Download The Renaissance

The Renaissance
1485-1660
Anglo-Saxon Period
450-1066
(616 years)
*- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *
499 Angles and Saxons invade
700 Beowulf written down
Middle Ages
1066-1485
(419 years)
*- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - *
1343-1400 Chaucer lived
1370 Sir Gawain & the Green Knight
1476 Printing reaches England
Renaissance
1485 – 1660
(175 years)
*--------*
1492 Columbus
1558 Elizabeth I
1498 Michelangelo
1564 Shakespeare
1503 da Vinci
1599 Globe Theatre
1517 Martin Luther
1609 Galileo
1519 Magellan
1611 King James Bible
1531 Henry VIII
1620 Mayflower
1543 Copernicus
1632 Taj Mahal
1553 Bloody Mary
1660 Milton
The Renaissance: 1485–1660
Beginning in the late 1400s, the English Renaissance marked changes
in people’s values, beliefs, and behavior.
1534
Henry VIII
Breaks with Church
1450
1500
1500s
Humanism
1550
1588
Defeat of the
Spanish Armada
1600
1558–1603
Reign of
Elizabeth I
1650
1600s
Decline of the
Renaissance
1700
Renaissance
• Means “rebirth”
• Renewed interest in classical learning (began studying the writings of
Ancient Greece and Rome)
• People who could read were encouraged to read church texts.
• People became more curious about themselves and their world –
renewal of the human spirit, curiosity, and creativity.
• A “Renaissance Man or person” is
someone who was an energetic and
productive human interested in
science, literature, history, art, and
other subjects.
Renaissance Begins
• First began in Italy (14th Century)
• Many famous people lived during this time – Michelangelo,
Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, etc.
Humanism
** An intellectual movement known as humanism began to use the
Latin and Greek classics, combined with traditional Christian
thought, to teach people how to live and how to rule.
The humanists
• revived old Greek and Latin classics
• studied the Bible and the classics to
explore questions such as “What is a
good life?”
• made history, literature, and philosophy
popular again
Humanism
• Humanists looked to the old Latin and Greek classics to discover
answers to questions such as “What is a good life?” “What is a human
being?” and “How do I lead a good life?”
• Humanists believed in the answers that Christianity provided and had
no conflicts with the church.
• Humanists simply sought to strengthen, not discredit Christianity –
harmonize the two wisdoms.
• “The aim of life is to attain virtue, not success or money or fame,
because virtue is the best possible human possession and the only source
of true happiness.”
**Would this be the belief today?
Humanism
Two Friends—Two Humanists
Sir Thomas More
• English lawyer
• wrote Utopia
• held important offices
• beheaded by order of
Henry VIII
Desiderius Erasmus
• Dutch monk
• traveled throughout
Europe
• taught Greek
*Both wrote in Latin; loved laughter, life classical learning, were dedicated
churchmen but were impatient abut corrupt church practices.
*Desiderius Erasmus and Thomas More, humanists and close friends, helped
shape European thought and history.
Three Friends —
Not Humanists
New Technology: Printing
• Before printing, all books were written by hand.
• Johannes Gutenberg – a German, invented printing with moveable type
in 1455
• First book Gutenberg printed . . . .
• By 1500 inexpensive books were available throughout Europe
• 1476 printing reached England, William Caxton set up a printing press
in Westminster
* Gutenberg’s press helped spread knowledge, making more books
available than ever before.
The Renaissance Church
• Almost everyone in Europe and Britain was Roman Catholic, so the
Church was very rich and powerful (even in politics)
• Popes were patrons of artists, architects, and scholars
• As rich and powerful as the church was, there were many who were
dissatisfied with the church.
• During the Renaissance, the Reformation also occurred.
• Reformation occurred in many countries, but feelings were still the
same.
• Reformers rejected the authority of the pope and the Italian churchmen.
The Renaissance Church (cont.)
• By the 1530s an open break with the Roman Church could not be
avoided.
• Certain events made a break with the church possible
– strong feelings of patriotism
– new religious ideas
• Martin Luther founded a new kind of Christianity based on a personal
understanding of the Bible.
• More and Erasmus even spoke out against the church.
• The church had been around for a long time and needed reform, and
other events were happening that would help make the break
possible . . .
Henry VII – Family Tree
Henry VII
[
Henry VIII
Catherine
of Aragon
{
Mary
Anne
Boleyn
{
Elizabeth
Jane
Seymour
Anne
Catherine
of Cleves
Howard
{
Edward
{
Edward IV
{
Mary
{
Elizabeth
Catherine
Parr
Henry VII
• A Tudor, became king and
started a new royal line, he
seized the throne after the
long battle of the War of
the Roses.
• Shrewd, patient, but stingy,
restored peace and order to
the kingdom without which
the Renaissance would not
have been possible.
Henry VIII
• Had six wives, he was a practicing Catholic until
the Pope would not grant him an annulment from
his wife Catherine, she had a daughter which was
not a proper heir and he was in love with Anne
Boleyn, when the Pope refused Henry a divorce he
declared himself head of the English church.
• Important king, created a Royal Navy which
helped to stop foreign invasions and increased
England’s power
• He was a true “Renaissance Man,” wrote poetry,
played many musical instruments, athletic, hunter,
humanistic learner, writer.
• Coarse and arrogant in his old age
King Vs. Pope/Church
• The old conflict between the pope and the king of
England came to a climax when Henry VIII
wanted to get a divorce.
• He asked the pope for a favor – to say that he was
not properly married.
• The pope refused, so Henry declared himself head
of the English Church and appointed a new
archbishop of Canterbury who granted his divorce.
• Sir Thomas More, now Lord Chancellor of
England, did not agree with Henry. Henry had
him beheaded.
• Many who wanted reform felt that the new
church was not reformed enough.
Henry VIII Breaks with the Church
Annulment
An annulment cancels or puts an end to a
marriage. The children of an annulled couple
become illegitimate.
Divorce was not allowed, so Henry was looking for
a loophole. He asked Pope Clement VII to annul
his marriage, that is, declare that he was not
properly married to Catherine of Aragon.
Henry VIII Breaks with the Church
Protestant Reformation After 1534
• Henry closes monasteries
• Protestantism begins in England
Some people want to
• get rid of “popish” things (bishops,
prayer book, priests’ vestments)
• make religion solely a matter
between the individual and God
**Later, depending upon who is in control,
Protestant or Catholic ruler, all of this changes.
Edward VI
r. 1547-1553
• Henry’s son, crowned at age 9, intelligent but
sickly, ruled in name only
Mary
r. 1553-1558
• Daughter of Catherine, known as “Bloody
Mary” because she had over 200 Protestants
killed, died in 1558
Elizabeth I
r. 1558-1603
• Daughter of Anne Boleyn, had such a long
reign that the whole period is often named for
her, she survived many plots against her life,
her cousin Mary Queen of Scots wanted the
throne, Elizabeth endured her plots for 20
years then had Mary beheaded, Elizabeth
was a symbol of peace, security, and
prosperity; skilled in music, dancing,
literature, and religious controversy, also
vain, head strong and clever; reestablished
Church of England; never married = “Virgin
Queen”
The Reign of Elizabeth I
Mary, Queen of Scots
• Elizabeth’s cousin, heir to English throne
• Catholic, deposed from throne in Scotland
• initiates several plots to kill Elizabeth
In 1587 . . .
after enduring Mary and her plots for
twenty years, Elizabeth sends her to
the chopping block
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada
1588
• Vast fleet of warships from Spain (Spanish Armada) sent to invade
England
The Armada was the largest fleet of ships ever assembled.
• England’s smaller ships defeat the Armada
• England set eight small frigates ablaze and
sailed them into the Armada.
• Heavy winds wrecked Spanish ships off the
coast of Ireland.
• Elizabeth’s finest moment
• Assures England’s independence from
Catholic countries of the Mediterranean
Renaissance Entertainment
• With so much going on around them, the English started
writing more than ever. The sonnet was a popular form and
love was a popular topic.
• Cities held yearly festivals where plays (mostly religious) were
performed; b/c these plays were closely related to the Catholic
church, the Protestants wanted to stop these plays and
festivals
• Miracle and mystery plays – based on the Bible and saints’
legends; morality plays – taught a moral
• 1642 – Parliament shut down the London theatre
James I
• Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin, James VI
of Scotland, became her successor, as James I
of England
• He lacked her ability to resolve critical
issues, he was a spendthrift where she had
been thrifty, he tried hard to be a good ruler,
supported arts, etc., but had difficult
relationships with many of his subjects
• Commissioned the translations of the Bible
Decline of the Renaissance
• Charles I succeeded his father James I and turned out
to be remote, autocratic, and self destructive, he was
beheaded in 1649
• His son Charles II fled the country
• As the Renaissance ends, England is being ruled by
Oliver Cromwell
• Renaissance values gradually erode and energies
gradually give out
What Have You Learned?
Match the achievement or description to the
Renaissance ruler.
Elizabeth I
James I
Henry VIII
_________
Henry
VIII established the Church of England,
separate from the Roman Church
_________
James
I
benevolent ruler, patron of the arts,
spendthrift
_________
Elizabeth
I united England so that it could
achieve military victory over Spain