Religious order
A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of laypeople and, in some orders, clergy. Religious orders exist in many of the world's religions. In Buddhist societies, a religious order is one of the number of monastic orders of monks and nuns, many of which follow under a different school of teaching, such as Thailand's Dhammayuttika order - a monastic order founded by King Mongkut. A well-known Chinese Buddhist order is the ancient Shaolin order in Ch'an Buddhism and in modern times the Order of Hsu Yun. A Catholic religious institute is a society whose members pronounce vows that are accepted by a superior in the name of the Church and who live a life of brothers or sisters in common. Catholic religious orders and congregations are the two historical categories of Catholic religious institutes.
Religious institutes are distinct from secular institutes, another kind of institute of consecrated life, from lay ecclesial movements. In the Catholic Church, members of religious institutes, unless they are deacons or priests in Holy Orders, are not clergy, but belong to the laity. While the state of consecrated life is neither clerical nor lay, institutes themselves are classified as one or the other, a clerical institute being one that "by reason of the purpose or design intended by the founder or by virtue of legitimate tradition, is under the direction of clerics, assumes the exercise of sacred orders, is recognized as such by the authority of the Church". Well-known Roman Catholic religious institutes, not all of which were classified as "orders" rather than "congregations", include Augustinians, Carmelites, Franciscans, Piarists, Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Congregation of Holy Cross. Several religious orders evolved during the Crusades to incorporate a military mission thus became "religious military orders", such as the Knights of the Order of Saint John.
It is typical of non-monastic religious institutes to have a motherhouse or generalate that has jurisdiction over any number of dependent religious communities, for its members to be moved by their superior general to any other of its communities, as the needs of the institute at any one time demand. In accordance with the concept of independent communities in the Rule of St Benedict, the Benedictines have autonomous abbeys. Hence they can not move -- abbess -- to another abbey. An "independent house" may make a new foundation which remains a "dependent house" until it is granted independence by Rome and itself becomes an abbey; the autonomy of each house does not prevent them being affiliated into congregations – whether national or based on some other joint characteristic – and these, in turn, form the supra-national Benedictine Confederation. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, there is only one type of monasticism; the profession of monastics is considered by monks to be a Sacred Mystery. The Rite of Tonsure is printed in the Euchologion, the same book as the other Sacred Mysteries and services performed according to need.
See also: Active Lutheran orders Martin Luther had concerns with the spiritual value of monastic life at the time of the Reformation. After the foundation of the Lutheran Churches, some monasteries in Lutheran lands and convents adopted the Lutheran Christian faith. Other examples of Lutheran religious orders include the "Order of Lutheran Franciscans" in the United States. A Lutheran religious order following the Rule of St. Benedict, "The Congregation of the Servants of Christ," was established at St. Augustine's House in Oxford, Michigan, in 1958 when some other men joined Father Arthur Kreinheder in observing the monastic life and offices of prayer; this order has strong ties in Germany. In 2011, an Augustinian religious order, the Priestly Society of St. Augustine was established by the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, its headquarters is at Christ Lutheran Church ALCC. Kent Island, Fr. Jens Bargmann, Ph. D. is the Grand Prior. Religious orders in England were dissolved by King Henry VIII upon the separation of the English church from Roman primacy.
For three hundred years, there were no formal religious orders in Anglicanism, although some informal communities – such as that founded by Nicholas Ferrar at Little Gidding – sprang into being. With the advent of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England and worldwide Anglicanism in the middle of the 19th century, several orders appeared. In 1841, the first order for women was established; the first order for men was founded 25 years later. Anglican religious voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, to holding their possessions in common or in trust. There are presently thirteen active religious orders for men, fifty-three for women, eight mixed gender; the Methodist Church of Great Britain, its ancestors, have established a number of orders of Deaconesses
Dunfermline Abbey
Dunfermline Abbey is a Church of Scotland Parish Church in Dunfermline, Scotland. The minister is the Reverend MaryAnn R. Rennie; the church occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts of a large medieval Benedictine abbey, sacked in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation and permitted to fall into disrepair. Part of the old abbey church continued in use at that time and some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain. Dunfermline Abbey is one of Scotland's most important cultural sites; the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity and St Margaret, was founded in 1128 by King David I of Scotland, but the monastic establishment was based on an earlier foundation dating back to the reign of his father King Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, i. e. "Malcolm III" or "Malcolm Canmore", his queen, St Margaret of Scotland. At its head was the Abbot of Dunfermline, the first of, Geoffrey of Canterbury, former Prior of Christ Church, the Kent monastery that supplied Dunfermline's first monks. At the peak of its power it controlled four burghs, three courts of regality, a large portfolio of lands from Moray in the north south to Berwickshire.
In the decades after its foundation the abbey was the recipient of considerable endowments, as seen from the dedication of 26 altars donated by individual benefactors and guilds and it was an important destination of pilgrims because it hosted the reliquary shrine and cult of Saint Margaret of Scotland, from whom the abbey claimed foundation and for which an earlier foundation charter was fabricated. The foundations of the earliest church, namely the Church of the Holy Trinity, are under the superb Romanesque nave built in the 12th century. During the winter of 1303 the court of Edward I of England was held in the abbey, on his departure the following year most of the buildings were burned. During the Scottish Reformation, the abbey church was sacked in March 1560; some parts of the abbey infrastructure still remain, principally the vast refectory and rooms over the gatehouse, part of the former city wall. The nave was spared and it was repaired in 1570 by Robert Drummond of Carnock, it served as the parish church till the 19th century, now forms the vestibule of a new church.
This edifice, in the Perpendicular style, opened for public worship in 1821, occupies the site of the ancient chancel and transepts, though differing in style and proportions from the original structure. Of the monastery there still remains the south wall of the refectory, with a fine window. Next to the abbey is the ruin of Dunfermline Palace part of the original abbey complex and connected to it via the gatehouse. Dunfermline Abbey, one of Scotland's most important cultural sites, has received more of Scotland’s royal dead than any other place in the kingdom, excepting Iona. One of the most notable non-royal names to be associated with the abbey is the northern renaissance poet, Robert Henryson; the tomb of Saint Margaret and Malcolm Canmore, within the ruined walls of the Lady chapel, was restored and enclosed by command of Queen Victoria. The current building on the site of the choir of the old abbey church is a parish church of the Church of Scotland, still with the name Dunfermline Abbey.
The minister is the Reverend MaryAnn R. Rennie; the old building was a fine example of simple and massive Romanesque, as the nave testifies, has a beautiful doorway in its west front. Another rich Romanesque doorway was exposed in the south wall in 1903, when masons were cutting a site for the memorial to the soldiers who had fallen in the Second Boer War. A new site was found for this monument in order that the ancient and beautiful entrance might be preserved; the venerable structure is maintained publicly, private munificence has provided several stained-glass windows. The architecture of Afghan church in Mumbai has the door and the right side of the church taken from the Dunfermline Abbey. Saint Margaret of Scotland was buried here in 1093, her husband Malcolm's remains were disinterred, buried next to Margaret. Duncan II of Scotland 1094 Edgar of Scotland was buried here in 1107 Both Alexander I of Scotland 1124, his queen Sybilla de Normandy 1122, were buried here David I of Scotland was buried here along with his queen Maud, Countess of Huntingdon Malcolm IV of Scotland was buried here in 1165 Gille Brigte, Earl of Angus Adam, Earl of Angus Gille Críst, Earl of Angus Donnchadh, Earl of Angus Alexander III of Scotland, was buried here, with his first wife Margaret of England and their sons David of Scotland and Alexander of Scotland Elizabeth de Burgh, wife of Robert I of Scotland, was buried here in 1327 Robert the Bruce was buried, in 1329, in the choir, now the site of the present parish church.
Bruce’s heart rests in Melrose, but his bones lie in Dunfermline Abbey, where they were reinterred with fitting pomp below the pulpit of the New church. In 1891, the pulpit was moved back and a monumental brass inserted in the floor to indicate the royal vault. Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Robert I of Scotland, was buried here in 1353 Anabella Drummond, wife of Robert III and mother of James I was buried here in 1401 Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany was buried here in 1420 Bishop James Bruce, buried in 1447 George Durie memorial in north aisle Robert Pitcairn memorial in north aisle Birthplace, in 1600, of Charles I, the last British monarch born in Scotland. William Schaw, Master of Work to the Crown of Scotland, wa
Rievaulx Abbey
Rievaulx Abbey ree-VOH was a Cistercian abbey in Rievaulx, situated near Helmsley in the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the great abbeys in England until it was seized under Henry VIII of England in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries; the striking ruins of its main buildings are a tourist attraction and maintained by English Heritage. Rievaulx Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery in the north of England, founded in 1132 by twelve monks from Clairvaux Abbey, its remote location was well suited to the order's ideal of a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world. The abbey's patron, Walter Espec founded another Cistercian community, that of Wardon Abbey in Bedfordshire, on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates; the first abbot of Rievaulx, St William I, started construction in the 1130s. The second abbot, Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, elected in 1147, expanded the buildings and otherwise consolidated the existence of what with time became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, second only to Fountains Abbey in fame.
Under Aelred, the abbey is said to have grown to 500 lay brothers. By the end of his tenure, Rievaulx had five daughter-houses in Scotland; the abbey lies in a wooded dale by the River Rye, sheltered by hills. The monks diverted part of the river several yards to the west in order to have enough flat land to build on, they altered the river's course twice more during the 12th century. The old course is visible in the abbey's grounds; this is an illustration of the technical ingenuity of the monks, who over time built up a profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe. Rievaulx Abbey became one of the greatest and wealthiest in England, with 140 monks and many more lay brothers, it received grants of land totalling 6,000 acres and established daughter houses in England and Scotland. By the end of the 13th century the abbey had incurred debts on its building projects and lost revenue due to an epidemic of sheep scab; the ill fortune was compounded by raiders from Scotland in the early 14th century.
The great reduction in population caused by the Black Death in the mid-14th century made it difficult to recruit new lay brothers for manual labour. As a result, the abbey was forced to lease much of its land. By 1381 there were only fourteen choir monks, three lay brothers and the abbot left at Rievaulx, some buildings were reduced in size. By the 15th century the Cistercian practices of strict observance according to the Rule of Saint Benedict had been abandoned in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle; the monks were permitted to eat meat, more private living accommodation was created for them, the abbot had a substantial private household in what had once been the infirmary. At the time of its dissolution in 1538, the abbey was said to consist of 72 buildings occupied by the abbot and 21 monks, with 102 lay employees, an income of £351 a year; the abbey owned a prototype blast furnace at Laskill, producing cast iron as efficiently as a modern blast furnace. As was standard procedure, the confiscated monastic buildings were rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead.
The site was granted to the Earl of Rutland, one of Henry's advisers, until it passed to the Duncombe family. In the 1750s Thomas Duncombe III beautified his estate by building the terrace with two Grecian-style temples, they are in the care of the National Trust. The abbey ruins are in the care of English Heritage; when awarded a life peerage in 1983, former prime minister Harold Wilson, a Yorkshireman, adopted the title "Baron Wilson of Rievaulx". Aelred of Rievaulx Thomas de Ros, 4th Baron de Ros John de Ros, 5th Baron de Ros List of monastic houses in North Yorkshire Caroe and Partners. A Second Paradise of Wooded Delight: Rievaulx Abbey Conservation Plan Volume 2. English Heritage. Fergusson, Peter. Rievaulx Abbey. Community, Memory. Yale University Press. Woods, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. ISBN 0-89526-038-7. Derbyshire, David. "Henry'Stamped Out Industrial Revolution'". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2014. Specific Official English Heritage site Catholic Encyclopedia article Rievaulx Abbey site of Open Heritage Society
Diocese
The word diocese is derived from the Greek term dioikesis meaning "administration". Today, when used in an ecclesiastical sense, it refers to the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. In the organization of the Roman Empire, the subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. After Christianity was given legal status in 313, the Churches began to organize themselves into dioceses based on provinces, not on the larger regional imperial districts; the dioceses were smaller than the provinces since there were more bishops than governors. Christianity was declared the Empire's official religion by Theodosius I in 380. Constantine I in 318 gave litigants the right to have court cases transferred from the civil courts to the bishops; this situation must have hardly survived Julian, 361-363. Episcopal courts are not heard of again in the East until 398 and in the West in 408; the quality of these courts were low, not above suspicion as the bishop of Alexandria Troas found out that clergy were making a corrupt profit.
Nonetheless, these courts were popular. Bishops had no part in the civil administration until the town councils, in decline, lost much authority to a group of'notables' made up of the richest councilors and rich persons exempted from serving on the councils, retired military, bishops post-450 A. D; as the Western Empire collapsed in the 5th century, bishops in Western Europe assumed a larger part of the role of the former Roman governors. A similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division. For Gaul, Bruce Eagles has observed that "it has long been an academic commonplace in France that the medieval dioceses, their constituent pagi, were the direct territorial successors of the Roman civitates."Modern usage of'diocese' tends to refer to the sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction.
This became commonplace during the self-conscious "classicizing" structural evolution of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, but this usage had itself been evolving from the much earlier parochia, dating from the formalized Christian authority structure in the 4th century. Most archdioceses are metropolitan sees. A few are suffragans of a metropolitan are directly subject to the Holy See. While the terms "diocese" and "episcopal see" are applicable to the area under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of any bishop, a bishop in charge of an archdiocese thereby holds the rank of archbishop. If the title of archbishop is granted on personal grounds to a diocesan bishop, his diocese does not thereby become an archdiocese; as of January 2019, in the Catholic Church there are 2,886 regular dioceses: 1 papal see, 645 archdioceses and 2,240 dioceses in the world. In the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy; the Eastern Orthodox Church calls dioceses episkopē in the Greek tradition and eparchies in the Slavic tradition.
After the English Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as dioceses, not archdioceses: they are the metropolitan bishops of their respective provinces and bishops of their own diocese and have the position of archbishop. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics; these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Church of Norway. From about the 13th century until the German mediatization of 1803, the majority of the bishops of the Holy Roman Empire were prince-bishops, as such exercised political authority over a principality, their so-called Hochstift, distinct, considerably smaller than their diocese, over which they only exercised the usual authority of a bishop.
Some American Lutheran church bodies such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have a bishop acting as the head of the synod, but the synod does not have dioceses and archdioceses as the churches listed above. Rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory; the Lutheran Church - International, based in Springfield, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure, with four dioceses in North America. Its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes; the Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States. In the COGIC, most states are divided into at least three or more dioceses that are each led by a bishop; these dioceses are called "jurisdictions" within COGIC. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the term "bishopric" is used to describe the bishop himself, together with his two counselors, not the ward or congregation of which a bishop has charge. In the United Methodist Church, a bishop is given oversight over a geographical area called an episcopal area; each episcopal area contains one or more an
James Douglas, Lord of Douglas
Sir James Douglas was a Scottish knight and feudal lord. He was one of the chief commanders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, he was the eldest son of Sir William Douglas, known as "le Hardi" or "the bold", the first noble supporter of William Wallace. His mother was Elizabeth Stewart, the daughter of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, who died circa 1287 or early 1288, his father remarried in late 1288. Douglas was sent to France for safety in the early days of the Wars of Independence, was educated in Paris. There he met Bishop of St. Andrews, who took him as a squire, he returned to Scotland with Lamberton. His lands had been awarded to Robert Clifford. Lamberton presented him at the occupying English court to petition for the return of his land shortly after the capture of Stirling Castle in 1304, but when Edward I of England heard whose son he was he grew angry and Douglas was forced to depart. For Douglas, who now faced life as a landless outcast on the fringes of feudal society, the return of his ancestral estates was to become an overriding obsession impacting on his political allegiances.
In John Barbour's rhyming chronicle, The Brus, as much a paean to the young knight as the hero king, Douglas makes his feelings plain to Lamberton. The English, since he slew that man, Are keen to catch him. Now, therefore, if it be your will, With him will I take ill. Through him I hope my land to win Despite his kin; this was a dramatic moment in Scottish history: Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick had played a role in the slaying of John Comyn, a leading Scottish rival, on 6 February 1306 at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries. Bruce claimed the crown of Scotland, in defiance of the English king. Less than seven weeks after the killing in Dumfries, Bruce was crowned King on 25 March, it was while he was on his way to Glasgow to meet with Bishop Wishart, to Scone, the traditional site of Scottish coronations, that he was met by Douglas, riding on a horse borrowed from Bishop Lamberton. The site is traditionally believed to be the summit of a hill in Dumfries and Galloway, now known as the Crown of Scotland.
Douglas explained his circumstances and offered his services. Their friendship more would thrive. Douglas was set to share in Bruce's early misfortunes, being present at the defeats at Methven and Battle of Dalrigh, but for both men these setbacks were to provide a valuable lesson in tactics: limitations in both resources and equipment meant that the Scots would always be at a disadvantage in conventional medieval warfare. By the time the war was renewed in the spring of 1307 they had learnt the value of guerrilla warfare — known at the time as "secret war" — using fast moving equipped and agile forces to maximum effect against an enemy locked into static defensive positions. Douglas's actions for most of 1307 and early 1308, although confined for the most part to his native Douglasdale, were essential to keeping the enemy in the South and freeing Bruce to campaign in the north, he soon created a formidable reputation for himself as a tactician. While Bruce was campaigning in the north against his domestic enemies, Douglas used the cover of Selkirk Forest to mount effective mobile attacks against the enemy.
He showed himself to be utterly ruthless in his relentless attacks on the English garrison in his own Douglas Castle, the most famous of which passed into popular history. Barbour dates this incident to Palm Sunday 1307; some question whether this date is too early as Bruce and his small army were not yet established in south-west Scotland, suggesting Palm Sunday 1308 – 17 April – as a more accurate date. However, Barbour states that at the time of the Douglas Larder that the Scots were not yet established in south-west Scotland and indeed that Douglas was the only one of Bruce's men anywhere in the area, there is reason to think that Barbour's date is correct. Barbour says. With the help of local farmer Thomas Dickson, a former vassal of his father and his small troop were hidden until the morning of Palm Sunday, when the garrison left the battlements to attend the local church. Gathering local support he entered the church and the war-cry'Douglas!"Douglas!' went up for the first time. Some of the English soldiers were killed and others taken prisoner.
The prisoners were taken to the castle, now empty. All the stores were piled together in the cellar; the prisoners were beheaded and placed on top of the pile, set alight. Before departing the wells were poisoned with the carcases of dead horses; the local people soon gave the whole gruesome episode the name of the'Douglas Larder.' As an example of frightfulness in war it was meant to leave a lasting impression, not least upon the men who came to replace their dead colleagues. Further attacks followed by a man now known to the English as'The blak
James IV of Scotland
James IV was the King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 to his death. He assumed the throne following the death of his father, King James III, at the Battle of Sauchieburn, a rebellion in which the younger James played an indirect role, he is regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended in a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden. He was the last monarch from the island of Great Britain to be killed in battle. James IV's marriage in 1503 to Margaret Tudor linked the royal houses of England, it led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when Elizabeth I died without heirs and James IV's great-grandson James VI succeeded to the English throne as James I. James was the son of Margaret of Denmark, born in Holyrood Abbey; as heir apparent to the Scottish crown, he became Duke of Rothesay. He had two younger brothers and John. In 1474, his father arranged his betrothal to the English princess Cecily of York, daughter of Edward IV of England, his father James III was not a popular king, facing two major rebellions during his reign, alienating many members of his close family his younger brother Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany.
James III's pro-English policy was unpopular, rebounded badly upon him when the marriage negotiations with England broke down over lapsed dowry payments, leading to the invasion of Scotland and capture of Berwick in 1482 by Cecily's uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in the company of the Duke of Albany. When James III attempted to lead his army against the invasion, his army rebelled against him and he was imprisoned by his own councillors in the first major crisis of his reign. James IV's mother, Margaret of Denmark, was more popular than his father, though somewhat estranged from her husband she was given responsibility for raising their sons at Stirling Castle, but she died in 1486. Two years a second rebellion broke out, where the rebels set up the 15-year-old Prince James as their nominal leader, they fought James III at the Battle of Sauchieburn on 11 June 1488, where the king was killed, though several sources claimed that Prince James had forbidden any man to harm his father. The younger James was crowned at Scone on 24 June.
However he continued to bear intense guilt for the indirect role which he had played in the death of his father. He decided to do penance for his sin; each Lent, for the rest of his life, he wore a heavy iron chain cilice around his waist, next to the skin. He added extra ounces every year. James IV proved an effective ruler and a wise king, he defeated another rebellion in 1489, took a direct interest in the administration of justice and brought the Lord of the Isles under control in 1493. For a time, he supported Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, carried out a brief invasion of England on his behalf in September 1496. In August 1497, James laid siege to Norham Castle, using his grandfather's bombard Mons Meg. James recognised nonetheless that peace between Scotland and England was in the interest of both countries, established good diplomatic relations with England, emerging at the time from a period of civil war. First he ratified the Treaty of Ayton in 1497. In 1502 James signed the Treaty of Perpetual Peace with Henry VII.
This treaty was sealed by his marriage to Henry's daughter Margaret Tudor the next year, in an event portrayed as the marriage of The Thrissil and the Rois by the great poet William Dunbar, resident at James' court. James was granted the title of Defender of the Faith in 1507 by the Papal Legate at Holyrood Abbey. James maintained Scotland's traditional good relations with France and this created diplomatic problems with England. For example, when rumours that James would renew the Auld alliance circulated in April 1508, Thomas Wolsey was sent to discuss Henry VII's concerns over this. Wolsey found "there was never a man worse welcome into Scotland than I... they keep their matters so secret here that the wives in the market know every cause of my coming." Nonetheless, Anglo-Scottish relations remained stable until the death of Henry VII in 1509. James saw the importance of building a fleet that could provide Scotland with a strong maritime presence. James founded two new dockyards for this purpose and acquired a total of 38 ships for the Royal Scots Navy, including the Margaret, the carrack Great Michael.
The latter, built at great expense at Newhaven, near Edinburgh and launched in 1511, was 240 feet in length, weighed1,000 tons and was, at that time, the largest ship in the world. James IV was a true Renaissance prince with an interest in scientific matters, he granted the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers of Edinburgh a royal charter in 1506, turned Edinburgh Castle into one of Scotland's foremost gun foundries, welcomed the establishment of Scotland's first printing press in 1507. He built a part of Falkland Palace, Great Halls at Stirling and Edinburgh castles, furnished his palaces with tapestries. James was a patron of the arts, including many literary figures, most notably the Scots makars whose diverse and observant works convey a vibrant and memorable picture of cultural life and intellectual concerns of the period. Figures associated with his court include William Dunbar, Walter Kennedy and Gavin Douglas, who made the first complete translation of Virgil's Aeneid in northern Europe.
His reign saw the passing of the makar Robert Henryson. He patronised music at Restalrig using rental money from t
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled, his disagreement with the Pope on the question of such an annulment led Henry to initiate the English Reformation, separating the Church of England from papal authority. He appointed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England and dissolved convents and monasteries, for which he was excommunicated. Henry is known as "the father of the Royal Navy". Domestically, Henry is known for his radical changes to the English Constitution, ushering into England the theory of the divine right of kings. Besides asserting the sovereign's supremacy over the Church of England, he expanded royal power during his reign. Charges of treason and heresy were used to quell dissent, those accused were executed without a formal trial, by means of bills of attainder.
He achieved many of his political aims through the work of his chief ministers, some of whom were banished or executed when they fell out of his favour. Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Richard Rich, Thomas Cranmer all figured prominently in Henry's administration, he was an extravagant spender and used the proceeds from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and acts of the Reformation Parliament to convert into royal revenue the money, paid to Rome. Despite the influx of money from these sources, Henry was continually on the verge of financial ruin due to his personal extravagance as well as his numerous costly and unsuccessful continental wars with King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. At home, he oversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 and following the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 he was the first English monarch to rule as King of Ireland, his contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive and accomplished king.
He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne". He was an composer; as he aged, Henry became obese and his health suffered, contributing to his death in 1547. He is characterised in his life as a lustful, egotistical and insecure king, he was succeeded by the issue of his third marriage to Jane Seymour. Born 28 June 1491 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, Henry Tudor was the third child and second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Of the young Henry's six siblings, only three – Arthur, Prince of Wales, he was baptised by Richard Fox, the Bishop of Exeter, at a church of the Observant Franciscans close to the palace. In 1493, at the age of two, Henry was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, he was subsequently appointed Earl Marshal of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at age three, was inducted into the Order of the Bath soon after. The day after the ceremony he was created Duke of York and a month or so made Warden of the Scottish Marches.
In May 1495, he was appointed to the Order of the Garter. The reason for all the appointments to a small child was so his father could keep personal control of lucrative positions and not share them with established families. Henry was given a first-rate education from leading tutors, becoming fluent in Latin and French, learning at least some Italian. Not much is known about his early life – save for his appointments – because he was not expected to become king. In November 1501, Henry played a considerable part in the ceremonies surrounding his brother's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the youngest surviving child of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile; as Duke of York, Henry used the arms of his father as king, differenced by a label of three points ermine. He was further honoured, on 9 February 1506, by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I who made him a Knight of the Golden Fleece. In 1502, Arthur died at the age of 15 of sweating sickness, just 20 weeks after his marriage to Catherine.
Arthur's death thrust all his duties upon the 10-year-old Henry. After a little debate, Henry became the new Duke of Cornwall in October 1502, the new Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in February 1503. Henry VII gave the boy few tasks. Young Henry was supervised and did not appear in public; as a result, he ascended the throne "untrained in the exacting art of kingship". Henry VII renewed his efforts to seal a marital alliance between England and Spain, by offering his second son in marriage to Arthur's widow Catherine. Both Isabella and Henry VII were keen on the idea, which had arisen shortly after Arthur's death. On 23 June 1503, a treaty was signed for their marriage, they were betrothed two days later. A papal dispensation was only needed for the "impediment of public honesty" if the marriage had not been consummated as Catherine and her duenna claimed, but Henry VII and the Spanish ambassador set out instead to obtain a dispensation for "affinity", which took account of the possibility of consummation.
Cohabitation was not possible. Isabella's death in 1504, the ensuing problems of succession in Castile, complicated matters, her father preferred her to stay in England, but Henry VII's relations with Ferdinand had deteriorated. Catherine was therefore left in limbo for some time, culminating in Prince Henry's rejection of the marriage as soon he was able, at the age of 14. Ferdinand's solution was to make his daugh
