page_title: History of Bristol
section_title: Tudor and Stuart periods
hierarchical_section_title: History of Bristol / Early modern / Tudor and Stuart periods
caption_attribution_description: Overview of historic sites in Bristol. (Original title "The Bristol Music Festival: Views in Bristol")
context_page_description: Bristol is a city with a population of nearly half a million people in south west England, situated between Somerset and Gloucestershire on the tidal River Avon. It has been among the country's largest and most economically and culturally important cities for eight centuries. The Bristol area has been settled since the Stone Age and there is evidence of Roman occupation. A mint was established in the Saxon burgh of Brycgstow by the 10th century and the town rose to prominence in the Norman era, gaining a charter and county status in 1373. The change in the form of the name 'Bristol' is due to the local pronunciation of 'ow' as 'ol'.
  Maritime connections to Wales, Ireland, Iceland, western France, Spain and Portugal brought a steady increase in trade in wool, fish, wine and grain during the Middle Ages. Bristol became a city in 1542 and trade across the Atlantic developed. The city was captured by Royalist troops and then recaptured for Parliament during the English Civil War. During the 17th and 18th centuries the transatlantic slave trade and the Industrial Revolution brought further prosperity. Edmund Burke, MP for Bristol, supported the American Revolution and free trade.
context_section_description: Bristol was made a city in 1542, with the former Abbey of St Augustine becoming Bristol Cathedral, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII. The Dissolution also saw the surrender to the king of all of Bristol's friaries and monastic hospitals, together with St James' Priory, St Mary Magdalen nunnery, a Cistercian abbey at Kingswood and the College at Westbury on Trym. In the case of the friaries at Greyfriars and Whitefriars, the priors had fled before the arrival of the royal commissioners, and at Whitefriars a succession of departing priors had plundered the friary of its valuables. Although the commissioners had not been able to point to as much religious malpractice in Bristol as elsewhere, there is no record of Bristolians raising any objections to the royal seizures. In 1541 Bristol's civic leaders took the opportunity of buying up lands and properties formerly belonging to St Mark's Hospital, St Mary Magdalen, Greyfriars and Whitefriars for a total of a thousand pounds. Bristol thereby became the only municipality in the country which has its own chapel, at St Mark's.
  Bristol Grammar School was established in 1532 by the Thorne family and in 1596 John Carr established Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, a bluecoat school charged with 'the education of poor children and orphans'.
  Trade continued to grow: by the mid-16th century imports from Europe included, wine, olive oil, iron, figs and other dried fruits and dyes; exports included cloth (both cotton and wool), lead and hides. Many of the city's leading merchants were involved in smuggling at this time, illicitly exporting goods like foodstuffs and leather, while under-declaring imports of wine.
  In 1574 Elizabeth I visited the city during her Royal Progress through the western counties.  The city burgesses spent over one thousand pounds on preparations and entertainments, most of which was raised by special rate assessments. In 1577 the explorer Martin Frobisher arrived in the city with two ships and samples of ore, which proved to be worthless.  He also brought, according to Latimer "three savages, doubtless Esqiumaux, clothed in deerskins, but all of them died within a month of their arrival."
  Bristol sent three ships to the Royal Navy fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, and also supplied two levies of men to the defending land forces. Despite appeals to the Privy Council no reimbursement was made for these supplies. The corporation also had to repair the walls and gates of the city. The castle had fallen into disuse in the late Tudor era, but the City authorities had no control over royal property and the precincts became a refuge for lawbreakers.
caption: Views around Bristol in 1873
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