a background of english culture and civilization 1

8/3/2019 A Background of English Culture and Civilization 1

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LECTURE 1: AN OVERVIEW OF ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL ENGLAND

I.1. Let us begin by saying that the most important population until the advent of theRomans in England was formed by the Celtic tribes, always at strife with each other.

They dominated much of Europe in the last six centuries before Christ, expanding upto todays Romania as well, and were known as both skilful warriors and craftsmen,which comes as no surprise. As to their civilization their trevs or hamlets consistedof light structures of timber, wattles, or mud, easily destroyed. (G. M. Trevelyan, AShortened History of England, p. 27)

2. The Romans in BritainThe Roman occupation occurred between the coming of the Celt and the coming ofthe Saxon. Unlike the Saxon, Celt, and Dance who came over to slaughter or expelthe inhabitants and settle in their place, the Romans made an effort to induce theirWestern subjects to assimilate Latin life in all its aspects. However, citing Haverfield,

Trevelyan points out that the Britons have inherited practically nothing from theRomans. Yet we know about Hadrians Wall and other sites. For one, architecture inthe real sense of the word appeared for the first time in the island with the Romans.Fine public buildings, both religious and secular, were built and embellished withstatues and carved relieves. The walls were painted and the floors were of tesserae(square mosaic tiles) set in various designs. The great pavement at Woodchester, inGloucestershire, shows Orpheus playing his lute to the beasts of field. The Mildenhalltreasure, to be found at the British Museum proves the quality of the silversmithswork. The Romans brought, it seems, a whole lot of their civilization facilities. Forinstance, the pottery for the table was embellished with a wealth of design. Moreover,and against Trevelyans argument, there was a connection between the Celtic andRoman craftsman. The former deserted his curvilinear patterns (much enjoyed by the19th and 20th century artists) for the new classical style, and yet carried on some ofthe old tradition. An example of it is the Gorgons head, from the pediment of thetemple of Sulis-Minerva at Bath (Bath Museum). Even when the Romans desertedthe island a mixture of Roman-Celtic designs survived. Modified to suit the Nordictaste, these took their place in the pattern-books of Anglo-Saxon craftsmen.

Let us consider now some facts regarding the history of London and its origin as acity. Finds have been made in the river bed which suggests that the first edition ofLondon Bridge may have been erected in timber before the Roman Conquest. The

name of London, Trevelyan argues, is Celtic, though some say it is Latin(Londinium). Yet, it was not a great center of either Iberian or Celtic civilization. Therewas a forest and a marsh that covered much of the area. It was the Romans whofound the geographic potential of the place. Roads connecting north and south werebuilt. According to the historians and archeological finds, London became larger andricher under the Romans. The Roman walls enclosed an area corresponding veryclosely to the walls of the City in medieval times, which were in fact only the Romanwalls restored. (pp. 31-32)

3. The Nordic RootsAnother important chapter in Englands history is the settlement of the Nordic

peoples, the Anglo-Saxons, the Jutes, the Danes, and Norsemen. They started toplunder the coast of Roman Britain before 300 A. D. and the conquest was

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completed by Canute in 1020, who reconciled the kindred races of Saxon and Dane.The racial basis was fixed by the time of Canute. Trevelyan insists on this fact,arguing that The distinctive character of the modern English is Nordic tempered byWelsh, not Welsh tempered by Nordic (p. 36). The historian carefully notes that thisuse of Nordic does not imply the ideological meaning of the word in Nazi Germany,

which is founded neither in history nor biology. Secondly, he maintains that theattempt of the Norman-French aristocracy and clergy to Gallicize England, though ithad great and permanent consequences, was gradually abandoned in face of thefacts of race, just as the attempt to anglicize Ireland has recently been abandoned forthe same cause. (p. 37)

Now, if compared to the Goth and Frank invasions, in Saxon England city life,Christian religion (later restored) and Roman-Celtic language all disappeared. It tookalmost one thousand and five hundred years to re-establish the benefits of theRoman civilization. So, as Trevelyan points out: The first result of the conquest wasthe loss of the crafts, science, and learning of Rome. However, the withdrawn Celts,

once civilized, became barbarous, while the Saxons grew more civilized.Nonetheless, the Romans left behind three things as permanent legacies thetraditional site of London, the Roman roads, and Welsh Christianity. (p. 51) Romesmissionaries kept coming to Wales, and among them the famous Saint Germanus, aformer Roman soldier, who won a battle against the Picts and Saxons. Similarly, theCeltic Christianity developed in Cornwall.

4. Christianity and ArchitectureSince we are going to talk later about the architecture of the cathedrals, it is worthdiscussing about Christianity itself, because the Christian conquest of the island wasthe return of Mediterranean civilization in a new form and with a new message. Twofigures are of utmost importance: Augustine of Rome and Theodore of Tarsus. Theybrought here a hierarchy similar to the former Roman Empire, and interestinglyenough, the English kings borrowed forms and policies fitted to the need of theincipient state. In Ireland a tremendously important role was played by Saint Patrickwho brought to Ireland the Latin language and the scholarly work. Moreover, theacceptance of Christianity in Ireland as later in England was in part due to theadmiration felt by the barbarians for the Empire even in its fall, and for all thingsappertaining to Rome. (p. 57) It is worth noting that the Irish did not imitate theRoman hierarchy, thus theirs was not parochial, it was monastic mainly. The normalIrish monastery was connected with a single tribe and acknowledged no

ecclesiastical superior. Yet, this monasticism cannot be compared to the continentalone. In my opinion, it was somewhat similar to the one on our territory. It was acongregation of hermits living each in his own beehive hut of wattle clay and turf.They were hermits, scholars, artists, warriors, and missionaries. They would go andpreach copy and illuminate manuscripts in the monastery or seek for more completeseclusion like St Cuthbert, who left the remote Lindisfarne for the Farne Islands. It isto them that the English owe the wonderful manuscript art of Lindisfarne Gospel,wherein Celtic and Saxon nature ornamentation were blended in perfect harmonywith southern Christian traditions. Moreover, far from the Papal censorship, theyrevived knowledge of classical secular literature, which had almost died in WesternEurope.

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If we cannot speak about a proper secular architecture earlier than the 11 th century,not many Anglo-Saxon churches are left either. There are some reasons to it. Firstly,most of them were built of wood. Secondly, the Normans demolished them just torebuild them after the conquest. However, a handful has remained. The typicalAnglo-Saxon church has a simple plan: two rectangles of unequal size linked by an

arch, with a smaller rectangle to the east (see slides and pictures of Bosom). Anadditional chamber orporticus could be attached to the church. The buildings tendedto be of a much greater height than width, as at Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. Thewindows were small and round-headed, set high in the walls. Interiors were oftendecoratively painted, with little architectural ornament. The external decoration wasoften elaborate, usually pilaster-work (vertical strips of stone on the outside walls).The exterior might also have round-headed or triangular blank arcading. In some ofthese churches, as it happened in most parts of Europe, the builders used bricksfrom the Roman ruins or, as it is the case of the crypt at Hexam, Northumberland,and the abbey built by Wilfrid in the 7th century, using stone from the ruined HadriansWall. And there are other examples in Yorkshire.

As to the other arts, there are two examples that have been known. Firstly, StCuthbert Vestments in Durham Cathedral. Secondly, the 11th century BayeuxTapestry, a long strip of linen, embroidered in colored wools with lively, detailedscenes from the life of King Harold, the battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest,which is exhibited in Bosom Church.

II. The Norman Conquest and its outcome1. IntroductionThere is one fact which is less highlighted, namely, that the Norman aristocracy,Scandinavian by origin, retained all the Viking energy in colonization and in war, buthad become converts to Latin culture. (p. 93) And so, the culture that the Normansimported into England was indeed Franco-Italian, but the monarchy brought over bythe Normans was the monarchy of their own strong Dukes, and not of the weakFrench kings at Paris. (p. 94) We should not wonder, because culture was mostlymonastic, while the tribal organization was still present at that time. However,Normandy was better organized than France, having what we call todayadministration. Thus England was invaded by the most highly organized continentalstate of the day (p. 96), which also sustained the Church power. They brought toEngland the greatest intellects of the day, like Lanfranc of Pavia and Anselm ofAosta, who became Archbishops of Canterbury. Moreover, Lanfranc and Anselm

brought the knowledge of Roman and Canon Law, and the latest theology andphilosophy of the day. Remember that that happened before the age of Universities,when the monasteries served as chief centers of learning. Meanwhile, architecturewas already laying its massive impress on the Norman landscape. Though the greatage of stone castles was delayed till the 12 th century, the Norman Abbeys andCathedrals that we know were already beginning to rise when the Conqueror sailedfor England (p. 97). You do not have to imagine that the average Norman aristocratwas a man of letters, a civilized person. Except for some learned priests, they wereas barbaric as the Anglo-Saxons. Sometimes their methods of warfare were as cruelas ever. This Christian convert was ruthless and primitive as his Viking ancestor.However, the Church taught them to organize society, and as G. M. Trevelyan thinks,

it was this better organization of society, even more than the precept and example of

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the Church herself, that eventually taught men to take the first halting steps in thedirection of humanity and justice. (p. 98)

2. Edward the Confessor and his role in the development of London; Williamthe Conqueror and the effects of invasion

Though less important as a political figure, Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxonking, half monk, since he grew up in exile in a monastery in France, it was him whoprepared for Westminster the high place that it holds in ecclesiastical history and itssupreme place in the political development of England. He moved his residence onthe rural island of thorns to be near the church he was building to St Peter. Besides,during his reign London regained the place it held in the Roman times, that of a greatcenter of North European commerce. As concerns Westminster Abbey, which plays atremendously important role in the history of England, one should notice that on itssite was a Benedictine Monastery. The first monks were brought to Westminster inabout 960 AD by St Dunstan, the then Bishop of London. No trace of the building towhich they came has been found. Edward the Confessors Abbey was consecrated

on 28 December 1065 and one year later, following the battle of Hastings, Williamthe Conqueror forced his way and reached the Abbey for coronation. That wasgranted to him and he was crowned there on Christmas Day as lawful heir of theConfessor. Here is how Trevelyan describes the event: his followers, on a falsealarm of treachery, were setting fire to the houses of the English outside. The noiseof strife and outrage interrupted the service, and all save William and the officiatingpriests rushed out of the Minster to take part. Here were grim realities, in dramaticcontrast to Williams theory of a lawful and natural passage of the Crown. The claimto be heir to the Confessor and guardian of his good laws thinly covered over thebrute facts of conquest, and seemed of little avail to protect the country againstFrench and violence (p. 106). In fact William was a bastard, and it was through achain of tricks and force that he deprived Harold, the Confessors heir, that he gothold of the crown).

Now let us consider some consequences of the Norman Conquest. Firstly, Williamthe Conqueror chased away the Anglo-Saxon priests and replaced them with Frenchones. During his reign, Lanfranc, whom I mentioned before, was his right hand.Naturally, continental architecture was brought to England by Norman builders whohastened to replace the largest Saxon churches with structures yet more magnificent.Another result of the Conquest was the making of the English language. Thelanguage was spoken and written by King Alfred and Bede, was despised as a

peasants jargon, the talk of ignorant serfs. Now the clergy talked Latin and thegentry talked French. Some think it was a chance for the language as such becauseit lost its clumsy inflexions and elaborate genders, acquiring the grace, supplenessand adaptability which are among its chief merits. At the same time it was enrichedby many French words and ideas. The English vocabulary is mainly French in wordsrelating to war, politics, justice, religion, hunting, cooking and art. As for architecture itis only partially French. That was a singular example in history and, as Trevelyanputs it, It is symbolic of the fate of the English race itself after Hastings, fallen to risenobler, trodden under foot only to be trodden into shape. (p. 117)

3. Some facts about Norman art and architecture in England

The Norman Conquest had little immediate effect on the style of English illumination Ireferred to earlier, but there was some influence on detail. Some decorative features

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became more common, such as historiated initial letters (decorated with figures ofmen and animals), and inhabited scrolls, showing arabesques of foliage withanimals inhabiting the branches.

During the first half of the 12th century a new style, the Romanesque, entered the

country. This grew up alongside the surviving Anglo-Saxon style. It derived fromByzantium and the East and its characteristics were firmness of line, boldness ofexecution, and a rigid, monumental dignity in the portrayal of the human figure. Arare example surviving from this time is the wall-painting in St Anselm Chapel ofCanterbury Cathedral, namely St Paul and the Viper.

The most important English contribution to Romanesque painting is the developmentof the technique of pictorial narrative and of a complete cycle of ceremonial Bibleswhich were produced in the 12th century, in particular the Winchester Bible(Winchester Cathedral), the Lambeth Bible from Canterbury (Lambeth Palace), andthe Bury Bible (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). They all are the greatest

achievements in European painting in the 12th century. At the end of the Normanperiod they won for England the pre-eminence in the graphic arts which in sculpturebelonged to France.

The Norman or Romanesque style in architecture is magnificent in scale, simple andinventive. Today we cannot see the churches as they were then. However, threelarge churches have stood as they were in Norman times: the cathedrals of Durham,Norwich, and Peterborough. Durham Cathedral, considered as one of the finestRomanesque churches in Europe, was begun by Bishop William of St Carilief in 1093and completed by 1133, and it was the first large building in northern Europe to berib-vaulted in stone. Formally, it has stood so, I would say, but changes of details stilloccur. A good example is the stained glass window on the theme of the Last Supperpainted in the eighties of the last century.

As to castle building, the first Norman forts were simple earth mounds with ditchesand palisades. Their characteristic feature is the square Norman keep combiningfortress and residence. Two examples survive from the 11th century: Colchester,Essex, and the white Tower in the Tower of London, completed by 1097. It is a four-storey building divided by an internal wall into two parts. One half of the building wasagain subdivided to the plain but beautiful Chapel of St John, which is the oldestcomplete Norman church in England.

LECTURE 2: HISTORY AND CULTURE IN MEDIEVAL ENGLANDIII. Some facts about the English history in the Middle Ages

1. Introduction

The medieval period begins about the time of the First Crusade (1096), which alsomarks the first signs of anti-Semitism in Europe. Feudalism was the characteristicinstitution of the Middle Ages; it opposed the anarchy of the Dark Ages, meaning that

barbarism grew into civilization. On the one hand there was the disintegrated secularsociety of feudal barons and knights, each with an outlook limited to his province or

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his manor, while on the other hand there was the pan-European Church, tightlyorganized from Rome. Furthermore, since the clergy enjoyed an almost completemonopoly of learning and clerkship, the control of Church over State in the earlyMiddle Ages was very great. If for a period of time it was a king who appointed theBishops, for instance, in the end it was the Pope who did it, yet with the tacit

recommendation of the king. The true merit of medieval Christendom, Trevelyanargues, was that as compared to Islam and Brahmanism it was progressive, andthat society moved constantly forward from 1100 to 1500 towards new things, out ofuniformity into variety, out of feudal cosmopolitanism into national monarchy, out ofhegemony of the priesthood into lay emancipation, out of the rule of the knight intothe world of the craftsman, the capitalism and the yeoman. The spirit of medievalEurope was not static but dynamic. (p. 119) Behind the fortified walls of themonasteries the monks were re-interpreting the works of Plato and Aristotle, whilebeyond the very same walls there was barbarism mixed with flashing lights ofcivilization. After the Norman Conquest England acquired great institutions:representative assemblies, universities, juries. Some of these institutions, like the

universities, the legal profession, the city guilds and companies, and Parliamentitself, had their origin or analogy elsewhere because they were characteristicproducts of medieval Christendom as a whole. But the English Common Law was adevelopment peculiar to England. Parliament and the Common Law gave England inthe end a political life of their own in strong contrast to the later developments ofLatin civilization.

2. Major kingsYou should not imagine that England was the land of milk and honey, of stories ofknights courting ladies or ladies waiting for their knights back from the crusade. Theworst happened during the conflict between Stephen of Blois, a distinguished knight,and Matilda, wife of the great Plantagenet Count, Geoffrey of Anjou. That torn thecountry apart. For instance, an English monk wrote about the tortures invented tooppress the common people. They took those whom they suspected to have goods,by night and by day, seizing both men and women, and they put them in prison fortheir gold and silver, and tortured them with pains unspeakable, for never were anymartyrs tormented as these were.

Finally, an agreement was reached: Stephen was to wear the crown till his death,while Matildas son was to succeed as Henry II (1154-89). He was a great king, thefirst who tried to separate the church and secular powers. He had an administrative

mind trained in the best European learning of his day. He was not merely Duke ofNormandy but the ruler of Western France. By marriage, diplomacy, and war, theHouse of Anjou had accumulated such vast possessions that the monarchy at Parisand the Holy Roman Empire were of less account.

Henrys ever-moving court was filled with men of business, pleasure, and scholarshipfrom every land in Western Europe. He was a great Angevin king after all. During hisreign and that of his sons, the English knight became less interested in fighting,because he could buy the military service through what was known as shieldmoney. So, more and more knights turned into what came to be known as thecountry gentleman. For these reasons the stone castle, typical of Stephens reign

was gradually replaced by the stone manor-house, typical of the Plantagenet era.The movement was hastened by Henry IIs demolition of unlicensed castles and his

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unwillingness to grant new licenses. The donjon-keep was replaced by a high-ceilinged stone hall, the lineal descendant of the high timber hall of the Anglo-Danishthong. In front of it there was a walled courtyard partly surrounded by buildings. Themanor-house was only to be entered through the gateway of the courtyard, and wasoften protected by a moat. That was true for southern and midland counties, while on

the Welsh or Scottish borders, there dwelt the Marcher Lords in high castles. Theyparticipated in the chief fights during the troublesome times of the Plantagenetperiod.

There is one significant fact that distinguishes the English upper-class from thecontinental one. The feudal law of primogeniture, or the right to the land of the firstborn, turned into an advantage, because the other sons were sent out into the worldto seek for their fortune. Unlike the continental upper-class, who married inside theirown order, and despised merchants and commerce, the English never became aclosed caste, and that was a rapid way of escaping from feudalism.

The great benefit of Henrys reign was the legal reform, that is, a native systemcommon to the whole land, in place of the various provincial customs. It meant astep forward towards the emancipation from the feudal and ecclesiastical courts. Heestablished the jury system that became the boast of England, contrasting theFrench procedure, where torture was freely used.

King Richard the Lion-Hearted (1189-99) distinguished himself in the ThirdCrusade as the greatest of knight-errant, the popular figure in the Middle Ages. Hetook with him other men of an adventurous disposition, but not the solid part of thebaronage. As for the English common folk, the emotions of the Third Crusadetouched them just enough to produce some shocking pogroms of Jews, of which theone in York was appalling. To put it in a nutshell, Richard left England at the mercy ofhis treacherous brother, John. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Hubert Walter, whomRichard had appointed, backed by the official baronage, the Mayor and citizens ofLondon, suppressed Johns treason and purchased Richards deliverance from theAustrian prison into which his fellow crusaders had thrown him. But he had justreturned home that he left again and never returned to England.

King John (1199-1216) had no broad political strategy or foresight. He extortedmoney from all classes of his subjects and then spent it in clumsy attempts to defendhis inheritance against the kings of France. The loss of Normandy to Philip Augustus

took place in 1204, and ten years later, his scheme to recover it through a grandEuropean coalition against France was shipwrecked by the defeat of his Germanallies. King John had problems with the Pope as well (he struggled with PopeInnocent III over the election of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, towhich he eventually surrendered). In The Life and Death of King John by W.Shakespeare, King John sadly notices:

It is the curse of kings to be attendedBy slaves that take their humours for a warrantTo break within the bloody house of life,And on the winking of authority

To understand a law, to know the meaningOf dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns

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More upon humour than advisd respect.

Oscar Wilde once wrote that children should learn history of Shakespeares historicalplays. Yet Shakespeare himself missed to dramatize one important event of theMiddle Ages: Magna Carta. An important role on the constitutional role, representing

the tension between the king and the people, was Magna Carta, the first EnglishConstitution that led in the end to yet undreamt of liberties for all. More than thebarons, it was Archbishop Stephen Langton whose brain and moral strength helpedthe movement. His action was all the more remarkable considering that PopeInnocent III who supported him to be appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, disagreedwith him and backed instead King John and declared Magna Carta null and void. Thenew English baronial policy, as designed in Magna Carta, was meant to obtain publicliberties and to control the king through the Common Law, baronial assemblies, andalliance with other classes. It was the first text setting a democratic legal law ingeneral. Here it is how Article 1 reads:

In the first place we have conceded to God, and by this our present charterconfirmed for us and our heirs for ever that the English church shall be free, and shallhave her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate; and we wish that it be thusobserved. This is apparent from the fact that we, of our pure and unconstrained will,did grant the freedom of elections, which is reckoned most important and veryessential to the English church, and did by our charter confirm and did obtain theratification of the same from our lord, Pope Innocent III., before the quarrel arosebetween us and our barons. This freedom we will observe, and our will is that it beobserved in good faith by our heirs for ever.

We have also granted to allfreemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs for ever, allthe underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and ourheirs for ever:

Naturally, not all the terms used then have preserved the same meaning. Forinstance, free and freemen have to be understood as follows:

Free here particularly liberty to obey the canon law of the Western Church which,amongst other things, insisted on ecclesiastical elections being free from lay

pressure. [Article 1]

Freeman those of free status in the eyes of the law (that is, not villains) and assuch having certain rights denied to villains, such as access to the Kings courts incertain actions, freedom to move about and marry and exemption from certainonerous duties. [Article 1]

One interesting aspect, as it appears in Magna Charta is the problem of Jews, whichthe authors gave special attention, meaning that that was a hot issue and broughtabout discrimination among the population: And if any one die indebted to the Jews,his wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if any children of the

deceased are left underage, necessaries shall be provided for them in keeping withthe holding of the deceased. The debt shall be paid out of the residue, save the

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service due to feudal lords. Let debts due to others than Jews be dealt with insimilar manner.

As to architecture, we find here the first reference to castles which: before the reignof Henry II even major castles were mostly built of wood, as were the less important

buildings and auxiliary defences long after his time. The reference sounds ratherfunny today: Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for ourcastles or for any other ofour works, wood which is not ours, except with agreement from the owner of thattimber.

As Trevelyan says: Throughout the Thirteenth Century the struggle for the Charter,with its constant reissues, revisions, infringements, and reassertions, was thebattleground of parties, until the Edwardian Parliaments were fully established, theCharter remained in the foreground of mens thoughts (p. 148). However, when theParliament was established and in the 16th century, for instance, the Charter was outof fashion. Shakespeares King John shows that the author knew little about it. But

when, under James I, Prince and people again began to take up opposing ground,Magna Carta came quickly back as the goddess of English freedom. It alwayshappened so when the battle for freedom was looming.

Henry III (1216-1272). During his long reign (though he was under age when hebecame a king) the discontent continued leading to another period of civil war andconstitution making. The hero of the day was Simon Monfort. This time the target ofthe struggle for the Charter was the middle classes of town and country, the gentryand burghers, led by friars. Monforts ideas formed the conception of Law assomething above the king. In 1264 he won a victory at Lewes, while after one year hewas defeated and murdered at Evesham. In the very same year (1265) the Mertonand Balliol colleges were founded at Oxford. However, his ideas outlived himbecause he had made a convert of his conqueror, the kings son, Edward. When thelatter became the king of England he had already learnt that the king must reignunder and through the Law, and that the Crown opposed to the nation was lessstrong than the Crown in Parliament.

The name parliament was firstly applied during Henry IIIs reign to the feudalassemblies and kings Council. It carried no idea of election or representation. Whatdid Monfort do after his victory? He summoned not only the knights of the shire, butfor the first time two representatives from each of the chartered boroughs. That

particular Parliament was a revolutionary assembly to which only those Barons weresummoned who were of Simons party, but it set a precedent for the summoning ofburghers, imitated more closely the Parliament of Edward I.

Edward I (1272-1307). It was during his reign that the Parliament was established. Iwould like to insist here on Trevelyans opinion of the nature of the EnglishParliament:

No man made it, for it grew. It was the natural outcome, through longcenturies, of the common sense and the good nature of the English people, whohave usually preferred committees to dictators, elections to street fighting, and

talking shops to revolutionary tribunals. (p. 152)

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And heres another valid remark, in my opinion: The English people have alwaysbeen distinguished for the Committee sense, their desire to sit round and talk till anagreement or compromise is reached. This national peculiarity was the true origin ofthe English Parliament. (p. 153)

There is one essential fact that characterized the Parliament life: it abolished thedistinctions of feudalism. The knights of the shire, a semi-feudal class were acting aselected representatives of the rural yeoman, and were sitting cheek by jowl with thecitizens of the boroughs. Neither was any House of the Clergy formed as part of theEnglish Parliament. They voluntarily abandoned their seats among the Commonsand the Lords. That explains why the English couldnt understand what in the worldthe French Revolution was about.

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Ireland, Wales, and Scotland

What happened to Ireland during the period after the Conquest? It mainly remaineddisorganized, while the majority of its inhabitants preferred the country life to townlife. Their towns were easily captured and transformed into English ones. Thecitizens of Bristol were given the right to inhabit Dublin. Dublin Castle, first built by theVikings, became the centre of Saxon rule in Ireland from the 12th century.

To put it in a nutshell, England proved too weak to conquer and govern Ireland, butstrong enough to prevent her from learning to govern herself. It is significant that theisland that once was the lamp of learning in a barbarous Europe, had no universitywhen the Middle Ages came to an end.

Before the coming of the Anglo-Normans, the Welsh had been a pastoral rather thanan agricultural people. They lived rather in huts than in towns and villages, that is,they did not have a community life. When the occupation occurred and they sawtheir valley dominated by a Norman castle of timber or stone, with an agriculturalvillage attached to it, a part of them fled higher into the hills, while the othersremained vassals of the new lord. All through the Middle Ages the native Welsh, inimitation of the English lords and neighbors, were slowly taking to agriculture,

erecting permanent houses, trading in market-towns. Yet they preserved their owntongue [] and developed their bardic poetry and music destined in our own days tosave Welsh intellect and idealism from perishing in the swamp of moderncosmopolitan vulgarity, says Trevelyan (p. 168), which means they are starktraditionalists, yet very creative.

As you can see, in England there are people living at a different pace and within adifferent history. While Wales and Ireland were forced to submit to Englands rulemore completely and for a longer time than Scotland, both remained to this day farmore Celtic.

For at least two centuries Scotland fought for her independence from England, andremained an extremely poor, savage, bloodstained land of feudal anarchy,

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assassination, private wars, and public treason, with constant Border warfare againstEngland, with peculiarly corrupt Church, no flourishing cities, no Parliament or otherinstitutions that could promise her a great future. (Of course, this is an Englishmansopinion). England could have given her wealth and civilization.

The One Hundred Year Warmeant a period in which England, equipped withadministrative machinery and national self-consciousness, exercised these newpowers at the expense of the French feudal kingdom. In fact, the English kings triedto regain their possessions. In 1337, when the Hundred Years War began, EdwardIII and his nobles spoke French and were more at home at Gascony than inScotland. In fact the Hundred Years War was a label of the transition from the MiddleAges to the Renaissance.

What the One Hundred Years War did was to intensify the patriotic feeling of theEnglish, which outlasted the war, and helped to put an end to the subordination of theEnglish to the French culture which the Norman Conquest had established. In HenryVIIs reign, for instance, the Venetian envoy noted:

They think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other worldbut England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say he looks likean Englishman and that it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishman, andwhen they partake of any delicacy with a foreigner they ask him whether such athing is made in his country (apud, Trevelyan, p. 189).

Moreover, a law was passed by the Parliament declaring that since the Frenchtongue was much unknown in this Realm, the judgment in the law courts should bespoken in English and enrolled in Latin. A more profound revolution took placeregarding the language used in schools. English became once more the tongue ofthe educated and of the upper classes, as it had never been since Hastings. TheBible was translated into English by Wycliffes followers, and soon Chaucer was towrite his works. Their work circulated first in manuscript, and then, in the 15 th centurycame Caxtons printing press at Westminster, which popularized Chaucer and spreadthrough the land translations of the Bible and Prayer Book in the same dialect,

already regarded as the Kings English, which formed the standard English.

The Lollardry and Other Cultural Issues

In the 14th century there was a movement resembling Protestantism. It was calledLollardry and it owed its existence to John Wycliffe, the Oxford scholar, the initiatorof the translation of the Bible in English. After his denial of the doctrine ofTransubstantiation1 he and his followers were expelled from Oxford in 1382 by a

1 Doctrine of Transubstantiation involves the miraculous change by which according to Roman Catholic andEastern Orthodox dogma the Eucharistic elements at their consecration become the body and blood of Christ

while keeping only their appearance of bread and wine.

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combined action of Church and State. So, he initiated a popular movement spread byitinerant preachers. Though persecuted and suppressed, Lollardry never wholly diedout; it revived and merged in the Lutheran movement of early Tudor times. Thecopies of the Bible translation were destroyed when possible by the Churchauthorities. However, they could not prohibit the lay study of the Scriptures.

The end of the Middle Ages and the emergence of the New Learning was a greatperiod for the foundation of schools, besides Winchester or Eton. Guilds and privatepersons were endowing chantries with priests and schools. Reading and writingceased to be the monopoly of the clergy. Chaucer, who died in 1400, had atremendous influence on the English letters. All the poets of the age followed him. Intheir verse they express their admiration for the beauty of natural sights and soundsin the orchards and artificial gardens. As you can notice, landscape architecture isvery old in England, and that can be explained psychologically. From the 15th to theearly 18th centuries they liked artificial gardens because they had so much wildnature. At that time the beauty of domestic architecture of the manor houses, then

coming to perfection in stone and brick, the artistic originality in dress, furniture, andhomestead utensils enriched life with joys, we like to think. The everyday objectshave acquired through time an esthetic value, quite different from the one given bythe simple craftsman.

The End of the Middle Ages. Historians think that the Middle Ages ended inEngland in a curious way, and through the wars of Roses. These wars involved thefamilies of Lancaster and York. On each side was ranged a group of nobles, andeach noble had its clientele of knights, gentry, captains, lawyers, and clergy. Ofcourse, there were cases when they changed sides. London remained neutral in thiscivil strife. The fighting nobles were savage in their treatment of one another, andthere were many sudden turns of the fortunes wheel, leading to confiscations ofgreat estates. The Crown was enriched by these confiscations, while the nobles wereimpoverished and their number reduced. The way was prepared for the Tudor policyof suppressing over mighty subjects. The Wars of Roses were a bleeding operationperformed by the nobility upon their own body and a blessing in disguise for the restof the people. The Renaissance lights were shining already.

LECTURE 3: SOME REMARKS ABOUT ENGLAND DURING THE TUDORS(RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION)

IntroductionLet us start with a conclusion, so the other way round. It is G. M. Trevelyans and itreads: The era of private enterprise and expanding genius associated with Drakeand Raleigh, Shakespeare and Bacon, was the outcome of two hundred years ofsocial disruption and rebirth, of the appeal of Renaissance and Reformation to theindividual mind and conscience, and the subjection of corporate power to the nationalwill be embodied in Crown and Parliament. (p. 201)

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On the one hand, the Renaissance in England like anywhere else, set religion in thelight of the scholarly examination of the Scriptures, while on the other hand itrevealed the ancient Greek and Roman ideals, long forgotten. Moreover, itencouraged man to explore the New World and thus changed the intellectual outlookon the world. All these tendencies dissolved the fabric of the medieval society in

England. There is one thing; however, that distinguishes England from the rest of theContinent. While in France, Spain, and Portugal the monarchy was allied with the oldChurch, in England, it was allied with the Parliament and the country was aconstitutional monarchy. Yet most institutions remained intact on condition ofsubmitting to the sovereign authority of the state, including universities, nobles,lawyers, Bishops, secular clergy, and town corporations. Cosmopolitan church wentdown before the new idea of a national state with a national church attached. A sortof labour regulation, started by the Plantagenet Parliament was carried further inTudor times, meaning a national control over economy (one emerging from theMiddle Ages, of course!). For instance, the law of apprenticeship was regulated nolonger by each guild but by the Statute of Artificers, passed by Queens Elizabeths

Parliament. Many functions once performed by the feudal barons were taken over bythe Justices of Peace who thus became the link between the views of the centralauthority and the facts of local administration.

Renaissance in England, called Tudor Renaissance, was the time of the nationassertion of its strength, its claim to do whatever it liked within its own frontiers. TheKing exercised his power, while the Parliament played a lesser role. By puttinghimself at the head of the Anti-clerical revolution that destroyed the medieval powerand privilege of the Church, Henry VIII (1491-1547), the son of the first Tudor King,Henry VII, set the new monarchy in alliance with the strongest forces of the comingage: London, the middle class, the seagoing population, the Protestant preachers.They all formed a powerful opposition to the forces of the old world: the monks, thefriars, the feudal nobility and gentry in the north and popular Catholic piety which wasstronger in the districts far from London. However, both the Catholics and theProtestants were feeble and neither dared to defy the Crown as the Puritansafterwards defied it in England. Renaissance was not an age of religious zeal inEngland, like the age of Becket, for instance, or that of Cromwell. So long as menpersisted in the medieval error that there should be only one religion tolerated, solong the alternative was the Erastian state. (The term Erastian comes from ThomasErastus, a 16th c. German Swiss physician and theologian who advocated thedoctrine of state supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs). So, the liberty of conscience

slowly grew up out of the struggles between the Erastian state and the variousphases and sects of religious enthusiasm.

The Tudors gave new directions to the external and expansive energies of theEnglish. On the one hand, a new school of diplomacy was set, which from theCardinal Thomas Wolsey (1475-1530) to William Cecil (1520-98), the famousstatesman, pursued the Balance of Power as Englands only chance of security inface of great continental states. On the other hand, Henry VIII made a really fineRoyal Navy that stood against the powerful Spanish one in the decades to come.Furthermore, the Celtic Welsh were reduced to order and Wales was annexed onterms of equality to England. That was possible due to their common Protestant

interests. At the same time, the conquest of Ireland was undertaken in earnest.

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The individuals were free to wander and seek for either adventure or new ways ofcommerce as the new map of the world unfolded itself yearly. One chief advantagethat England had over Spain in the New World was that England had cloth to sell inexchange for goods, while the Spaniards had nothing to send except soldiers, priestsand colonists. The cloth industry had deep roots in the English medieval industry and

developed later as well.

I. The Sources and Developments of the English Renaissance

All through the 15th c Oxford suppressed the freedom of thought, mainly representedby Wycliffism. However, in early 16th c the echoes of Italian Renaissance come toOxford. The English scholars and poets like John Lily (1554-1606), the euphuist,William Grocyn (1446-1519), the first to teach Greek and Latin at Oxford, andThomas Linacre (1460-1524), the physician and professor of Greek and Latin, they

all brought a new interest in Greek literature, Latin grammar and scientific medicine.

The famous Dutch philosopher, Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was a friend ofthe no less famous English thinker, Thomas More (1478-1535), the author ofUtopia,first written in Latin and then translated into English, and the author of the firstbiography of King Richard III. They both gave a new character to the Renaissancestudies, making them moral and religious, yet not severe, which would havecontradicted the Renaissance spirit, so different in various parts of Europe butshowing an all embracing openness. For Erasmus and More, Renaissance meant theNew Testament in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew, apart from the ancientphilosophers and poets. This approach is different from the ones taken by theItalians. In England the men of the Renaissance used to study Greek and Latin toreform not only the schools but the church itself, calling on both the clergy and laity toact together.

Another leading figure was the scholarJohn Colet (1467-1519). He and Erasmuswere the Oxford Reformers who, in the name of scholarship, religion, and morality,began a series of bitter attacks on the monks and obscurantism, on the worship ofimages and relics and the worldliness of the clergy. Their influence reached Londonand, certainly, Cambridge. Colet also founded, in the shadow of St Pauls Cathedral,whose Dean he was, St Pauls School, where John Lily, the poet, was the

headmaster and taught Greek and Latin. That was to become the prototype of thereformed grammar school.

What was the attitude of the Crown to the New Learning, as it is currently called?Henry VII paid less attention to it. For him the clergy were useful servants, while thePope, and important person on his personal diplomatic agenda. Henry VIII had adifferent story. He succeeded to the throne and married Catherine of Aragon,promised to his brother Arthur, who died prematurely. He exceeded his subjects bothin body and in brain. He was the paragon of Princes, the patron alike of sportsmen(he was a champion at tennis and a mighty hunter) and the men of the NewLearning. But just like his father, he continued to encourage the burning of Lollards,

wrote a book against Luther (Erasmus and More were against Luther as well), forwhich the Pope named him Fidei Defensor(Defender of Faith). At the same time he

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made friends with Colet and More, whom he forced to take up the profession ofcourtier. He also defended Colet against the obscurantist clergy by saying: Let everyman have his doctor, this is mine, although Colet had denounced him in a song: ForHenry loved a man. Henry, the young king was a good musician and played well onall known instruments. Another prominent figure at Henrys Court was Thomas More.

Erasmus, in a letter to Ulbrich von Hutten, where he draws a marvelous portrait ofThomas More, described Henrys court as follows: You will scarcely find a court sowell-ordered, as not to have much bustle and ambition and pretence and luxury or tobe free from tyranny in some form or another. And he continues by praising ThomasMore and his role in the Court: But as this excellent monarch was resolved to packhis household with learned, serious, intelligent and honest men, he especiallyinsisted upon having More among them, - with whom he is on such terms of intimacythat he cannot bear to let him go. (Thomas More, Utopia, A Norton Critical Edition, p.113).

I would like to discuss Mores Utopia because it had a tremendous impact on the 19th

century thinkers and artists, from William Morris to Karl Marx. My question is whetherwe can hold More responsible for the manner in which his book was read later. It waspublished in 1516 in Latin and translated in English in 1556. The word itself comesfrom two Greek words: ouand topos, meaning no place. Many of the ideas of Morecome from Platos famous dialogue Republic, while the description of extravagantplaces is due to the recent geographic discoveries of new worlds. It is composed oftwo books, two long chapters; the first debates present or recent ideas and events,mainly referring to the social conditions in England inherited from Henry VII. Forinstance, it is a long debate around the matter of crime; in fact, we can read Moresopinions on law and ethics and the role of the philosopher (read: intellectual) inattending a Prince. So, there is a cause and he builds an argument for the IdealCommonwealth. The traveler who tells the story about Utopia is Raphael Hythloday.The etymology of his name is quite significant: hythloday means to distributenonsense, while Raphael means God heals; consequently, the translation would beGod heals through nonsense. Having said that, I hope you can better understand itspurpose: to cure people through an invention. But the 19th century socialists andcommunists interpreted it literally and tried to transfer it on earth.

So, what is all about? First, Utopia is an island where there is no private property,where people despise gold (which is worn only by slaves and kids play with it for fun),and has a rather complicated and picturesque government system. For instance,

people have to change house every ten years not to develop attachment to things.People are educated in farming and other practical professions since their childhood.However, there are several symbols underlying the entire construction. For instance,Utopia is shaped like a new moon, very much like England; a post-Freudian wouldinterpret it as an image of the maternal womb. The founder, Utopos, changed thename of the island from Abraxa, which has a mystical connotation alluding to the 365days of the year, into Utopia. There are fifty-four similar cities built on the same plan,and the capital is Amaurot, meaning dark city in Greek. However, it was alsointerpreted as a derivation from Amaury of Bne, a medieval heretic from Flander,whose teachings were responsible for several communist sects of the Free Spirit.Amaurots plan is similar to that of London, so More in speaking about Utopia has

England in his mind. From the description of the city life you can understandsomething about the nature of utopia:

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Every house has a door to the street and another to the garden. The doors, whichare made with two leaves, open easily and swing shut automatically, letting anyoneenter who wants to and so there is no private property. Every ten years, theychange houses by lot [lottery]. And he goes into further details: Their houses are all

three stories high and handsomely constructed; the fronts are faced with stone,stucco, or brick, over rubble construction. The roofs are flat, and are covered with akind of plaster that is cheap but fireproof, and more weather resistant even thanlead. Glass is very generally used in windows to keep out the weather; and they alsouse thin linen cloth treated with oil or gum so that it let in more light and keeps outmore wind (p. 38).

There are two sorts of utopias: one refers to the political and social system, and thevalues/virtues attached to them, and the other to technical dream. The latter is lessdangerous, and from the last part I have quoted, you could notice Mores ideas abouthis dream house that, in fact, bears some resemblance with Tudor constructions. As

for the first, it only bogged down when it was read literally.

If you read it from the 15th century point of view, it emphasizes the IdealCommonwealth based on Catholic and ancient virtues, which makes his satire uponcontemporary European abuses more pointed. After all, Thomas Mores Utopia is asatire of an ideal sort: you read the negative through the positive discourse.

a) PoliticsThe last and the most famous Cardinal who labored over the state business wasWolsey, who was of humble family but behaved like a Prince of Blood. In his hands,the Balance of Power in Europe first became clearly defined as the object ofEnglands foreign policy. For several years, he kept the balance with perfect,consummate skill, and with a minimum of expense to English treasure. In 1513, thevictory against the Scots and French raised England to a strong position. After 1521his skill and foresight failed him. A new era began in Europe, with a strong Spain anda weak Italy, while the Habsburg supremacy became visible in Europe. Against thisbackground, England herself was on the brink of destruction, had not been for thegrowth of popular, maritime, and religious forces in the island which, in fact, Wolseyhad opposed. For one, he discouraged maritime adventure. Though Henry VIIIhimself did not encourage it in particular, he founded the Royal Navy. Not only did hecreate ships especially commissioned to fight, but his architects (read designers)

designed many of these royal ships on an improved model that made them moreadaptable to sea conditions than the ones built by the Mediterranean powers. In1545, at the end of Henrys reign, a French army attempted to invade England, but itwas smashed and in the very same year a baby called Francis Drake was born.

To put it briefly, Henry VIIIs creation of the Royal Navy saved him and later hisdaughter, Elizabeth, when they had to oppose the European Catholic powers. Bycomparison, Wolsey was a man of the old school, a diplomatist of the old type, verygood at pulling strings but of a lesser vision. Furthermore, the Tudors were theprototype of modern man who sought for adventure.

b) The Royal and Parliamentary Reformation under Henry VIII

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One important aspect during Henry VIIIs reign was the bitter struggle between theCatholics and the Protestants who acted against the backdrop of Luthers revolt. Yetsome amazing things did happen. One of the Kings friends and a great scholar, SirThomas More, a scathing critic of religious order, became a martyr of PapalSupremacy when Henry broke with Rome, while others, known as famous papalists

defended the kings option. Things were not very clear back then, because Henry VIIIburnt Protestants, while hanging and beheading the Catholic opponents of an anti-clerical revolution. Later on, under Elizabeth the English anti-clericals defendedthemselves against the Catholic reaction by alliance with the Protestants.

However, how did it happen? The Lutheran doctrines became very powerful inEngland and acted like a reactive; for instance, men like Erasmus fearedProtestantism, More, as I said, opposed it and wrote against it. Oxford held back indoubt, but Cambridge stepped in. From 1521 students met at the White Horsetavern in the town to discuss Luther. The tavern was nicknamed Germany and thosehaunting it Germans, but they were the makers of the new England.

Under such hazy circumstances, Henry decided to divorce Catherine. This requestthat the Popes had granted to other monarchs for government reasons was denied tohim because the Pope himself was at the mercy of Charles V, Catherines nephew.So, the whole matter became one of national pride. And it was then that the Kingremembered the Parliament. So, the instrument chosen by Henry to effect his RoyalReformation was the Parliament. Unlike his predecessors, this one set for sevenyears and in the course of its eight sessions acquired a continuity of personalexperience among its members, which helped to build up the traditions of the modernHouse of Commons as a great instrument of government.

I think that you remember Louis XIV famous phrase, Ltat, cest moi! (I am/embodythe state). Henry VIIIs authority was of a different sort. In 1543 he told the House ofCommons: We be informed by our Judges that we at no time stand so high in ourestate royal as in the time of Parliament, when we as head and you as members areconjoined and knit together in one body politic (see Trevelyan, 223).

The Reformation Parliament suppressed the order of monks and friars, andsecularized their property. Henry sold great part of their lands to peers, courtiers,public servants who resold them to smaller men, and so we can clearly see a case ofreal estate speculation. Many an Abbey had become a manor house or a quarry out

of which a manor house was being built. In London, as in every other towns, valuableand conspicuous sites of religious houses and much house property belonging tothem passed into lay hands, removing the last check on the ever-increasingProtestantism, anti-clericalism, and commercialism of the capital.

At Oxford and Cambridge the monks and friars had been very numerous and resistedthe New Learning. They gradually disappeared and were soon replaced by anincreased proportion of gentlemens sons. Such graduates were to govern theElizabethan England. People like Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the greatexperimentalist and philosopher, fostered a new development of intellectual ideaswhich would have never taken roots if these universities had been left to the

guidance of monks and friars.

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The anti-clericalism under Henry VIII led to the destruction of country relics andmiracle-working images were taken down, while their crude machinery exhibited tothe people on whose credulity it had imposed. The shrine and cult of Thomas aBecket, the center of English and continental pilgrimage, were suppressed.

The English Reformation, which had begun as a Parliamentary attack on churchfees, and proceeded as a royal confiscation of Abbey lands, found at last its religiousbasis in the popular knowledge of the Scriptures, which was Wycliffes dream.However, both Wycliffe and the Lollards would have been burnt because the Act ofSix Articles was passed decreeing death against anyone who deniedTransubstantiation, the need of confession and clerical celibacy.

II. The Elizabethan Eraa). Main IdeasWhen Henry VIII died the State was heavily in debt and the religious feuds which heseemed to have suppressed by violence were bound to break out afresh. Elizabeth I

(1558-1603) came at a right time to prevent civil war caused no less by Queen MaryTudor, her sister, who had almost yielded England to Spain through her marriagewith Philip of Spain. What was more, the other possible successor to the throne ofEngland was Mary Stuart, married to the Dauphin of France, a staunch catholic.However, throughout Elizabeths reign it was the rivalry of the two catholic powers,France and Spain, that saved England, the heretic island, from conquest, till it wasstrong enough to defend itself. Elizabeth was a cunning queen who knew how to fuelthe internal fights in Spain and France by sending men and money to keep therebellious movements alive. Elizabeth learned the lesson of her youth andunderstood that private affections and passions are not for Princes. So, she left toher rival, Mary Stuart, to lose the world for love. Elizabeth put all her strength andtalent in the service of state. Her public appearances and progresses through thecountry were no dull and formal functions, but works of art, meant to strengthen therelation between the Queen and the people. She did not build palaces, but palaceswere built to entertain her. Whenever she addressed the Parliament, her speecheswere neither stern nor dry. She could also discourse in Greek and Latin to theUniversities of Oxford and Cambridge, and was fluent in Italian. She was a child ofthe Renaissance than of the Reformation.

I will not go into the complex details of the relation between Scotland and Englandduring Elizabeths reign. However, I would like to emphasize that the incessant fight

between the Catholics and the Protestants in both countries played an important role.Mary Stuart was executed in 1587, but her son ruled England as James I afterElizabeths death. However, at the beginning of her reign the anti-clerical party stillconsisted of both Catholics and Protestants. When she died, the majority of theEnglish regarded themselves as ardent Protestants.

b) The English Sea PowerIf France had not been torn apart by religious strives, it might have become a mightysea power. Nevertheless, while the massacre of St Bartholomews night was takingplace, Francis Drake (1540-1596) and his Protestant sailors whom he led becamethe servants of the English monarch. We can refer further to the causes of the

English supremacy over France and Spain, and emphasize that it was their medievalorder that kept them from free enterprise. G. M. Trevelyan insists on the differences

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between the English and the Spaniards, for instance, those leading to the formervictory over the Armada. The new spirit of private enterprise, individual initiative andgood-humored equality of classes were on the increase in the defeudalized Englandand manifested themselves even stronger among the commercial and maritimepopulation. Francis Drake understood that discipline was needed on the board ship,

but not feudalism and class pride. Richard Hakluyt (?1552-1616) a lecturer ofgeography or cosmography, who introduced the use of globes into the Englishschools, put together the stories of Drakes sailors in his book Principal Navigation,Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation. There you can read about Drakesrobbing of the Spaniards and opening trade with their colonies at the canons mouth.The English gave the Black people a better treatment than they got from thePortuguese and tried to avoid conflicts with either black or white. By comparison, theSpaniards would hand over English merchants and sailors to the Inquisition. Thus thefight between England and the Catholic countries did not take place only in Europe,but also in the colonies. Nevertheless, England was aggressive, but hadnt she beenso, she would have been forced to accept exclusion from the trade of every continent

save Europe and abandon her maritime and colonial ambitions.

c) Tudor Architecture, Arts and LiteratureTudor architecture is also labeled as the age of the country house (1485-1603),because it is at this time that the country house first emerged as an architecturalform. As you could have seen from the above presentation, church building hadvirtually ceased with the Reformation. The house retained tones of Gothic, and someof its characteristics persisted until mid 17th c. Fortified gateways, grand courtyards,battlemented parapets, towers and turrets stayed for ornament rather than defense.The ornamented chimneys alluded to the interior comfort. In fact they are animportant feature of the Tudor house. Often elaborately carved and decorated, theyoffered the bricklayers the chance to exploit their skills. The hall became a symbol ofgrandeur, with its carved fireplace, oak-paneled walls and timber roofs. HamptonCourt is a famous surviving example. The original part of the palace is built of redbrickwork in diamond pattern (also called diaper) and has battlemented parapets, aturreted gatehouse, many courtyards, and ornamental chimneys. Later on, to the endof Henry VIIIs reign, the new Classicism of Renaissance came to England fromFrance and continued to be superimposed on Tudor Gothic. An example must havebeen the Somerset House, now destroyed. SirThomas Gresham (1519-79), thefounder of the Royal Navy imported from Antwerp Classicism more flamboyant than

the French style, overloaded with bulbous detail, cartouches or scroll ornament.

About 1580, during the Elizabethan Age, architecture took another course. It rejectedthe classical and returned to the glories of the English Perpendicular, with hugewindows and a striking skyline. Although architects did not exist as a professionalgroup before Inigo Jones, at the beginning of the 17th c, two creators of style could besingled out Robert and John Smython, father and son. They designed Longlet andother castles in the neo-medieval style: Woolaton Hall, Hardwick Hall (morewindow than wall, as it is characterized), and Bolsover Castle. The Elizabethanbuildings were impressive, set in a dramatic setting, often on hilltops. Their startlingeffect is enhanced by symmetry, and by areas of glass, making them look like

lanterns twinkling across the countryside.

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Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors,Divert and crack, rend and deracinateThe unity and married calm of statesQuite from their fixture! O! when degree is shakdWhich is the ladder to all high designs,

The enterprise is sick.

The idea of sick universe, of sick humankind is sustained against the Renaissanceidea of universal symmetry and harmony, and only a genius like Shakespeare couldhave articulated it so powerfully in this age of restless pursuits and conflicts.

Shakespeare himself paid his homage to the great Elizabeth in The Famous Historyof the Life of King Henry VIII, when in the last act of the play Henry VIII speaks abouthis newly born infant:

Though in her cradle, yet now promises

Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings,Which time shall bring to ripeness: she shall beBut few now living can behold that goodness A pattern to all princes living with her.

So, the greatest playwright ever described Elizabeth as a pattern to all princes. Itwas then, in the 16th c, that an exceptional queen was the contemporary of theunparalleled Shakespeare, whose work competes with the Bible.

LECTURE 4: ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS

I IntroductionIn the Stuart era the English developed for themselves a system of Parliamentarygovernment, local administration and freedom of speech and person, contrary to theabsolutist tendencies on the continent that subjected the individual to the state.

(Under Henry VIII England had known that sort of movement, but rejected it).

The Stuart kings were James I (1603-25), Charles I (1625-49), Charles II (1660-85)If the power of the Tudors was not material but somehow metaphysical because theyappealed sometimes to the love and loyalty of their subjects, struck by awe, in the17th century the people showed a less obliging temper. The Stuarts claimed greaterpowers, higher than the English law and custom. At the same time the Parliamentmade their own claims. The Parliamentary emerged as a profession under these twokings. They convinced their fellow citizens that they only claimed ancient privilegesderiving from the spirit and the letter of Magna Charta. Men like Eliot, Hampden andPym were not adventurers, and had more to lose than to gain by quitting the

tranquility of their private gardens, for Parliament was not the road to power but toprison.

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James I, the offspring of Mary Stuart and Darneley, was a good-natured andconceited person, who knew almost nothing of the English Law. Yet, his election asheir to Elizabeth mediated by the famous political leader Robert Cecil is described ina hyperbolical language in the Preface of the Bible (also known as King James

Bible):Great and manifold were the blessings, most dread Sovereign, which Almighty God,the Father of all mercies, bestowed upon the people of England, when first he sentyour Majestys Royal Person to rule and reign over us. For whereas it was theexpectation of many, who wished not well onto our Sion, that upon the setting of thatbright Occidental Star, Queen Elizabeth of most happy memory, some sick andpalpable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this Land, that menshould have been in doubt which way they were to walk []. The appearance ofYour Majesty as of the Sun in his strength instantly dispelled those supposed andsurmised mists

However, James I brought with him the union with Scotland (he was also James VIIof Scotland). He knew Scotland but never knew England, and his son Charles neverknew either of the lands. He could not understand the ways of the Parliament or theposition of the Roman Catholic group who formed the conspiracy to destroy both theKing and the Houses of Parliament (you remember the story of Guy Fawkes). Sincethen the anti-Roman passion in England remained a constant and often adetermining factor in the history of the House of Stuart.

Under James I the Navy was neglected and the buccaneers had degenerated fromthe traditions of Drake, developing towards the villains of Teach and the black-flagpirates. However, because of Drakes victories, North America was in practice opento English, French, and Dutch settlement. Chased from other parts of the world andplaces of commerce, the English in James I time pushed their trade on the Indianmainland. During Charles I reign they built a fort at Madras and set up other tradingstations in Bengal. This is how the British rule began in India. Nevertheless, theabandonment of the mariners haunted King James and Charles I to the scaffold.

James I was a sort of dreamer seeking to bring peace to Europe by marrying his sonto the Spanish Infanta. The English saw it as a menace to the whole work Elizabethhad done. In the end, Charles I was mated to Henrietta Maria of France, destined tobe the mother of many troubles to England and to the House of Stuart.

II The everyday life under the Stuarts

To meet the increased demands for houses, London expanded westwards towardsWestminster. Though for the most part it remained the haphazard, overcrowdedtown, described by John Stow (1525-1605, a tailor who devoted himself toantiquarian pursuits and became a well-known chronicler), the Italianizing ofLondons architecture began under Inigo Jones. The great trading companies werebased in the City, the cloth trade including. There was also the market for raisingloans and buying and selling land.

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The reasons for the magnetic influence of London were not only economic butpolitical, social, and legal. Every session of Parliament brought over 400 members,sometimes with their families, to London.

King James was one of those who denounced those swarms of gentry, who through

the instigation of their wives did neglect their country hospitality and cumber thecity. The beginnings of London season can be found in the early seventeenthcentury; parks, pleasure gardens, theaters, and transport (hackney coaches andsedan chairs existed under Charles I) were developed to meet the demand. The kingeven issued a proclamation stating that these countrymen haunting London shouldreturn to their estates, and in 1632, some 250 were prosecuted for disobeying it.

In his diary, Sir Humphrey Mildmay described what he was doing in London. Besidesswimming and boating on the Thames, dicing and card-playing and going to HydePark, he went to wrestling matches and to the theatre (sometimes three times aweek), seeing Fletchers or Shakespeares plays. Like everybody else he watched

the spectacles of the Court and the city activity, the reception of an ambassador, theprogress of a knight of the Garter, and the Lord Mayors show.

The Court played a central role within society; contact with it could give power, officeand wealth. Both humble people and intellectuals sought for the kings favors. TheCourt imitated the tastes of the sovereign, and Elizabeths successor lacked herdignity. However, Charles I described as being tempered, chaste, and serioussucceeded in astonishing Rubens for his luxurious Court. Van Dycks portraits(almost of the people in the court circle) reveal the way in which Charles and hisCourt liked to be portrayed. Charles was a lover of art and did patronize artists likeRubens and Van Dyck. He got involved in art collecting-diplomatic ties with theCatholic monarchs and the Pope. His collection included Mantegna cartoons, theLeonardo sketchbooks, the Raphael cartoons, and others. The king was anambitious man, who wanted England to be in the forefront of artistic taste andachievement. However, Charles competed with another art collector (as you maynotice art collection became fashionable in the 17 th century), Earl of Arundel, who hadHolbeins portrait of Erasmus and antique marbles in his collection.

The two universities were at this period in the orbit of the Crown and government.During the two Stuarts one could see the royal interference not only in the election ofthe Chancellors, but also in the Colleges: the curriculum of the universities was

matters of concern to the Crown. Several Chairs were founded at Oxford (Geometry,Astronomy, History, Music, Natural Philosophy), while its library, through the donationof books and manuscripts became the second after that of the Vatican. However, thecore of education remained the theological studies. London gained the character of auniversity town from the Inns of Court. They taught law, but not only that. BenJonson, for instance, praised the Inns as the noblest nurseries of humanity andliberty in the kingdom. Cromwell was but one of those who went to an Inn. The coreof the legal education until after the Restoration was the readings and publicdisputations on matters of law. Moreover, the Inns delighted in dramaticentertainments combining music, poetry, and spectacle. There were the so-calledmasques by Chapman and Francis Beaumont that were played along with

Shakespeares plays, mostly his comedies.

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The country life, with both gentry and nobleman interested in literature, arts, optics,experiments was the foundation of the cultivated society to be found in London, atCourt, and in the universities and Inns of Court, forming the milieuof the artistic lifebefore the Civil War. They were the people for whom the architects designed manorsand villas.

III The Civil War

No simple explanation could account for the way men divided in early 1640; politicaland religious issues, social distinctions played their part, but equally personalcharacteristics, family traditions, and local feuds. The broad division into Royalistnorth and west and Parlamentarism south and east obscures the substantialminorities in each area. In 1642, there were 300 Parliamentarians and 230 Royalists,which reflected the real division among the gentry. The issue was the establishmentof common law monarchy. The indecisions and changes of sides at the beginningand the splits within many families, were the essence of the English War. Cromwell

led the Parliament army, which was better organized and made up mostly ofPuritans. The Civil War lasted for ten years, and the number of country housesdestroyed was considerable. Many members of the gentry and Parliament went intoexile or were killed during sieges. The Fellows of the universities were expelled andmany of them went into exile. As Parliament extended its control, taxation and heavyfines forced many Royalists to sell part of their estates, while many had their estatesconfiscated.

Broadly the forties saw the destruction of the traditional structure of authority inChurch and State. The symbolic climax was the execution of the king and theabolition of the House of Lords. It started with what was also named the period ofLong Parliament. That was the true turning point in the political history of England. Itnot only prevented the English monarchy from hardening into an absolutism of thetype then becoming general in Europe, but it made a great experiment in direct ruleof the country by the House of Commons. In the course of that experiment the LongParliament successfully organized, the largest military operation ever till thenconducted by Englishmen, in a four years war against the king. After all thosememorable years, the House of Stuart might be restored; it would never again bepossible to govern the country without the participation of the House of Commons.

But let us return to the problems of the Civil War. Religion played a major role in the

widespread of visionary Utopianism. People behaved as if the kingdom of God waswaiting behind the door. Cromwell opened the Parliament of Saints in 1653 with thewords Why should we be afraid to say or think, that this way may be the door tousher in the things that God hath promised and prophesized of?

In social terms the religious activity of the forties meant that elements of society, sofar silent, were becoming vocal in preaching, organizing, and writing. The zeal forradical reform that had its roots in religion was soon applied to secular concerns, andmany aspects of society came under debate. Church democracy led on easily tostate democracy. During the Civil War period The Levellers led by the famouspublicist John Lilburne, have been described as the only truly democratic party of the

Civil War. Lilburnes Calvinist-based individualism was spiced with rationaltendencies coming from classical writers (Montaigne, for one). The Levellers

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demanded manhood suffrage, a fairer distribution of Parliamentary seats, andprotection of the peoples rights by a fundamental law binding their representatives.Despite their name, they were not egalitarians; it was the other party, the Diggers,whose program was essentially agrarian. They were in favor of common property.One of their representatives, Winstanley had communist ideas that sprang from the

study of the Bible, combined with a mystical temper, close to that of the Quakers.There were other modern ideas, such as the suggestions for womans suffrage andfree medical care for the poor. The pamphlets of the age, including MiltonsAeropagitica, spoke of liberty and improving education, even state-aided education.

IV The Beginning of RestorationCromwells refusal of the crown did not prevent him from assuming many of itsattributes, including the hereditary succession of his son. The Puritan zeal forrighteousness led him to attempt moral reform. Thus, after dissolving the Parliamentof Saints, he worked for the ideal he set before his last Parliament, to bring therepairs of breaches, and the restorers of paths to dwell in.

Charles II (1660-1685) made every effort to put the clock back to the somewhatcarefree days of the 1630s. Theatres reopened, racing started at Newmarket, clothesblossomed out into ruffles and ribbons. Charless brother, James II (1685-88) had toflee the country in 1688 for promoting the interests of his Catholic supporters. TheGlorious Revolution of 1688 set on the throne William of Orange from Netherlands,and his wife, Jamess daughter Mary, and established Parliamentary monarchy.Under William and Mary, and their successor Queen Anne (1702-14), Britain gaineda political and constitutional equilibrium never again upset.

Intellectual life continued with vigour surprising in view of the purges of Church anduniversities. Some were in exile, but at home an active group met first in London andthen in Oxford to discuss science in the Baconian tradition. After the Restoration, itwas formally instituted as the Royal Society, whose member was Christopher Wren.Later he was elected chairman.

V The Age of Inigo Jones and WrenInigo Jones (1573-1652) was the outstanding figure of the English art. He was thearbiter of taste in James I and Charles I Courts almost for 20 years. He designedstage designs for the Court ballets and buildings. He worked in Italy and admired thework of the 16th century Venetian architect Palladio, whose style he introduced into

England.

His Banqueting House is thought to have revolutionized the English architecturethrough the classical facades and pediments rising among the shambling black andwhite timbered houses of Stuart London, almost rural. He also designed the QueensHouse at Greenwich on a H-plan in the Palladian manner. Briefly speaking, InigoJones greatly influenced the evolution of the English country houses.

Charles II imposed his own artistic taste inspired from the French baroque. Thesecond half of the 17th century witnessed the attempt to adapt it to the English taste.

In fact, this tendency was crystallized in the career ofSir Christopher Wren(1632-1723). He rebuilt 51 churches and St Paul after the Great Fire. He was also

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extremely skilful in planning buildings on awkward sites. Under the later Stuarts,Wren worked on frustrating palace projects > Whitehall, Greenwich, Kensington, andHampton Court.

Wren was not fundamentally a domestic architect; his followers Nicholas

Hawksmoor (1661-1739) and Sir John Vanbrough (1664-1726) were particularlyinterested in great houses.

LECTURE 5:

I. The Aftermath of the Civil War: New Parties and Ways of Life

When Charles II came to the thrown, he issued the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion,which was stigmatized by the Cavaliers (members of the future Whig Party Liberals) as Indemnity for the Kings enemies and Oblivion for the Kings friends.

The royalists who had suffered under Cromwell never forgot Clarendon, who hadfollowed the royal family in exile and then became the Kings Chancellor, for advisinghim on the act. So, they failed to recover the lands which they had been forced tosell.

In the 1661 elections, the majority formed a party, later known as Tory (theConservatives). The latter were more Anglican than the royalists were and followedtheir own interest rather than of the Court. All along there was a bitter fight betweenthe Puritans and the Protestant Dissenters. After the restoration, the religioussettlement was not conceived in the spirit of compromise that marked the politicaland social life. This led to the variety of competition among the religious bodies,characteristic of modern England.

The Whig Party had affinities in its rank and file with Puritanism and in its highergrades with latitudinarianism and rationalism of the new age. The scientific andlatitudinarian movement, to which Sir Isaac Newton belonged, slowly created anatmosphere favorable to the doctrine of religious toleration as propounded by thefamous Whig philosopherJohn Locke.

Within the national Church, latitudinarianism had a party, respectable for its learningand eloquence rather than for its numbers. That was the Low Church party, a name

that then denoted not evangelicalism but what should now be called as broad orliberal views. They were advocates of toleration and friends of the ProtestantDissenters. The name of High Church given to the great majority of the clergy didnot mean ritualism; they upheld the doctrine of non-resistance to kings and theirhereditary right, and a high view of the authority of the Church in politics and society.

This is how the social and political stage was shaped in late 17 th century. There wereother apparently less important consequences that worked at the level of the averageman. For instance, before the execution of Charles I, Sunday was a day ofamusement, a day in which various plays and games were performed. DuringCromwells years and after, Sunday became a day for rest and religious meditation,

showing how profound the changes were at the grass roots level.

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II. The Cultural and Social setting of the Augustan AgeAccording to the Oxford English Dictionary, Augustan derives from the prestige ofLatin literature in the age of Augustus and it is applied to the period of highestrefinement of any national art. Normally it refers in England to the years from about1680 to 1750, yet some researchers stretched it from 1660 to 1780, so almost one

hundred years. The Augustan Age, roughly corresponding to the reign of theHanoverian House, is looked upon as a decorative and elegant period,unadventurous and rather dull; briefly, an age of prose and reason. In fact, it set anew model: the normal. The authors addressed to an extended public, and a newrelation appeared between the artist and his patron, who supposedly dictated thepublic taste. A new system of interests appeared, sometimes politically oriented, andso taste was established in circles where social distinction, political importance, andclassical reading predominated. However, the Augustan artists were freer to expressthemselves than their predecessors. That was also encouraged by the circulation ofthe early periodicals, like Addisons and Steels The Spectator. These editors tookseriously their task of educating the public morality and criticism, as well as amusing

it by satire and portraiture.

Why did the English embrace the ways of reason? One simple answer would be theeffects of the Civil War and the persecution of the Dissenters. The events provoked awish for harmony. They discovered that in normality lay novelty. They satirized, and Iwould mention Jonathan Swift in particular, the departures from the general bankand capital of reason, of decent responsible humanity. Originality lies somewhereelse and it is a source of strength. Old ideas of harmony were given newinterpretations. For instance, the medieval and Elizabethan idea of organic harmonybetween the parts of the body politic was reinforced and interpreted in terms ofeconomic independence. So, the nations concern was the organization of itspractical affairs. The philosopher John Locke desired man to be well-skilled inknowledge of material and effects of things in his power; directing his thought to theimprovement of such arts and inventions, engines, and utensils. In his opinion, suchimprovements had a precise aim: conveniency and delight.

Important elements of business organization came into being: the Bank of England(1694), insurance and trading companies, including Lloyds coffeehouse from whichemerged the great shipping agency, and the Society for the Encouragement of Arts,Manufactures and Commerce. Encyclopedias of the arts and sciences began toappear, while periodicals ran columns of useful projects. A new character appeared

on the stage: the businessman. Trade is defended as a liberal pursuit, while men ofall sects and creeds were, in fact, taking to business as to a philosophy of life.

London was the heart of this change. Between 1660 and 1789, it was transformedfrom a late medieval town into an early modern one, not only by the fire of 1666 butby the steady replacement of medieval brick and timber houses with neoclassic brickand Portland stone ones. The intellectual centers of debate were the coffee-houses,taverns, clubs, book-and print chops, while the landscape architects and architectscreated pleasure-gardens and new residential squares.

a background of english culture and civilization 1

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