![]() ![]() Theatre itself was discountenanced by the increasingly influential Puritan strand in the nation. Public entertainments produced crowds, and crowds were feared by the authorities because they might become mobs, and by many ordinary citizens who dreaded that large gatherings might contribute to the spread of plague. There was considerable hostility to the development of the theatre, however. The late 16th century, when William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived and worked in London, was one of the most notable periods in the city's cultural history. This is often considered the high point of the English Renaissance and Tudor culture. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1558 ushered in the Elizabethan era. This demonstrates the crucial political importance of the City at that time, and the small importance of the districts outside the walls. But there was no uprising in the City, and Wyatt surrendered. The following year the new monarch's decision to marry Philip II of Spain provoked an uprising led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who took possession of Southwark, and later reached Charing Cross, on the road from Westminster to the City, which is now regarded as the fulcrum of London, before moving on to Ludgate. On the death of Edward VI in 1553, Lady Jane Grey was received at the Tower of London as queen, but the lord mayor, aldermen, and recorder soon changed course and proclaimed Mary I of England queen instead. Much of this was intensively rebuilt, cramming the extra housing required by London's burgeoning population into every corner. The Dissolution was also highly profitable for favored courtiers who were able to obtain property on generous terms. Christ's Hospital was established in this period, and Bridewell Palace was converted into a children's home and the house of correction for women. Separately, in 1550 the City purchased the manor of Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames and refounded the monastery of St. In the reign of Edward VI, many passed to the City Livery Companies in lieu of payment of crown debts, and in some cases, the rents arising from them were applied to charitable purposes. Shortly before his death, Henry refounded St Bartholomew's Hospital, but most of the large buildings were left unoccupied when he died in 1547. To the west lay the village of Kensington. Henry enclosed former lands of Westminster Abbey as a deer park, the present Hyde Park and St. Henry took Cardinal Wolsey's house at Westminster, York Place, and converted and expanded it in stages until it filled the area of Whitehall with a disorganized ramble. The Charterhouse went to Lord North, Blackfriars to Lord Cobham, and the leper hospital of St Giles to Lord Dudley, while the king took for himself the leper hospital of St James, which was rebuilt as St James's Palace. Holy Trinity Aldgate went to Lord Audley, and the Marquess of Winchester built himself a house in a part of its precincts. The process started in the mid-1530s, and by 1538 most of the larger houses had been abolished. Thus Henry VIII's " Dissolution of the Monasteries" had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. Before the Reformation, more than half of the area of London was occupied by monasteries, nunneries and other religious houses, and about a third of the inhabitants were monks, nuns, and friars. The Reformation produced little bloodshed in London, with most of the higher classes co-operating to bring about a gradual shift to Protestantism. At first, there was panic among the citizens, but the king organized the defense of the city, the rebels dispersed, and Warbeck was soon captured and hanged at Tyburn. In 1497 the pretender Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger brother of the boy monarch Edward V, encamped on Blackheath with his followers. Nonetheless, Tudor London was often tumultuous by modern standards. The Tudor period is considered to have ended in 1603 with the death of Queen Elizabeth. The nobility found that power and wealth were now best won by competing for favor at court, rather than by warring amongst themselves in the provinces as they had so often done in the past. Nonetheless, the comparative stability of the Tudor kingdom had long-term effects on the city, which grew rapidly during the 16th century. Generally, however, he took little interest in enhancing London. He repaid loans on their due dates, which was something of an innovation. He commissioned the celebrated "Henry VII Chapel" at Westminster Abbey, and continued the royal practice of borrowing funds from the City of London for his wars against the French. Henry VII was a resolute and efficient monarch who centralized political power in the crown. Henry Tudor, who seized the English throne as Henry VII in 1485, and married Elizabeth of York, put an end to the Wars of the Roses.
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