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Early
Modern Britain
"Early
Modern Britain" is a term used to define the period in the
history of Great Britain roughly corresponding to the
16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in
Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance,
the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English
Civil War the Restoration of Charles II, the Glorious Revolution,
and the Enlightenment.
English Renaissance
The term
"English Renaissance" is used by many historians to refer to a cultural
movement in England in the 1500s and 1600s that was heavily influenced
by the Italian Renaissance. This movement is characterized by the
flowering of English music (particularly the development of the
madrigal), notable achievements in drama (by William Shakespeare,
Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson), and the development of English
epic poetry (most famously Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
and John Milton's Paradise Lost).
The idea of the Renaissance has come under increased criticism by
many cultural historians, and some have contended that the "English
Renaissance" has no real tie with the artistic achievements and
aims of the northern Italian artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello)
who are closely identified with the Renaissance.
Other cultural historians have countered that, regardless of whether
the name "renaissance" is apt, there was undeniably an artistic
flowering in England under the Tudor monarchs, culminating in Shakespeare
and his contemporaries.
The rise of the Tudors
Some date the beginning of Early Modern Britain to
the end of the Wars of the Roses and the crowning of Henry
Tudor in 1485 after his victory at the battle of Bosworth
Field. Henry VII's largely peaceful reign ended decades of civil
war and brought the peace and stability to England that art and
commerce need to thrive. A major war on English soil would not occur
again until the English Civil War of the seventeenth century.
During this period Henry VII and his son Henry VIII greatly
increased the power of the English monarch. A similar pattern was
unfolding on the continent as new technologies, such as gunpowder,
and social and ideological changes undermined the power of the feudal
nobility and enhanced that of the sovereign. Henry VIII also made
use of the Protestant Reformation to seize the power of the
Catholic Church, confiscating the property of the monasteries and
declaring himself the head of the new Anglican Church. Under the
Tudors the English state was centralized and rationalized as a bureaucracy
built up and the government became run and managed by educated functionaries.
The most notable new institution was the Star Chamber.
The new power of the monarch was given a basis by the notion of
the divine right of kings to rule over their subjects. James
I was a major proponent of this idea and wrote extensively
on it.
The same forces that had reduced the power of the traditional aristocracy
also served to increase the power of the commercial classes. The
rise of trade and the central importance of money to the operation
of the government gave this new class great power, but power that
was not reflected in the government structure. This would lead to
a long contest during the seventeenth century between the forces
of the monarch and parliament. en
Exploration and the beginnings of empire
In 1497 Henry
VII hired Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto to cross the
Atlantic on behalf of the English crown. Cabot became the
first European, of the era, to discover what is today Canada and
he claimed it for the English Crown. Soon after, colonies would
be founded in North America and trading posts and enclaves would
be established in India and elsewhere around the world. Eventually
English, and later British, overseas holdings would grow and the
British Empire would span the globe.
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