#english_history 

## Language
At the beginning of the Tudor period English was still spoken in a number of different ways. However, since the time of [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]], London English (and its pronunciation) had become accepted as standard English. From that time onwards the way people spoke began to show the difference between them (educated - "correct" English, uneducated - local dialect).

## Literacy
Literacy increased greatly during the mid-sixteenth century: by the 17th century about half the population could read and write.
## Culture
Nothing showed England's new confidence more than its artistic flowering during the Renaissance, which was felt later in England because of its relative isolation.

### Literature
Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of Henry VIII, wrote a study of the ideal nation, [[Utopia]].
Playwrights like [[Christopher Marlowe]], [[Ben Jonson]], and [[William Shakespeare]] filled the theatres with their exciting new plays.
"Soldiers poets" also were popular: they were true Renaissance men, like sir Edmund Spenser, [[The Celtic kingdoms of Ireland#^612a0a|crushing rebellions in Ireland]], sir Philip Sidney, [[Tudors' conflict with Spain|killed fighting the Spanish in the Netherlands]], and [[British Colonies in America|Walter Raleigh]]
### Other arts
In music England enjoyed its most fruitful period ever. There was also considerable interest in the new painters in Europe, and England developed its own special kind of painting, the miniature portrait.