M2- FROM THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE TO THE RESTORATION (1485-1688)

The British Scene: The Tudors (1485-1603)

Complete this paragraph using the following words.

enclosure England confiscated reign defeated Supremacy death powerful
founded stability abolished caution people restore Catholics Roses
Catholicism passed refused persecuted

The Tudors began to 1) reign with Henry VII. He ended the War of the 2) Roses and provided
financial and governmental 3) stability to England. Under Henry VIII the connection between
4) England and the Pope in Rome was ended. The Act of 5) Supremacy made the king head of the
Church of England. 6) Catholicism was replaced with Anglicanism. Catholic monasteries and convents were
7) abolished and the clergy's properties were 8) confiscated by the Crown. Thomas More, a Chancellor
of the king who 9) refused to take the oath of supremacy, was put to 10) death. Mary Tudor, one of Henry VIII's successors, attempted to 11) restore the Catholic religion in the country and 12) persecuted Protestants. Elizabeth I re-established Anglicanism and kept 13) Catholics and Puritans under control. She ruled with great 14) caution and skill for a long period. At home, she 15) passed
the ‘Poor Law' which took care of deprived 16) people; many of them were peasants impoverished by the 17) enclosure movement. Abroad, Elizabeth made England one of the most 18) powerful nations in Europe and in the world. Her fleet 19) defeated the Spanish Armada. Companies for overseas trade were 20) founded in Africa and India.

The British Scene: The Stuarts (1603-88)

Complete this paragraph using the following words.

Commonwealth Civil middle classes deposed Parliament army society
Catholics plague Scotland taxes impose king aristocracy Puritan monarch
royal kings throne England believed death

At Elizabeth's death James VI of 1) Scotland became also James I of 2) England. He tried to rule as
an absolute 3) causing hostility between Parliament and himself. The king and 4) Parliament
were threatened by the Gunpowder Plot, organised by 5) Catholics, which failed. Like his father, Charles I
6) believed in the principle of the divine right of 7) kings. Parliament's Petition of Rights
opposed the king's attempt to impose 8) taxes without parliamentary consent. Under Charles I English
9) society was divided by many religious differences. A 10) Civil War broke out in 1642
because the 11) Puritan leaders in the House of Commons wanted to limit 12) royal authority.
Royalist forces included the Catholics, the gentry and the 13) aristocracy. Parliamentary forces included the
wealthy 14) middle classes of businessmen and merchants. The Parliamentary 15) army, led by Oliver
Cromwell, defeated the Royalists in 1645. The 16) king was executed in 1649. A republic, called the
17) Commonwealth was instituted under Cromwell's rule, but it collapsed at his 18) death. Charles II
was restored to the English 19) throne in 1660. During his reign, two catastrophes hit the city, a fire and
the 20) plague. The king's successor, James II, wanted to 21) impose Catholicism on an
Anglican nation. For this reason he was 22) deposed in 1688.