William B. Willcox's The Age of Aristocracy Essay

The Age of Enlightenment saw many great changes in Western Europe. It was an age of reason and philosophes. During this age, changes the likes of which had not been seen since ancient times took place. Such change affected evert pore of Western European society. Many might argue that the Enlightenment really did not bring any real change, however, there exists and overwhelming amount of facts which prove, without question, that the spirit of the Enlightenment was one of change-specifically change which went against the previous teachings of the Catholic Church. Such change is apparent in the ideas, questions, and philosophies of the time, in the study of science, and throughout the monarchial system.

After the soaring ideals and tremendous sacrifices of the Civil War, the post-War era of the United States was generally one of political disillusionment. Even as the continent expanded and industrialized, political life in the Gilded Age was marked by ineptitude and stalemate as passive, rather than active, presidents merely served as figureheads to be manipulated rather than enduring strongholds. As politicians from both the White House to the courthouse were deeply entangled in corruption and scandal during the Gilded Age, the actual economic and social issues afflicting urbanizing America festered beneath the surface without being seriously addressed.

Discuss Politics in the Gilded Age. Include major political events and issues, and the roles of the “bloody shirt,” corruption, patronage, and reform movements.

The concept of a ‘mid-Tudor crisis’ arrived under the scrutiny of modern scholarship largely through a priori reasoning and was first broadly promulgated by W.R.D. Jones in his 1973 book “The Mid Tudor Crisis1539-1563”. Jones attested a series of problems that “seem to have been ever-present in mid-Tudor England” (Jones, 1973, p. 6), exhibiting a “close relationship” (Jones, 1973, p. 6) with one another as a ‘crisis’. This compounded succession of agricultural volatility, deficiencies in administrative decree, specifically “the troubled shadowed reigns of Edward VI and Mary I,” (Jones, 1973, p.19) and divisive religious reformation, as Jones was to surmise, directly resulted in fluctuations

A successful economy is perhaps the most key ingredient leading to a successful nation. An economy is a delicate balance of many different conflicting and coexisting elements. Naturally, an economy’s success can often be measured by the amount of wealth it contains, not to mention the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of its distribution of the wealth. Effective distribution of wealth is no easy feat. Wealthy and poor people will always need to coexist- this is an inescapable truth. The government’s job in many cases becomes that of a referee. Naturally, perfect peace and harmony between two totally different classes would be a utopia, and probably will never be completely achieved. A government must, therefore,

When you are young and even well into your adult years people will tell you there will always be somebody who is smarter, faster, happier, or better at something than you are. This is true for all periods of time but in the Gilded Age those who were better gained more and more crushing the people below them with unprecedented greed, corruption, and power. The few exploited the many by way of opportunity. Something our nation was built on, yet the avaricious elite used it for evil methods.

Religion can be argued as a more important factor in determining whether people supported Lady Mary’s or Lady Jane’s succession, because of the comfort and personal security having a faith provided, which collectively would result in a more balanced and efficient society. Given the political turbulence of the era: as in the previous decade, England was still recovering from the protestant reformation, wars with France and Scotland, the Somerset crises which almost led the nation to bankruptcy, if there was any moment where the people needed a sense of stability in the form of religion- it had to be this era. This means that because this essay is evaluating the factors why people- including laymen or “commons”, made the ultimate decision in

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.

Sir Thomas Wyatt’s defence covered two major areas; the possible insulting of the king and conspiring with Catholics in a newly decided protestant country. His 1541 defence guards his actions on both parts, however due to the lack of historical evidence it is impossible to know if this defence was ever used, even if we do know he somehow did manage to get himself off the charges. Nevertheless, it offers great insight to the mind and feelings of an otherwise elusive and ambiguous historical figure. It is this, that being Wyatt writing about his own biography, that offers vital importance to his poetry, and more importantly his satires like ‘Myne Owne John Poyntz’. Through Wyatt’s own work we can examine the possible emotion, and tie it down to its own specific historical moment.

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After his death, and for centuries thereafter, Sir Thomas More was known as the most famous victim of Henry VIII’s tyranny. It was More’s execution – far more than those of Anne Boleyn or Thomas Cromwell or Margaret Pole – which established the king’s reputation for capricious cruelty. This was partly due to More’s intellectual prominence; he was perhaps the most famous Englishman on the continent, with a wide and varied correspondence. It was also due to Henry’s deep and unfeigned friendship with More. (We should note, however, that More – brilliant and

By 1642, England had descended into chaos as civil war ravaged the country. King Charles I had dissolved Parliament in 1629 thus making the King vastly unpopular throughout his dominion. After reestablishing the Parliament in 1640, Oliver Cromwell was elected amidst ensuing popularity as a religious, talented military man, who supported an agenda for radical reforms (Britannica). The wars ended with the following outcomes: Charles I beheaded, Cromwell soon in command as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, the eventual return to power of the Royalists and the coronation of King Charles II in 1660. However, the tumultuous political atmosphere of the recent decades left its mark on every citizen of the kingdoms. One of these citizens, Andrew Marvell’s, “conflictual world-view seems unmistakably the product of the unsettled civil war decades” (1366 early 17th century intro). Andrew Marvell was a noted scholar, a tutor to General Fairfax’s daughter (a foe of Cromwell during the English Civil wars) and eventually became a member of Parliament. He is known for his ambiguous writings and elusive rhetoric; perhaps a defensive gesture to hide his true opinions from the public (Norton Anthology of English Literature, 1366). The chaotic atmosphere caused much fear in the citizens as any criticism of the government would be an affront and the punishment was often arrest and execution. Marvell, having a secure position as tutor to Cromwell’s General’s daughter and then to Cromwell’s own

The sub-section “British History in-depth” covers a large tract of British History from the 1066 to

The culture of England during the years of 1837 to 1901 was shaped by its monarchy, while the literature of Alfred Lord Tennyson evinces its cultural connection.

Around the turn of the 17th century, John Donne was at the beginning of a seemingly successful political career as the secretary to the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Thomas Egerton. His ambitions were scuppered, however, when he eloped with Egerton’s seventeen year old niece in 1601 (Norton 1371). Donne was immediately fired, and relegated to relative poverty in the country. The political world that he had been a part of was now abruptly and resolutely closed to him. Although his love poem “The Sun Rising”, was not published till 1633, two years after his death, one can clearly see the influence of these events in the poem. “The Sun Rising” serves as a rejection of the political order from which excluded Donne, while simultaneously upholding other social structures of the time.