il rinascimento e l'età dei tudors, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica il rinascimento e l'età dei tudors e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity!  HUMANISM After the fall of Constantinople, many Christians who spoke Greek emigrated to Italy. Their presence influenced the spread of a re-evaluation of the classical world and the beginning of Humanism. This movement represented the desire to recuperate the Roman and Greek literature and culture and produced intense cultural activity. The revival began in Italy but soon reached the whole European continent.  RENAISSANCE With the spread of Humanism, came that of the Renaissance, a French word meaning literally 'rebirth'. During the Renaissance there was the revival of interest in classical culture, after the centuries in which it had been neglected and partly lost, in fact the Middle Ages was seen just as unproductive interval between two periods: classical period and Renaissance. The English Renaissance went from1509 to 1660: it arrived in Britain during the reign of Henry VII. There was a new concept of humanity: man, aware of the power of his power and of the universe around him, realized that he could change his life and destiny. This concept was supported by N. Copernicus, G. Galilei and J. Kepler, who put forward a new model of the universe: the earth, with other planets,revolving around the Sun. The Copernicus model changes man’s position in the universe because the God, who represents the earth, turns around Man, who represents the sun, and challenges long-established concepts of order and hierarchy. The new philosophers of the time were best represented by F. Bacon who rejected the old deductive method in favor of the inductive one: sense experience in the establishing of truth was more important than traditionally accepted ideas.  HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: THE TUDOR PERIOD Tudor dynasty saw the end of medieval system and the rise of modern age. Henry VII was the first king of the Tudor dynasty. He defeated the last Yorkist, Richard III, in the War of the Roses and became King in 1485. He wanted to restore the reputation of the monarch; he also encouraged trade, naval power and under his reign England saw a period of peace and prosperity. HENRY VIII (1509/1547) When Henry VII died he was succeeded by his son Henry VIII; 1. During the first half of his reign he was the ideal Renaissance prince, since he was a musician and scholar, he like hunting and he could speak three languages; 2. During the second half, there was the Protestant Reformation: Henry VIII did not want to transform England into a Protestant country and his sustain to the Catholic was so strong that he was proclaimed fidei defensor (defender of the faith) by the Pope Clement VII. He wanted a son in order to have a heir and this was the reason why he married six times. With his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, he had a daughter, Mary Tudor, so he wanted to divorce from her in order to marry Anne Boleyn. However Pope Clement VII refused it. This caused a conflict between the Catholic Church and the Pope Clement VII who later excommunicated the king, who no longer accepted the Pope’s authority. For this reason through the Act of Supremacy (1534), he declared himself “Supreme Head of the Church” of England. Thus was born the Anglican Church of England. His minister Thomas More didn’t accept the repudiation of the Pope’s authority and so he accused of treason and was beheaded. Consequently, Henry VIII decided to close the monasteries. All this is known as the process of Reformation. With Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII had another daughter, Elizabeth, who would become Queen Elizabeth I after the terrible reign of Henry’s first daughter Mary. Anne Boleyn was imprisoned for treason, infidelity, incest and witchcraft; was executed in 1536. Later he married Jane Seymour, who gave him a son, Edward but he died when he was 16, after sic age of reign. Henry had three more wifes. The sixth one, Catherine Parr; she had great intellectual influence on his husband’s sons. MARY TUDOR (1553/1558) She was the daughter that Henry VIII had with his first wife Catherine of Aragon. She was known as “Bloody Mary” because she was a Catholic queen not tolerant and during her reign, she persecuted and burnt 300 Protestants in order to restore the Catholic religion of her mother and eliminate the Anglican church. She married Philip II of Spain, the most fanatically sovereign in Europe. She hadn’t sons or daughters, so when she died, her stepsister Elizabeth came to the throne. ELIZABETH I (1558/1603) She was an extremely popular queen. Her reign gave the country a great sense of stability, peace, prosperity and unity, like his grandfather. She didn’t marry because she thought it would have been another very dangerous political choice: it would have risked dividing the court into hostile factions; this is the reason why she was called the “Virgin Queen”. She was married only to her people. She was a very tolerant queen, since she had never persecuted the Catholics and she always promoted respect and tolerance (however she was protestant). She re-established the Anglican Church but she was not a fanatic. She realized: 1. A second Act of Supremacy which restated the independence of the Church of England and proclaimed the queen its “Supreme Governor”. 2. The Act of Uniformity, which made the use of the Book of Common Prayer obligatory in England. The religious ceremonies were now in English and monastic orders had been abolished. Elizabeth had a great rival, that is her cousin Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTLAND Mary Stuart became queen at just six days old, she is considered the youngest queen in history. She had to marry with Edward VI son of Henry VIII (through the Treaty of Greenwich), but the marriage was annulled because Scotland was Catholic and England was Protestant. She spent his adolescence in France where she married the dauphin Francis II of France: they became king e queen consort of France when they was 15 and 16. After two years of marriage, Francis died and Mary returned to Scotland. Since Elizabeth I, was a protestant queen and daughter of the woman for which the king had repudiated his wife and broke off relations with the Catholic church, many Catholics refused to recognize her as queen and declared themselves loyal to Mary Stuart, considered the legitimate heir. Mary knew well that the best way to get to the throne of England was to have a son and for this reason she married her cousin Stuart Lord Darnley: in this way their son, James, would be related to the Tudors on both the mother's and father's sides. After Darnley's death, a very difficult period began for Mary, in fact she had to abdicate in favor of her son and had to refuge in England where she was imprisoned and accused of plotting against Elizabeth: she was for this decapitated. Her execution offered Philip of Spain a pretext for attacking England, but Elizabeth had wonderful men at her command, the famous Sea-Dogs. Philip of Spain prepared a great fleet named the “Invincible Armada” but the English ships were faster and better armed than the Spanish ones. So the English ships defeated the Spanish Armada with a great victory in 1588. JAMES I AND THE BEGINNING OF THE STUART DYNASTY (1603/1625) When Elizabeth died, the crown of England passed to James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary Stuart. He became king of England with the name of James I and he was the first king of the Stuart dynasty. With James I Stuart the relations between Crown and Parliament became more and more difficult. James I believed that the king was wanted by divine right, so he consedered useless the Parliament, that he called only when he was in need of money. As to religion,the king decided to sustain the Anglican religion.  THE CHAIN OF BEING