Thomas Cromwell Was The Driving Force In The Break With Rome

Firstly, the colonists were justified for breaking away from Britain because they were unfairly taxed without any representation in the Parliament. People were furious when King George first imposed the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was the first tax the colonists were ever given, and they were greatly disturbed (Document 2). The colonists were unhappy with the idea of a tax that they did not agree on and felt that they didn’t owe Britain anything. They believed that they were being unfairly taxed and resisted the Stamp Act as much as they could. Eventually the Townshend Acts were also added in attempt to raise revenue for Britain. The Townshend Acts taxed lead, paper, oil, glass,

There are many interpretations of Oliver Cromwell as he lived in the 17th century, he was seen differently at that time than he is seen today. There are different interpretations because historians might have been biased because they were on one side at that time and unbiased now. Another reason could be that people at that time knew more about him then people do now. However, religion and nationality changed people’s minds too.

One reason for the break with Rome was political reasons (power) because after losing most his finance in battle against the king of Spain, Francis I, who was angry at Henry for embarrassing his aunt Catherine of Aragon who at this time was Henry’s wife. When Henry found out the amount of power the Catholic Church in England had, he thought if he changed the Religion in England the amount of Power he would have if he was the head of it would increase by at least 1

The colonists were right to break away because the acts imposed by Britain were unfair. As stated in Document B of the DBQ, acts like The Townshend Act and The Stamp Act were unconstitutional and not reasonable. They were, “Destructive to these colonies”(Document B), and Britain used them to dump their duties upon the colonies. The were unfair because the colonists, who were already working for Britain, had to pay for the weighty debts of a war they never chose to begin. The Proclamation

The first reason that the colonists were justified in breaking away from the British was because the British Parliament and soldiers made unjust decisions for their own personal gain and abused their powers over the colonists. As stated in Document 2 of the packet “Document-Based Questions--Path to Revolution”, the British parliament taxed the colonists for the sole purpose of levying money upon them (Stamp Act). The taxes was also mainly used to pay for the French-Indian War, which seems like it justifies the British taxing, except for the fact that it was taxes without representation, which can be labeled as tyranny. This supports my argument, as the American colonists didn’t like having to pay for the war, and let Britain take money away from them for profit. Another piece of evidence that supports my claim would be that on Document 10 of the packet it was stated that, “We have understood it be

There were several reasons colonists wanted to break away from the English. A large reason the colonists wanted to break away from English rule was the amount of high taxes that they had to pay for almost everything, because they essentially had to foot the bill for a war. The colonists also had no say on the laws that were passed by a government that was across an ocean, thus the phrase “No Taxation without Representation.” Paying high taxes and having no say in what laws were passed obviously made the colonists angry with the British government, but another factor was the British would not let the colonists trade with anyone else besides them. This means that all trades going in or out could only be done with Britain. Forcing the colonists to pay whatever the British merchants wanted to set their price at because there was no major competition. All of these things as well as not letting the colonists expand past the Mississippi River, would calumniate into a revolution in which the colonists would form their own government and finally fulfill their wish of breaking away from British rule.

Henry VIII's Reformation In 1529 Henry VIII started to reform the Catholic Church in England, however there are different opinions as to why he began these controversial changes. The orthodox view concurs that there was a vast anti-clerical feeling in 16th century England; the corrupt church was unpopular with the masses. However the revisionist view claims that the reformation was actually due to politics. Henry needed a male heir and therefore needed a divorce.

It emphasised the part political greed placed on individuals sparking rebellion as “a last-ditch attempt by those who were out of favour at court to restore their political fortunes by seizing on the discontents and puzzlements of others”. The Earl of Essex had gained a good reputation and worked his way up to be Elizabeth’s favourite courtier. However, he was short of money and so attempted to rule the court and oppose his rival Cecil which caused the Queen to turn against him. On one occasion during a heated Privy Council debate on the problems in Ireland, the Queen reportedly “cuffed an insolent Essex round the ear, prompting him to half draw his sword on her”. The incident meant Essex felt he had been publically shamed and was sent from court consequently losing all his influence at court. Political factions were central to the cause of this revolt as the Earl resented the influence that Robert Cecil had at court and thought by showing force in the form of a rebellion would lead the Queen to readmit him to court and to her favour. The Essex rebellion is very significant in showing how the corruption of the patronage system by Essex, and the dominance of Cecil, continued to affect politics after the Tudor period had ended into James’ I reign where political instability let to the Catholic dominated Main, Bye and Gunpowder plots. This underpins the argument that

During the 1500s, the citizens of England were overcome with multiple transitions of religion due to their monarch. The first notable instance of religious alteration was when Henry the VIII took the throne. During his reign, he ruled the Act of Supremacy, which separated England from the Catholic Church, and so Henry VIII established the Church of England, of which he was the leader of. This individual action indirectly prompted many other spiritual changes that would take place in England during the years to come, led by his successors. Even if his ruling may have ultimately been positive, it is utterly clear that at the time, Henry VIII's reformation was motivated purely by his selfish desires for a male heir. This was very dissimilar to Martin Luther's reformation, which was led by Luther's faith and loyalty to god. Though the two men both transformed the perception of religion in Europe drastically, the advancements were made for vastly different reasons. (#8)

He closed down many Catholic monasteries to seize their wealth. When he was not permitted to divorce his first wife by the Pope at the time, he split from the Catholic church entirely. Louis may have thrown several parties with the money he had collected through very high taxes, but Henry’s actions negatively helped kick-start the strenuous relationship between the Catholics and Protestants of England. This led to a very disastrous war that nearly tore Europe apart.

A tiny group of Puritans, called the Separatists, vowed to break away from the Church of England, but King James I, who was head of both state and church in England from 1603-1625, threatened to harass them off the land because he perceived that they would eventually rebel against him.

By contrast, by the 1930’s and 1940’s many historians thought Cromwell was a cruel military dictator. This was because in the 1930s and 1940s most scholars saw him as a treacherous dictator, along the lines of Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler. In recent decades nearly all the scholars have been favourable. During his lifetime, some areas painted him as a fraud encouraged by power — for example, The Machiavellian Cromwell and The Juglers Discovered, both part of an attack on Cromwell by the Levellers after 1647; present him as a Machiavellian figure. After his death and public humiliation there were many accusations and a few encouraging descriptions, such as John Spittlehouse 's A Warning Piece Discharged which compared him to Moses, rescuing the English by taking them securely through the Red Sea of the civil wars.[8] The great royalist historian Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1667) acknowledged that Cromwell "will be looked ahead by posterity as a brave bad man". Clarendon argued that Cromwell 's rise to power had been helped not only by his Great Spirit and energy, but also by his brutality. The nobility was particularly argumentative to Cromwell, in large part because of his well-built request to the ordinary yeoman.

Oliver Cromwell is – and has always been – one of the most controversial characters in British and Irish history. There are few people in Great Britain and Ireland today who have not yet heard of Oliver Cromwell and either loathe him or see him as a hero. Yet, the world is not black and white and so is the truth about Cromwell. In order to understand his role in both countries as a whole, one has to look at the perspective of both nations, Cromwell’s beliefs and his motives.

King Henry VIII was an important figure in helping to kick start the Reformation in England, even though it was not his intent. His break with the Papacy and his constantly changing ideas on how the new Church of England should be run gave the Protestants the foothold they needed to gain popularity in Europe. Although his intentions were purely politically motivated, he started a change in the way the layman viewed the church and how it should be run.

These failures all added greatly to the eventual failure of the interregnum however there were religious factors which added to the failure as well; the Penruddock uprising was a royalist uprising which was able to knock the confidence of the protector although it was dealt with quickly and efficiently by Oliver Cromwell it made him