The year 1485 marked the end of a century of bloodshed when Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, bringing the Wars of the Roses to a close and establishing the Tudor dynasty. This victory ended decades of civil war that had claimed an estimated 105,000 lives, creating a rare period of internal peace that allowed art and commerce to flourish. Henry VII and his son Henry VIII centralized the English state, transforming it from a feudal system into a rational bureaucracy managed by educated functionaries. The Star Chamber emerged as a notable new institution to enforce royal authority, while the monarchs utilized gunpowder and social changes to undermine the power of the traditional aristocracy. Henry VIII took this centralization further by seizing the power of the Roman Catholic Church, confiscating monastic property, and declaring himself the head of the new Anglican Church. This shift in power laid the groundwork for the divine right of kings, a concept championed by James I that would define the relationship between sovereign and subject for centuries.
The Elizabethan Golden Age
The reign of Queen Elizabeth I from 1558 to 1603 stands as a golden age in English history, characterized by the height of the English Renaissance and the flowering of literature and poetry. William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson composed plays that broke away from England's past styles, while the madrigal became a dominant form of English music. This era of expansion and exploration abroad coincided with the Protestant Reformation becoming entrenched in the national mindset. Unlike the rest of Europe, which was embroiled in religious battles or foreign domination, England enjoyed a brief period of internal peace. The conflict with France was largely suspended, leaving Spain as the only great rival. This tension exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War from 1585 to 1604, a conflict fought on two continents and two oceans that some historians argue was the first world war. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement settled the Protestant and Catholic divide for a time, and the government remained centralized and effective, allowing the country to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade.
The Scottish Reformation
Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the 15th century with the founding of the University of St Andrews in 1413, the University of Glasgow in 1450, and the University of Aberdeen in 1495. In 1468, the last great acquisition of Scottish territory occurred when James III married Margaret of Denmark, receiving the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands as part of her dowry. The political landscape shifted dramatically after the death of James III in 1488, when his successor James IV successfully ended the quasi-independent rule of the Lord of the Isles. James IV married Henry VII's daughter, Margaret Tudor, laying the foundation for the 17th century Union of the Crowns, yet his reign ended in disaster at the Battle of Flodden. There, the King, many nobles, and over 10,000 troops known as the Flowers of the Forest were killed, leaving Scotland's government in the hands of regents. The Protestant Reformation took root in the 16th century, influenced by the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin. The execution of Protestant preachers like Patrick Hamilton in 1528 and George Wishart in 1546 did not stem the growth of these ideas. The eventual Reformation of the Scottish Church followed a brief civil war in 1559, 60, with English intervention at the siege of Leith proving decisive. John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, returned from Geneva to lead the movement, and a Reformed confession of faith was adopted by Parliament in 1560.
The Union of the Crowns refers to the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne as King James I of England in 1603, while remaining King James VI of Scotland. One man ruled two separate kingdoms with separate governments and cabinets, yet the two countries remained distinct and separate until the Acts of Union 1707. Within eight hours of the death of Elizabeth I, James was proclaimed king in London, the news received without protest or disturbance. The Jacobean era, spanning 1603 to 1625, succeeded the Elizabethan era and denoted a specific style of architecture, visual arts, and literature. The Caroline era followed, covering the reign of King Charles I from 1625 to 1642, which was followed by the English Civil War and the English Interregnum. The Stuart dynasty had its roots in the marriage of Walter Stewart to the daughter of Robert the Bruce, a lineage James V had famously remarked upon when his daughter Mary became Queen of Scots. Mary, Queen of Scots, had been sent to France at the age of five as the intended bride of the heir to the French throne, and her return to Scotland after the death of her husband, Francis II, marked the beginning of a turbulent period that would end with her execution on the orders of her kinswoman Elizabeth I.
The Civil War and Interregnum
The English Civil War consisted of a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians, known as Roundheads, and Royalists, known as Cavaliers, between 1642 and 1651. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on the 3rd of September 1651. The war led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II, and the replacement of the English monarchy with the Commonwealth of England and then the Protectorate under the personal rule of Oliver Cromwell. Upon Cromwell's death, his son took over but proved a weak ruler with very little support. The English Interregnum was the period of parliamentary and military rule that began with the regicide of Charles I in 1649 and ended with the restoration of Charles II in 1660. During this time, the Diggers, a group begun by Gerrard Winstanley in 1649, attempted to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based upon their ideas for the creation of small egalitarian rural communities.
Restoration and Revolution
In 1660, the remaining members of the Long Parliament rejected the anarchy and confusion since Cromwell's death, and elite and popular opinion called for a restoration of the monarchy under the Stuarts. Charles II landed at Dover amid great enthusiasm on the 26th of May 1660, after issuing the Declaration of Breda from Holland. The new Cavalier Parliament enacted the Clarendon Code, designed to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England, while the major foreign policy issue became the trade rivalry with the Dutch. Coincidental with the war with the Dutch was the Great Plague of London of 1665, 66, which at its worst cost 1000 deaths a day, followed by the Great Fire of London which destroyed 13,000 buildings. The Glorious Revolution of 1688, 89 established a precedent that British monarchs could not govern without the consent of Parliament. When Charles II died in 1685, his brother became King James II, but his unpopular proposals to restore Catholicism led to his exile. William III and Mary II were invited to govern, and the English Bill of Rights was passed, ensuring that the monarchy was constitutionally bound to Parliament. The Jacobite faction of Tories, in alliance with France, remained a military threat to the throne for the next half-century, but the revolution secured the Protestant succession.
The Fiscal-Military State
From 1700 to 1850, Britain was involved in 137 wars or rebellions, and while it generally succeeded in warfare, it was especially successful in financing its military commitments. France and Spain, by contrast, went bankrupt. The government raised large loans during wartime and paid them off in peacetime, working with bankers in the City to create a fiscal-military state. The rising costs of warfare forced a shift in government financing from the income from royal agricultural estates to reliance on customs and excise taxes and, after 1790, an income tax. The demand for war supplies stimulated the industrial sector, particularly naval supplies, munitions, and textiles. The Seven Years' War, which began in 1756, was the first war waged on a global scale, fought in Europe, India, North America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and coastal Africa. The signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended France's future as a colonial power in North America and left Britain as the world's dominant colonial power. The Royal Navy won a decisive victory over the French fleet at Trafalgar in 1805, blockading French ports and preventing Napoleon from invading Britain.
Empire and Enterprise
The era was prosperous as entrepreneurs extended the range of their business around the globe, and by the 1720s Britain was one of the most prosperous countries in the world. The London government enhanced the private sector by incorporating numerous privately financed London-based companies for establishing trading posts and opening import-export businesses across the world. The first enterprise was the Muscovy Company set up in 1555 to trade with Russia, followed by the East India Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa was set up in 1662 to trade in gold, ivory, and slaves, and was reestablished as the Royal African Company in 1672. British involvement in the triangular slave trade paid off handsomely, and the Queen Anne government secretly negotiated with France to obtain a thirty-year monopoly on the Spanish slave trade known as the Asiento de Negros. The South Sea Bubble was a business enterprise that exploded in scandal in 1720, ruining many speculators and reaching into high places even to the king. Despite the loss of the 13 colonies, Britain gained dominance in the trade with India and largely dominated the highly lucrative slave, sugar, and commercial trades originating in West Africa and the West Indies.