Early Modern

Early Modern

King Henry VIII became Supreme Head of the Church of England.

The Tudor period would prove to be eventful.[56] The Renaissance reached England through Italian courtiers, who reintroduced artistic, educational and scholary debate from classical antiquity.[56] During this time England began to develop naval skills, including inventing the theodolite and exploring to the West.[56] The catalyst for such explorations, was the Ottoman Empire's control of the Mediterranean Sea, which blocked off trade with the East for the Christian states of Europe.[56]

Henry VIII broke from communion with the Catholic Church, over issues relating to divorce, under the Acts of Supremacy in 1534 which proclaimed the monarch head of the Church of England. Contrary to much of European Protestantism, the roots of the split were more political than theological.[note 4] He also legally incorporated his ancestral land Wales into the Kingdom of England with the 1535–1542 acts. There were internal religious conflicts during the reigns of Henry's daughters; Mary I and Elizabeth I. The former attempted to bring the country back to Catholicism, while the later broke from it again more forcefully asserting the supremacy of Anglicanism.[56]

An English fleet under Francis Drake defeated an invading Spanish Armada during the Elizabethan period. Competing with Spain, the first English colony in the Americas was founded by explorer Walter Raleigh in 1585 and named Virginia.[56] With the East India Company, England also competed with the Dutch and French to the East.[56] The nature of the island was changed, when the Stuart King of Scotland, from a kingdom which was previously a long time rival, inherited the throne of England—creating a personal union under James I in 1603.[58][59] He styled himself King of Great Britain, despite having no basis in English law.[60]

The English Restoration restored the monarchy under King Charles II and peace after the English Civil War.

Based on conflicting political, religious and social positions, there was an English Civil War between the supporters of Parliament and those of king Charles I, known as Roundheads and Cavaliers respectively. This was an interwoven part of the wider multifacited Wars of the Three Kingdoms, involving Scotland and Ireland. The Parliamentarians were victorious, Charles I was executed and the kingdom replaced with the Commonwealth. Leader of the Parliament forces, Oliver Cromwell declared himself Lord Protector in 1653, a period of personal rule followed.[61] After Cromwell's death, and his son Richard's resignation as Lord Protector, Charles II was invited to return as monarch in 1660 with the Restoration.[62] It was now constitutionally established that King and Parliament should rule together, though in practice this was not fully cemented until the following century.[62] With the founding of the Royal Society, science and the arts were encouraged.[62]

The Great Fire of London in 1666 gutted the capital but it was rebuilt shortly after.[63] In Parliament two factions had emerged—the Tories and Whigs. The former were royalists while the latter were classical liberals. Though the Tories initially supported Catholic king James II, some of them, along with the Whigs deposed him at the Revolution of 1688 and invited Dutch prince William III to become monarch. Some English people, especially in the north were Jacobites and continued to support James and his sons. After the parliaments of England and Scotland both agreed,[64] the two countries joined in political union, to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.[58] To accommodate the union, institutions such as the law and national church of each remained separate.[65]



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