Humanism and Humanitarianism in The Tudors

Abstract

A central component to the Renaissance revival of antiquity, humanism was an educational model centered on the study of Greek and Roman texts that glorified the classical ideal and promoted a curriculum rooted in rhetoric, grammar, and philosophy. With champions like Leonardo Bruni, Rodolphus Agricola, and Erasmus, the intellectual movement quickly spread out of the Italian peninsula and across Europe. Henry VIII and his court were instrumental in fostering humanism in England. Scholars such as Richard Pace, Richard Morrison, and Thomas Starkey advanced classical studies, and the library at the Syon Monastery in Isleworth, just west of London, amassed Latin texts.¹ Henry and Catherine of Aragon supported the introduction of Greek studies at Oxford.² In 1519, Erasmus wrote that humanism would flourish in the Low Countries, if only they had a king like Henry.³ As a result of these academic endeavors, the exploration of humanism becomes an interesting, if complicated, pursuit within The Tudors. Although the show presents an anachronistic definition of humanism as humanitarianism, The Tudors incorporates historically accurate aspects of the Renaissance movement by exploring Thomas More’s Utopia, the education and treatment of educated women, and the methods of effective kingship based on Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.