The English Renaissance

Between 1400 and 1500
-Relatively little significant poetry was written in England
-While Scotland had a thriving late medieval poetic tradition

Era of poetic dryness ended with the poetry of John Skelton in the late 1400s

Coincided with the beginning of the Renaissance in England

Era of the English Tudor rulers was one of the most active and most unstable in English history

Also the most innovative

Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth
Tudor Dynasty

Oversaw the renaissance of learning that Humanist educational theory brought

Consolidated a uniquely English version of Reformation Christianity

At the beginning of the Tudor period, there were several bases of political power in England

Including...
-the church
-the houses of the greater nobility
-the royal court

London was not the only center of culture

By1603, when Elizabeth I died
-the power of the church was broken

London more than double its size at the beginning of the period

Center of English culture, and the royal court with its dependent rich noble families was the seat of political power and advancement

Power was centralized

Additionally, large social and technological changes were altering the culture

England had begun to develop manufacturing...
primarily wool cloth

Demands of this industry forced many tenant farmers off the land and into the cities

Middle merchant and manufacturing class, especially in London, began to exert its influence in both politics and literature

16th century was the first full century to see the rise of a radically new communications technology
printing

For many reasons, but primarily because of the development of printing, the ability to read and write became more widespread

In the wake of this movement, however, women's literacy rates remained much lower than men's

In fact, women were denied access to grammar schools, universities, and the Inns of Court (the equivalent of law schools)

Advent of the Protestant Reformation in England had a peculiar effect...

Even though girls were "increasingly taught to read, they were not necessarily taught to write, for the latter skill in women was considered at the very least useless, at the worst dangerous"

Henry VIII's reformation also closed the convents, another site for women's education and literacy

Centralizing of power into the hands of the royal court had a great impact on this period's more formal poetry

One couldn't make a living (or build a good reputation) as a professional author

Writing of poetry was seen as an ornament of the ideal courtier

If one did mostly writing, one still had to either find a position in government or the church, or find a patron.

Renaissance Humanism

Rediscovery and renewed interest in ancient Greek, Latin, and sometimes Hebrew texts were characteristic of the Renaissance and how it came about

And the new theory of education, often called Renaissance Humanism

Medieval education was carried on by recitation and disputation

Students recited the content of lectures delivered by their instructors and answered questions on various subjects

Seven liberal arts of the medieval curriculum were divided into...

Trivium
-a group of three language-related subjects
−grammar, rhetoric, and logic
−that formed the basic course of study

Quadrivium

four subjects
−geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music
−related to numbers and proportion

In contrast to the recitation and disputation system,

Renaissance humanism emphasized reading full texts in their original languages and teaching through informal discussion

New educational method

-drew upon the traditional teaching methods of the Greeks and Romans

At the same time, being attentive to...
-the new emphasis on the individual
-personal creativity
...awakened by the Renaissance

Renaissance itself came late to England−around 1500

Revival of interest in ancient learning and texts in their original languages had begun as early as the late 13th century in Italy

Took around 200 years to percolate across Northern Europe

The English Reformation

Though the Reformation of the Christian church and the Renaissance of learning occurred at approximately the same time in Northern Europe, they were different intellectual movements

Renaissance humanists like Sir Thomas More and Erasmus were not religious reformers

Martin Luther and John Calvin, leaders of continental European religious reformation movements, were not necessarily humanist scholars

Continental European Reformation movements were led primarily for theological reasons by individuals without significant political power

In England, however, the Protestant Reformation was begun primarily as a political movement by King Henry VIII

Kings of England had long lived in tension with the political power of the Catholic Church

Martyrdom of Thomas á Becket under Henry II was caused by this tension

Church was a separate political power with its own courts and laws, its own property holdings (the church was the second largest landowner in England, next to the King), and allegiance to an outside ruler, the Pope

Henry VIII, ironically declared a "defender of the faith" not many years before his excommunication, wished to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, in order to produce a male heir to the throne

When the church refused to grant his divorce, he proclaimed himself the head of the Church in England, promptly divorced Catherine, and seized all Church property in the country, evicting members of the religious orders who lived in the abbey's convents that he took.

Henry's actions set up almost a century of conflict between England and most of the Catholic countries in Europe
-causing profound religious dissension within England itself

But Henry's Reformation also created a new noble class as he distributed seized Church property to his supporters

These noblemen, who owed their positions at court, as well as their wealth, to the sovereign, were called courtiers (court functionaries)

They were the administrative arm of the sovereign and had existed in courts other than Henry's

There were handbooks of conduct for courtiers who were the king's primary soldiers, diplomats, and administrators

According to Sir Thomas Hoby's English translation of Baldasarre Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier, courtiers existed to give honest advice to the ruler

This ideal could be dangerous in practice, especially with such an unbalanced ruler as Henry VIII.

Ideal courtier was supposed to embody the following characteristics: nobility, physical attractiveness, wit, grace, and military virtue

Courtiers were supposed to follow Aristotle's definition of virtue as moderation in all things

They were not supposed to be overly artistic, nor were they supposed to be too beautiful

Courtiers were trained in the arts of culture (including music and poetry) and needed to make a good first impression

Valued romantic love, conflict, and Christian devotional piety (though not necessarily in that order) and were supposed to act according to the controlling principle of honor

Courtiers of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth wrote much of the "polite" literature of their time period, often to their romantic interests among the ladies of the court

They tended to be leaders of fashion generally, since the court was the center of political, commercial, and artistic life

Courtiers also tended to be young, taking up major responsibilities at about the age that modern traditional students graduate from college

Remember courtiers were not all about flattery and manners; as soldiers jealous of their personal honor, they could be dangerous people

Upcoming...

• Read Thomas More's, Utopia
• CPA Topic 3 Part 2