Profesorado en Inglés

Instituto de Educación Superior nº 28 Olga Cossettini

Rosario, Argentina

Teacher: Luciana Carazay

Subject: Social Studies II
Student: López, Leonela
Date: August 9th, 2019
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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………….. 3
Luther and Protestantism………………………….. 3
Henry VIII………………………………………….. 4
Edward VI………………………………………….. 5
Mary and Catholicism…………………………….. 5
Elizabeth, the Protestant Queen………………….. 6
The Stuarts……………………………………….... 7
James I……………………………………………… 8
Charles I……………………………………………. 8
The interregnum…………………………………... 10
Charles II…………………………………………... 10
James II……………………………………………. 12
The glorious revolution…………………………… 13
ANALYSIS………………………………………. 14
CONCLUSION……………………………………. 14
REFERENCES……………………………………. 15
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INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of the XVI century some changes were developed, up to this time Catholic
Church was the only religion in England. However, the church was accused of being unfair in its
practices such as the selling of indulgences or reduced punishment after the death. As a
consequence many conflicts between Catholics and The Protestants appeared. The Protestants
were people who started to follow Martin Luther, a man that was against the system of Catholic
Church. This affected people's beliefs, some modified the religion because of personal benefits
like Henry VII, as before Protestant reformation the Roman Catholic Church was the established
state church in England, therefore the authority of the monarch depended on the Pope; and in the
case of Luther and people who followed him, they believed that those bad practices would not
please God. In this paper, it will be explained the causes of the conflicts, and how they appeared.

Luther and Protestantism.

One of the most important figures that made a strong impact on religion was Martin Luther, he
was a German theologian who studied and analyzed the Bible. Through his actions he
precipitated the Reformation of the 16th century, he influenced significantly the history of
Christianity.
There had long been growing up, in Germany and France, as well as in England, a feeling that
the church was in urgent need of reform. The reasons were that the clergy extorted high fees for
performing sacraments and for cases in the Church courts, moreover people felt annoyed at the
large sums of money they had to send out of the country as a tribute to the pope. But one of the
worst practices of the Church was the sale of indulgences.
Whenever the popes were in special need of funds they issued documents which excused the
purchasers from penance.
Luther was completely against these practices, as he felt this Church management was causing
much harm to the cause of religion, therefore Luther wrote the ninety-five theses in 1517, a list
of propositions that objected the corrupt selling of indulgences, and as printing began to appear iv
many copies were spread. This, of course, disturb the pope, the Church wanted to force him
retract his opinion about the Catholic religion. However, Luther was firmly convinced that these
practices needed a reform and did not withdraw. Many people started looking upon Luther as a
strong leader because he confronted the Church, something that was unconceivable at that time.
As Luther was backed by thousands of people, the Church could not retaliate against him.

Henry VIII

As for King Henry, he was so Catholic that he wrote a theological treatise defending the papacy
against Luther’s arguments, and the Pope rewarded him by conferring on him the title “ Fidei
Defensor”, still borne by English sovereigns. (38 years of reign)
Henry VIII was Catholic, but he did not agree with the Church when it affected his personal
interests, and by 1526 he became seriously perturbed that there was no male heir to the throne.
All his sons had died in infancy and though he had a daughter (Mary) no queen had ever ruled
over England. There was no likelihood that Catherine of Aragon, His wife, would have any more
children and the King began to feel he ought to marry again, moreover he had fallen in love with
Anne Boleyn. The problem was that the Church did not allow him to divorce Catherine. Henry
tried to persuade the pope to let him divorce, but the Pope was controlled by Charles V, who was
Holy Roman emperor and King of Spain and also Catherine’s nephew. For both political and
family reasons he wanted Henry to stay married to Catherine. The pope did not wish to angry
either Charles or Henry, he delayed giving any decision as long as he could, for there was always
the hope that something would turn up to save the situation, Catherine might die or Henry might
change his mind or Charles might lose his grip on Rome.
The pope tried to delay the decision, and then it was announced that the case had been
transferred to Rome, where the King had been cited to appear and plead his case.
King Henry was determined as ever to wring from the pope a declaration that he was free to
marry Anne Boleyn.
The quarrel with the pope was from bad to worse. Parliament
passed one measure after another, limiting papal powers and defying papal authority. In 1533 an
Act was passed forbidding any appeal to Rome from the decision of the English Church courts.
Then in 1535 came the Act of Supremacy, which declared that the King, and not the Pope, was v
the Supreme head of the Church in England.
Undoubtedly King Henry marked the history of England up to these days. The Act of Supremacy
make England independent from the Roman Catholic Church, you can see this in the present, the
Church of England is governed by the Head of State, the Monarch.
Henry’s object at first had been merely to put pressure on the Pope to grant a decree. From this
had developed a quarrel which ended in a complete severance of English people from the
Catholic Church, to which they had belonged for a thousand years.
Although he defended Catholic Church, he created a new form of religion, as now he was head
of the state, breaking up his relation with the Church of Rome since he did not want to accept
any order that could affect him.

Edward VI

When Henry VIII died, he was to be succeeded by his only son Edward. At the time of Henry’s
death, Edward was only ten years old, so the old king had arranged that until he grew up the
royal power should be wielded by a council. All the members of this council were from the new
nobility created by the Tudors. They were keen Protestant reformers because they had benefited
from the sale of monastery lands. Indeed, all the landowners knew that they could only be sure of
keeping their new lands if they made England truly Protestant, as many monks had been
They made a book of common prayer in England to make sure that all churches followed the
new Protestant religion, and the used Parliament to repeal the Acts by which heresy was
punished by death.
There were some other changes
Most people were not very happy with the new religion. They had been glad to see the end of the
Church’s bad practices like the selling of “pardons” for the forgiveness of sins. But they did not
like the changes in belief, and in some places there was trouble.

Mary and Catholicism

Mary, the Catholic daughter of Catherine of Aragon, became queen when Edward, aged sixteen,
died in 1553. vi
Queen Mary was a Catholic and she wished to return to England to the Catholic Church. Mary
wanted to change the laws that her brother had established, but she had to be careful because she
needed the support of people that had benefited from the religious changes. Mary could not alter
the laws without the consent of parliament, and parliament was very hard to drive. The members
were quite ready to authorize the use of the Latin services in place of the Prayer book, but they
dreaded lest the re-establishment of the Catholic Church should lead to a restoration of the
monastery lands which many of them had bought.
It was the question of the queen’s marriage that aroused serious discontent. Parliament suggested
that she should choose some English nobleman as her husband but she announced that she had
already decided to marry King Philip of Spain. This decision was not well seen as she might
place England under foreign control.
So strong was the feeling against the marriage that a number of raisings were organized in
different parts of the country. Princess Elizabeth was arrested on suspicion of being responsible
for that rebellion, since Elizabeth was Protestant. However, she was much too astute to do
anything that could incriminate her and eventually Mary had to release her.
Mary had been much alarmed by the later movement and felt that she would never be safe as
long as there was a Protestant claimant to the throne at hand.
During his reign, at her demand parliament re-enacted the old laws which empowered the
government to execute by burning all who maintained doctrines other than those taught by the
Catholic Church, nearly 300 Protestants were killed when Mary was in power.
The Queen hoped that this would frighten other Protestants into recanting, but she found that the
reformed doctrines had taken much firmer root that she had supposed. Mary had no more hope
that England would remain Catholic, moreover she had some problems with her husband Philip,
and conflicts with the pope because of the Church lands. Then in 1558 under the weight of
accumulated disasters Mary died.

Elizabeth, the Protestant Queen

The death of Queen Mary without children left the throne to her half-sister Elizabeth, the
daughter of Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth I was the last and greatest of the Tudors. (44 years of reign)
When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, it was widely believed that she would restore the vii
Protestant faith in England. The persecution of the Protestants during the short reign of Mary had
done much damage to the standing of Catholicism in the country and the number of Protestants
was steadily increasing. Although Elizabeth had outwardly conformed to the Catholic faith
during Mary’s reign, inwardly she was a Protestant, having been raised in that faith, and was
committed to it. Elizabeth’s religious views were remarkably tolerant for the age in which she
lived. While she had her own beliefs and convictions, she also believed in accepting the views of
others, and sincerely believed that Catholics and Protestants were basically of the same faith.
Elizabeth I wanted to find a solution to the problems of English Reformation, for example people
had to go to church on Sundays by law and they were fined if they stayed away. The Queen also
arranged a book of sermons to be used in church. Although most of the sermons consisted of
Bible teaching, this book also taught the people that rebellion against the Crown was a sin
against God.
Elizabeth was a wise woman; she found a peaceful way to keep peace between such intolerant
people.
Throughout her reign, Elizabeth’s main priority was the peace and stability of her realm. Her
government only adopted a hardline against Catholics whereas Catholic extremists threatened
this peace.
Elizabeth wanted her Church to appeal to both Catholics and Protestants, and did not want to
move the Church in a more Protestant direction, thus making it more difficult for Catholics to
accept the Church than it was already. The Church hierarchy, and traditional forms of worship,
also suited the Queen’s conservative taste, she wanted her Church just the way it was.
Elizabeth hoped that by keeping the Church as it was, her people would become accustomed to
it. She wanted her Church to be popular with her people, and for Catholicism to die out naturally
as people turned to the religions she had established. In this she was largely successful. By 1603,
the year of her death the English were more Protestants and Catholics were in the minority.

The Stuarts

The reign of The Stuarts marked the history, the same as The Tudors.
Elizabeth had been wise enough not to provoke opposition, different from The Stuart Kings, viii
that felt that they had “The Divine Right of Kings” and did not acted cautiously while they were
in power, they took any decision without consulting Parliament.
These opposite ways of ruling may have lead people to think about the power of their sovereigns.
When people started to see that these kings were incompetent in political and religious affairs,
(and that they did not consider the power of Parliament) the conflicts arouse.

James I of England

James IV of Scotland, now James I of England was welcomed by the Catholics, who had been
persecuted by Elizabeth, and also by the Puritans who had had an equally bad time.
He was a peaceful man, he wanted to make peace immediately but he was so arrogant, he
thought that everything he did was right, this lead him to make many mistakes.
James made enemies quickly. Protestants who had a strong inclination to Puritanism had been
part of the Church of England, and wanted to continue but they proposed some changes, they
wanted that the Church was more like the Church of Scotland. However, he was a very one-
sided man, he did not consider the opinions of others, so he didn’t agree to that. As a
consequence Puritans set up independent places of worship, but they were a strong groups of
enemies. In addition James also made Catholic enemies, but it was not all his fault. Although he
tried to keep the promise to Catholics, the leading member of his council, who was strongly
Protestant, feared that Catholics would want to influence the country and government. He was
not wise to manage problems and what is worse is that people around him did not help him.
Comparing with Elizabeth, James I was peaceful person, the same as the Queen. However, he
was imprudent, foolish in his way of ruling, because he did not respect the power of Parliament.
The question of the power of Parliament to interfere with government of the country had been
left in the background under Elizabeth, for the great admiration to the Queen. But they did not
feel the same for James I. He didn’t recognize the rights of Parliament, he only recognized the
Divine Right of Kings.

Charles I
In 1625 he died, and his son Charles I inherited the throne. He was also unable to take the right ix
decisions. His idea about religion was that Protestants ought to keep many of the customs and
festivals and ritual and vestments of the Catholic Church, here it started a dispute with
Parliament because many of the members were strongly Protestant.
There was a great tension, but Charles did not have this into account, he decided to raise a forced
loan, and people who refused to lend their money were sent to prison without trial or they had
soldiers billeted in their homes.
His attempt to raise taxes without the consent of Parliament was a threat to the privileges which
Parliament had preserved.(The power of the Pursue) If Parliament lost it, the government of
England would become a despotism, and even The Tudors who had ruled with a firm hand never
tried to collect revenue without the consent of the House of Commons.
So people decided to present a “Petition of Right”, to draw attention to the fact that the old laws
had been broken. (no more martial law, or billeting of troops, or taxation without parliamentary
authority, or imprisonment without trial)
He would agree but Parliament had to agree to pay a considerable sum of money.
It was only for his convenience, but he actually tried to do what he wanted as long as he could.
He knew little about Scotland and didn't care about that, so he tried to impose a different edition
of the English Prayer Book, obviously this caused serious riots.
This imposing way of ruling embittered people, as they didn’t agree with the King’s abuse of
power , but their opinions were not considered important.
The king saw himself cornered, dominated by the Parliament, without its consent he could not
collect the Revenue, so he did not have power.
This situation led the Parliament to be at war with the King. Moreover, Charles was discovered
that he had been intriguing for a foreign invasion of England, and then he did secret negotiations
with the Scots, while his supporters stirred up revolts in various parts of the country. Not happy
with this, he was found out that he had begun to prepare yet another plot with Parliament, for all
this he was then executed in 1649.

Now people invited his son, Prince Charles II to be King of Scotland. However, people felt with
more rights to put some conditions, he must become a Presbyterian, but he postponed accepting
the Scottish offer.
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Interregnum: Thomas Cromwell
He was a tolerant man, who believed in the freedom of adopting different religions. He had
started to be an important source of strength which then began to take effect on the side of
Parliament. The Parliament was in power under the lead of Thomas Cromwell for 21 years.
(1649-1660)
The Presbyterians who had taken the lead on the parliamentary side in the Civil War, and even
many of the Independents who had supported the rule of Cromwell, were now in favour of the
restoration of the Stuarts.
The Parliament invited Prince Charles to return from the Netherlands, upon certain conditions,
known as the Declaration of Breda. When he accepted these conditions, Charles II was
proclaimed King in 1660.

Charles II
As England had been in war with Holland Charles feared that a weakened England was now
likely to be invaded by the French. For hundreds of years the French were seen as England's
main European rivals. One of the reasons for this constant conflict concerned the subject of
religion. Whereas England was a Protestant nation, France had always remained loyal to the
Catholic faith.
Charles thought that for his convenience, not to be attacked by France and to ask for money, he
must ally with Louis XIV of France. Louis XIV was willing to help Charles, but in return he
demanded that Charles become a Catholic.

Charles agreed to this but argued that he needed time before announcing his decision to the
people of England. Charles feared that the English Protestants might try to overthrow him when
they realized that they had a Catholic king.

In 1670 Charles II and Louis XIV signed the Treaty of Dover. In the treaty Louis XIV agreed to
give Charles a yearly pension. A further sum of money would be paid once Charles announced to
the English people that he had joined the Catholic Church. Louis XIV also promised to send
Charles 6,000 French soldiers if the English people rebelled against him. For his part, Charles
agreed to help the French against the Dutch. He also promised to do what he could to stop the xi
English Protestants from persecuting Catholics.

This treaty was kept secret from the English people while Charles tried to persuade Parliament to
become more friendly towards the French government. Charles used some of the money to bribe
certain members of Parliament. These MPs, who supported Charles' pro-Catholic policies,
became known as Tories by their opponents in Parliament. So there was a dispute between the
people who supported the King, the Tories, and the Whigs, who were Presbyterian people.

In 1672 Charles issued a Declaration of indulgence, giving freedom of worship to Protestant

Dissenters as well as to Catholics, in the hope that the support of these two classes would enable
him to overcome the opposition of Parliament.

However, the vast majority of members of Parliament remained loyal Protestants. When Charles
suspended acts of Parliament that punished Roman Catholics, Parliament passed the Test Act in
1673. This act required all government officials to swear an oath that they were Protestants.
Several of the king's senior ministers were now forced to resign.

It was difficult for Charles II to rule England; he had to deal with the problems that his father had
let him, because of the despotic way in which he governed. Now the Parliament had
strengthened, so had more power.

In 1678, Titus Oates, an Anglican minister announced that he had discovered a Catholic plot to
kill Charles II. Oates claimed that Charles was to be replaced by his Roman Catholic
brother, James. He went on to argue that after James came to the throne, Protestants would be
massacred in their thousands. This announcement made Catholics more unpopular than ever, and
eighty of them were arrested and accused of taking part in the plot. Several were executed before
it was revealed that Titus Oates had been lying.

Catholics hoped that Charles would now fight back and attempt to destroy the power of the
Protestant church in England. However Charles was convinced that any attempt to do this would
end in defeat. Therefore, he waited until he was on his deathbed before he declared that he xii
was a Roman Catholic.

James II

James II's Parliament of May 1685, predominantly Tory, was initially obedient and generous.
But when it resisted his wishes to exempt Catholics from the restrictions of the Test Act, James
adjourned it in November. He then continuously prorogued it for more than a year and a half
until he dissolved it in July.
James enjoyed a strong position in power as none of the previous Stuart kings had enjoyed.
However, he failed in ruling as them; the problem was that now Parliament would not accept
more abuses, as it had already been gaining more power.
James assured his Council that he would maintain the established Constitution and the Church of
England
At first he tried to uphold the Church of England, but as he was a Catholic and maintainer of the
Divine Right, he could not avoid feeling that it was his duty to bring the country back to the
Catholic faith. The Test Act was an obstacle, so he claimed that the King had the right to
“dispense” with any Act of Parliament. It would deprive Parliament of all control.
* He dismissed Parliament, this cause the Monmouth Rebellion, the rebels were tortured and
executed.
* He disregarded the Test Act by appointing Catholics as officers in the Army.
* He dismissed from the Council several distinguished men, such as keen Tories, only because
they were Protestants.
*He wanted Catholics as heads of Oxford Colleges, and thereby alienated the University which
had always been a centre of royalism.
* He issued a new Declaration of Indulgence.
* He wanted to establish Anglican Church by imposing bishops and the Archbishop of
Canterbury.
And last but not least, in 1688 James had a son. This feared English people as they did not want
more Catholics in power.
So Parliament asked for his daughter Mary Stuart, who was a protestant, to be on the throne.
Mary II was married to William III, and under their reign it was signed the Declaration of xiii
rights.
This period started modeling today’s practices, as there were no more Catholic monarchs in
power and the Parliament gained supremacy.

The Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution in English history, the events of 1688–89 resulted in the deposition of
James II and the accession of his daughter Mary II and her husband, William III, prince of
Orange and stadtholder of the Netherlands.
These are some points that include the Declaration of Rights:

* A list of King James’s misdeeds

* 13 articles that outlined specific freedoms
* Confirmation that William and Mary were rightful successors to the throne of England
* Freedom to elect members of Parliament, without the king or queen’s interference
* Freedom of speech in Parliament
* Freedom from royal interference with the law
* Freedom to petition the king
* Freedom to bear arms for self-defense
* Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail
* Freedom from taxation by royal prerogative, without the agreement of Parliament
* Freedom of fines and forfeitures without a trial
* Freedom from armies being raised during peacetimes
* Constitutional Monarchy

The English Bill of Rights created a constitutional monarchy in England, meaning the king or
queen acts as head of state but his or her powers are limited by law.
Under this system, the monarchy couldn’t rule without the consent of Parliament, and the people
were given individual rights. In the modern-day British constitutional monarchy, the king or
queen plays a largely ceremonial role.
An earlier historical document, the 1215 Magna Carta of England, is also credited with xiv
limiting the powers of the monarchy and is sometimes cited as a precursor to the English Bill of
Rights.

ANALYSIS

Under the reign of Elizabeth, the last Queen of Tudors, there were no problems with the power
of Parliament. The Queen respected it, she was intelligent and she probably had never come up
with the idea of not respecting it.
When the Tudors were in power, it was like the rights of Parliament were removed, because they
ruled in a despotic way. Parliament had already struggled to gain more authority, but they did not
care about it. It was like giving ground.

CONCLUSION

The Tudor and Stuart period marks the beginning of modern England. The bad practices of
James I, CharlesI, Charles II and e James II eventually gave place to the Declaration of rights,
which limited the powers of the Monarch and from those times the Crown had been losing more
and more power. Currently, The Sovereign, Elizabeth II, no longer has a political or executive
role, but she plays an important part in the life of the nation. The Sovereign acts as a focus for
national identity, unity and pride; gives a sense of stability and continuity.
Moreover, the established Church in England is derived from the Act of Supremacy that passed
Henry VIII, in which the Supreme Governor of the Church is the Monarch.
REFERENCES xv

Rayner, Robert M (1938) A concise history of Britain.

David McDowall (1989) An illustrated history of Britain.
https://www.elizabethi.org/contents/elizabethanchurch/queenandchurch.html
https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/english-bill-of-rights
https://spartacus-educational.com/STUcharles2church
https://www.royal.uk/role-monarchy
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