Tudor period
In England and Wales, the Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603, including the Elizabethan era during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England, which began with the reign of Henry VII. Under the Tudor dynasty, art, architecture trade, exploration and commerce flourished.[1] Historian John Guy (1988) argued that "England was economically healthier, more expensive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.[2]
Population and economy[edit]
Following the Black Death (1348) and the agricultural depression of the late 15th century, the population of England began to increase. In 1520, it was around 2.3 million. By 1600 it had almost doubled to 4 million.[3] The growing population stimulated economic growth, accelerated the commercialisation of agriculture, increased the production and export of wool, encouraged trade, and promoted the growth of London.[4]
The high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 15th and early 16th centuries were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to an influx of New World gold and a rising population, set the stage for social upheaval, with the gap between the rich and poor widening. This was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, with manorial lords beginning the process of enclosure of village lands that previously had been open to everyone.[5]
Tudor government[edit]
Henry VII: 1485–1509[edit]
Henry VII, founder of the House of Tudor, became King of England by defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the culmination of the Wars of the Roses. Henry engaged in a number of administrative, economic and diplomatic initiatives. He paid very close attention to detail and, instead of spending lavishly, concentrated on raising new revenues. His new taxes were unpopular, and when Henry VIII succeeded him, he executed Henry VII's two most hated tax collectors.[10][11]
Numerous popular uprisings occurred; all suppressed by royal authorities. The largest were:
Social history[edit]
The cultural achievements of the Elizabethan era have long attracted scholars, and since the 1960s they have conducted intensive research on the social history of England.[78][79] Main subjects within Tudor social history includes courtship and marriage, the food they consumed and the clothes they wore.[80] Such research has debunked the common misconception that Tudor elites were unclean.[81][82]
Award-winning research published in 2017 by Miranda Kaufmann delves into the lives of 10 of the around 360 recorded persons of Black African heritage, the majority of whom lived out their lives as free persons, living in England or otherwise a part of Tudor English society between 1500 and 1640, showing some of the first recorded evidence of Black British people after the Roman period.[83][84]
Jews, mainly Marranos from Portugal or Spain fleeing persecution from the Inquisition began developing a small community in London during this time period.[85][86] Notably, this was not the first written record of Jews in England which begins around the 1070s,[87][88] but it was a new wave of migration and community development in England. Hector Nunez and Roderigo Lopez were both Jews and leading physicians during 1570s and 1580s Elizabethan England.[89] Lopez's believed involvement in a plot to poison Elizabeth I may have had a long-running effect on shaping antisemitic views in the United Kingdom.
The first written records of the Romani people in Scotland begin in 1505 and in England around 1513 or 1514. First believed to come from 'little Egypt', an English exonym given to an area around part of the Peloponnese peninsula in what is now modern-day Greece,[90] the people were first called "Egyptians" in literature and from which the word "Gypsy" is derived.[91] Discriminatory laws were passed in response to their arrival, including the Egyptians Act 1530 and the Egyptians Act 1554.[92]
The House of Tudor produced five monarchs who ruled during this reign. Occasionally listed is Lady Jane Grey, sometimes known as the 'Nine Days' Queen' for the shortness of her de facto reign.[94]