Tudor dynasty

Henry VII(1457-1509)

•He became king when the Wars of the Roses ended.•He was the first king of the Tudor dynasty.

He tried to consolidated his position through:• A treaty with France and Netherlands;• The dynastic marriage in 1501 between his son Arthur and the Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon.

• Henry VII laid the foundations of English naval power.

Henry VIII(1491-1547)

•He was Henry VII’s second son.•He was called the “Golden Prince” both his natural good looks and for his chivalry and education.•He was a sportsman.

• In 1521 he was granted the title of “Defender of the faith by the pope.

• After the death of his brother Arthur, Henry VII married Catherine of Aragon, but she produced only a daughter.

• Henry wanted a son therefore he married in 1533 his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was pregnant. She gave him Elizabeth.

• Henry had four more wives and one son, Edward.

In 1534 Henry VIII declared himself “Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England.

This meant that he had right to:• Appoint bishops;• Decide on articles of faith;• Impose his will on the monasteries.

Mary I(1516-1558)

• Her life was influenced from rejection by her father and the cruel treatment of her mother.• She remained catholic and tried to restore relationships between England and Rome. For this she married the Catholic Philip of Spain and burned the Protestants. She was nicknamed BLOODY MARY.

• She had a tragic end. She died without an heir.

Elizabeth I(1533-1603)

• She became queen when she was 25. She had a strong personality and she was very intelligent.• She had received an excellent

education and could speak French, Latin and Italian.• She was a political genius.

• Church of England was restored.• She granted Catholics freedom of

worship.• She was unmarried

Political weapon

“the Queen was married to her people”

• Spain was her main trade enemy

At first the war was avoided

Secretly the Queen encouraged English sea captains in piracy against Spanish ships.1588 the Spanish

invaded England

English defeated Spanish Armada

The Act of Supremacy, 1534• This act established the English

monarch as the official head of the Church of England.

• In 1534 Henry VIII completed this break with the pope

King by divine right• After Elizabeth I’s death, James VI became

the first Stuart king in England, with the title of James I.

• He was a protestant and he based his rule on the theory of the divine right of kings.

• In 1604 king James authorised a new translation of the Bible which was used by the Church of England for 300 years.

• In 1605 Guy Fawkes with some radical Catholics plotted to blow up the king in the Houses of Parliament.

Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night

• Bonfire Night celebrations begin two or three days before 5th November.• Children makes puppet like

figures of Guy Fawkes.• Some children walk in the

streets, carrying the Guy and asking passersby for a penny for the Guy.

The origin of Thanksgiving Day

• The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1621 to thank God for their good harvest.

• That feast lasted 3 days and included a variety of animals, fruits and vegetables.

• In 1853 Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November a day of Thanksgiving.

An expanding World• The 16th century was characterized by

new geographical and scientific discoveries.

• In Ptolemy’s view of the universe, the sun and the planets revolved around a stationary earth.

• COPERNICUS was born in Poland but studied in Italy.

He created a new model of the solar system in which the sun was at the centre, with the other planets moving around it.

Galileo Galilei 1564-1642

• Galileo, with his telescope, proved that the earth turns around the sun and he established the scientific method based on mathematical measurement.

The English Renaissance • The English Renaissance covers the period from 1509 to 1660, and it developed later that the other European countries.• This movement based on English Church and Protestants.• The new literature was influenced by classical literature, which became very important for the Christian students.

The sonnet• The sonnet was introduced in England by Thomas Wyatt from Italy, where it had been experimented by Dante and Petrarch. • The sonnet was composed of 14 lines.

THE ITALIAN OR PETRARCHAN SONNETis divided in one octave and a sestet. The rhyme scheme is ABBAABBA for the octave and CDECDE or CDCDCD for the sestet. The octave present a situation while the sestet contains the solution of the problem.

THE ENGLISH OR SHAKESPEREAN SONNETis divided in 3 quatrains that present a problem and a final couplet that solves the problem. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. The traditional themes of sonnet are love, faith, beauty, art and the woman’s new role.

William Shakespeare 1564-1616

• William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, probably on 23rd April.

• He was the eldest son and he attended the local grammar school.

• In 1584 he went to London where he began his acting career.

• When the theatres reopened, after the plague, he became a shareholder and playwright of the most successful company of actors in London.

• In 1599 his company built the Globe theatre.

• Shakespeare was an actor, a playwright, a poet and a shareholder in his theatre company. • Shakespeare's sonnet was published in 1609. The collection included 154 sonnets which can be divided in two sections. In the first 126 sonnets the poet encourages the young man to marry and preserve his virtues through his children.

The other sonnet are addressed to a “dark lady” who is irresistibly desirable.

• He coined new words and phrases that we still use today.

• The themes of the Shakespeare’s comedies are: disguise, frustrated love, mistaken identity and misunderstandings. They end in multiple marriage and they have an happy end.

A dramatic technique:the DIALOGUE

• It creates the action;• It provides details about the

characters and their relationship;• It shows what a character

thinks about an other;• It gives information about the

past and can foreshadow subsequent events.

The MONOLOGUE/ the SOLILOQUY

• Monologue= speech uttered by a speaker who is heard by other character present on the stage; the speaker ignores them;• The soliloquy= speech uttered by a character who is alone on the stage.

COMEDY

The comedy is characterized by plots which are based on love and rely on witty dialogue. It begins with misfortune and doesn’t end with the death of the main character. Specific sets of comic characters are developed, they do not evolve in the course of the play and their names reveal their nature. The first Shakespeare’s comedy is The taming of the shrew.

TRAGEDY

the tragedies are characterized by solemn style and elevated language. The characters are dominated by fate and sometimes present a flaw which led them to suffering or suicide.

ROMEO AND JULIET: the tragedy of knowing

• Rome and Juliet is the one of Shakespeare’s tragedy.• The setting is Verona where the Montague and the

Capulet are locked in a violent feud. This play develops during 4 days and 4 nights. The protagonists are Romeo and Juliet.

• The play is divided in fifth acts:1. The first two acts are a love comedy because Romeo

and Juliet meet at the Capulet’s ball and after they are secretly marriage by Friar Laurance.

2. In the second act there is the scene of balcony where the

3. The tragedy starts in the third act with Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths and Romeo is banished from Verona.

4. In fourth act Juliet drinks a potion for not get married with Count Paris.

5. In the fifth act there is the death of the two lovers

• Romeo and Juliet is a TRAGEDY because there are the masked ball and the attraction of the young lover, but it is a tragedy because it end with the tragic death of the two lovers. • THE THEMES are 1.the lack of knowledge coming from

bad communication, 2.the feud between two families,3. the reflection upon the language

made by Juliet.

Two film about Romeo and Juliet

ROMEO AND JULIET• this version of Romeo

and Juliet contained more action, more humour and more sensuality.

• It was filmed in Tuscany.

• The film won an Oscars for costume design and cinematography.

ROMEO + JULIET• it is an unconventional

adaptation of the classical love story of Romeo and Juliet.

• The setting is contemporary Verona Beach in California.

• The language is the same of the Shakespeare’s tragedy.