Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for twenty years but they still had not a son who could be the heir to the throne. They had only one daughter, Mary. Henry thought that England would be weak if there were no king to follow him and he didn’t want his country to have civil war again. Catherine was nice and clever and was a true friend to her husband but she failed to give him a son. So Henry decided to divorce Catherine and marry again.
He met Anne Boleyn [`æn bu`li:n / bз`lin], the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, and fell madly in love with her. Henry asked the Pope [poup] to give him a divorce and explained that Catherine had first been his elder brother’s wife. He thought that it had been a sin to marry his brother’s widow and that the absence of sons was his punishment. But the Pope did not allow divorce, and so Henry officially denied the Pope’s authority and divorced Catherine. He also proclaimed Mary, the daughter he had by this marriage, illegitimate [,ili`d3itimit].
In 1531 Henry broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself head of the ‘Church of England’, independent of Rome. He closed the monasteries [`monзstзriz] in England and took their treasures. Yet he was not sympathetic [,simpз`θetik] to Protestants [`protistзnts], believing himself a Catholic despite his action. Henry’s break with Rome was purely political. He simply wanted to control the Church and to keep its wealth in his own kingdom. He did not approve the new ideas of Reformation Protestantism [,refз`mei∫зn `protistзntizm] introduced by Martin Luther [`ma:tin `lu:θз] in Germany and John Calvin [`kælvin] in Geneva [3з`ni:vз]. Between 1532 and 1536 Parliament passed several Acts, by which England officially became a Protestant country, even though the popular religion was still Catholic.
Henry married five more times after his divorce from Catherine. His second wife, Anne Boleyn, didn’t give him a son, but another daughter, Elizabeth. When Henry got tired of Anne Boleyn he had her executed [`eksikju:tid] and proclaimed their daughter, Elizabeth, illegitimate. Ten days after Anne Boleyn’s execution the king married his third wife, Jane Seymour [`seimз], who gave him a son, but died twelve days later. Then he married Anne of Cleves [`kli:vz] and divorced her for being too ugly. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard [`hauзd] was beheaded in the Tower, but the last one, Catherine Parr [pa:] was lucky enough to survive the king.
“Divorced, beheaded, died,
Divorced, beheaded, survived.”
Henry died in 1547, leaving three children: Mary by Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn and Edward, the Prince of Wales, by Jane Samour.
Edward VI, was only a child of nine years old when his father died and he became king, so the country was ruled by a council, all the members of which were Protestants. The boy king Edward VI is memorable for opening new grammar schools which replaced the monastery schools, which had been closed by his father. Unfortunately the rein of this clever and kind boy was short. He died in 1553, when he was only sixteen.
Everybody knew that his sister Mary was next in line to the throne. She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, a true catholic. It was clear that if she succeeded [sзk`si:did], the Roman Catholic religion would be established again in England. This possibility troubled the minds of those who showed themselves good Protestants during the reign of Edward VI. They got a lot of money from the sale of monastery lands. It was very important for them to have a Protestant monarch inherit [in`herit] the English throne. So a group of nobles tried to put Edward’s second cousin, Lady Jane Grey, a strict Protestant, on the throne. But Lady Jane was Queen for only nine days. Mary succeeded in entering London and took control [kзn`troul] of the kingdom. On the 19 July 1553 the Regency Council [`ri:d3зnsi `kaunsl] declared Princess Mary queen. Lady Jane was imprisoned and executed.
Mary’s first acts as queen were to re-establish the Catholic Church. At first, she behaved fairly towards convinced Protestants, letting them leave the country. But when Mary made an attempt to bring England back to the Catholic Church she met with resistance [ri`zistзns]. Then the Queen began burning the Protestants. She executed over 300 people. This earned her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’.
Her big mistake was her marriage to King Philip of Spain. The English people disliked her choice. They were afraid that this marriage would place England under foreign control. Parliament agreed to Mary’s marriage unwillingly and made a condition that Philip would be regarded as King of England only during Mary’s lifetime.
In 1557 Mary and Philip went to war against France, and in 1558 the French won Calais [`kælei], the last of England’s possessions in France. It was no great loss, but it was a blow to English pride. When Queen Mary was told about it, she said: “When I am dead and my body is opened, you shall find Calais written on my heart”.
The queen died in 1558, after reining not quite five years and a half, and in the forty-fourth year of her age.
Elizabeth I was twenty-six when she became queen. She wanted to find a peaceful answer to the problems of the English Reformation. She managed to bring together Catholics and Protestants; as a result the Protestantism in England remained closer to the Catholic religion than to other Protestant groups. She made the Church ‘part of the state machine’.
Her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart [st(j)uзt], the Queen of Scots, became a thread to her. Mary Stuart was a granddaughter of Henry VII by his daughter Margaret. For many true Catholics Elizabeth was still illegitimate [,ili`d3itimit] and they believed that Mary Stuart was the only lawful heir to the Tudor throne. As soon as Mary I of England died Mary Stuart claimed the right to the English Crown. Mary had a conflict with some of her nobles, who suspected her of helping in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley [`da:nli]. She escaped to England and asked for Elizabeth’s help. In England Elizabeth kept her as a prisoner for nearly twenty years. During that time Mary was involved into several secret Catholic plots aimed at making her Queen of England. All these plots were discovered and finally Elizabeth agreed to Mary’s execution in 1587.
Elizabeth was a wise and careful monarch. She showed this by choosing excellent advisers, Sir William Cecil [`sesl], better known as Lord Burghley [`bз:li] and his son Robert Cecil.
Elizabeth continued Henry VII’s work and encouraged foreign trade. She considered Spain her main trade rival [`raivзl] and enemy. Spain had wanted for years to invade England, and at last got ready a great fleet of ships, an Armada [a:`ma:dз]. It comprised 130 ships and 8 000 seamen. But though the Spanish fleet was larger than the English one, its ships were less effective in the northern waters. The English were at home off their own coasts, their ships were longer and narrower, so they were faster, and besides, their guns could shoot further than the Spanish ones. In July, 1588, the English defeated the Spanish fleet. Some Spanish ships were sunk, the remaining ships were blown northwards by the wind and many of them were wrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. For England it was a glorious [`glo:riзs] day.
Of great concern to Elizabeth was the fact that the war was costing a lot of money. It was financial [fai`næn∫зl] considerations that held up Elizabeth’s conquest of Ireland, which was completed until 1603, the year of her death.
Elizabeth encouraged English traders to settle abroad and create colonies [`kolзniz]. This policy led directly to Britain’s colonial [kз`lounjзl] empire of the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English colonists [`kolзnists] sailed to America, one of the best known was Sir Walter Raleigh [`ro:li || `ra:li || `ræli], who brought tobacco [tз`bækou] back to England. It was he who perpetuated [pз`petjueitid] – увековечил – his Queen’s name by calling his colony Virginia [vз`d3injз], in honour of ‘The Virgin Queen’. England also began selling West African slaves for the Spanish in America. By 1650 slavery had become an important trade.
The second half of the 16th century saw the development of trade with foreign lands. During Elizabeth’s reign so-called chartered [t∫a:tзd] companies were established. A charter gave the company the right to all the business in its particular trade or region. In return for this important advantage the charted company gave some of its profits [`profits] to the Crown. A number of these companies were established during Elizabeth’s reign: the Eastland Company to trade with Scandinavia [,skændi`neivjз] and the Baltic [`boltik], the Levant [li`vænt] Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire [`otзmзn `empaiз], the Africa Company to trade in slaves and the East India Company to trade with India.
Elizabeth made England prosperous [`prospзrзs]. She managed money very well and gradually paid all England’s debts. In the 1570s she was able to reduce [ri`dju:s] taxes. Elizabethan [i,lizз`bi:θзn] age is called the golden age of England. It was the time of English Renaissance [ri`neisзns]. There was a wonderful harvest of art, music, poetry and most importantly of theatre. Arts were greatly encouraged by the Queen herself. Edmund Spenser [`edmзnd `spensз] wrote the lyric poem ‘The Fairy Queen’ in honour of Elizabeth. In the theatres plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe [`ma:lou] and Ben Jonson were performed. London was a lively city of 200 000 people, Oxford and Cambridge universities were great centers of Classical study.
In March, 1603 Elizabeth died. She never married and was childless. And according to her will, James, the son of Mary Stuart succeed her.
Vocabulary
prosperity – процветание
Catherine of Aragon – Екатерина Арагонская
Anne Boleyn – Анна Болейн
lady-in-waiting – фрейлина
the Pope – папа (римский)
illegitimate – незаконнорожденный
Roman Catholic Church – Римско-католическая церковь
monastery – монастырь
Protestant – протестант, протестантский
Reformation Protestantism – реформационное протестантство
Martin Luther – Мартин Лютер
John Calvin – Жан Кальвин
Geneva – Женева
execute – казнить
Jane Seymour – Джейн Сеймур
Catherine Howard – Екатерина Говард
to be beheaded – быть обезглавленным
Catherine Parr – Екатерина Парр
succeede – наследовать
Regency Council – регентский совет
resistance – сопротивление
Bloody Mary – Мария Кровавая
King Philip of Spain – король Испании Филипп
Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scots – Мария Стюарт, королева шотландцев
Lord Darnley – лорд Дарнли
Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley – сэр Уильям Сесил, лорд Берли
rival – соперник
glorious – славный
financial considerations – финансовые соображения
colony – колония
colonial empire – колониальная империя
colonist – колонист
Sir Walter Raleigh – сэр Уолтер Рэли
tobacco – табак
perpetuate – увековечить
Virginia – Вирджиния
‘The Virgin Queen’ – «королева-девственница»
chartered companies – компании, организованные на основании правительственной концессии
profits – доходы
Levant – Левант
Ottoman Empire – Оттоманская империя
prosperous – процветающий
reduce – сокращать
Elizabethan age – елизаветинский век
English Renaissance – английское Возрождение
Edmund Spenser – Эдмунд Спенсер
‘The Fairy Oueen’ – «Королева фей»
Shakespeare – Шекспир
Marlowe – Марло
Ben Jonson – Бен Джонсон
9. The Stuarts’ England
When James I (1603–1625) became the first English king of the Stuart dynasty, he was already king of Scotland, though the union of the two crowns did not go as far as James wanted. The administrations, Parliaments and courts of the two countries continued to function separately, and differences in culture and religion between England and Scotland were pronounced.
The religious situation in Britain was not simple and in the 17th century religion and politics were linked. There were people in the country who disagreed with the teachings of the Church of England. They said that the services of the Church of England had become too complicated and too rich and took too much money. They wanted to make the Church of England more modest, to purify [`pjuзrifai] it. These people were called Puritans [`pjuзritзnz].
James I adopted the Anglicanism [`æŋgli,sizm] of Elizabeth’s Church. In 1604 a great conference held at Hampton Court. James made it clear that he would make no changes in religion. He condemned [kзn`demd] the Puritans. They could either conform [kзn`fo:m] to James’s wishes or leave the country. Many men had Puritan sympathies but obeyed the laws and they stood. Other Puritans left to establish colonies in North America, where they could worship as they wished.
The one positive result of the Hampton Court Conference was the setting up of a commission to make a new translation of the Bible [`baibl]. This, when completed in 1611, was known as King James’s Bible.