British Culture: Mitschrift (Skript)
Tudor Culture
Gothic style remained longer in Britain
Reformation – end to Church Building -> Secular buildings
Hampton Court Palace (old part) – Tudor kings, queens, Henry Viii – Elisabeth I
Richmond, White Hall - all close to the river – river safest for travel
St- George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle – Tudor arch
Tudor architecture – half-timbered (double-jettied) houses
Italy – painters
Not in England - first after Rafael’s dead
By a German – Hans Holbein – first paintings in England
Dutch – Anthony Van Dyke – portraits – scarce – because of Reformation
Miniature Painting – flourished in England – Nicholas Hilliard
Sir Walter Raleigh – explorer
Pose of the Melancholy Man
Coronation portrait, Ermine Portrait (ermine – royal animal)-> Elisabeth I
Poetry:
Until 1754 – England had a Julian Calendar (ten day behind our Gregorian)
Music: Henry Purcell,
Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Voughan Williams (20th Century)
Consorts – family of the same group
Songs accompanied by lute: John Dowland
Vocal – acapella
Motets – short pieces of sacred choral music: Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, John Bull
Madrigals: Byrd, Thomas, Morley
Virginal – instrument, early keyboard, strings parallel to the keyboard pulled by a thorn (spinet),
Preferably played by young women
Elisabeth
26 when came to the throne
Being suspected in plots against Mary
Peace and stability
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh – her ‘right hand’
‘Golden Age’
Edward Spencer – The Fairy Queen
Reality: serious economic, problems, catholic unrest, 1570 excommunicated from the church
Mary, Queen of Scots – distant cousin, heir to the England throne in case Elisabeth has no children
Married to king of France – alliance – threat by the English
When French King died Mary returned, religious reformation (Scotland) -> John Knox – the Kirk:
-Presbyterianism – Elders (Presbyta)
Mary – accused of murdering her second husband
Elisabeth signed the death penalty – Mary in a red dress (Catholic Martyrs) executed
Westminster – buried opposite of each other
The execution worsened the relations with Spain (Catholic)
Sir Francis Drake – attacked, plundered Spanish ships, encouraged, tolerated by Elisabeth
Colony – Jamestown, Virginia
Elisabeth supported the rebellion against Spain on the continent – the Low Countries (Netherlands)
Philip II. of Spain – Crusade to England, support from the Pope
130 warships, 1588 sailed to England
England – won the battle; English ships were much smaller, could manoeuvre easier, Flag of St. George, fire power superior to the enemy, English send burning ships among the Spanish battleships, havoc
Routes of the Spanish Armada 1588- around Scotland
1588!
Britain as a major naval power in EU, World until WWII, England as a colonial power
1599 – East India Company – monopoly of trade with east India, trading posts on the Indian Subcontinent – important for later English Empire
Elisabeth became a legend, The Armada Portrait
Before 1588 – many wanted to marry her – contracts; remained unmarried, virgin queen, painted her face white – virginity, substitute for Virgin Mary
Became an icon of the nation – The Rainbow Portrait (attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts) symbolic meaning -> inscription non sine sole Iris – no rainbow without the sun, she brings peace after war
Left sleeve – snake wisdom, cunning, cleverness that guarantee peace, prosperity, heart shaped ruby in her mouth – wisdom over passion, she knows her duty, wisely govern the people
Dress – eyes and ears, hears and sees all, knows all
Glove – sign of devotion to the knight, they love to serve her
Elisabeth I – spoke French, Latin, love music, good rhetoric
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester – myth that she had a sexual relationship
How the world looked to the Elisabethan:
Social – new appearance, no longer knights and bishops but nobleman at court – not only a fighter but arts, literature, music, sing, dance
Church had no power
English society more ‘medieval’ – later Renaissance
Majority of the people – hierarchy -> degrees = order
Ontological hierarchy – from god, archangels, angels, man, animals, plants, minerals => man ‘in the middle’ – which is man closer to, the angels or the beasts?
Cosmological; eternal fire, stars, sun, planets, sublunary world – under the moon
The pathology of humours (flouids?) (Hippokrates/ Galen):
Queen – the brain
Other people – other parts of the body
Great chain of being – scale of degree: king god’s representative on earth, brain – for the king
Medieval – god given, Boccaccio – About the Downfall of Famous Men , wheel of fortune – raise and bring down
During Elisabethan times – ‘yes, Macbeth is punished but he is interesting’, fall of a fascinating figure
The New Globe Theatre, London
Replica of a Elisabethan Era theatre, aerial view – round, it’s partly roofed, productions at daylight, afternoon, open air, distracted people from work, people sitting, standing, leaning on the stage to be closer, chairs on the stage for the VIP’s, participation of the audience, addressing the audience
1 penny – pit (roundlings in the pit)
2 pennies – sit in the gallery, extra penny for a cushion
Both for the ordinary and for the academic, rich
Something for all of them in the play
Public theatres (there were other ones)
Elisabeth had her own theatre at court
Theatre was not considered for intellectual, educated, low repute
Distraction from the Bible
Outside the city wall, right side of the river
Animals fighting – bulls vs dogs, bloody fucking shit
Theatre companies – Shakespeare was a share-holder, became rich
Trap door – ghosts
Balcony – balcony scene in Romeo and Julia; otherwise musicians, dancing
The stage was bare – no scenery
Henry V – Battle of Agincourt – how to put a battle on stage – fighting, horses, … -> appeal to the imagination, ‘this is the scene blabla, use your imagination’
Costumes – elaborate form, scandalised
Dress-code
Common people impersonating kings, queens, by dress – scandalous
Female roles played by men – probably because of puritanism
(on the continent already actresses)
Young women disguised as men
After the Restauration late 17th – female actresses
Civil war and Restoration
17th century – Stuarts
Elisabeth died in 1603, succeeded by James VI. Of Scotland -> James I. of England (son of Mary, king of Scots)
UK/SCOT – ‘united’ under the monarch but still separate
1707 – Union of parliaments
Stuart Kings
(11years military dictatorship)
James VI- against tobacco and witchcraft. Passions young men and theology
One of young men – George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham (hated)
Elisabeth never claimed divine right of kings but James did
France – absolute monarchy
Relations between the king and parliament (now representative of ‘all’ people) – conflict – civil war
Money – who will pay for government
Taxation – during war the king could raise taxes, wanted power during the time of peace->
‘royal prerogative’
James concluded peace with Spain to calm down catholic unrest – it continued *Gun powder plot 1605, 5th November*
Guy Fawkes Day
James died 1625 – son even more convinced that the king is divine (Charles I)
Charles I. by Anthonis van Dyck (Dutch painter)
Liked portraits on horseback
Assembled the greatest art collection – Inigo Jones (also architect)– masks – Puritans saw them as ‘dirty?’ – Surveyor of the King’s Works
Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace by Inigo Jones (Palladian Style – Renaissance with a delay, imitation of Antiquity) – Peter Paul Rubens – apotheosis of James
The Wilton Diptych
James raised in Calvinist times
Charles – Catholic leaning (married to a Catholic, Antonieta)
William Laud (Archbishop of Canterbury)
Charles – conflict with parliament (radical Protestants)
Petition of Right (1628) (important for the later constitution) – Charles had to sing the document
-No to taxation without parliament consent (MOODLE)
NO – lack of enforcement of habeas corpus – ‘you shall/ have a body in court’ – a person that is arrested has to be brought to trial as soon as possible and not let him rot in prison
No forced billeting of troops – if the king raises an army – ‘you must feed them, host, accommodate’ –NO
1629 – Charles decided to rule without parliament for 11 years – Years of Personal Rule
1640 – had to call in parliament – rebellion in Scotland – Calvinists against king – money – taxation – parliament – dismissed parliament – eventually civil war 1642
England was not involved in the war that devastated the continent (13 years War 1635-1648)
Merchants richer
Landless poverty quarter of the population – settlement to America
The Tichborne Dole – festival
CIVIL WAR
Power / religious war
Puritans (parliament) – saw themselves as God’s accessory
Royalist Cavaliers vs. Parliamentarian Roundheads
Prince Rupert of the Rhine vs. Oliver Cromwell
Divided families
Battles:
Marston Moor (1643)
Naseby (1645)
New Model Army
King executed on 30 January 1649 - first English king to be publicly executed
England (Britain) now a Republic – Wales, Scotland, Ireland – part of the republic – Cromwell
Cromwell hated in Ireland – quenched the rebellion in Ireland
Commonwealth of England (all included)
Cromwell – declared himself Lord Protector – lacked civilian support
Quakers – the society of friends
Quakers – quake before the power of god
Denied civil authority
Persecuted after restauration after 1660
George Fox (created Quakers)
William Penn founded Pennsylvania
1658 – Cromwell died
Charles II of England (1660 – 1685) – Restauration
Reopening of theatres …
Charles II – related to his people, charming, easy-going, womanizer, … not the Puritan ideal
Charles lived before the throne in exile in France – Louis XIV if France – I am the state
Decenters –Non conformists
Parliament now dominated by Anglicanism
Clarian Code
Catholic, decenters could not hold public office, attend university – acts
Economy – Eland – largest merchant fleet in EU
Colonies – goods, raw materials – then processed in England (manufactured) re-exported to Europe and colonies
Consumer society
War against the Dutch
1665 – Great Plague of London 1/5 killed, (80.000 dead)
1666 – The Great Fire of London – wooden buildings ‘a candle had fallen’
Christopher Wren – famous architect, plans to rebuild London after fire, no money, but rebuild a building ; Monument to the Great Fire of London (shape of a candle)
-St. Paul’s Cathedral rebuilt in the classicist style by C. Wren
Royal Hospital for veterans of the navy at Greenwich, C. Wren
Samuel Pepys – Diary of Samuel Pepys – civil servant in navy, member of parliament, fashionable
Wrote in cipher
Charles II. –converted to Catholicism on dead bed
Conspiracy theories about Catholicism – Charles brother James II – was openly Catholic
James II – try to convert England back to Rome, daughters Mary (Protestant) married William III of Orange – 1688 no blood shed
Glorious revolution of 1688 – James fled, William III and Mary II claimed the throne (ruled from 1689), accepted The Bill of Rights (1689) ->
The Battle of the Boyne (1690) – Ireland vs England, Ireland lost, decisive event
Orange marching 12 July
Intellectual figures
Francis Bacon – Novem Organon Scientarum (1620), idea about knowledge – based on experience, observing (John Lock –Empiricism)
Thoams Hobbes – Leviathan (biblical monster)(1651) – authoritarian superstate – if there is no authority we would tear each other apart
John Locke – Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) – most important document of Empiricism – nothing is mind which hasn’t been experienced before, social thinker Two Treaties of Government (1689) state should not interfere
In contrast – everybody is morn with intellectual capacity – Rene Descartes Rationalism
John Milton – Paradise Lost (1667), biblical story in the form of the classical epic, ‘justify the ways of God to men’- Satan attractive
knew Latin, Greek, Italian, French – translator ‘minister of propaganda’
Theatres in London – West End – opened there after Restauration, indoor, space for fewer, entertainment for privileged, female roles by actresses
Nell Gwynne – mistress of Charles II, star actress
Isaac Newton – Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687) – one of foundation texts of mother physics, laws of gravity
Political parties – Party System
Royalist Cavaliers -> Tories (Irish Catholic Bandits – Conservative Party)
Parliamentarians/Roundheads – Whigs (Scottish Protestants ‘whiggamaire’ horse- driver, Liberal party)
British Culture, 09.05.2016
The 18th Century
Wars in Europe, Britain world power
Party system with the Prime Minister as the leading political figure
Industrial revolution / ‘agricultural revolution’ / revolution of transport
Secular society – worldly pleasure and arts
Mary’s sister => Queen Anne -1702-1714 alliance against France – expansion policy
Wars against France:
9 years war (1688-1697)
War of the Spanish succession (1701 – 1713)
War started because: Spain Charles II died, French wanted power
France vs English – in Canada – Queen Ann’s War – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough – Blindheim (eng Blenheim) Southern Germany – Churchill’s profits – Blenheim Palace (Woodstock/Oxfordshire)
Prince Eugene of Savoy (Churchill’s commander) – built Belvedere
Peace – Treaty of Utrecht 1713 – Britain gained land in Canada (map on slides), gains in the Caribbean, also Gibraltar -> British empire rose, people aware – newspapers (important medium)
1765 – 7 years’ war against France – started with Fredrick II the Great of Prussia (map on slide) – not only on the continent but in North AM, Caribbean, important colonial markets, 1760’s 40% English products exported to colonies, vital for economy, imports: timber (North America) for ships, coffee, tobacco, sugar (Caribbean) – plantation worked by slaves from Africa – Britain got ALL the French land in Canada – Quebec, Maritines – ‘ethnic cleansing’ went to the South (French and Indian War – support of the natives)
Wolfe English general beat the French in Quebec, Wolfe like Christ sacrificed himself for the people
Natives as noble savages
War fought in India – Robert Clive – East India Company (founded 1599) – trading posts on the Indian subcontinent – today Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta
Local princes ‘maharajas’ – cooperated with Britain
French were doing the same
1763 – Treaty of Paris
Sir William Pitt the Elder - political figure
George III – the loss of 13 American Colonies, 1760 – came to the throne, reigned until 1820, during later years he became the mad king (1810 – 1820 George Prince of Wales reigned as The Prince Regent, after 1820 dead of George he reigned as king) - Regency
American colonies – far more radically Protestant than Britain, 75% radical Protestant , 10% in Britain
Defending North colonies cost too much, Britain wanted to raise taxes, but no taxation without representation, colonies boycotted British goods
18 April 1775 first shots in the American War of Independence The Battle of Lexington and Concord
British response not organised
Declaration of Independence 4th July 1776 - Drafting Committee – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman - presented the draft to congress
The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis in Yorktown 1781 – French supported the American militaries
Internal Politics
Glorious Revolution 1688 – no blood shared
Wigs – Protestant vs Tories – House of Stuart Catholic, De-centres
Press, political debate in coffee houses
Civil service, new department – customs, post office, naval office
Commercial dominance – merchant fleet
1692 – Bank of England founded
Gap between rich and poor widened
Society obsessed with property
Act of Union 1707 – between parliaments between England and Scotland – parliament of GB with Scottish representatives – Great Britain ‘emerged’
Scottish nationalism (Scottish parliament 2000)
House of Hanover – German – first was George I., Elector of Hanover, spoke no English, alliance with the Wigs (first to do so)
Robert Walpole – major political figure – first prime minister 1721 ‘the time of the Robinocracy’. Networking, management, ability to manipulate parliament through friends and family
The Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 & 1745 – supporters of the Stuarts (James ‘Jacob’) – Tories party of the Landowners, Wigs- business, trade
Several plots supported by France, James Francis Edward Stuart – The Old Pretender (claims the throne is his)
Charles Edward Stuart
Scots massacred by British The Battle of Culloden 1746
Three peaceful revolutions
The Agricultural Revolution
Jethro Tull –
Charles Viscount Townshend – Four year Crop Rotation
Rectangular fields (enclosed fields) – early machinery, did away with the commons (before one could raise one, two sheep cows on free land) – migration from rural areas to cities, de-population
Transformation to an urban nation
More food available, raise in the population (cheap food, absence of epidemics) – Low lands, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Midlands, London with half a million largest in Europe
The Industrial Revolution
Midlands took shape – Birmingham
Shift from individual products to mass products made in factories
Wool
Machines for processing of textiles
Spinning Jenny,
Sir James Watt 1769 – first efficient steam engine
Creation of new class – industrialists
Revolution of Transport
Better roads, royal mail express coach service, macadamised road, safer journey, supervised
The Bridgewater Canal
British Culture and Society, 23.05.2016
18th century
Social life
Pursuit of power, wealth, pleasure
St. James’ Park, Vauxhall Gardens, the Chinese House & the Company in Masquerade in Ranelagh Gardens – Chinoiserie
Natural beauty of England – countryhouses, fox hunting,
joys of family life – conversation pieces (painting) –George Romney
Leisure classes
Housing overcrowded, lack of sanitation, chucking garbage out of the windows on the street, stench, not washing daily, upper classes used perfume, noise, diseases, high infant mortality – ¼ children lived to become an adult, theft – severely punished – hanged for stealing a silver handkerchief, hangings as entertainment – Tyburn, fashionable people went to watch people in asylums
Purchase of land – houses with landscape parks; foxhunting
George Stubbs – painting rich people on horses, horseracing
Georgian Country Houses
Amphibian culture – aristocracy lived in town houses in winter and in the summer in the countryside
‘to go to London for the season’ – for winter
No nobility in courts, -> ministers
The Grand Tour – tour of continental Europe – Paris, via Alps, Italy – Rome, Florence, Venice, then Switzerland, southern Germany, Netherlands; educational trip; gentlemen returned with loose morals and ‘stds’, once in a lifetime, then they went to spas
Hot Springs – The Royal Crescent at Bath, Tunbridge Wells
Sea bathing – Brighton and Scarborough
Women taken into the water with ‘bathing machines’, bathed with almost full dresses
Aristocratic code of politeness
Middle Class
Bars, coffee houses, pubs – Kit Cat Club, Scriblerus Club – Tories; Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay
Weekly periodicals – The Tatler, The Spectator – topical issues – philosophical, political discussions
Looked upon with suspicion – especially if they were liberal
Religion
Rise of Evangelicalism – the cult of feeling, sentimental, no place for Church of England
Clerical tithes increased – 1/10 of harvest given to the parish priest – he lived on the tithes (dajatve)
Evangelicalism – preached to ordinary people, ‘the church of workers’
Church of England – the older child inherits the land, the younger – church or military, could hardly connect to the common, church of England lost its appeal
John Wesley – founder of Methodism – to live according to the method in the Bible, antiauthoritarian as Puritanism – continue their ideas,
Sunday schools
Schools were controlled by the church – not for de-centers – founded their own schools – taught natural sciences
Only for men – drinking, sodomy (at university), those who wanted to study seriously went to Scotland – more progressive – natural science
England – no medicine, English
Edinburgh – the Athens of the North – Old Town – Medieval part; New Town – in the 18th century
Shift in Sensibilities – from rational to sensitive – Neo-Classicism
Writers looked to classical antiquity it ended as the era of Romanticism – looked into their own national history – folk poetry, ballads
Emphasis on emotion, feeling
1700 1800
Wit – follow models imagination
Understanding sentiment feeling
Taste – poetry, literature, follows rules Intuition
Learning Originality, genius
Society – poets in intellectual circles individual – alone in nature
City – literature urban country – detested the crowd
Regular beauty the sublime
Classical antiquity the middle ages
The Age of Reason – The Age of Sentiment
Kant – use your understanding, in continental Europe – reformation, Protestants forced to leave (Germany)
Lawrence Stern – A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy – journey of a poor clergyman
Sentimental Comedy – tears are easily produced than laughter
Novels: Henry Mackenzie – The Man of Feeling
Samuel Richardson: Pamela, Clarissa -> middle class morals; middle class became more and more important – letters for sentiment, Pamela middle class – her morals should be followed
Poets rather out in nature than in the city
Shift in attitude towards nature
Before – biblical terms – man to rule, use it, structure it; wild nature – chaos, world after the fall, sin
Man had to toil, land had to be conquered
Paradise – harmony – 18th century symmetrical parks – in the beginning was order than came chaos
Versailles, Belvedere gardens
Now – wild nature became attractive, no longer seen as chaotic, but picturesque, sublime
The sublime – beauty that also inspired fear, ‘imagine yourself standing on a mountain, awe inspiring and beautiful (sublime – Das Erhabene), not symmetrical beauty
Picturesque – not so wild, landscape scene as if it came out of a painting
Claude Glass – changed the structure of the landscape if you looked to it
New design of gardens – Landscape parks – gardens that looked like natural landscapes
Also symmetrical parks – both existed at the time
Walls, fences were sunk – called ha-ha ; so as not to steal your view
Lancelot ,Capability’ Brown – Prior Park, Bath, Stourhead, Wiltshire
Architecture – imitation of pillars (neoclassical style)
Castle Howard, Yorkshire
Chiswick House, London
Painting
A person before a landscape, portraits of children – represented the unspoilt, the natural innocence
Sir Joshua Reynolds – The Age of Innocence
‘let’s go back to nature’ – breastfeeding among the higher class; before – a wet nurse
Thomas Gainsborough - Mr and Mrs Andrews, depicted in the land they own, they are showing off their wealth, expressions on their faces – yes we are fucking rich
Gainsborough – Mr and Mrs William Hallett – new style of painting upper class women
Sport scenes
George Stubbs –painting of winning race horses
William Hogarth – Self Portrait with Pug
Rake – man gambling, whoring, drinking
Bankrupt – you went to prison
Marriage for money
Design and HAndycraft
Thomas Chippendale – Joshiah Wedgwood – furniture
British Culture, 30.05.2016
19 century
Dynamic, laid foundations of the new world
From rural to urbanised society
Started with Napoleonic wars, ended with Britain as the leading power
Rise of the middle class, intellectual development – disorientation, lack of certainty
The French Revolution
Enthusiasm among intellectuals, also poets Wordsworth, Thomas Paine – The Rights of Man 1791
Edmund Burke – Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790); supported the American Revolution, saw French revolution as anarchy, disaster
Thomas Carlyle – The French Revolution (1837) – lively pictures of the rebellion
Ancien regime
Charles Dickens – Tale of Two Cities
Why no revolution in Britain? Constitutional monarchy, not such a despotic regime as in France, not so poor as in France, middle classes were not ‘discontented’ prone to revolution, carriers of the industrial revolution