TUDOR DYNASTY OF ENGLAND

TUDOR DYNASTY OF ENGLAND

House of Tudor, an English royal dynasty of Welsh origin, which gave five sovereigns to England: 

Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509)

Henry VII (; 28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 to his death on 21 April 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.Henry attained the throne when his forces defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field,

the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. He was the last king of England to win his throne on the field of battle. He cemented his claim by marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III. Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability  After the death of his elder brother Arthur in 1502, Henry became heir to the English throne.

HENRY VIII

When Henry VII died in 1509, this popular eighteen-year-old prince, known for his love of hunting and dancing, became King Henry VIII.
 Soon after he obtained the papal dispensation required to allow him to marry his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon.In the first years of his reign Henry VIIIeffectively relied on Thomas Wolsey to rule for him, and by 1515 Henry had elevated him to the highest role Henry VIII is known as the 'father of the Royal Navy.' When he became king there were five royal warships. By his death he had built up a navy of around 50 ships. He refitted several vessels with the latest guns including the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545.

Henry was acutely aware of the importance of securing a male heir during his reign. He was worried that he had only one surviving child, Mary, to show for his marriage to Catherine, who was now in her 40s. So the king asked Cardinal Wolsey to appeal to Pope Clement VII for an annulment and it soon became clear he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, who had been a lady-in-waiting to his first wife.But, unwilling to anger Catherine of Aragon's nephew – the most powerful ruler in Europe, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V – the Pope refused. Thomas Wolsey's ascendancy was cut short by this failure.
In 1533, Henry VIII broke with the church and married the now pregnant Anne Boleyn in a secret ceremony. Henry was excommunicated by the Pope.

 After Wolsey's downfall, Thomas Cromwell became Henry's chief minister and earned the confidence of the King by helping him to break with Rome and establish Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. This act also brought him much needed wealth through the dissolution of the well-funded monasteries. Over four years Cromwell ordered that 800 monasteries be disbanded and their lands and treasures taken for the crown.who had adopted Protestantism.
Anne Boleyn

In September 1533 Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth I). Henry had grown tired of her, and after two further pregnancies ended in miscarriages, she was arrested in 1536 on trumped up charges of adultery and publicly beheaded at the Tower of London.Henry's third marriage, this time to lady-in-waiting,

Jane Seymour, finally produced the son he so desperately desired with the birth of Edward in 1537. Jane Seymour died after childbirth and Henry ordered that she be granted a queen's funeral.
In an attempt to establish ties with the German Protestant alliance, Thomas Cromwell arranged a marriage between the king and German princess Anne of Cleves.

The marriage was a disaster and Henry divorced Anne a few months later. Henry blamed Cromwell for this mismatch and soon afterwards had him executed for treason.
Final Years

The final years of his reign witnessed Henry VIII's physical decline and an increasing desire to appear all-powerful. Henry continued with fruitless and expensive campaigns against Scotland and France.In 1540, the aging King married the teenage Catherine Howard. Their marriage was short lived.
It was alleged that she had a previous relationship with Henry's courtier Francis Dereham and an affair with another courtier Thomas Culpeper. Catherine was executed for adultery and treason in 1542.
Henry's final marriage to Catherine Parr, who acted like a nurse, was more harmonious and she would go on to outlive him.

Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547 and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI. He was buried next to Jane Seymour in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Edward VI.

Edward was King Henry VIII’s only legitimate son; his mother, Henry’s third wife, Jane Seymour, died 12 days after his birth. Although Edward has traditionally been viewed as a frail child who was never in good health,

Henry had decreed that during Edward’s minority the government was to be run by a council of regency; in fact, Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset,In January 1553 Edward showed the first signs of tuberculosis, and by May it was evident that the disease would be fatal.

 Lady Jane Grey

ruled for nine days (July 10–19, 1553) before she was overthrown by the more popular Mary I (reigned 1553–58).

Mary I (reigned 1553–58).
As Mary entered London, there was much rejoicing and her accession (1553) was very popular. Her popularity was all the greater because the violence of the Reformers had roused great opposition and most of the nations were glad to accept Roman Catholicism as England had in the last years of Henry VIII’s reign.Mary was the first woman to rule England and was thirty-six years old. One of her first acts was the execution of North­umberland and sending Lady Jane and her husband to the Tower.Mary was a staunch Catholic.

She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon.The cruel treatment of her mother by her father Henry and the persecution that she herself had suffered at the hands of her father 








and later from Duke of Northumberland, regent of Edward VI, were memories that burnt deep into her soul.the same year

(1554) Mary was married to Philip of Spain The next year (1555) persecution of the Protes­tants began. With the re-enactment of the law of heresy, there began the burning of Protestant mar­tyrs which gave Mary’s reign an evil reputation.

September 7, 1533 - Elizabeth Tudor is born at Greenwich Palace, the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife, Anne Boleyn.
January 28, 1547 - King Henry VIII of England dies and is succeeded by his youngest child, Edward VI.
July 6, 1553 - King Edward VI of England dies, leaving the crown to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, who rules for only nine days. Edward's half-sister Mary Tudor raises an army, claims her throne, and imprisons Grey. Mary I is the first queen regnant of England.
January 25, 1554 - Sir Thomas Wyatt leads a revolt to protest Queen Mary's intended marriage to Philip II of Spain and to put Princess Elizabeth on the throne. Elizabeth denies knowledge of Wyatt's plans, but the queen orders her to the Tower of London for questioning.

May 19, 1554 - Imprisoned since January after being implicated in a plot against Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth leaves the Tower of London for house arrest at Woodstock.
November 17, 1558 - Queen Mary I of England dies, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth.

January 15, 1559 - Elizabeth I is crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey.
September 8, 1560 - Sir Robert Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart, dies from a fall down the stairs at a friend's home in Oxfordshire, fueling rumors that Dudley and Elizabeth conspired to kill her in order to marry. An inquest determines that there was no foul play.
June 1562 - Elizabeth I, queen of England, and her cousin Mary, queen of Scotland, plan to meet in York, but the diplomatic fallout of religious conflict in France causes Elizabeth to cancel the visit. The two queens never meet.
October 1562 - Elizabeth I, queen of England, contracts smallpox but suffers few scars. The Privy Council refuses her desire that Sir Robert Dudley be named Lord Protector in case of her death.
September 29, 1564 - Sir Robert Dudley becomes the first earl of Leicester, a title that Elizabeth I, queen of England, hopes will enhance his status as a potential match for the widowed Mary, queen of Scotland.
July 29, 1565 - Mary, Queen of Scots, marries her first cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, of England. Their relationship quickly collapses.
March 9, 1566 - David Rizzio, the Italian private secretary of Mary, queen of Scotland, is murdered by a group of Protestant noblemen while at dinner with the queen, who is six months pregnant. The queen's king consort, Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, is later implicated in the plot.
June 19, 1566 - James Stuart is born at Edinburgh Castle, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.

July 24, 1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots, abdicates the throne in favor of her thirteen-month-old son, who is now known as James VI.
1568–1587 - Mary Stuart, former queen of Scotland and cousin to Queen Elizabeth I, is held under house arrest in north-central England in the custody of loyal courtiers, including George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Elizabeth, countess of Hardwick.
May 16, 1568 - Mary Stuart flees Scotland for England, where she seeks safety and English support to regain her crown. Elizabeth refuses to meet with her because Mary has not accepted Elizabeth's legitimacy as queen.
November 1569 - Thomas Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, sixth earl of Westmoreland, lead a failed revolt in northern England against Queen Elizabeth. They oppose her Protestant policies and her reliance upon Sir William Cecil, and support Mary Stuart's claim to the English throne.
April 27, 1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth of England in a belated attempt to support the revolt led by Thomas Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, sixth earl of Westmoreland.
June 2, 1572 - Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, is tried and executed for his participation in the Ridolfi plot, an attempt to overthrow Queen Elizabeth of England in favor of her cousin Mary Stuart, whom Norfolk hopes to marry.










July 9–27, 1575 - As part of her regular summer progress, Queen Elizabeth of England visits Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester, for one of the most costly and extravagant festivals of her reign, at Kenilworth in Warwickshire.
1579–1582 - Queen Elizabeth of England negotiates her last prospect of marriage with Francis, duke of Anjou and Alençon, and son of the powerful Catherine de Medici. She affectionately nicknames him "frog," but declines to marry.
Winter 1584–1585 - Queen Elizabeth I develops a strategy in her war against Spain. She will send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for privateers.
February 8, 1587 - After being tried and convicted of plotting the death of Queen Elizabeth of England, Mary Stuart is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire.
August 1588 - The Spanish Armada engages with the English navy in the English Channel and, after losing several ships, returns to Spain.
September 4, 1588 - Sir Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's Master of the Horse and longtime confidant, dies.
August 4, 1589 - Sir William Cecil, first baron Burghley, dies. He was secretary of state under King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I, and Lord Treasurer from 1572 until his death.

February 25, 1601 - Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, is beheaded for leading a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth in London.
March 24, 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I dies at Richmond Palace and is succeeded by James VI of Scotland, who unites the thrones of England and Scotland, ruling the former as James I.

April 28, 1603 - The funeral of Queen Elizabeth is held at Westminster Abbey, where she is buried. Her successor, James I, in keeping with royal custom, does not attend the service.