Science and technology in Tudor times

• The gun. Initially the cannon, first used in Europe by the Islamic Turks to knock down the previously impregnable walls of the eastern centre of Christianity in Constantinople (Istanbul). Then a rifle looking device, the Harquebus, carried by for example by the bodyguards of Tudor Kings. (Yeoman of the Guard)
• The printing press. Quickly used in England to print copies of the Bible in English and to distribute government notices.
• Glass. Although glass had been invented for well over 1000 years, its use for windows had been limited to churches. During Tudor times not only Kings could afford glass windows but also the new middle classes made up from the growing number of rich international traders living across the country. Bedrooms became warm, draught free and light for the first time.
• Ships before this time had been single masted and were not good at sailing into the wind. Driven by Henry the Navigator (Portuguese grandson of English John of Gaunt) the Portuguese began to sail south down the coast of Africa in the rough Atlantic seas to find the source of African gold thus bypassing the unfriendly Muslims of North Africa. The three masted ship (the Carrack) was developed which due to its much greater tonnage was soon used by English traders too, for example, to ship Newcastle coal to London. Coal soon became cheaper at the point of consumption. One of the problems of sailing south down the coast of Africa was getting home as it was generally against the wind. This was solved in two ways. Firstly by the development of the three masted Caravele, “lateen rigged”, which could sail an astonishing 5 points into the wind.  And secondly by the discovery of the circular “trade winds” which allowed, if they sailed due west from the bulge of Africa rather than north, to be blown back in a circular route to Lisbon.

The Muslim Threat

As today, also in Tudor times the Muslims were a worry to Christian Europe particularly the Hungarians, Austrians and the Spanish. The English, while very aware of the aggressive Muslim Turks, (they had a diplomat in Istanbul), were too far west to be invaded. However to put things in perspective it must be remembered that the impetus for the Spanish financing Christopher Columbus and Henry Tudor financing John Cabot was to find routes to China and the Spice Islands which were not blocked by the Muslim Turks. This Muslim blockade also caused Henry the Navigator to develop new ships which would sail away from the Muslim Turks and enter the wild and windy Atlantic Ocean.

Muslim culture, economic and military strength, science and mathematics had been, up to Tudor times, ahead of Roman Catholic Christian Europe. The Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire were the first to use large Cannon (Guns) in European warfare. They used them to breach the walls of the impregnable Christian city of Constantinople the headquarters of the Eastern Christian Church and the only part of the grand old Roman Empire which had remained intact after the fall of Rome through the Dark Ages and Medieval times. Indeed the Muslims did Europe a favour by causing the Christian academics and artists in Constantinople to flee west and re-inhabit parts of Italy so creating the so called Renaissance. It should be remembered that Constantinople was in Tudor times by far the largest city in Europe and the centre of trade for goods from China and all points east.

The Muslims had slowly overrun Christian territories as early as 711 when they invaded Spain and FranceNorth Africa. Fortunately for Europe the Frankish grandfather of Charlemagne was strong enough to repel them south and contain them in Spain.  Charlemagne was appointed the first Holy Roman Emperor. That is the military arm of the Pope specifically set up to combat the Muslim armies.   Western Europeans were not seriously involved in battles against the Muslims until the Crusades which commenced in 1096 and effectively stopped 200 years later in 1291. The Crusades were requested by the old Roman leaders in Constantinople to retrieve Jerusalem from the Muslims and were implemented following the Pope’s requests to various devout Christian Kings including Richard  the Lion Heart. They failed and Jerusalem  2 years later in 1301 an even more powerful Muslim, Osman the Turk, commenced the Islamic expansion west. After 150 years of continuous battles the Turks took Constantinople and occupied Greece and the Balkans. By Tudor times they occupied Hungary and in 1529 they had Vienna under siege. from remained under Muslim control.

In 1529 Henry 8th was the King of England, Charles 5th The Holy Roman Emperor and Suleiman the Magnificent was the Sultan of Constantinople which the Muslims had renamed Istanbul. The latter city had a population of  over 125,000 people compared to London with less then 50,000. Henry was notable for having six wives, one after the other and killing 2 of them. Suleiman by contrast had over 1500 wives simultaneously and so many sons that he murdered the poor boys who did not toe the line. If 1500 wives were not enough he also had over 1000 concubines.

With Vienna under siege by Muslims, defence should have been available from The Holy Roman Emperor as this was the purpose of his position. Unfortunately the then incumbent Charles 5th was busy with Henry 8th attacking France. But fortunately the huge Muslim army of 300,000 men had been drastically weakened by appalling weather with early snows and heavy flooding. This did not suit the Ottoman camels nor the huge cannon they tried to drag along, necessary to breach the walls of Vienna. The city held and Europe was saved from further Muslim land excursions westward.

The Mediterranean Sea however remained an “Ottoman Lake” until 1571 when the Austrian Don John  the illegitimate son of Charles 5th  and half brother of Philip 2nd of Spain led a fleet of ships  under the banner of the Holy League to attack a build up of Muslims ships in the Gulf of Lepanto. (Now called the Gulf of Corinth in western Greece). This Ottoman fleet was bigger in numbers than anything the Europeans could muster at the time even though the Pope had been praying for support to see off this threat to RomeEurope. European countries and city states who supplied ships and manpower were Genoa and Venice and the Papal States (all from Italy), Spain and a small fleet from the Knights of St John based in Malta. Not withstanding being outnumbered the European Christians won this decisive sea battle called the Battle of Lepanto because their ship mounted cannon were better and their on-board soldiers were equipped with firearms compared with the Turk’s bows and arrows. This battle proved to be the turning point in the 500 years of Muslim superiority over Christian armies and commenced the steady advance of European armies eastwards which culminated with the British army retaking Jerusalem at the end of the First World War in 1917. plus the Papal States and much of southern

Readers should note that;

• The Battle of Lepanto was the last fort with galleys, that is ships driven with oars rather than sails. Oarsmen were by and large slaves.
• The Muslim Archers were a special troupe of men who honed their skills with a life time of practice. Christian cannon, muskets and swords killed the lot and they were never replaced. English arms dealers were quick to fill this vacuum by selling Muskets across the length and breadth of the Muslim world which then included the Ottomans in Eastern Europe, Jerusalem and across to Iraq, the Safavids in Iran and the Mughals in India.
• Serious Muslim aggression into eastern Europe tied down the Catholic armies of Spain and then France in the 17th century who otherwise would have been attacking England.