Editing History of London (section)

===Tudor London (1485–1604)===
{{main|Tudor London}}
{|class="wikitable" style="width:100%;"
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!colspan=3|Wyngaerde's "[[Panorama of London]] in 1543"
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|[[File:Panorama of London in 1543 Wyngaerde Section 1.jpg|250px|Section 1]]
|[[File:Panorama of London in 1543 Wyngaerde Section 2.jpg|250px|Section 2]]
|[[File:Panorama of London in 1543 Wyngaerde Section 3.jpg|250px|Section 3]]
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[[File:London - John Norden's map of 1593.jpg|thumb|300px|[[John Norden]]'s map of London in 1593. There is only one bridge across the Thames, but parts of Southwark on the south bank of the river have been developed.]]

In 1475, the [[Hanseatic League]] set up its main English trading base (''[[kontor]]'') in London, called ''Stalhof'' or ''[[Steelyard]]''. It existed until 1853, when the Hanseatic cities of [[Lübeck]], [[Bremen]] and [[Hamburg]] sold the property to [[South Eastern Railway, UK|South Eastern Railway]].<ref name=EB>{{EB1911|wstitle=Steelyard, Merchants of the}}</ref> [[Woollen]] cloth was shipped undyed and undressed from 14th/15th century London to the nearby shores of the [[Low Countries]], where it was considered indispensable.<ref>J. G. Pounds (1976). "An Historical Geography of Europe 450 B.C.-A.D. 1330, Part 1330". p. 430. CUP Archive</ref>

During the [[English Reformation]], London was the principal early centre of [[Protestantism]] in England. Its close commercial connections with the Protestant heartlands in northern continental Europe, large foreign mercantile communities, disproportionately large number of literate inhabitants and role as the centre of the English print trade all contributed to the spread of the new ideas of religious reform. Before the Reformation, more than half of the area of London was the property of [[monasteries]], [[nunnery|nunneries]] and other religious houses.<ref name=pevsner>[[Nikolaus Pevsner]], ''London I: The Cities of London and Westminster'' rev. edition,1962, Introduction p 48.</ref>

[[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]]'s "[[Dissolution of the Monasteries]]" had a profound effect on the city as nearly all of this property changed hands. The process started in the mid-1530s, and by 1538 most of the larger monastic houses had been abolished. Holy Trinity Aldgate went to [[John Tuchet, 8th Baron Audley|Lord Audley]], and the [[William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester|Marquess of Winchester]] built himself a house in part of its precincts. The [[London Charterhouse|Charterhouse]] went to Lord North, Blackfriars to [[W:George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham|Lord Cobham]], the leper hospital of St Giles to Lord Dudley, while the king took for himself the leper hospital of St James, which was rebuilt as [[St James's Palace]].<ref name="pevsner"/>

The period saw London rapidly rising in importance among Europe's commercial centres. Trade expanded beyond Western Europe to Russia, the Levant, and the Americas. This was the period of [[mercantilism]] and monopoly trading companies such as the [[Muscovy Company]] (1555) and the [[British East India Company]] (1600) were established in London by royal charter. The latter, which ultimately came to rule India, was one of the key institutions in London, and in Britain as a whole, for two and a half centuries. Immigrants arrived in London not just from all over England and Wales, but from abroad as well, for example Huguenots from France; the population rose from an estimated 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605.<ref name=pevsner/> The growth of the population and wealth of London was fuelled by a vast expansion in the use of coastal shipping.

The late 16th and early 17th century saw the great flourishing of drama in London whose preeminent figure was the poet and playwright [[William Shakespeare]]. During the mostly calm later years of Elizabeth's reign, some of her courtiers and some of the wealthier citizens of London built themselves country residences in [[Middlesex]], [[Essex]] and [[Surrey]]. This was an early stirring of the villa movement, the taste for residences which were neither of the city nor on an agricultural estate, but at the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, London was still relatively compact.

[[File:Civitas Londinium or The Agas Map of London.jpg|thumb|600px|center|The [[Woodcut map of London|"Woodcut" map of London]], formally titled ''Civitas Londinum'' ({{Circa|1561}})]]

[[Xenophobia]] was rampant in London, and increased after the 1580s. Many immigrants became disillusioned by routine threats of violence and molestation, attempts at expulsion of foreigners, and the great difficulty in acquiring English citizenship. Dutch cities proved more hospitable, and many left London permanently.<ref>Bich Luu Lien, "Taking the Bread Out of Our Mouths: Xenophobia in Early Modern London", ''Immigrants and Minorities,'' July 2000, Vol. 19 Issue 2, pp. 1–22</ref> Foreigners are estimated to have made up 4,000 of the 100,000 residents of London by 1600, many being Dutch and German workers and traders.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bloody foreigners : the story of immigration to Britain|last=Winder|first=Robert|publisher=Abacus|year=2005|isbn=9780349115665|location=London|oclc=60417612|quote=Most of the foreigners who came this way were ambitious and knowledgeable. They were innovators, carrier pigeons for the best of the continental expertise and craftsmanship. There were perhaps as many as four thousand in London in 1600 (out of a population of some one hundred thousand). Many of these were transient, of course, not much more than international [[sales rep]]s. But some were prominent figures in English society: men like {{sic|hide=y|[[Georg Giese|George Gisze]]}} from Danzig, Dirk Tybis from Duisberg, or the Coglone expatriates Herman Hildebrand, Derich Born and Derich Berck.|author-link=Robert Winder}}</ref>