Great Britain

      To England nothing was left but Calais [`kælei] and thus ended the Hundred Years’ War.

Vocabulary

ruthless – безжалостный

authority – зд. авторитет

favourite – фаворит

Knight of the Order of the Garter –  Кавалер Ордена Подвязки

Isabella – Изабелла

Philip IV – Филипп IV

‘Salic law’ – Салический закон

rapid – быстрый

longbow – лук в рост человека

Crecy – Креси

Poitiers – Пуатье

bracelet – браслет

enormous amount – огромное количество

treaty – договор

re-establish – восстановить

ownership – право собственности

Aquitaine – Аквитания

Gascony – Гасконь

Normandy – Нормандия

Brittany – Бретань

the House of Lancaster – дом Ланкастеров

Agincourt – Азинкур

mounted – конный

lay siege – осадить

Orleans – Орлеан

miracle – чудо

Domremy – Домреми

Joan of Arc – Жанна д’Арк

witch-craft – колдовство

heresy – ересь  
 
 
 
 

7. The war of White and Red Roses in England

      The Hundred Years’ War, in which England lost practically all its lands in France, ended in 1453, but there was no peace in the country. Long before the end of this war, a feudal [fju:dl] struggle had broken out between the descendants [di`sendзnts] of Edward III. During the reign of Richard II (1377–1399), the last king of the Plantagenet [plæn`tæd3init] dynasty [`dinзsti], Henry Bolingbroke [`boliŋbruk], Duke of Lancaster [`læŋkзstз], seized [si:zd] the crown and became the first king of the Lancaster dynasty, Henry IV (1399–1413).

      The interests of the House of Lancaster supported by the big barons collided [kз`laidid] with the interests of the lesser barons and merchants [`mз:t∫зnts] of the towns, who supported the House of York. The feudal struggle grew into an open war between the Lancastrians [,læŋ`kæstriзnz] and the Yorkists [`jo:kists]. The Lancasters had a red rose in their coat of arms, the Yorks had a white rose. That’s why the war between them got the name of the War of the Roses. This war, which lasted for thirty years (1455–1485), turned into a big struggle for the Crown, in which each party murdered every likely heir to the throne of the opposite party. It was a dark time for England, a time of anarchy [`ænзki], when the kings and nobles were busy fighting and murdering each other and had no time to take care of the common people, who suffered greatly.

      Henry VI, the last king from the House of Lancaster, was a gentle man, but weak both physically and mentally. In 1461 Edward, the new duke of York and leader of the Yorkists, marched to London at the head of an army. Henry VI was put to the Tower of London and Edward himself crowned king.

      In 1470 the Lancastrians revolted [ri`voultid] against Edward IV, and Henry VI was briefly reinstated [`ri:in`steitid] as king. But soon the Lancasterians were defeated and Henry VI was murdered.

      Edward IV was succeeded by his twelve-year-old son, Edward V. As the king was too young to rule himself, his uncle, Richard Gloucester [`glostз], was made Protector. But Gloucester was going to take the throne for himself. He claimed that his brother’s marriage had been unlawful and that his children were bastards [`bæstзdz]. Edward V and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of York, were put to the Tower of London. There the boys were murdered and their bodies were buried at the staircase foot. Years afterwards the bones of two boys, of the age of the young princes, were found in the White Tower beneath the stairs. They were brought to Westminster and buried as Edward V and Richard, Duke of York.

      Richard Gloucester became King Richard III. His reign was short. The War of the Roses ended with the battle of Bosworth [`bozwзθ] in 1485. King Richard III of the House of York was killed in the battle, and, right in the field, Henry Tudor [`tju:dз], Earl of Richmond [`rit∫mзnt], of the Lancastrian line, was proclaimed King of England.

      Henry Tudor was the head of the House of Lancaster. A year later, in 1486, he married the Yorkist heiress Princess Elizabeth [i`lizзbзθ] of York. This marriage was of great political importance. It meant the union of the red rose of the House of Lancaster with the white rose of the House of York.

      England now had a new dynasty, the Tudors.

Vocabulary

descendant – потомок

Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster – Генри Болингброк, герцог Ланкастерский

seize – захватывать, завладевать

collide (with) – сталкиваться (с)

the House of York – дом Йорков

Lancastrians – сторонники дома Ланкастеров

Yorkists – сторонники дома Йорков

coat of arms – герб

anarchy – анархия

revolt – восставать

Richard Gloucester – Ричард Глостер

Protector – протектор

bastard – незаконнорожденный, бастард, 

Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond – Генри Тюдор, граф Ричмонд

Elizabeth of York – Елизавета  Йоркская  

8. The Tudors’  England

      Henry VII was a strong, learned and thoughtful king, who was very good at making and keeping money. Henry created the court of justice, which was named the Court of the Star Chamber after the stars painted on its ceiling. His long rein (1485–1509) brought peace and prosperity [prзs`periti] after many troubled years.

      The power of English monarch [`monзk] increased in this period. The Tudor [`tju:dз] dynasty [`dinзsti] (1485–1603) established a system of government departments, staffed by professionals who depended for their position on the monarch. Parliament was traditionally split into two ‘Houses’. The House of Lords consisted of the feudal [fju:dl] aristocracy [,æris`tokrзsi] and the leaders of the Church; the House of Commons consisted of representatives from the towns and the less important landowners in rural [`ruзrзl] areas. It was now more important for monarchs to get the agreement of the Commons for policy-making because that was where the newly powerful merchants [`mз:t∫зnts] and landowners (the people with the money) were represented.

      Henry VII had two sons. Arthur, the elder son, had died young, and so his brother, Henry, became the next king (1509–1547). Henry VIII was handsome and charming, and was welcomed by people. He married Arthur’s young widow, a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon [,kæθerin зv `ærзgзn], and seemed destined [`destind] – предназначен – for a happy rein. But being quite unlike his father, Henry was wasteful with money. He spent so much on maintaining [mein`teiniŋ] a rich court and on wars, that his father’s carefully saved money was soon gone.

      Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for twenty years but they still had not a son who could be the heir to the throne. They had only one daughter, Mary. Henry thought that England would be weak if there were no king to follow him and he didn’t want his country to have civil war again. Catherine was nice and clever and was a true friend to her husband but she failed to give him a son. So Henry decided to divorce Catherine and marry again.

      He met Anne Boleyn [`æn bu`li:n / bз`lin], the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, and fell madly in love with her. Henry asked the Pope [poup] to give him a divorce and explained that Catherine had first been his elder brother’s wife. He thought that it had been a sin to marry his brother’s widow and that the absence of sons was his punishment. But the Pope did not allow divorce, and so Henry officially denied the Pope’s authority and divorced Catherine. He also proclaimed Mary, the daughter he had by this marriage, illegitimate [,ili`d3itimit].

      In 1531 Henry broke away from the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself head of the ‘Church of England’, independent of Rome. He closed the monasteries [`monзstзriz] in England and took their treasures. Yet he was not sympathetic [,simpз`θetik] to Protestants [`protistзnts], believing himself a Catholic despite his action. Henry’s break with Rome was purely political. He simply wanted to control the Church and to keep its wealth in his own kingdom. He did not approve the new ideas of Reformation Protestantism [,refз`mei∫зn `protistзntizm] introduced by Martin Luther [`ma:tin `lu:θз] in Germany and John Calvin [`kælvin] in Geneva [3з`ni:vз]. Between 1532 and 1536 Parliament passed several Acts, by which England officially became a Protestant country, even though the popular religion was still Catholic.

      Henry married five more times after his divorce from Catherine. His second wife, Anne Boleyn, didn’t give him a son, but another daughter, Elizabeth. When Henry got tired of Anne Boleyn he had her executed [`eksikju:tid] and proclaimed their daughter, Elizabeth, illegitimate. Ten days after Anne Boleyn’s execution the king married his third wife, Jane Seymour [`seimз], who gave him a son, but died twelve days later. Then he married Anne of Cleves [`kli:vz] and divorced her for being too ugly. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard [`hauзd] was beheaded in the Tower, but the last one, Catherine Parr [pa:] was lucky enough to survive the king.

      “Divorced, beheaded, died,

        Divorced, beheaded, survived.”

      Henry died in 1547, leaving three children: Mary by Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth by Anne Boleyn and Edward, the Prince of Wales, by Jane Samour.

      Edward VI, was only a child of nine years old when his father died and he became king, so the country was ruled by a council, all the members of which were Protestants. The boy king Edward VI is memorable for opening new grammar schools which replaced the monastery schools, which had been closed by his father. Unfortunately the rein of this clever and kind boy was short. He died in 1553, when he was only sixteen.

      Everybody knew that his sister Mary was next in line to the throne. She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, a true catholic. It was clear that if she succeeded [sзk`si:did], the Roman Catholic religion would be established again in England. This possibility troubled the minds of those who showed themselves good Protestants during the reign of Edward VI. They got a lot of money from the sale of monastery lands. It was very important  for them to have a Protestant monarch inherit [in`herit] the English throne. So a group of nobles tried to put Edward’s second cousin, Lady Jane Grey, a strict Protestant, on the throne. But Lady Jane was Queen for only nine days. Mary succeeded in entering London and took control [kзn`troul] of the kingdom. On the 19 July 1553 the Regency Council [`ri:d3зnsi `kaunsl] declared Princess Mary queen. Lady Jane was imprisoned and executed.

      Mary’s first acts as queen were to re-establish the Catholic Church. At first, she behaved fairly towards convinced Protestants, letting them leave the country. But when Mary made an attempt to bring England back to the Catholic Church she met with resistance [ri`zistзns]. Then the Queen began burning the Protestants. She executed over 300 people. This earned her the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’.

      Her big mistake was her marriage to King Philip of Spain. The English people disliked her choice. They were afraid that this marriage would place England under foreign control. Parliament agreed to Mary’s marriage unwillingly and made a condition that Philip would be regarded as King of England only during Mary’s lifetime.

      In 1557 Mary and Philip went to war against France, and in 1558 the French won Calais [`kælei], the last of England’s possessions in France. It was no great loss, but it was a blow to English pride. When Queen Mary was told about it, she said: “When I am dead and my body is opened, you shall find Calais written on my heart”.

      The queen died in 1558, after reining not quite five years and a half, and in the forty-fourth year of her age.

      Elizabeth I was twenty-six when she became queen. She wanted to find a peaceful answer to the problems of the English Reformation. She managed to bring together Catholics and Protestants; as a result the Protestantism in England remained closer to the Catholic religion than to other Protestant groups. She made the Church ‘part of the state machine’.

      Her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart [st(j)uзt], the Queen of Scots, became a thread to her. Mary Stuart was a granddaughter of Henry VII by his daughter Margaret. For many true Catholics Elizabeth was still illegitimate [,ili`d3itimit] and they believed that Mary Stuart was the only lawful heir to the Tudor throne. As soon as Mary I of England died Mary Stuart claimed the right to the English Crown. Mary had a conflict with some of her nobles, who suspected her of helping in the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley [`da:nli]. She escaped to England and asked for Elizabeth’s help. In England Elizabeth kept her as a prisoner for nearly twenty years. During that time Mary was involved into several secret Catholic plots aimed at making her Queen of England. All these plots were discovered and finally Elizabeth agreed to Mary’s execution in 1587.

      Elizabeth was a wise and careful monarch. She showed this by choosing excellent advisers, Sir William Cecil [`sesl], better known as Lord Burghley [`bз:li] and his son Robert Cecil.

      Elizabeth continued Henry VII’s work and encouraged foreign trade. She considered Spain her main trade rival [`raivзl] and enemy. Spain had wanted for years to invade England, and at last got ready a great fleet of ships, an Armada [a:`ma:dз]. It comprised 130 ships and 8 000 seamen. But though the Spanish fleet was larger than the English one, its ships were less effective in the northern waters. The English were at home off their own coasts, their ships were longer and narrower, so they were faster, and besides, their guns could shoot further than the Spanish ones. In July, 1588, the English defeated the Spanish fleet. Some Spanish ships were sunk, the remaining ships were blown northwards by the wind and many of them were wrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and Ireland. For England it was a glorious [`glo:riзs] day.

      Of great concern to Elizabeth was the fact that the war was costing a lot of money. It was financial [fai`næn∫зl] considerations that held up Elizabeth’s conquest of Ireland, which was completed until 1603, the year of her death.

      Elizabeth encouraged English traders to settle abroad and create colonies [`kolзniz]. This policy led directly to Britain’s colonial [kз`lounjзl] empire of the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The first English colonists [`kolзnists] sailed to America, one of the best known was Sir Walter Raleigh [`ro:li || `ra:li || `ræli], who brought tobacco [tз`bækou] back to England. It was he who perpetuated [pз`petjueitid] – увековечил – his  Queen’s name by calling his colony Virginia [vз`d3injз], in honour of ‘The Virgin Queen’. England also began selling West African slaves for the Spanish in America. By 1650 slavery had become an important trade.

      The second half of the 16^th century saw the development of trade with foreign lands. During Elizabeth’s reign so-called chartered [t∫a:tзd] companies were established. A charter gave the company the right to all the business in its particular trade or region. In return for this important advantage the charted company gave some of its profits [`profits] to the Crown. A number of these companies were established during Elizabeth’s reign: the Eastland Company to trade with Scandinavia [,skændi`neivjз] and the Baltic [`boltik], the Levant [li`vænt] Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire [`otзmзn `empaiз], the Africa Company to trade in slaves and the East India Company to trade with India.

      Elizabeth made England prosperous [`prospзrзs]. She managed money very well and gradually paid all England’s debts. In the 1570s she was able to reduce [ri`dju:s] taxes. Elizabethan [i,lizз`bi:θзn] age  is called the golden age of England. It was the time of English Renaissance [ri`neisзns]. There was a wonderful harvest of art, music, poetry and most importantly of theatre. Arts were greatly encouraged by the Queen herself. Edmund Spenser [`edmзnd `spensз] wrote the lyric poem ‘The Fairy Queen’ in honour of Elizabeth. In the theatres plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe [`ma:lou] and Ben Jonson were performed. London was a lively city of 200 000 people, Oxford and Cambridge universities were great centers of Classical study.

      In March, 1603 Elizabeth died. She never married and was childless. And according to her will, James, the son of Mary Stuart succeed her.

Vocabulary

prosperity – процветание

Catherine of Aragon – Екатерина Арагонская

Anne Boleyn – Анна Болейн

lady-in-waiting – фрейлина

the Pope – папа (римский)

illegitimate – незаконнорожденный

Roman Catholic Church – Римско-католическая церковь

monastery – монастырь

Protestant – протестант, протестантский

Reformation Protestantism – реформационное протестантство

Martin Luther – Мартин Лютер

John Calvin – Жан Кальвин