Download The Renaissance began in fourteenth-century Italy

1485
To
1660
The term renaissance is a French word
meaning “rebirth.”
The English
Renaissance
marked changes
in people’s
values, beliefs
and behavior.
The
Renaissance
began in
fourteenthcentury Italy
where the
Catholic Church
financed many
intellectual and
artistic
endeavors.
An intellectual
movement known as
humanism began to
use Latin and Greek
classics combined with
traditional Christian
thought to teach people
how to live.
Desiderius
Erasmus and
Thomas More,
humanists and
close friends,
helped shape
European thought
and history.
Gutenberg’s
printing press
helped spread the
new knowledge
which made
books available
to more people
than ever before.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
These new ideas
encouraged people
to question the
authority of the
Catholic Church and
to object to financial
burdens imposed by
the Pope.
In addition to these new
ideas, in 1533 after the
pope refused to allow King
Henry VIII an annulment
from Catherine of Aragon,
Henry broke with the
Catholic Church and
declared himself the head
of the Church of England.
The five Tudor kings are Henry VII, who
became king after the War of the Roses, Henry
VIII, his son Edward, Mary and Elizabeth.
Henry VIII increased
England’s strength
by building up its
Navy, but those
close to him paid a
high price.
After the death of Henry
VIII’s young son Edward,
his daughter Mary
became queen. She
killed the Protestants and
restored the Pope’s
power in England. When
Mary died of a fever, her
younger sister Elizabeth
became queen.
Like her father,
Elizabeth rejected the
Pope and reestablished
the Church of England.
Her intelligence and
independence made her
reign one of the most
successful in England’s
history.
One of Elizabeth’s
great successes was
the defeat of King
Philip’s Spanish
Armada. This
stunning victory
assured England’s
independence from
powerful Catholic
countries in the
Mediterranean.
So what’s the connection
between these political
events and literature?
Elizabeth encouraged
and inspired many
writers. With the defeat
of the Spanish Armada,
an era of peace and
prosperity began and the
English started writing as
never before.