English Renaissance

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The rise of modern scienze: Copernicus , Kepler, Galileo.
This period was characterized by important discoveries in the sciences:
-Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543)
-Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
-Galileo Galilei ( 1564-1642)
Copernicus was a Polish astronomer. Who discovered that the earth and the other planets orbited around the sun and that the earth spun on its own axis. His theory was opposite to that of Ptolemy according to which the earth was the fixed centre of the universe around which the other planets and sheers revolved in concentric circles. It was published in his “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” in 1543.
Kepler was a German astronomer who rected Copernicus theory. He demonstrated that the planets did not move in circles, as Copernicus believed but in elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus. This was the fush of Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion. According of the second law Kepler: the velocity of the orbiting planets waried in relation to how far they were from the sun.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer who discovered the importuned of acceleration. Only movement in a shoright lie was “natural”. Galileo shouted that every lady, if left alone, warred continue to wore in a straight lui . A change of speed or director was prorated by an outside force acting on the body. Galileo was publicly fried in 1633. The consequence of these discoveres was the rinozioul of the centre from its position of geometrical pre-eminence. The universe was longer considered as a fixed order but as a dipianst system.
Kepler and Galileo corrected the theory by Copernicus.
Life of Galileo.
Galileo is perhaps the first real modern scientist. As the first astronomer to use a telescope, he was able to observe the movements of the planets. He understood that the planets and star were not fixed to crystal spheres as the medieval astronomers had believed from their readings of Aristotle, but were free floating bodies. In 1600 , the philosopher Giordano Bruno had been burnt alive at the stake for saying that God did not exist in physical space but only in the soul. When Galileo himself was brought before the inquisition , he publicly renounced his findings, although he managed to get his great work, the Discorsi out of Italy and into the hands of scientist in northern Europe, among whom was Isaac Newton . Bertolt Brecht “life of Galileo” is interesting in the way that it considers Galileo’s life and situation as a missed opportunity.
The English Renaissance.
The Renaissance developed in northern Europe during the 16th century. The Renaissance was filtered by the reformation. In the English society Church’s power and influence were reduced, thanks to the reform instituted by Henry VIII. This spirit of reform continued Elizabeth I . at her death, her successor , the Catholic James I , did not support the Renaissance spirit . the English Renaissance was characterized by an explosion of knowledge in many fields: philosophical ,literary , moral , social , scientific and religious. The Renaissance take its name from a rebirth in the study of classical cultures (Latin, Greek and Hebrew).
The spirit of Renaissance curiosity.
The Renaissance is considered the beginning of the modern age. It rediscovered the past , particular the ideals and civilations of ancient Rome and Greece. The spread of learning was encouraged by the printing press which was brought to England by William Caxton in 1476. Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) published a new Latin version of the Greek Bible in 1516. he hoped that latin might become a lingua franca (a langue used between different nations).
The Centrality of man.
A cultural movement called Humanism , rinsed in this period. Man was considered the centre of the universe and the centre of artistic , cultural and moral enquiry.
From Tudor to Stuats.
The Tudor.
HenryVII ( 1485-1509) was the first Tudor King. He defeated Richard III last of the house of Yourk, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. During his reign, England went through a period of financial and governmental stability . He restructured the patronage system, alternately rewarding and punishing (through fines) his nobles to make sure they could not become rivals to this power were laid and a mercantile fleet was Henry VII laid the foundations of English Humanism.
Henry VIII (1509-1547).
When Henry VII died , his son Henry VIII came to the throne. His accession was considered the beginning of a new Golden Age.
Henry married six times , in the end he had jus one legitimate son and two daughters. They becam , king Edward VI( 1547-53) , queen Mary I (1553-8) and queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603).
The reformation.
The reformation took place in the first half of the 16th century. It was led by Martin Luther, who in attaching his 95 theses to the door of his church in Wittenberg in 1517 gave birth to the Protestant Church.
Henry VIII wanted to divorce the first of his unfornate six wives , Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of the king of Spain, who had bore him only a daughter Mary , in order to marry Anne Boleyn.
This brought Henry into conflict with the Catholic Church and Pope Clement VII who excommunicated him. When he failed to obtain a divorce , Henry .ended the rule of the Catholic church in England passing the Act of supremacy (1534) and declaring himself supreme head of the church of England . Henry VIII closed the monasteries that for centuries had been the main centres of culture in England. They were transformed into state schools with Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII had another daughter, Elizabeth , who would become queen Elizabeth I, after the terrible reign of Henrys first daughter Mary . in 1536Anne Boleyn was executed and the king married another four times. His third wife Jane Seymour provided him with a male heir . Edward VI.
The age of religious persecution.
Edward VI succeeded his father at the age of ten but he prematurely died in 1553. In 1549 the first Book of common Prayer was issued. It contained players written in English.
Persecutions of roman catholic reaction against Protestantism when his sister Mary succeeded him.
Mary I was known as “bloody Mary” because of her persecution of Protestants in the attempt to restore the Catholic religion of her mother, Catherine of Aragon. In 1554 she married the Catholic sovereign Philip II of Spain. This marriage provoked some wars with France and the loss of the last English possession in the country. Mary was childless and when she died in 1558 her half-sister Elizabeth came to the throne. She restored Protestantism.
The reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
In 1558 Elizabeth became queen . During her reign (1558-1603) the English Renaissance reached its highest point . the reign of Elizabeth was characterized by considerable sense of stability and unity. In 1570 Pope Pils V issued a bull that declared Elizabeth excommunicated and urged loyal catholics to depose her.
Elizabeth suppressed Mary plots against her the most famous was that led by her cousin Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland a pretender to the English Throne. Mary Stuart was eventually executed in 1587 after being imprisoned for twenty years. Elizabeth ‘s reign coincided with the beginning of the British Empire. England was one of the most powerful nations in Europe. Spain was a rival. Elizabeth greatest military success was the victory of the English fleet against the Spanish armada in 1588.
THE myth of Elizabeth and the dream of the reformed empire.
Elizabeth never married and for this reason was known as the virgin Queen.
Mary poets of her court attempted to flatte her such as Edmund Spenser did in his epic poem “ the faerie Queen”.
Elizabeth was considered the leader of a reformed empire purified of the corruptions of the empire of Spain and the Roman church. Elizabeth was compare to the idealised woman of medieval country love. She was considered the central around with everything revolved. This reflected the medieval Ptolemaic theory of earth at the centre of the cosmos around with the sun and the other planets turned. Infect the church during the Renaissance considered heretical the discover of the Copernicus.
The battle for naval supremacy.
During the 16th century Britain and Spain were England in an Empire building race a naval battle began between Britain and Spain during the reign of Elizabeth I. a series of pirate raids took place by English adventures such as Francis Drake and John Hawkins. They attached vessels that carried Peruvian mined silver back to Seville along the coast of Spanish American. This silver was used to finance the war against England. In 1588 the English navy defeated the Spanish armada sent by Philip II of Spain to invade England . England was the greatest naval power in the world.
The years after Elizabeth.
Elizabeth died in 1603 childless. The English throne went to the son Mary Stuart, James VI of Scotland who became James I of England . He started the Stuard’s dynasty.
His reign was characterized b y the growth of the Empire. The first newspapers and the first authorised version of the bible appeared in 1611.
James I belived in the divine right of kings that’s to say the kings were descended from gods and had absolute power as god’s representatives on earth. In 1605 some Catholic extremist made an attempt on James I and on Parlaments. They attempted to blow life up Parlament using gunpowder. This conspirations was known as the gunpowder plot. James nevertheless James I survived.
LITERATURE DURING THE RENAISSANCE.
During the renaissance writers and poets felt and explored the winds of chaos and uncertainty that signalled the transition to the modern age. In English literature the theatre particularly the works of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster and Jonson best expressed these new challenges. The poetry of the early Renaissanc was highly influenced by the sonnets od Petrarch and like that of the medieval period it tended towards idealisation. In England during this period , prose writing developed in the form of essay writing connectes to the idea of religious and moral reform.
The influence of Plato.
Literature was influenced by the ideas of the greek philosopher Plato whereas Aristotle was the dominant figure in medieval philosophy.
Plato believed that our knowledge of the world came not through the senses but through a type of reminiscence or memory of what he called ideas everything that existed in nature corresponded to its idea OF WHICH IT WAS AN INFERIOR BUT FAITHFUL COPY.
Plato described our sensory experience of the world as being similar to that of people trapped in a cave who can n only see the shadows of things and not the things themselves in their essence. According to Plato say the philosopher is he who goes outside and sees things in direct sunlight. The sun is important for Plato singer it represents the source of truth. True essence of false appearance. According to Plato we must be able to judge true essence from false appearance.