Get Regal With This Quiz on the House of Tudor

The 118-year reign of the Tudors completely transformed England. Explorers such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh plied the world’s seas while “The Book of Common Prayer” helped establish the Anglican Church in England. However, the rise of Oliver Cromwell as England’s Lord Protector — and the short-lived abolishment of the monarchy — occurred during the Stuart era (1603 to 1714).

Upon 55-year-old Henry VIII’s death in 1547, nine-year-old Edward VI immediately became king of England. Since the new king was too young to rule the realm, his uncle, Edward Seymour, served as Lord Protector for the next two years, making him king in all but name. However, Seymour became entangled in the political maneuverings of other advisors and was eventually executed in 1551.

In the late 1500s, Queen Elizabeth I passed restrictive sumptuary laws requiring people to dress according to their rank. Elizabeth was worried that aristocrats were spending too much money on foreign wares, and the laws hoped to curb such lavish spending. These restrictions stipulated specific types of clothes appropriate for which classes and reserved the color purple for royalty.

Both the Ridolfi and Throckmorton plots were plans to remove Elizabeth I as Queen of England and place Mary, Queen of Scots in her place. The Dudley Conspiracy occurred during the reign of Mary I as a secret plan to place Elizabeth on the throne. However, the Gunpowder Plot, famously involving Guy Fawkes, occurred during the early years of the Stuart dynasty, in 1605.

Katherine Parr delivered much-needed stability to the English royal family during the last years of Henry VIII’s life. Under the influence of Parr, who had developed close relationships with her three stepchildren, Henry VIII reinstated his children Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth in the line of royal succession. Without this little-known queen, the history of England might look very different.

The House of Tudor’s dynastic origins begins with Owen Tudor, a member of the Tudors of Penmynydd in Wales, who fought with the Lancasters during the Wars of the Roses. Although Owen Tudor was killed by Yorkists after the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, his grandson, Henry Tudor, went on to establish the Tudor Dynasty after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Edward VI was the product of Henry VIII’s third marriage, to Jane Seymour. Despite being the king’s third legitimate child (after Mary and Elizabeth), Edward was the first on the throne simply because he was male. Edward VI ascended the throne at just nine years old and reigned for six years. He introduced a number of Protestant reforms that were subsequently overturned by his Catholic sister, Mary I.

In honor of Henry VIII’s coronation in 1509, lawyer, philosopher, and writer Thomas More wrote, “This day is… the end of sadness, the source of joy.” More wasso enraptured with the new king he even served as his chancellor from 1529 to 1532. But that vision of joy turned sour when More opposed Henry VIII’s rupture with the Catholic Church, a decision that resulted in his execution in 1535.

After a series of scandals challenged Queen Mary’s rule in Scotland, the embattled monarch fled to England to seek help from her cousin, Elizabeth I. The decision would prove to be a fatal mistake. Although Elizabeth I sympathized with Mary, the queen’s advisors saw the Catholic ruler as a potential rallying point for Catholic rebels. As a result, Mary, Queen of Scots remained in Carlisle Castle for 19 years until her execution in 1587.

Although all of these states are named after royalty, only Virginia is an etymological ode to a Tudor monarch — the “Virgin Queen” Elizabeth I. Maryland is named after Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I (of the Stuart Dynasty), the Carolinas are similarly named for Charles I, and Georgia is a hat tip to King George II. Historians believe Sir Walter Raleigh suggested the name Virginia in 1584.

Lady Jane Grey was pronounced queen in 1553 after Edward VI’s death. His half-sister Mary was actually next in line to the throne, but Edward named Jane as his successor since he did not want a Catholic on the throne. Sixteen-year-old Jane reigned for just nine days before the true heir to the throne, Mary I, was declared the rightful queen.

After Elizabeth I died childless, the house of Tudor came to an end and James Stuart was crowned James I of England. James Stuart was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots and the great-great grandson of Henry VII, king of England and Lord of Ireland. This made James heir to all three British thrones and united the crowns of England and Scotland for the first time, heralding the start of the Stuart era.

Religious intolerance was not uncommon under the Tudors, and when the Catholic Mary I ascended to the throne after the death of her Protestant half-brother Edward VI, she felt it necessary to suppress heresy. Mary I fervently attempted to return England to the Catholic Church during her five-year reign, persecuting hundreds of religious dissenters.

William Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII” (also known as “All Is True”) was first performed in the early 1600s. The play follows the turbulent reign of the famous Tudor monarch, who had six wives and founded a new religion due to his desire for a son. The story of Henry VIII endures to this day, and has been retold countless times in books, TV shows, and movies.

The history of English architecture often adopts the names of dynasties. Tudor architecture, especially secular buildings, are immediately recognized by their half-timbered exteriors. Columns and flat roofs were more characteristic of later Jacobean and Georgian architecture. Centuries later, a revival of Tudor architecture took hold in a former British colony — the United States.

After years of marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII was desperate for a son. His second wife, Anne Boleyn, gave birth to Elizabeth in 1533, but just three short years later Anne was accused of adultery and executed. Despite Anne’s ignoble end, Elizabeth still felt close to her mother, often wearing a locket containing two portraits: one of herself and one of Anne.

The Spanish Armada was a fleet of 130 ships sent to defeat Queen Elizabeth I and return England to Catholic rule. To repel the threat, Elizabeth I sent out a fleet of ships that chased the slower Spanish galleons up the coast. Ultimately, bad weather caused the loss of numerous retreating Spanish ships, but the English were quick to claim the credit for the victory.

The iconic red-and-white Tudor rose was created when Henry Tudor brought an end to the Wars of the Roses in 1487. The English civil war had carried on since 1455, when the house of York, symbolized by a white rose, first began fighting the house of Lancaster, symbolized by the red rose, for the throne. The Tudor rose symbolizes the warring factions’ newfound unity.

After the death of King Henry VI’s only son in 1471, Henry Tudor (Henry VII) unexpectedly became the only rightful heir to the house of Lancaster. In 1485, Henry Tudor fought and defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, bringing an end to the Wars of the Roses. He was crowned King Henry VII and took Elizabeth of York as his queen, uniting the two warring houses and beginning the Tudor line.

Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1509. She had previously been married to his older brother Arthur for just five short months before he died. Henry and Catherine were seemingly happily married for over 15 years until Henry set eyes on Anne Boleyn. Their subsequent divorce led to the break between England and the Catholic Church, and set Henry as the head of the Church of England.