A Timeline of Britain
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Above: The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burnt alive for heresy, 1556
Poor Edward was only nine when he became king,
ruling under a Lord Protector, and was 15 when he died of consumption in 1553. Before he breathed his last he was persuaded by the Duke of Northumberland to bequeath the throne to fellow Protestant Lady Jane Grey, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, and Northumberland’s daughter-in-law. Jane, the hapless victim of this plot, went down in history as the Nine Days’ Queen – she was executed for treason, as was Northumberland – and Edward’s sister Mary took her place as queen. Queen Mary I (1553-58), a devout Catholic, showed bitter
intolerance to her Protestant subjects, and there were many martyrs of her brief rule. Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley were among the hundreds of Protestants she burnt at the stake, earning her the epithet “Bloody Mary”. Moreover, her marriage to Philip of Spain embroiled the country in war with the French, and England’s last toehold in France, Calais, was lost. Mary’s successor, 25-year-old Elizabeth I (1558-1603),
proved to be everything Henry VIII might have hoped for in a son, for beneath a flirtatious feminine exterior there beat a Tudor heart of ruthless strength. Indeed, her Golden Age would shine as brightly as any king’s. Elizabeth steered a middle course of tolerance between
the religious extremes of the country, helping bring the nation together again, and back to prosperity.
68 BRITAIN
7 ARCHITECTURE
Travellers to England by sea during Henry VIII’s reign would have noticed a sudden rash of forts defending the coast, from Deal and Walmer in Kent to Pendennis and St Mawes in Devon. Look no further than Deal to see the cutting edge of Tudor military defence. Here, conventional high walls are replaced by a squat construction, reducing the target offered to artillery. The ‘Tudor Rose’ layout of multiple bastions clustered around a central keep is
ready to repel an enemy that has stormed the castle, as well as seaborne invaders. Highlights of ecclesiastical
Tudor architecture include the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey (1), with its fan-vaulted roof, Tudor emblems and statues of saints. King’s College Chapel (2), Cambridge, was completed by Henry VIII, and boasts the largest fan- vaulted ceiling in the world. Overall, the Tudor era saw
a shift from ecclesiastical to domestic building, a
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PHOTO: ALAMY
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