RELI 320 - Reformations and Revolutions in Early Modern Britain, 1485 - 1714

This course aims at a broad analysis of the enthralling history and legacies of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties that ruled England from 1458 to 1714. The objective is to understand how in a quarter century the radical political and religious events, and figures, transformed the social, political and religious structures of England, giving birth to the foundation of England as a united kingdom, and significant world power. The course begins by focusing on the Tudors with emphasis on Henry VIII and the English Reformation, the return to Catholicism under Mary Tudor, the creation of a new Anglican Church under Elizabeth I and its unforeseen consequences. From there, it explores the Stuarts, with attention to the catastrophic English Revolution culminating in the public execution of King Charles I in 1649, and the rise of the English republic that ended with the restoration of monarchy in 1660. The course then reflects on the transformation of the English state following the elite coup d'etat of 1688, the Glorious Revolution, a fundamental watershed that cleared the way for a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary sovereignty, and religious toleration in England.