TUDOR'S LONDON

TUDOR LONDON

Tudor London can be described as a _prosperous_ city during the Tudor dynasty. In fact, the population increased from _75,000_ inhabitants with Henry VII to _200,000_ at the end of the 16th century.The Tudor monarchs had a royal residence in London called _Whitehall Palace_ and another in the countryside,called _Hampton court_, after _Cardinal Wolsey_ gave it to Henry VIII.These Tudor kings and queens used what are now famous parks , such as _Hyde Park_ or _St. James's Park_, as Royal hunting forests.Not many Tudor buildings survive today, mostly because of _The Great Fire_ , which happened in _1666_. Besides, , the 13 religious houses in London were _converted for private use_ or _pulled down for building materials_ after the Dissolution of the monasteries, which was _Henry VIII's most decisive step against the power of the church in 1538. First the small, less powerful houses had their property confiscated and their buildings blighted (made unsuitable for use). They were followed the next year by the large houses.Philosophical concepts of the power of the king over church may have played a part in Henry's decision to suppress the monasteries, but so did greed. The monasteries were rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way directly or indirectly to the royal treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as country estates. Many others became sources of cheap building materials for local inhabitants. One of the results of the Dissolution of the Monasteries is that those who bought the old monastic lands were inclined to support Henry in his break with Rome, purely from self interest_.Apart from that, the theatres were banned from the city by _the city authorities or guilds_ because _plays wasted workmen's time (so it wasn't for religious objection to the play's contents)_. Then, they were built in _the Southwark_, where now a reconstruction of the _Globe_ can be visited to learn about Tudor theatre.At that time, London's financial rival was the city of _Amsterdam_, and to be able to compete with it , an _international exchange_ was created in _1566_.So, all in all, and because of many other events and facts, we can say that both London and England were _powerful_.