thumb|[[Athelhampton House - built 1493–1550, early in the period]]thumb|[[Hardwick Hall, an Elizabethan prodigy house]]

The Tudor architectural style is the term for English architecture in the Tudor period (1485–1603). This was a time of architectural transition, as the Gothic Perpendicular style was gradually replaced by a Renaissance aesthetic derived from Italy via France and the Low Countries. Coupled with the change from Gothic to Renaissance forms was a shift from religious to secular architecture, due to the impact of the English Reformation. A subtype of Tudor architecture is Elizabethan architecture, from about 1560 to 1600, which has continuity with the subsequent Jacobean architecture in the early Stuart period.

The low pointed Tudor arch was another defining feature. Some of the most remarkable oriel windows belong to this period. Mouldings are more spread out and the foliage becomes more naturalistic. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, many Italian artists arrived in England; their decorative features can be seen at Hampton Court Palace, Layer Marney Tower, Sutton Place, and elsewhere. However, in the following reign of Elizabeth I, the influence of Northern Mannerism, mainly derived from pattern books, was greater. Courtiers and other wealthy Elizabethans competed to build prodigy houses that proclaimed their status and would be able to host the queen on her annual progresses around the country.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries redistributed large amounts of land to the wealthy, resulting in a secular building boom, as well as a source of stone. The building of churches had already slowed somewhat before the English Reformation, after a great boom in the previous century, but was brought to a near-complete stop by the Reformation. Civic and university buildings became steadily more numerous in the period. Brick was something of an exotic and expensive rarity at the beginning of the period, but during it became very widely used in many parts of England, gradually restricting traditional methods such as timber framing to vernacular architecture.

thumb|Ormonde Castle, [[Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary]]

Location

Although Tudor architecture is an English style, it can be found in areas which are not now part of England. Wales had been conquered by Edward I in 1277–83, and was legally unified with England by Henry VIII with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. As such, its architectural history was one with that of England in the Tudor period, and Tudor churches and houses of all scales can be found, such as Wrexham St Giles', Raglan Castle and Plas Mawr, Conwy. Tudor architecture can also be found in overseas areas then under English control, namely Ireland and the English exclave of Calais (until it was reconquered by the French in 1558). Calais was virtually destroyed by bombing in World War Two, but buildings such as the Staple Inn (where Anne Boleyn and her ladies danced before the English and French courts in 1532) are known two have combined four-centred arches with Flemish features. Ormonde Castle (1565) is a notable example of Irish Tudor architecture. As England was frequently at war with Scotland, Scottish patrons unsurprisingly looked elsewhere for inspiration, and Scottish Renaissance architecture owes a great deal to France and nothing to England. Though English forces frequently occupied large parts of southern Scotland (for example during the Rough Wooing of 1544), they did not settle and so did not influence the local architecture.

Development

thumb|250x250px|The [[gatehouse of Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk]]

Henry VII (1485–1509)

thumb|Richmond Palace, west front, drawn by [[Antony van den Wyngaerde|Antony Wyngaerde in 1562]]The residences of the king and nobility, while they had not been seriously defensible for centuries, still evoked the idea of the castle, with moats, gatehouses, machicolations and crenellations. Brick, having been popularised in 15th century buildings like Tattershall Castle and Herstmonceaux Castle, was now in general use as a secular building material across eastern England. The ascendancy of the Tudors caused no direct change in architectural style, with buildings such as Hadleigh Deanery (Suffolk, 1470s) and Giffords Hall (also Suffolk, 1510s) looking much alike. Excavation has also revealed that it had a chapel with black-and-white tiles, and 'bee boles' in which bees could hibernate. As well as Greenwich, Henry VII rebuilt Richmond Palace, after its timber predecessor of Sheen burnt to the ground at Christmas 1497. This has been described as the first prodigy house, a term for the ostentatious mansions of Elizabeth's courtiers and others, and was influential on other great houses for decades to come as well as a seat of royal power and pageantry.

Henry VIII and the early Renaissance (1509–1558)

Henry VII was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII, who spent enormous amounts of money on building many palaces, as well as other expensive forms of display. In a courtyard of Hampton Court Palace he installed a fountain that for celebrations flowed with wine.

He also built military installations all along the southern coast of England and the border with Scotland.

thumb|[[Terracotta roundel of Augustus on Hampton Court Palace]]

Renaissance forms were most probably introduced to England in the reign of Henry VIII, initially only as minor ornaments to Gothic buildings, such as the tomb of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey (1512-18) and the roundels decorating Hampton Court Palace. These first Renaissance works were done by Italians, like Pietro Torrigiani, a Florentine contemporary of Michelangelo, who made Henry VII's tomb. This work was done in 1524, and may be the earliest Renaissance work that can be firmly attributed to an English designer. The new planning can be seen at Sutton Place (c.1525), where the house is externally symmetrical, so that its internal layout cannot be immediately read like that of a medieval house. More common than innovative planning, however, was the application of Italian-style terracotta decoration to otherwise traditional buildings, such as the gatehouse of Layer Marney Tower (c.1523). Tudor chimney-pieces were made large and elaborate to draw attention to the owner's adoption of this new technology. However, the castle features were increasingly buried beneath a classical veneer, with Longleat (begun 1568) perhaps being the first house to entirely eschew Gothic or castle-derived features in favour of a sleek classical silhouette.<gallery mode="packed">

File:Front of Burghley House 2009.jpg|A fantastical castellar silhouette at Burghley

File:Longleat House 2012.jpg|Radical new classicism at Longleat

</gallery>Rather than build her own palaces, the frugal Elizabeth I let her courtiers compete to bankrupt themselves hosting her on her royal 'progresses' around the country. To accommodate the Court, nobles built prodigy houses, with fantastical silhouettes, vast glazed windows and new-fangled classical ornament. The most famous example of such a royal visit was that of Elizabeth to Kenilworth Castle in July 1575, expensively remodelled by Robert Dudley in a doomed attempt to woo the queen. Another extraordinary case, though it never hosted the queen, was Hardwick Hall, where the indomitable Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick) rebuilt the Old Hall with large windows and elaborate plasterwork, before deciding it was inadequate and starting the New Hall from scratch. These prodigy houses were often built by "new men" who had enriched themselves in royal service, like William Cecil, rather than the old nobility who already had great castles and houses.

The names of several significant architects (though they did not use that term) are known from this period, including William Arnold, Robert Smythson and John Thorpe. Architectural drawings also survive in increasing quantity, especially by Thorpe, enabling historians to better understand designers' intentions and the form of since-demolished buildings.

The mid to late 16th century also saw the start of the so-called Great Rebuilding of vernacular houses and farms in southern England, though the dating and extent of this is contested.thumb|The exterior of Henry VII's Chapel, with compass windows and decoration on every surface.

Religious architecture

The early Tudor period saw the completion of many of the greatest English Gothic religious buildings, with the tallest church tower at the Boston Stump (266 feet high, completed c.1515), the highest parochial spire at Louth (287<nowiki>' 6</nowiki> high, c.1455–1515), the grandest cathedral tower at Canterbury (1433–97), and the widest fan vault at King's College Chapel, Cambridge (completed 1515). There were also two important buildings started from scratch: Bath Abbey and Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster Abbey. This work all followed the Perpendicular style, established over a century and a half earlier. However, work done by Court masons, forming what Francis Woodman termed the 'Windsor-Westminster School' was noticeably more ornate than the work of previous years. This may be seen clearly at King's College Chapel, where the eastern buttresses of the 1450s are plain, while the Tudor buttresses to the west are festooned with carved heraldic symbols. The difference was striking enough for John Harvey to consider Tudor Gothic to be a distinct style, though this is not the consensus among architectural historians. The Court style was notable for elaborate fan or pendant vaults, ogee-domed turrets and complex polygonal plans, as well as a general tendency towards the miniscule, in a form reminiscent of tomb architecture. These changes towards the complex and ornate were likely due to continental influence from Flamboyant Gothic in France and Flanders.

thumb|Bolton Priory, before a modern roof was erected over the incomplete tower. The nave survived as a parish church, while the transept ruins are on the right.

Monastic building abruptly ceased at the Reformation: an evocative example is the west tower at Bolton Priory, left half-finished since the royal commissioners sent the masons away in 1539. Work on parish churches was not directly affected by the Reformation to the same degree, but the changed religious climate and the decline in the wool trade that had funded the grandest churches meant that work ground to a halt, with some buildings summarily completed without pinnacles and other ornamentation. Church building was not to be seen again on a major scale until the 1660s.

thumb|Rushton Triangular Lodge

Symbolism and recusancy

Although overt religious architecture virtually ceased, Tudor patrons still enjoyed the possibilities of symbolic architecture. It is open to question whether the H- and E-shaped floor plans really stood for Henry and Elizabeth, or were just a convenient way to arrange rooms, but decorative "devices", such as pomegranates for Catherine of Aragon or "HA" symbols for Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, were common ways to show loyalty to the Tudor dynasty, in stone, wood, glass, paint and plaster. It was common for great houses to have private chapels, whether Catholic or Protestant, but this was particularly important under the recusancy laws of Elizabeth I, when Catholic families had to conceal their faith. A related development was the installation of secret priest holes in recusants' houses, like Baddesley Clinton, where a Catholic priest could hide from the authorities. An extraordinary case was that of Sir Thomas Tresham (1543–1605), who erected two very symbolic buildings on his Northamptonshire estates. Rushton Triangular Lodge (1594–97) is, as the name suggests, triangular in plan, with three triangular gables on each face, three floors, and windows made of trefoils and triangles, symbolising the Trinity and the Catholic Mass as well as punning Tresham's own name. Meanwhile Lyveden New Bield (begun 1594) has a Greek cross plan, symbolising the Passion, while the metopes of the Classical frieze feature the Instruments of the Passion, the IHS monogram, and the Chi-Rho symbol of the papacy. Unsurprisingly, Sir Thomas spent much of his later life in prison.thumb|St Mawes Castle, the most ornamental of the Device Forts.

Military architecture

Two major developments affected Tudor military architecture. The first was the decline of the castle as a military institution, so that fortification became a civic rather than a private endeavour. This could be seen in southern England before the Tudor era, for example in the 14th–15th century municipal fortification of Dartmouth Castle, but characterised the Tudor age. The second was the growing efficacy of cannon. This had been painfully demonstrated to the English in the Hundred Years' War, where the French artillery had reduced the English fortresses to rubble. Future fortifications had to both resist the impact of cannonballs and mount defensive artillery. The primary threats to England were from France and Scotland, so fortifications were concentrated on the south coast and northern border. Dartmouth Castle was the earliest artillery fort in England, being begun in the 1480s and completed, after much cajoling from Henry VII, in 1493. It is a tall tower with round and square sections, pierced by wide rectangular embrasures to house guns defending the river from enemy ships. Early artillery works were also seen at the Prince-Bishop of Durham's castle of Norham, which had been destroyed by the Scots in the Flodden campaign of 1513. The reconstruction featured earth banks, to protect the walls from cannon-fire, and pentagonal bastions. After Henry VIII's break with Rome, England faced the threat of a combined invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, leading to the construction of a series of around thirty forts, termed Device Forts, along the south coast in the 1540s. Examples include Deal, Walmer, Calshot, Pendennis and St Mawes. They were low, with thick curved battlements to resist artillery, and complex concentric clover-leaf plans formed of overlapping circles to ensure overlapping fields of fire. They are without parallel in Europe, their forms being obsolete even when built. This type of fortification remained the norm, with modifications, until guns were radically improved in the 19th century.

The architecture of the navy

The dry dock in Portsmouth is significant as it laid the foundation for other civic projects done under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Built under Henry VII, it enabled the maintenance of the navy developed by Henry VIII, establishing England as a major seafaring power in the Age of Discovery. Purchasing eight acres, he gave the job of constructing the dry dock to Sir Reginald Bray. It measured 330 feet on each side, the bottom of the dock 395 feet long, and the whole 22 feet deep. The wharf on the outside of the piers that marked the dock's location were 40 feet on each side at a depth of 22 feet. The dock operated by swinging some hinged gates open, allowing the ship to enter, and then water was taken out with a bucket and chain pump worked by a horse-gin.

Features

thumb|right|Brick architecture at [[Kentwell Hall]]

Plan forms

In the early Tudor period, the medieval double courtyard plan was regarded as the ideal for great houses: the inner courtyard contained the domestic apartments, while the outer courtyard had the servants' lodgings and the service buildings. Such a plan can be seen at the medieval and Tudor house of Haddon Hall. As one moved down the social scale, plans became simpler, but were still based on the hall, even in the humblest dwellings. In some parts of western England, the hall was already ceiled over, instead of rising to the rafters. The Renaissance house was an outward-facing block rather than an inward-facing series of courtyards. This was partly because lords no longer needed to accommodate large numbers of liveried retainers. This block could be E- or H-shaped, with the hall (now more often ceiled over) forming the central stroke. Lower-status houses also had their halls ceiled over to provide better circulation and more comfortable rooms. Elizabethan noble houses also often had long galleries, as at Montacute House, in which to exercise indoors and display artwork. Garderobes fell out of fashion in the Tudor period, as chamber pots and close stools became more widely used.thumb|right|250px|Cheshire timber framing at [[Churche's Mansion, Nantwich]]

Construction

Construction materials, even in the grandest palaces, depended on what was locally available, as transport of materials was expensive. High-status buildings were usually constructed of stone (some reused from dissolved monasteries and derelict castles) or brick, the latter being increasingly popular in eastern England, which lacks good building stone. Lesser buildings were generally timber framed, with infill panels of wattle and daub. There was great regional variation in timber framing techniques: eastern England used close studding, with thin vertical panels, while western England used bigger timbers forming square panels. In Cheshire and the surrounding areas, timber framing became very elaborate, with elaborate cusping and curved bracing, as at Little Moreton Hall. Upper floors could be jettied, especially in towns, to gain more space. Cruck framing was used for humbler dwellings across western England. Some regions also used earth construction methods, like cob in the West Country, clay dabbins on the Solway plain, and wychert in Buckinghamshire. thumb|right|Brick chimneys at [[Hampton Court Palace]]

Chimneys

Chimneys became an increasingly prominent architectural feature, as fireplaces replaced open hearths in higher-status houses. The finest chimneys in the early Tudor period were of brick, laid in exotic twisted patterns, as at Hampton Court Palace. Chimneys were such a status symbol that false ones could be fitted where there was no fireplace, as at Framlingham Castle in either the 1470s or 1510s. Later chimneys use Renaissance forms, as at Burghley House, where they are disguised as Classical columns.thumb|right|250px|[[Anne Hathaway's Cottage, a timber-framed farmhouse]]

Roofs

Roofs were generally gabled, though some grand houses like Longleat had flat lead roofs. The skyline was an important decorative feature, with chimneys, finials, turrets, gables and parapets creating a fantastical silhouette. Gables of stepped or curved forms and strapwork, derived from Dutch pattern books, were used in eastern England later in the period. Lead ogee domes were occasionally used over turrets, notably on the White Tower at the Tower of London. Roofing materials depended on what was locally available, with thatch being used on most vernacular buildings and tiles or stone slates on more expensive ones.

Windows, doors and openings

While glass was becoming cheaper, it was still very expensive, and the wealthy displayed their status with vast windows of glass, including heraldic stained glass, as at Hardwick Hall, immortalised as being "more glass than wall". Window details became simpler, with the arches at the heads of lights losing their cusping and getting flatter, before finally disappearing altogether to leave the archetypal Elizabethan mullioned and transomed window. Windows generally had hood moulds above to shed the rain. Bay windows and oriels were used as decorative features. The elaborate compass window was popular in the early 16th century, as at Thornbury Castle, being derived from Henry VII's Tower at Windsor Castle and his chapel at Westminster Abbey. Doors and other openings were usually arched, especially early in the period, with a low four-centred or Tudor arch (the difference being that a four-centred arch is formed of four arcs, while a 'Tudor' arch is two arcs and two straight lines). Semicircular arches came back into fashion as part of the Renaissance, though buildings like Gonville and Caius College could combine pointed arches with Renaissance ornament.<gallery mode="nolines">

File:Four-Centred Arch.svg|A four-centred arch, showing how the whole arch is curved

File:Tudorbåge.png|A 'Tudor' arch, with two curves and two straight lines

</gallery>thumb|A local interpretation of Renaissance forms in the hall fireplace of [[Plas Mawr, Conwy]]

Fireplaces

Though fireplaces had been a feature of grand houses since the 12th century, they became increasingly common in the Tudor period, as the great hall was ceiled over (making an open hearth impossible) and the number of heated private rooms increased. Early fireplaces had a shallow arch, generally with heraldry over, but they were soon a setting for extravagant Classical ornament, with caryatids and examples of the Orders proving popular. Kitchens had wide fireplaces for roasting, with a spit turned by a boy or later a dog. The use of a dog in a treadmill required complex iron machinery. Many vernacular houses only had one heated room, where a large inglenook would be used for cooking and heating, with meat being hung to smoke in the chimney-hood above.

Ceilings

Open timber roofs were still used in churches and halls, with the hammer-beam being the most popular form at the top of society, though the decoration tended towards the Renaissance. Hampton Court Palace has a notable hammer-beam roof, while Burghley House has a late example. Open halls remained in use in Inns of Court and Oxbridge colleges after they had fallen out of favour in houses. Ceilings became more common, as houses had more low rooms. Initially, they were decorated with moulded beams and paint, as in the parlour at Haddon Hall, but plaster ceilings, decorated with vine, heraldic, geometric or strapwork motifs, began to be used as at Levens Hall. Plaster ceilings could have hanging pendants to make them three-dimensional.

Decoration

Initially, great houses were decorated with tapestries, or with cheaper painted cloths imitating them. These served a triple purpose of keeping out chill, decorating the interior, and displaying wealth. In the wealthiest homes these may contain gold or silver thread. Cornelius van der Strete added arms and ciphers to royal tapestries. Later, they were replaced by timber panelling. This could have linenfold decoration or Classical ornament, as in the spectacular Inlaid Chamber at Sizergh Castle. Much ornament took the form of heraldry or ciphers displaying loyalty to the monarch and boasting of the occupying family's pedigree. Otherwise, ornament was of Classical origin, generally more 'correctly' interpreted and better executed higher up the social ladder, with much being derived from pattern books. This led to concoctions like the Towers of the Orders on the porches at Burghley and Kirby Hall, which had no precedent in Roman or Italian buildings. This detailing was often painted and gilded, making the buildings more vibrant than they are today.

thumb|Re-created Elizabethan gardens at [[Kenilworth Castle]]

Gardens

Large geometric gardens and enclosed courtyards were a feature of the very wealthy. Fountains begin to appear in the reign of Henry VIII. A modern recreation of an Elizabethan garden can be seen at Kenilworth Castle. Lesser houses had herb gardens to provide food.

Examples

Institutional

thumb|[[Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey (1503–09)]]

Ecclesiastical

thumb|Great Gate, [[St. John's College, Cambridge (1511-20)]]

thumb|The Gate of Honour, Caius Court, [[Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (1565)]]

  • The final stages of King's College Chapel, Cambridge (1446–1515, John Wastell)
  • St Peter and St Paul's Church, Lavenham, Suffolk (1485–1525, John Wastell)
  • Red Mount Chapel, King's Lynn, Norfolk (–1533, attributed to John Wastell)
  • St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, nave (1475–1528, the Vertue brothers)
  • St Winefride's Well Holywell, Flintshire, Wales (1490)
  • The central tower (Bell Harry) and strainer arches of Canterbury Cathedral, Kent (1493–97, John Wastell)
  • The retrochoir (New Building) at Peterborough Cathedral, Cambs. (1496-1508, attributed to John Wastell)
  • Bath Abbey, Somerset (1501–39, completed in the 19th century, the Vertue brothers)
  • The nave of St Edmundsbury Cathedral (formerly St James' Church), Suffolk (1503, John Wastell)
  • The nave of Ripon Cathedral, N. Yorks. (1502–22)
  • Henry VII Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, London (1503–1509, the Vertue brothers)