9/20/10 - Richard III and the Wars of the Roses

• Richard III becomes King. There is much deceit and manipulation of political events. 
• Henry Tudor attempts to take over the kingship. 
• Background: 
• Richard II had stepped down.  He was replaced by Henry IV.
• Henry IV's heir was Henry V. 
• Henry V dies unexpectedly and his son Henry VI takes over.  
• Henry VI was a weak king because he was only a young boy.  
• They develop a group of people around him to vie for the throne.  
• It unleashes a war between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. 
• Wars of the Roses: 
• There was something at stake even though the fighting seemed very immature: the need to take the English monarchy back to what it was before. 
• The Wars of the Roses were making England a bad place to make and keep small fortunes. 
• Paston family
• Peasants that were able to climb the social ladder because of the Black Death.
• They became wealthy and noble in 2 generations. 
• As they became influential and rich, they were attracting enemies. 
• The Duke of Norfolk wanted to take their castle. 
• The Pastons had no choice, but to surrender their castle. 
• It took a seven year legal battle for the Pastons to get their house back. 
• People like the Pastons had been at the bottom and they knew that they could get through anything thrown at them. 
• There was a great disconnect between the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the people working for them.  
• The ultimate result of the Wars of the Roses was the rise of the Tudor family.  
• It gives us the England that we recognize from the Renaissance. 
• Rise of extremely strong monarchs.  
• Coupling of religion and nationalism
• Caused religious conflicts. 

• Catholic England
• For generations, Catholic England was just another way of saying Christian England. 
• What happened to Catholic England?
• From Henry VIII on, England is mainly an Anglican and Protestant country. 
• There have been generations of warfare, burning, and conflict between Protestants and Catholics. 
• The concept today of a "Catholic" England, would not really make sense to an English person. 
• From the eve of the Reformation, Catholicism was very popular in England.  
• The Tudors were regularly and devote Pilgrims.
• William Tindale was the first to take on the task of translating and printing an English translation of the New Testament. 
• In 1524, Tindale fled London for mainland Europe. 
• His English New Testament was completed by January 1526.  
• In weeks, copies were on sale in England. 
• Book burnings, arrests, denunciations, etc, went on.  
• One man was convicted of smuggling a New Testament.  He was burned. 
• In 1530 there was no reason to think that anything would ever change.  
• Henry without really meaning to, turned England into a Protestant nation. 
• For start, he was never supposed to be king, but when his older brother died he becomes heir apparent he acquires his brothers wife, Katherine of Eragon, Princess of Spain. 
• It was a political marriage. They wanted an alliance between England and Spain so that they could control areas around France. 
• Henry was 17 when his father died and he became king.
• Starts the Reformation by divorcing his wife. 

The fall of Richard III represents the end of the Plantagent line. 
It is replaced by the Tudor line, which will continue up until the beginning of the 17th century.