massacres and the Elizabeth I and Religion 1558-1603 present. Unsurprisingly, scholarly studies and country did not descend into civil war. [Routledge, 1993] biographies of the queen come regularly off Elizabeth's importance in British history the press, easily outnumbering those devoted is also a result of the defeat of the Spanish to the other Tudors. Armada. Memorialised in later paintings and Books film, the English victory of 1588 saved England ► Queen Elizabeth I by Susan Flexible and moderate from Spanish rule and preserved the Protestant Doran {British Library, 2003] Elfaabcth's dominant place in British history is church. Furthermore, as the most notable ► Elizabeth I by Christopher Haigh (Longman, 1988) above all assured by the establishment and military success since the battle ofAgincourt, ► Elizabeth I by Judith Richards defence of the 1559 Pro testant settlement- the it restored confidence in England's martial {Routledge, November 2011 J English Prayer Book and Thirty-Nine Articles reputation and pointed to the future when i of Religio n -which remains the basis of tl1e England would become a major naval power. 2 Church of England today. Due to her Henry VIII may he generally viewed as the H On the podcast ~

BBC History Magazine 33