The English Renaissance occurred between 1485-1625. It was inspired by rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman arts and literature. Key developments included the introduction of humanism and the printing press, which increased access to books. Notable figures included William Shakespeare, who wrote 37 plays and invented over 3,000 words, and Sir Walter Raleigh, a poet and explorer. The Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther divided the Catholic Church, with Henry VIII later breaking England's ties with Rome. Elizabeth I's long reign saw England defeat the Spanish Armada and establish itself as a major power.

1. The EnglishThe English
RenaissanceRenaissance
1485-1625

2. Renaissance?
 Dates: approximately 1500-1650
 Renaissance literally means “rebirth.”
This term was chosen because the
Renaissance was a time when classic
literature, art, music, and philosophy
were being “reborn.”
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3. The Coming of the Renaissance
 The Renaissance was a flowering of
literary, artistic and intellectual
development that began in Italy in the
fourteenth century.
 It was inspired by the arts and scholarship
of ancient Greece and Rome, which were
rediscovered during the Crusades

4. Key Characteristics of the
Renaissance
 Religious devotion of the Middle Ages gave way
to interest in the human being’s place on this
earth
 Universities introduced a new curriculum, the
humanities, including history, geography, poetry,
and languages
 Invention of printing made books more available
 More writers began using the vernacular

5. Figures of the Renaissance
 Mostly Italians
 Dante, author of The Divine Comedy
 Petrarch, wrote lyric poetry in the form of
sonnets
 Leonardo Da Vinci, a painter, sculptor, architect,
and scientist
 Da Vinci typifies a Renaissance man—a person
of broad education and interests whose curiosity
knew no bounds.

7. History of the Printing Press
 During the 15th century, books were relatively
scarce and had to be copied by hand
 Between 1440-1450, Johannes Gutenberg
developed the printing press
 Within 20 years, the printing press had
revolutionized information dissemination, fueling
the start of the English Renaissance

8. The Age of Exploration
 Renaissance thirst for knowledge lead to a great
burst of exploration.
 Crusades opened routes to Asia soon
monopolized by Italian merchants.
 Explorers from other nations searched for all-sea
routes aided by compass and advances in
astronomy.
 Culminated in Columbus’s discovery of the New
World in 1492--colonization

9. England in the Age of
Exploration
 1497—Italian-born John Cabot reached
Newfoundland (an island off the coast of
Canada) and perhaps the mainland
 Cabot laid the basis for future English
claims in North America.

10. The Protestant Reformation:
Questioning the Catholic Church
 A growing sense of nationalism led many to
question the authority of the church.
 Complaints:
 the sale of indulgences
 payment to the church (like taxes)
 church leaders favored Mediterranean powers
over northerly countries
 the educated questioned the Church teachings
and hierarchy

12. Humanism
 The central tenet of humanism was that learning
would make humans more just
 Humanism emphasized the power of the
individual to influence both himself and those
around him
 Famous humanists: Sir Thomas More, Erasmus

13. Erasmus
 Dutch thinker whose edition of the New
Testament raised questions about standard
interpretations of the Bible.
 Focused attention on issues of morality and
religion
 Morality and religion became the central
concerns of the English Renaissance

14. Martin Luther
 Erasmus paved the way for the split in the
Roman Catholic Church in 1517.
 German monk Martin Luther nailed a list
of dissenting beliefs (“ninety-five theses)
to the door of a German church.
 The intent was to reform the Catholic
Church, but actually divided the church
and introducing Protestantism.

15. Results of the Protestant
Reformation
 Swept through Europe
 Frequent wars between rulers with
different beliefs
 Persecution of Catholics and Protestants
 Division of Protestants—Lutherans and
Calvinists (Puritans and Presbyterian sects)

16. Tudor England
 Tudor dynasty ruled from 1485-1603.
 Time of stability and economic expansion
 London a metropolis of 180,000 people
 Many saw the changes as a threat to the
old familiar ways
 Feared new outbreaks of civil strife (War
of the Roses)

17. Henry VII
 First Tudor monarch
 Inherited an England depleted by civil war
 Before his death in 1509, he rebuilt the
treasury and established law and order.
 Henry VII restored the prestige of the
monarchy and set the stage for his
successors.

18. Signature of Henry VII

19. Henry VIII
 Catholic (even wrote a book against
Luther)
 Relationship with the Pope did not last
 Marriage to Catherine of Aragon produced
no male heir
 Henry tried to obtain an annulment to
marry Anne Boleyn
 The Pope refused, but Henry married
anyway

20. Henry’s Break with the Church
 Henry’s defiance led to an open break with the
Roman Catholic Church.
 The Act of Supremacy (1534) gave Henry full
control of the Church in England and severed all
ties with Rome.
 Henry became the head of the Anglican Church
(the new Church of England).
 He seized Church property and dissolved the
monasteries.

21. The Aftermath
 Henry used ruthless measures to suppress
opposition.
 He even had his former friend and advisor,
Thomas More, executed, because More refused
to renounce his faith.
 Henry married six times.
 His first two marriages (Catherine and Anne)
produced two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth.
 His third wife, Jane Seymour, bore him a son,
Edward, who was still a frail child when Henry
died in 1547.

22. Edward VI
 Became King at 9; died a 15 (1553)
 Parliamentary acts during his reign changed
England’s religious practices and sent
England on its way to becoming a Protestant
nation.
 English replaced Latin in church.
 The Anglican prayer book, Book of Common
Prayer, became required in public worship.

23. Bloody Mary
 Mary I, Edward’s half sister; a Catholic
 Mary restored Catholic practices and papal
authority to the Church of England.
 Mary married her Spanish cousin, Phillip II,
making England a part of the powerful Spanish
state. (During this period of nationalism, many
found her acts unpatriotic)
 Mary also persecuted Protestants: she ordered the
execution of some 200 Protestants during her
reign, strengthening anti-Catholic sentiment in
England

24. Signature of Mary I

25. Elizabeth I
 After Mary’s five year reign, her half-
sister, Elizabeth came to the throne.
 Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors, dying
unmarried and childless.
 Elizabeth received a Renaissance
education, became a patron of the arts, and
Elizabethan came to describe the English
Renaissance at its height.

26. “I have already
joined myself
in marriage to
a husband,
namely the
kingdom of
England.”
(Elizabeth to
Parliament)

27. Elizabeth and the Church
 Ended religious turmoil
 Reestablished the monarch’s supremacy in
the Church of England
 Restored the Book of Common Prayer
 Instituted a policy of religious moderation

28. Foreign Affairs
 France and Spain, England’s two greatest
rivals, often worked with Catholic factions in
England.
 Both nations fought to dominate England.
 Elizabeth and her counselors played one side
against the other, using offers of marriage as
bait.
 This cleverness allowed England a period of
peace and allowed commercial and maritime
interests to prosper.

29. Mary, Queen of Scots
 Elizabeth’s Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart; queen of
Scotland by birth and next in line to the British
throne (granddaughter of Henry VII)
 Catholics did not recognize Henry VIII’s marriage to
Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother, and considered
Mary Stuart the queen.
 Mary was a prisoner of England for 19 years and the
center of numerous plots on Elizabeth’s life.
 Eventually Mary was convicted of plotting to murder
Elizabeth and went to the block in 1587, a Catholic
martyr.
 “In my end is my beginning”—Mary’s death led
Catholic Spain to declare war on England.

30. Elizabeth’s Signature

31. England vs. Spain
 Spain rejected English claims in America
and resented the fact that English
privateers had been attacking and
plundering Spanish ships.
 Privateers like John Hawkins and Francis
Drake operated “on their own,” but were
really under the authority of Queen
Elizabeth.

32. The Spanish Armada
 After Mary’s execution, King Phillip II
prepared a Spanish armada of 130
warships to attack England.
 In 1588, English sailors defeated the
Armada in the English Channel.
 This event marked the decline of Spain and
the rise of England as a great sea power

33. From Tudors to Stuarts
 Elizabeth’s death marked the end of the
Tudor dynasty.
 To avoid civil strife, Elizabeth named King
James VI of Scotland her successor (son of
Mary Stuart).
 James was a Protestant.
 The reign of James I (1603-1625) is now
known as the Jacobean Era

34. King James I
 Strong supporter of the arts
 Furthered England’s position as a world
power
 Sponsored the establishment of the first
English colony in America—Jamestown
 Believed in “divine right” monarchy and had
contempt for Parliament (power struggle)
 Persecuted Puritans (House of Commons)—
James’s persecution prompted a group of
Puritans to establish Plymouth colony in
1621

35. The English Renaissance
 Architects designed beautiful mansions
 Composers wrote new hymns for Anglican
service and popularized the English
madrigal
 Renaissance painters and sculptors moved
to England (Hans Holbein the Younger
was court painter to Henry VIII)
 Opened public schools (like private
secondary schools today)
 Improvements at Oxford and Cambridge

36. Life in England
 England entered the era of capitalism
 The enclosure of common lands by
landowners
 Their aim - to increase the number of
sheep to get more wool
 Peasants were deprived of the land
 Many peasants became homeless

37. Life in Elizabethan and Jacobean England
London expanded greatly as a city
People moved in from rural areas and from
other European countries
Strict class system Busy and crowded;
lots of commerce,
craftsmen
Not a clean or safe city—“The
Thames was a beautiful sewer” (224)
and disease and criminals ran
rampant
Southwark: suburb known for its “vice”
– theaters, gaming, prostitution, etc.
Grew into substantial port and
admired European city

38. Elizabethan Poetry
 Perfected the sonnet and experimented
with other poetic forms
 Philip Sidney wrote the first Elizabethan
sonnet cycle (a series of sonnets that fit
together as a story)—Astrophel and Stella
 Edmund Spenser wrote a long epic, The
Faerie Queen, in complex nine-line units
now called Spenserian stanzas
 Christopher Marlowe popularized pastoral
verse (idealizes the rural life)

39. – Sonnet cycle: A series of sonnets, usually fit loosely
together to form a story
– Heavy hitters: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser,
Shakespeare
– Two major rhyme schemes: Petrarchan/Italian and
Shakespearean
– Shakespearean rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Psst! Lyric poem: a
short poem with one
speaker (not
necessarily the poet)
who expresses
thought and feeling.
Psst! Sonnet: 14 lines,
iambic pentameter, various
rhyme schemes. Word! Many sonnets consist of 8 lines
setting up one idea, 4 lines
responding to that idea, and a
concluding couplet at the end.
Rock and roll!
Renaissance Poetry

40. The Poetry of William
Shakespeare
 Shakespeare changed the pattern and
rhyme scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet,
creating the English, or Shakespearean,
sonnet

41. Elizabethan Drama
 Reintroduced tragedies—plays in which disaster
befalls a hero or heroine
 Reintroduced comedies—plays in which a
humorous situation leads to a happy resolution.
 Began using blank verse
 Christopher Marlowe was the first major
Elizabethan dramatist.
 Marlowe may have rivaled Shakespeare as
England’s greatest playwright had he lived past
thirty.

42. Christopher Marlowe

43. Sir Walter Raleigh (ca. 1552-1618) The Nymph's Reply

44. “He was not of an age but for all time.”
 Shakespeare began his involvement with
the theater as an actor.
 By 1592, he was a popular playwright
whose works had been performed at
Elizabeth’s court.
 After the Globe Theater was built in 1599,
many of his plays were performed there.
 Shakespeare wrote thirty-seven plays: nine
tragedies, several comedies, ten histories,
and a number of play classified as tragic
comedies.

45. Shakespeare Festival - Clemson University

46. Shakespeare’s contributions:
words and phrases
 Invented over 3,000 (!) English words
including:
– bedroom
– gloomy
– swagger
– unreal
– dawn
– lovely

47. Elizabethan and Jacobean Prose
 Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesie is one of
the earliest works of English literary criticism.
 Thomas Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveler, a
fictional adventure, was a forerunner of the
novel.
 Walter Raleigh wrote his History of the World
during his confinement in the Tower of
London (was beheaded for allegedly plotting
against James I)
 The leading prose writer of the time was
Francis Bacon.

48. The King James Bible
 The most monumental prose achievement
of the English Renaissance
 Commissioned by King James on the
advice of Protestant clergymen
 Took fifty-four scholars three years to
complete
 Is now among the most widely quoted an
influential works in the English language