The Beginnings of Tudor Theory

I feel like the idea behind this class is to read a number of Shakespeare's works, look for a trend of particular interest, and then explain that trend with support from research. The trend I have been noticing are the unintentional allusions and similarities between the incidents and characters of certain plays and the major figures and incidents relating to the Tudor dynasty up to the time of Shakespeare.

The story of the Tudors is one of the world's greatest historical dramas that still continues to engross our minds to this day. In the time of Shakespeare, the events were still fresh on everyone's minds. I relate this not to be redundant because everyone knows this story (even my coworkers who otherwise weren't interested in hearing about this).

 In his plays, we see eeire echoes of the events leading up to the reign of Elizabeth I:
In The Winter's Tale, King Leontes believes his wife has been unfaithful to him, imprisons her, and declares their newborn daughter illegitimate. (Anne Boylen, Elizabeth's mother, had suffered a similar fate and was executed).  His young son and heir also dies (Henry's successor Edward VI was sickly and died young). This is what happens when there is a corruption in the traditional, expected ties between parent and child.

In Richard III, the duke of Glouchester becomes king by declaring his brother and nephews illegitimate. He has his two nephews imprisoned and killed. A critical essay I found this weekend suggests that Richard's obsession with legitimacy and bastardy not only reflects Richard's own insecurity but the insecurity of the Tudor monarchs themselves--bastardizing and legitimizing individuals is a political tool.

In King John, a bastard nephew of the king rises to fame and prominence while the legitimately-born but illegitimately ruling King must struggle to retain his title. Henry VIII had an illegitimate son named Henry FitzRoy on whom he lavished many honors. FitzRoy died before the birth of Henry's legitimate son.

In King Lear--the example that intruiged me the most--an elderly king divides his kingdom between his daughters. He rejects the daughter who truly loves him (perhaps a symbol of Elizabeth). The two hypocritical daughters (Mary, and maybe Mary Stuart) conspire against him. Meanwhile, an illegitimate son of the earl of Glouchester frames his legitimate half-brother, all but kills his father, and becomes earl himself and lover to the two evil princesses. The entire play is a commentary on the evils of illicit intercourse and legitimized bastardy. And like The Winter's Tale, it also speaks about unnatural relations and rejections between siblings and between parents and offspring--an all too frequent occurence in the crises of Henry VIII's reign.

Shakespeare actually did write a play, Henry VIII, about the crisis surrounding Henry's marriage to Anne Boylen, but I have yet to actually look at it.

The Tudor dynasty was the turning point of English and Western civilization as we know it today. Shakespeare's interpretation of it reflected how his society had gotten to the point where it was and possibly what course it was going to take in the future--and how the turmoil within the Tudor family was an all-too-human epidemic.