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The English
Renaissance
1485 - 1660
Monarch History
Prior to 1485: 30-year civil
War of the Roses –
Lancasters – red rose
Yorks – white rose
Lancaster king Henry Tudor
(Henry VII) marries York
daughter Elizabeth (R&J??)
Tudor royal family est. –
ended feudalism (Showtime’s
The Tudors, anyone??)
Monarch History, cont’d.
Younger son Henry (VIII)
marries Catherine, daughter
of king & queen of Spain,
New World rival
Henry VIII (1509) – true
“Renaissance man” – athlete,
poet, musician, educated in
French, Italian, & Latin
Protestant ideas arrive to
England
Growing dissatisfaction with
church abuses and influence
of Rome and the pope
Henry VIII wants freedom
from papal authority
only has daughter (Mary)
Requests annulment
Denied
Protestant ideas, cont’d.
Secretly marries Anne Boleyn
(wife’s court attendant) 1533
Forces Parliament to pass
Act in Restraint of Appeals –
declares the King England’s
highest judicial authority
Declares self head of Church
of England (Anglican church)
Protestant ideas, cont’d.
Irony: Anne Boleyn only has
a daughter (Elizabeth)
Is beheaded
3rd marriage (to Jane
Seymour): son, Edward VI
Reigns age 9 – 16 & dies
England – even greater
Protestant
Protestant ideas, cont’d.
Half-sister Mary reigns – tries
unsuccessfully to reintroduce
Roman Catholicism
Persecuted Protestants –
“Bloody Mary”
Half-sister Elizabeth becomes
queen 1558
Queen Elizabeth
One of the ablest monarchs
in English history
Excellent politician
England – time of
unprecedented prosperity &
international prestige
single
Queen Elizabeth, cont’d.
Remained in the middle on
religious matters
Made Anglican church a
compromise between Catholicism
& radical Protestants
(“Puritans”)
The undisputed leader of a great
military power, defeated Spanish
Armada, ending unpopular
Spanish alliance altogether
Queen Elizabeth, cont’d.
Avoided religious war
Excommunicated from Catholic
Church
Martin Luther: enraged
with Roman Catholic ways
Ninety-five Theses – posted on
Castle Church in Wittenberg,
1517
Example:
32. Those who believe that, through
letters of pardon, they are made
sure of their own salvation will be
eternally damned along with their
teachers…
Ninety-five Theses, cont’d.
Eventually leads to a full
Protestant Reformation – a
breaking away from the
Church of Rome
Leads to a Catholic
Reformation as well
Renaissance
“rebirth”
Began in 14th-c. Italy
More modern view of stressing
human life here on earth rather
than religion & afterlife
Focus: arts & literature
(remember the printing press!),
beauty of nature, human
impulses, mastery over the
world, & astronomy
Renaissance, cont’d.
New emphasis on the
individual & development of
human potential
Bible is translated into other
languages
Focus: cultivating innate
talents to the fullest
Surge of creative energy
Elizabethan Theater
Most popular art form –
increased value of the spoken
word
Priority in educational
curriculum & society
Inexpensive
Subject of interest: the heroic
individual
Still retained “heaven” & “hell”
Following Elizabeth’s reign:
Financial recklessness of James
I & Charles I
Reliance more on Parliament to
curb king’s power
Petition of Right est. – limited
power of Chas. I
1642 civil war: Royalists vs.
Parliament & Puritans (Oliver
Cromwell) – Royalists defeated
Following Elizabeth, cont’d.
Parliament invites Charles II
to return from exile
Assumes throne 1660
Restoration period begins…
Shakespeare’s Poetic
Techniques
Verse drama – play written as a
poem; all of his plays are
considered these
Meter – pattern of beat, or
rhythm, in a line of poetry
Iamb – unstressed () syllable
followed by a stressed (/) syllable

/
Ex. pre•dict
Shakespeare’s Poetic
Techniques
Iambic pentameter – 5 iambs per
line
Blank verse – unrhymed iambic
pentameter

/  /  / / 
/
Good things of day be•gin to droop and drowse;
Where are the 5 iambs separated?
Things bad be•gun make strong them•selves by ill.
Shakespeare’s Poetic
Techniques
Why the large space?
Ross:
How goes the world, sir, now?
Macduff:
Why, see you not?
To complete the line of iambic pentameter!
Shakespeare varies his
verse
Prose – written style of novels, etc. that
lacks rhythmic patterns and rhyme;
paragraph form
Why?
Fools; those used for comic relief
Less important characters
Those of lower class
upper class talking to those of lower class
Those of less intelligence
Letters
Expressing madness
Shakespeare varies his
verse
Rhyming couplets – 2 rhyming lines
Why?
Signal the end of a scene
Signal the exit or entrance of a
character
For emphasis
Witches – power over the other
characters (usually never over 4
beats/iambs per line)