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England Under the Tudors

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ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS

BY ARTHUR D. INNES

SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD

FOURTH EDITION

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

BY THE GENERAL EDITOR

In England, as in France and Germany, the main characteristic of the last
twenty years, from the point of view of the student of history, has been
that new material has been accumulating much faster than it can be
assimilated or absorbed. The standard histories of the last generation need
to be revised, or even to be put aside as obsolete, in the light of the new
information that is coming in so rapidly and in such vast bulk. But the
students and researchers of to-day have shown little enthusiasm as yet for
the task of re-writing history on a large scale. We see issuing from the
press hundreds of monographs, biographies, editions of old texts,
selections from correspondence, or collections of statistics, mediaeval and
modern. But the writers who (like the late Bishop Stubbs or Professor
Samuel Gardiner) undertake to tell over again the history of a long period,
with the aid of all the newly discovered material, are few indeed. It is
comparatively easy to write a monograph on the life of an individual or a
short episode of history. But the modern student, knowing well the mass of
material that he has to collate, and dreading lest he may make a slip
through overlooking some obscure or newly discovered source, dislikes to
stir beyond the boundary of the subject, or the short period, on which he
has made himself a specialist.

Meanwhile the general reading public continues to ask for standard
histories, and discovers, only too often, that it can find nothing between
school manuals at one end of the scale and minute monographs at the other.
The series of which this volume forms a part is intended to do something
towards meeting this demand. Historians will not sit down, as once they
were wont, to write twenty-volume works in the style of Hume or Lingard,
embracing a dozen centuries of annals. It is not to be desired that they
should--the writer who is most satisfactory in dealing with Anglo-Saxon
antiquities is not likely to be the one who will best discuss the
antecedents of the Reformation, or the constitutional history of the Stuart
period. But something can be done by judicious co-operation: it is not
necessary that a genuine student should refuse to touch any subject that
embraces an epoch longer than a score of years, nor need history be written
as if it were an encyclopaedia, and cut up into small fragments dealt with
by different hands.

It is hoped that the present series may strike the happy mean, by dividing
up English History into periods that are neither too long to be dealt with
by a single competent specialist, nor so short as to tempt the writer to
indulge in that over-abundance of unimportant detail which repels the
general reader. They are intended to give something more than a mere
outline of our national annals, but they have little space for controversy
or the discussion of sources, save in periods such as the dark age of the
5th and 6th centuries after Christ, where the criticism of authorities is
absolutely necessary if we are to arrive at any sound conclusions as to the
course of history. A number of maps are to be found at the end of each
volume which, as it is hoped, will make it unnecessary for the reader to be
continually referring to large historical atlases--tomes which (as we must
confess with regret) are not to be discovered in every private library.
Genealogies and chronological tables of kings are added where necessary.

C. OMAN




CONTENTS


INTRODUCTION


THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603 An era of Revolutions--The Intellectual
Movement--The Reformation and Counter-Reformation--The New World--The
Constitution--Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry--International Relations.


CHAPTER I

HENRY VII (i), 1485-1492-THE NEW DYNASTY 1485. Henry's Title to the Crown--
Measures to strengthen the Title--1486. Marriage--The King and his Advisers
--Henry's enemies--1487. Lambert Simnel--The State of Europe--France and
Brittany--1488. Henry intervenes cautiously--England and Spain--1489.
Preparations for war with France--Spanish treaty of Medina del Campo--The
Allies inert--1490. Object of Henry's Foreign Policy--1491. Apparent Defeat
--1492. Henry's bellicose Attitude--Treaty of Etaples.


CHAPTER II

HENRY VII (ii), 1492-1499-PERKIN WARBECK Ireland; 1485--1487-1492. The Earl
of Kildare--1491. Perkin Warbeck's Appearance--Riddle of his imposture--
1492-5. Perkin and Margaret of Burgundy--Diplomatic Intrigues--Ireland:
Poynings, 1494-6--1495. Survey of the Situation--Perkin attempts Invasion
--Success of Henry's Diplomacy--1496. Perkin and the King of Scots--A
Scottish Incursion--1497. The Cornish rising--Its suppression--Perkin's
final effort and failure--The Scottish Truce--The End of Perkin Warbeck:
1497-9--1498. The situation.

CHAPTER III

HENRY VII (iii), 1498-1509-THE DYNASTY ASSURED Scotland and England--
Henry's Scottish Policy--France and Scotland--Relations in 1498--Marriage
Negotiations; 1498-1503--Marriage of James IV. and Margaret, 1503--Spain
and England; Marriage Negotiations, 1488-1499--France, 1499--Spain;
Marriage Negotiations, 1499-1501--1501; the Spanish Marriage--1502. New
Marriage Schemes--1504. The Papal Dispensation--The Earl of Suffolk;
1499-1505--1505. Henry's Position--Schemes for Re-marriage--1506: The
Archduke Philip in England--Philip's Death--1507-8. Matrimonial Projects
--The League of Cambrai--Wolsey--1509. Death of Henry.

CHAPTER IV

HENRY VII (iv), 1485-1509--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN 1485; Henry's Position
--Studied Legality--Policy of Lenity--Repression of the Nobles--The
Star-Chamber--Henry's Use of Parliament--Financial Exactions--Sources of
Revenue--Henry's Economics--Trade Theories--Commercial Policy--The
Netherlands Trade--The Hansa--The Navigation Acts--Voyages of Discovery--
The Rural Revolution--The Church--Henry and Rome--Learning and Letters--
Appreciation.

CHAPTER V

HENRY VIII (i), 1509-1527--EGO ET REX MEUS Europe in 1509--England's
Position--The New King--Inauguration of the reign--Henry and the Powers--
1512. Dorset's Expedition--Rise of Wolsey--1513. The French War--Scotland
(1499-1513)--The Flodden Campaign--The Battle--Its Effect--Recovery of
English Prestige--1514. Foreign Intrigues--The French Alliance and Marriage
--1515. Francis I.--Marignano--1516-7. European changes--1518-9. Wolsey's
Success--1519. Charles V.--The Imperial Election--1520. Wolsey's Triumph--
Rival Policies--Field of the Cloth of Gold--Wolsey's Aims--Charles V. and
Francis I.--Scotland: 1513-1520--1520-1. Affairs Abroad--1521. Buckingham
--Wolsey's Diplomacy--1522. A Papal Election--War with France--Scotland--
1523. Progress of the War--Election of Clement VII.--1524. Wolsey's
difficulties--Intrigues in Scotland--1525. Pavia--The Amicable Loan--A
Diplomatic struggle--1526-7. Wolsey's success--A new Factor.

CHAPTER VI

HENRY VIII (ii), 1509-1532--BIRTH OF THE REFORMATION _The Reformation in
England_--Its true Character--Religious Decadence--The Scholar-
Reformers--Ecclesiastical Demoralisation--Monastic Corruption--The
Proofs--Corruption of Doctrine--Evidence from Colet and More--Later
Evidence--Dean Colet--His Sermon: 1512--Erasmus--The _Utopia_: 1516--
Exaggerated attacks--Clerical Privileges--Tentative Reforms--The
Educational Movement--Wolsey and the Reformation--_The Lutheran
Revolt_: 1517--Luther's Defiance--The Diet of Worms; 1521--The German
Peasants' Revolt; 1524--Its Effect in England--1525. The Empire and the
Papacy--The Sack of Rome, 1527--Diet of Augsburg, 1530-The Swiss Reformers;
1520-1530--English Heretics Abroad--Contrasted Aims.

CHAPTER VII

HENRY VIII (iii), 1527-1529--THE FALL OF WOLSEY "The King's Affair"--Story
of the Marriage--Anne Boleyn--1527. The King Prepares--Theoretical
Excuses--The Need of an Heir--The Plea of Invalidity--Conjunction of
Incentives--The Orleans Betrothal--Conclusions--The first Plan--The second
Plan--Knight's Mission--Its Failure--The Pope and the Cardinal--1528.
Gardiner's Mission--Wolsey's Critical Position--Campeggio and Wolsey--
Henry's Attitude--1529. The Trial--The Storm Gathers--The Storm Breaks--
Wolsey's fall--1530. Wolsey's Death--His Achievement--Appreciation of
Wolsey.

CHAPTER VIII

HENRY VIII (iv), 1529-1533--THE BREACH WITH ROME 1529. No Revolt Yet--
Growth of Anti-clericalism--Thomas Cranmer--Appeal to the Universities
--The New Parliament--Thomas Cromwell--Pope, Clergy, and King--Double
Campaign Opens--1530. Answer of Universities--Preoccupation of the
Clergy--Menace of Praemunire--1531. "Only Supreme Head"--Proceedings in
Parliament--1532. Parliament--Supplication against the Ordinaries--
Resistance of Clergy--"Submission of the Clergy"--Mortmain, Benefit of
Clergy, and Annates--The Powers and the Divorce--The Turn of the Year--
1533. The Crisis--Restraint of Appeals--Cranmer Archbishop--The Decisive
Breach.

CHAPTER IX

HENRY VIII (v), 1533-1540--MALLEUS MONACHORUM 1533. Ecclesiastical Parties
--Pope or King?--1534. Confirmatory Acts--The Pope's Last Word--The Nun of
Kent--The Act of Succession--The Oath Refused--The "Bishop of Rome"--
Parliament--Treasons Act--1529-1534: The New Policy--Thomas Cromwell--1535.
More and Fisher--Cromwell Vicar--General--The German Lutherans--Overtures--
Visitation of the Monasteries--1536. Suppression of Lesser Houses--The
Evidence--The Black Book--The Consequent Commission--The Policy--Anne
Boleyn Threatened--Her Condemnation and Death--The Succession--Punishment
of Heresy--The Progressive Movement--The Ten Articles--The Lincolnshire
Rising--The Pilgrimage of Grace--Aske Beguiled--1537. Suppression of the
Rising--Turned to Account--Scotland, 1533-6--1536-7. Naval Measures--1537.
An Heir--1538. Diplomatic Moves--The Exeter Conspiracy--1539. Cromwell
Strikes--Menace of Invasion--The King and Lutheranism--The Six Articles--
Final Suppression of Monasteries--Royal Proclamations Act--Anne of Cleves--
1540. The Marriage--Fall of Cromwell.

CHAPTER X

HENRY VIII (vi), 1540-1547--HENRY'S LAST YEARS 1540. Katharine Howard--The
King his own Minister--England and the Powers--Scotland and England; 1541--
Cardinal Beton--1542--Solway Moss--1543. Henry's Scottish Policy--Alliance
with Charles V.--French War--1544. Domestic Affairs--Intrigues in Scotland
--Sack of Edinburgh--French War--Peace of Crepy--1545. Ancram Moor--A
French Armada--1546. Peace concluded--1532-1549. _Europe_--Lutherans
and the Papacy--Conference of Ratisbon-Council of Trent: first stages--
Death of Luther-Charles and the League of Schmalkald--The Jesuit Order--
Calvin--_England_: the Ecclesiastical Revolution--Progressives and
Reactionaries--1543. The King's Book-1546. Surrey--1547. Death of Henry.


CHAPTER XI

HENRY VIII (vii), 1509-1547--ASPECTS OF HENRY'S REIGN _Ireland_:
1509-1520--Surrey in Ireland, 1520--Irish Policy, 1520-1534--Fitzgerald's
Revolt--1535-1540: Lord Leonard Grey--1540: St. Leger--"King of Ireland"--
_England_: Wolsey's work--The Army--The Navy--The New World--
Absolutism--The Parliamentary Sanction--Depression of the Nobles--
Parliament and the Purse--Finance--The Land--Learning and Letters--The
_Utopia_--Surrey and Wyatt--_Appreciation of Henry VIII._: Morals
and Character--Abilities and Achievement--Dominant Personality--
Conclusions.


CHAPTER XII

EDWARD VI (i), 1547-1549--THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET 1547. The New Government--
Relations with France and Scotland--with Charles V.--Somerset's Scottish
Policy--Pinkie--The Advanced Reformers--Benevolent Legislation--
Ecclesiastical Legislation--1548. Progress of the Reformation--Somerset's
Ideas--The French in Scotland--The Augsburg Interim--Parliament--1549. A
New Liturgy--The Treason of the Lord Admiral: 1547-9--1549--Troubles in the
Provinces--The Western Rising--Ket's Insurrection--The Protector's
Attitude--The Council attacks him--His Fall--Ireland: St. Leger and
Bellingham.

CHAPTER XIII

EDWARD VI (ii), 1549-1553--THE DUDLEY ASCENDANCY 1549. Foreign Relations--
State of England--1550. Terms with France--Protestant zeal of Warwick--
Treasons Act--Protestant Fanaticism-1551. The Council and Charles V.--His
Difficulties--Groups among the Reformers--Somerset--His final overthrow--
1552. Execution of Somerset--Pacification of Passau--English Neutrality--
The Reformation: its Limits hitherto--Revision of the Liturgy--
Nonconformity--Parliament--1553. A New Parliament--Northumberland's
Programme--Plot to change the Succession--Adhesion of King and Council--
Death of Edward VI.--Willoughby and Chancellor.

CHAPTER XIV

MARY (i), 1553-1555-THE SPANISH MARRIAGE The Marian Tragedies--1553.
Proclamation of Queen Jane--The People support Mary--Collapse of the Plot--
Mary's Leniency--Cause of the Popular Loyalty--Problems: Marriage and the
Reformation--Possible Claimants--Moderate Reaction--Proposed Spanish Match
--Parliament: Repeal of Edward's Legislation--1554. Wyatt's Rebellion and
the Lady Elizabeth--Subsequent Severities--The Marriage Treaty-Pole,
Renard, and Gardiner--Public Tension--Parliament; Reconciliation with Rome
--Reaction consummated, 1555.

CHAPTER XV

MARY (ii), 1555-1558-THE PERSECUTION Mary's early Policy--The Persecution--
Who was Responsible?--Comparison with other Persecutions--Some
Characteristic Features--1555. The First Martyrs--Trial of Cranmer--Ridley
and Latimer--Fate of Cranmer--His Record and Character--Policy of Philip--
Paul IV.--Mary disappointed of an Heir--A New Parliament--Gardiner's Death
and Character--Mary's Difficulties--1556. The Dudley Conspiracy--Foreign
Complications--1557. War with France--1558. Loss of Calais--National
Depression--Mary's Death and Character.

CHAPTER XVI

ELIZABETH (i), 1558-1561-A PASSAGE PERILOUS

1558. Accession--Mary Stewart's Claim--Strength of Elizabeth's Position--
Sir William Cecil--Finance--Philip II. and Elizabeth's Marriage--The
Religious Question--A Protestant Policy--1559. Parliament: Act of
Supremacy--The Prayer-Book--France and Peace--State of Scotland--Arran and
Elizabeth--The Archduke Charles--Wynter in the Forth--1560. Difficulties of
France--Vacillations of Elizabeth--Siege of Leith--Treaty of Edinburgh--
Elizabeth's Methods--The Dudley Imbroglio--The Huguenots--The Pope--1561.
Return of Mary to Scotland.

CHAPTER XVII

ELIZABETH (ii), 1561-1568-QUEENS AND SUITORS 1561. The Situation--Council
of Trent--France; State of Parties--1561-8. France: Catholics and Huguenots
--The Netherlands: Philip's Policy--Prelude to War--1561. The Queens'
suitors--1562. Mary in Scotland--1562-3. Elizabeth and the Huguenots--The
English Succession-1564. Darnley and Others--1565. The Darnley Marriage--
Mary and Murray--1566. The Murder of Rizzio--1567. Kirk o' Field--The
Bothwell Marriage--Mary at Loch Leven--Murray Regent--1568. Langside, and
the Flight to England--1562-8. Protestantism of Elizabeth's Government--
Religious Parties--1566-7. Parliament and the Queen's Marriage--The Queen
and the Archduke.

CHAPTER XVIII

ELIZABETH (iii), 1568-1572--THE CATHOLIC CHALLENGE 1568. Mary in England--A
Commission of Enquiry--Proceedings at York--Attitude of Philip--The
Commission at Westminster--Comment on the Enquiry--Seizure of Spanish
Treasure--1569. The Incident passed over--The Northern Rebellion--1570.
Murder of Murray--The Bull of Deposition--The Anjou Match--1570-1. The
Ridolfi Plot--1571. Parliament--Collapse of the Anjou Match--The Ridolfi
Plot Develops--1572. Parliament and Mary Stewart--Lepanto--The Netherlands
Revolt--The Alençon Match--St. Bartholomew.

CHAPTER XIX

ELIZABETH (iv), 1572-1578--VARIUM ET MUTABILE Elizabeth's Diplomacy--The
Queen's Subjects--Development of Protestantism--1572. Katharine de Medici
--The Aim of Elizabeth--England and the Massacre--Spain seeks Amity--1573.
A Spanish Alliance--Scotland: End of the Marian Party--The Netherlands,
France, and Spain--The Netherlands, England, and Spain--1574. Amicable
Relations of England and Spain--1575. A Deadlock--1576. Attitude of the
Nation--The Queen evades War--Alençon and the Huguenots--The Netherlands
and Don John--Elizabeth's Attitude--1577. The Political Kaleidoscope--The
Archduke Matthias--1578. Mendoza--Orange and Alençon--Death of Don John--
NOTE: The Portuguese Succession.

CHAPTER XX

ELIZABETH (v), 1558-1578--IRISH AND ENGLISH 1549-58--1558. Shan O'Neill--
The Antrim Scots--1560-1. Shan and the Government--1562. Shan in England--
1563-5. Shan's supremacy in Ulster recognised--1566. Sir Henry Sidney
Deputy--Overthrow of O'Neill--Catholicism in Irish Politics--1568. The
Colonising of Munster--1569. Insurrection in Munster--Ireland and Philip--
Experimental Presidencies--1573-4. Essex in Ulster--1576-8. Sidney's second
Deputyship.

CHAPTER XXI

ELIZABETH (vi), 1578-1583--THE PAPAL ATTACK 1579. The Union of Utrecht--
1578. The Matrimonial Juggle--Alençon's wooing--1579. Popular Hostility to
the Match--Loyalty to Elizabeth--Yea and Nay--The Papal Plan of Campaign--
1580. Philip annexes Portugal--_Ireland_: 1579; the Desmond Rising--
1580: Fire and Sword--Development of the Rebellion--Smerwick: and after--
_Scotland_: 1579-1581--_England_: 1580--The Jesuit Mission--
Walsingham at Work--1581. An Anti-papal Parliament--Alençon redivivus--His
visit to England--1582. Alençon in the Netherlands--1583. Exit
Alençon--Scotland.

CHAPTER XXII

ELIZABETH (vii), 1583-1587-THE END OF QUEEN MARY 1583. Throgmorton's
Conspiracy--Catholics abroad sanguine--Division in their Counsels--The Plot
discovered--1584. Assassination of Orange--The "Association"--1585. Its
Ratification--France: The Holy League--Elizabeth's agreement with the
States--Drake's Cartagena Raid--Elizabeth's Intrigues-1586. Leicester in
the Netherlands--The Trapping of Mary--Babington's Plot--Trial of the
Queen of Scots--Elizabeth and Mary--1587. Execution of Mary.

CHAPTER XXIII

ELIZABETH (viii), 1558-1587-THE SEAMEN The New World--The English Marine
before Elizabeth--The Royal Navy--Privateering--"Piracy"--Reprisal--The
Explorers--Spain in America--John Hawkins, 1562-6--San Juan d'Ulloa, 1567--
Francis Drake--Darien Expedition, 1572--Oxenham, 1575--_Drake's Great
Voyage_: 1577--Drake in the Pacific, 1578--in the North Pacific, 1579--
his Return, 1580--_Various Voyages_: 1576-1587--Raleigh--Humphrey
Gilbert--Virginia.

CHAPTER XXIV

ELIZABETH (ix), 1587-1588-THE ARMADA 1587. Results of Mary's Death--
Attitude of Philip--Attitude of Elizabeth--The situation--Drake's Cadiz
Expedition--Negotiations with Parma--Elizabeth's Diplomacy--French Affairs
--Preparations for the Armada--1588. Plans of Campaign--Forces of the
Antagonists--The New Tactics--Defective Arrangements--The Land Forces--May
to July--The Fleets off Plymouth--The Fight off Portland--The Fight off the
Isle of Wight--Effect on the Fleets--The Armada at Calais--The Battle off
Gravelines--Flight and Ruin of the Armada.

CHAPTER XXV

ELIZABETH (x), 1588-1598-BRITANNIA VICTRIX After the Armada--A new
Phase--Death of Leicester--France, 1588-9--England aggressive--Alternative
Naval Policies--Don Antonio--Plan of the Lisbon Expedition--1589. The
Expedition; Corunna and Peniche--The Lisbon Failure--Policies and Persons--
France, 1589-1593--1590. Death of Walsingham--The Year's Operations--1591.
Grenville's Last Fight--France, 1590-3--Operations, 1592-4--Survey, 1589-94
--Spain and the English Catholics--Scottish Intrigues--Ireland: 1583-1592
--Tyrone, 1592-4--1595. Drake's Last Voyage--1596. The Cadiz Expedition--
Ireland--The Second Armada--1597. The Island Voyage--1598. Condition of
Spain--Death of Philip--Death of Burghley: Appreciation.

CHAPTER XXVI

ELIZABETH (xi), 1598-1603--THE QUEEN'S LAST YEARS A new Generation--1598.
Ireland--The Earl of Essex--1599. Essex in Ireland--His Downfall--Catholic
Factions--Philip III.--1600--Ireland--Succession Intrigues--The End of
Essex--Robert Cecil--1601. Ireland: Rebellion broken--1602. The Succession
--Last Intrigues--1603. Death of Elizabeth.

CHAPTER XXVII

ELIZABETH (xii), 1558-1603--LITERATURE Birth of a National Literature--
_Prose_: before 1579--1579-1589--_Euphues_--Sidney--Hooker--
_Verse_: before 1579--1579-1590--_Drama_: before Elizabeth--
early Elizabethan--_The Younger Generation>_: pervading
Characteristics Displayed in the Drama--and other Fields--Breadth of
view--Patriotism--Normal Types.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ELIZABETH (xiii), 1558-1603--ASPECTS OF THE REIGN Features of the Reign--
_Religion_: State and Church--The State and the Catholics--The Church
and the Puritans--Archbishop Whitgift--The Persecutions--_Economic
Progress_--Retrenchment--Wealth and Poverty--Trade Restrictions and
Development--_Travellers_--Maritime Expansion--_The Constitution--
Elizabeth_: her People--her Ministers--Appreciation.



APPENDICES

APPENDIX A--TABLES

I. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1475-1542
II. CONTEMPORARY RULERS--1542-1603
III. THE LENNOX STEWARTS
IV. HOWARDS AND BOLEYNS
V. HABSBURGS
VI. VALOIS AND BOURBONS
VII. GUISES
DESCENDANTS OF EDWARD III.
THE PORTUGUESE SUCCESSION

APPENDIX B

CLAIMS TO THE THRONE

APPENDIX C

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS

APPENDIX D

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MAPS

I. THE WORLD: AS KNOWN _circa_ 1485-1603.
II. WESTERN EUROPE: _circa_ 1558
III. ENGLAND AND IRELAND
IV. SPANISH AMERICA: _circa 1580
V. THE LOW COUNTRIES AND THE CHANNEL
THE FLODDEN CAMPAIGN

INDEX



ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS

INTRODUCTION

THE TUDOR PERIOD, 1485-1603

[Sidenote: An era of Revolutions]

The historian of the future will, perhaps, affirm that the nineteenth
century, with the last years of the eighteenth, has been a period more
fraught with momentous events in the development of the nations than any
equal period since the Christian era commenced. Yet striking as are the
developments witnessed by the last four generations, the years when England
was ruled by Princes of the House of Tudor have a history hardly if at all
less momentous. For though what we call the Tudor period, from 1485 to
1603, is determined by a merely dynastic title affecting England alone, the
reign of that dynasty happens to coincide in point of time with the
greatest territorial revolution on record, a religious revolution
unparalleled since the rise of Mohammed, and an intellectual activity to
match which we must go back to the great days of Hellas, or forward to the
nineteenth century: revolutions all of them not specifically English, but
affecting immediately every nation in Europe; while one of them extended
itself to every continent on the globe. Moreover, the accompanying social
revolution, though comparatively superficial, was only a little less marked
than the others. Nor was there any country in Europe more influenced by the
general Revolution in any one of its aspects than England.

_Nihil per saltum_ is no doubt as true of historical movements as of
physical evolution. Before Columbus sighted Hispaniola, Portuguese sailors
had told tales of some vast island seen by them far in the west.
Botticelli had passed out of Filippo Lippi's school, and Leonardo was
thirty, before Raphael was born; the printing press had reached England,
and Greek had been re-discovered, in the last years of the previous
"period"; the Byzantine Empire had fallen; the power of the old Baronage in
England and France had been broken before Richard fell on Bosworth
field. There were Lollards at home and Hussites abroad before Luther came
into the world. The changes did not begin in 1485, or in any particular
year. In Italy the intellectual movement had already long been active, and
had indeed produced its best work; outside of Italy, its appearances had
been quite sporadic. At that date, the Ocean movement was in its initial
stages. There had been foreshadowings of the Reformation; and, to speak
metaphorically, the castles which had maintained the power of the nobility,
overshadowing the gentry and the burghers, were already in ruins. But the
fame of every one of the great English names which are landmarks in every
one of these great movements belongs essentially to the years after 1485.
And every one of those movements had definitely and decisively set its mark
on the world before Elizabeth was laid in her grave.

[Sidenote: The Intellectual Movement]

The intellectual movement to which we apply the name Renaissance in its
narrower sense [Footnote: In the more inclusive sense the Renaissance of
course began in the time of Cimabue and Dante, but it was not till the
latter half of the fifteenth century that it became a pervading force
outside of Italy.] has many aspects. Whatever views we may happen to hold
as to schools of painting and architecture, it is indisputable that a
revolution was wrought by the work of Raphael and Leonardo, Michael Angelo
and Titian, and the crowd of lesser great men who learned from them. The
limitations imposed on Art by ecclesiastical conventions were deprived of
their old rigour, and it was no longer sought to confine the painter to
producing altar pieces and glorified or magnified missal-margins. The
immediate tangible and visible results were however hardly to be found
outside of Italy and the Low Countries; and if English domestic
architecture took on a new face, it was the outcome rather of the social
than the artistic change: since men wanted comfortable houses instead of
fortresses to dwell in. The Renaissance in its creative artistic phase
touched England directly hardly at all.

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