The Tudors and Stuarts: Life in the UK test study notes

Key facts to remember

• 1485 – Henry VII becomes the first Tudor king; he strengthens central government, reduces the nobles' power and manages money carefully.
• Henry VIII's six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn (executed), Jane Seymour (died after childbirth), Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard (executed) and Catherine Parr (outlived him).
• Henry VIII breaks with Rome and sets up the Church of England, in which the king, not the Pope, appoints bishops.
• Under Henry VIII, Wales is formally united with England, brought under English law and represented in the House of Commons.
• The Reformation – Protestants form their own churches, give up praying to saints and use Bibles written in their own tongues rather than Latin.
• Edward VI (Protestant): the Book of Common Prayer is written for the Church of England. Mary I (Catholic) persecutes Protestants.
• 1588 – the Spanish Armada is defeated under Elizabeth I. Sir Francis Drake, one of the English commanders, had already sailed around the world in the Golden Hind (1577–80).
• 1560 – the Scottish Parliament rejects the Pope's authority. Mary, Queen of Scots, later flees to England (1568), is held prisoner and is executed in 1587.
• William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon, writes plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, staged at the Globe.
• Shakespeare is one of the first playwrights to show the lives of ordinary English men and women, as well as kings and queens.
• Shakespeare lines: 'To be or not to be' (Hamlet), 'Once more unto the breach' (Henry V), 'All the world's a stage' (As You Like It), 'A rose by any other name' (Romeo and Juliet).
• 1603 – the childless Elizabeth I dies; James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England, but Scotland stays separate. His reign brings the King James Bible (1611) and the plantation of Ulster.
• Plantations – under Elizabeth I and James I, English and Scottish Protestants are encouraged to settle in Ulster on land confiscated from Catholic landholders.
• Divine Right of Kings – the belief, held by James I and later by Charles I (his son), that kings are chosen by God to rule and so need not seek Parliament's consent.
• When Parliament blocks his policies, Charles I rules and raises money without it for 11 years, until trouble in Scotland forces him to recall it.
• The Puritans – Protestants who want strict, plain forms of worship; they oppose Charles I's changes to the Church.
• Charles I enters the House of Commons to arrest five leading MPs, who have been warned and escape; no monarch has entered the Commons since.
• 1642 – Civil War begins between Cavaliers (royalists) and Roundheads (Parliament); Parliament later wins at Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645).
• 1649 – Charles I is executed and England becomes a republic, the Commonwealth; Oliver Cromwell later rules as Lord Protector.
• Cromwell imposes Parliament's authority in Ireland with great brutality, and he remains a controversial figure there.
• The Scots proclaim Charles II king; Cromwell defeats their army at Dunbar in 1650, and again at Worcester when Charles leads it into England.
• 1651 – Charles II, crowned in Scotland, loses the Battle of Worcester and hides in an oak tree before escaping abroad.
• 1658 – Oliver Cromwell's son Richard succeeds him as Lord Protector but cannot control the army or government, and calls grow for a king's return.
• 1660 – the Restoration: Parliament invites Charles II back from exile in the Netherlands.
• 1665 – Great Plague; 1666 – Great Fire of London, described by Samuel Pepys; Sir Christopher Wren designs the new St Paul's Cathedral.
• 1679 – Habeas Corpus Act guarantees prisoners a court hearing; the Royal Society (1660), the oldest surviving scientific society, has early members including Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley.
• 1688 – Glorious Revolution: William of Orange and Mary replace James II; 1689 – Bill of Rights; 1690 – Battle of the Boyne.
• Glorious Revolution – Protestant leaders invite William of Orange, ruler of the Protestant Netherlands and husband of James II's daughter Mary; there is no fighting in England, hence 'glorious'.
• 1680–1720 – Huguenot refugees arrive from France; 1707 – under Queen Anne, the Act of Union creates the Kingdom of Great Britain.