James II - King of England

James II - King of England

James II was the second son of King Charles I and his wife, Queen Henrietta Maria. Like that of his elder brother, Charles, who had been born in 1630, James’s childhood was blighted by the events of the English Civil War. In 1645, the royalist city of Oxford was taken by the forces of Parliament, and the young James, duke of York, who lived there, was taken prisoner. In April 1648, James escaped London and fled to Holland.

On news of the execution of his father, Charles I, in January 1649, James’s elder brother, Charles, prince of Wales, was immediately proclaimed king. James would make his mark as a soldier. By the 1650s, Oliver Cromwell had gone far to becoming the leading member on the side of Parliament and soon styled himself the almost-regal Lord Protector.

James gained military service in the French army under the great Marshal Henri de Turenne, but when Cromwell entered England into an alliance with the French, James left the service of Louis XIV and joined the army of France’s enemies, the Spanish.

The next year marked the beginning of another chapter in James’s life. On May 29, 1660, his brother was welcomed into London on his 30th birthday as Charles II. When the English went to war with the Dutch in 1665, James proved himself on sea as the lord high admiral. James was an able and determined military leader in the naval battles against the Dutch.


In England, however, James did not fare as well. His open conversion in 1688 to Roman Catholicism alienated both of the growing parties in Parliament. Two Test Acts, requiring one in effect to pledge allegiance to the state-sponsored Anglican Church, barred Roman Catholics from serving in either of the two Houses of Parliament.

James, clearly perceiving this as an attack, resigned his office of lord high admiral in 1673. Attempts were made to press through Parliament an Exclusion Bill to kafe James from the throne, but the bill ultimately failed.

By the time Charles II died on February 6, 1685, the Tories and Whigs were both resolved to receive James as king (James VII of Scotland and James II of England). Both political parties were resigned to his practicing his Roman Catholic faith as long as he and his second wife, Mary of Modena, did so privately.

On April 23, 1685, he was crowned king in Westminster Abbey and Mary of Modena his queen. In June, James, duke of Monmouth, landed in England to claim the throne as the Protestant claimant. Monmouth’s forces were quickly defeated. Within three months, James began to squander the goodwill he had enjoyed at his coronation.

Rather than behaving magnanimously toward Monmouth, he had him beheaded as a common traitor. Additionally, he unleashed a political reign of terror, known as the Bloody Assizes in the West Country. In November 1685 James shut down Parliament to rid himself of the debates and challenges to his decisions.

James also seemed determined to disestablish the Anglican Church in England. Magdalen College, in Oxford University, became a Roman Catholic seminary to train native English Catholic priests. James also presented a Declaration of Indulgence designed to lift legal restrictions from those who did not profess the Anglican creed.

He required the declaration to be read in all Anglican churches and when the archbishop of Canterbury William Sancroft and six other Anglican bishops protested, they were imprisoned in the Tower of London.

While it appeared that the throne would go to James’s Protestant daughter Mary, or the hereditary ruler of the Netherlands, William of Orange, the English people hoped that the Protestant religion would survive James’s rule. However on June 10, 1688, a son was born and Whig and Tory leaders realized that a Catholic would be the next monarch of England.

On the day the bishops were acquitted, Thomas Osborne, the first earl of Danby, a Tory, and six other Tory and Whig party members signed a secret invitation requesting William to invade England and, with Mary, overthrow James. On November 5, 1688, helped by what would be called the “Protestant Wind,” William’s invasion fleet anchored at Torbay. Danby led a rising for William in the north of England, while rebellion broke out in other parts of the country.

The army’s leading commander, John Churchill, also gave his support to William. James fled England to seek asylum with Louis XIV in France in December 1688. William and Mary were welcomed in London and, on February 13, 1689, formally proclaimed king and queen of England by Parliament.

Henry VIII

Henry VIII

Henry VIII was king of England from 1509 to 1547. He is perhaps best known for his succession of wives, some of whom were put to death, and was a key figure in both English and religious history.

Early Life

Henry was born June 28, 1491, the second son of King Henry VII. Raised as a prince and second in succession to the throne, Henry was an intelligent and athletic youth. He was schooled in Latin, Greek, and French, his upbringing in a large degree under the control of his paternal grandmother, Margaret Beaufort, an intelligent and shrewd woman. By age 10, Henry was expected to attend and even preside at royal functions, officially receiving his brother’s betrothed bride and his own future first wife, Princess Catherine of Aragon, in 1501.

Henry’s life changed dramatically in 1502 when his older brother Prince Arthur died unexpectedly at age 16. Arthur had been married less than five months to Catherine of Aragon. A year later, Henry’s father began negotiations to allow Henry to marry his brother’s widow, which required special permission from the pope in Rome.

That year, at age 11, Henry became officially engaged to Catherine, though they were not married till after Henry became king. During those years, Catherine became a political pawn in the diplomatic negotiations between Spain and England, as Henry’s father threatened several times to cancel the engagement.


The Young King

When his father died in April 1509, Henry was officially crowned king of England, lord of Ireland, and king of France (a nominal title, since he only ruled a portion of France). Two months later, Henry married Catherine of Aragon.

The 18-year-old king made an impressive appearance at court, being extremely physically fit and robust and thrilled with jousting, hunting, and dancing. He was attentive to the responsibilities of governing, but avoided routine meetings, expecting his counselors to go to him at his convenience to report and present issues requiring Henry’s decision.

Chief among his counselors was Thomas Wolsey, who became Henry’s chief minister in 1512. His early years of marriage to Catherine were generally happy ones, but marred by the fact that his first child was stillborn, and his second child, a son, died within six weeks of his birth. In 1515, a daughter, Mary I (crowned Queen Mary in 1553), was born.

During this time, there were substantial changes in neighboring France and the rest of Europe. In 1515, King Louis XII of France died, and his son Francis I took the throne. In 1519, Emperor Maximilian died and his son Charles (nephew of Queen Catherine) became Emperor Charles V. The three young rulers were at times allies, and other times enemies (often two against the other) over the next 30 years.

After Charles’s accession, Henry made an official visit to both King Francis and Charles at elaborately planned events marked with enormous pomp and ceremony. Wolsey, increasing in personal power during these years, represented Henry ably in orchestrating the events, ensuring that Henry had the upper hand wherever possible.

These years also marked the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, when the young priest Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517. Henry was fascinated by theology and sought to bring to his court men of great learning, including the esteemed scholar Erasmus of Rotterdam. At this time, Henry was completely opposed to the reformers, writing his own refutation of Protestant doctrine titled The Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, published in May 1521.

Henry’s Divorce from Catherine

By 1525, Henry could see that Catherine would never bear him a son. Catherine was already 40 years old, and only their daughter Mary had lived past early childhood. Henry was greatly concerned to ensure a male heir to the throne for he knew that others would claim the throne, especially under a queen.

Henry had an illegitimate son and considered the possibility of raising him to an official status but worried that this would simply aggravate the problem. Complicating matters was the fact that Henry had become enamored of a woman at his court named Anne Boleyn and was seeking to make her his mistress.

Finally in 1527, Henry decided to seek divorce from Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. This required papal dispensation, a matter complicated greatly by the fact that Charles V had recently invaded Rome, the home of the pope, and was understandably hostile to Henry’s desire to divorce Charles’s aunt.

The key figure in the negotiations with Pope Clement VII was Wolsey, now England’s cardinal and the second most powerful man in England after Henry. The argument crafted by Henry, Wolsey, and other councilors was that the marriage of Henry and Catherine was illegal, since she was previously married to Henry’s brother Arthur (even though a papal dispensation had been received for the marriage).

Clement was pressed by both Henry and Charles to decide one way or the other but succeeded in delaying a decision for nearly five years. Wolsey’s unsuccessful efforts to get a decision from Clement eventually led to his downfall and removal from office.

Breach with the Catholic Church

When informed by Anne Boleyn in 1533 that she was pregnant, a frustrated Henry decided to take matters into his own hands and declared that England had the authority to decide this matter, not a foreign pope.

The legal and political maneuvering to accomplish this was complex, as Henry was both trying to avoid open war with Charles and Francis and to ensure that the necessary acts of Parliament were done correctly. By May of 1533, the new archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, with the support of nearly all the English bishops, had declared Henry divorced from Catherine and recognized his marriage to Anne.

The breach with the Roman Catholic Church became complete in March 1534, with the passing of the Act of Supremacy, declaring that the king was, next to Christ, the “only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of England.” In order to ensure support for the act, an oath was administered to both church and civic officials.

Most took the oath, but a few notable men refused to take the oath, including the king’s own chancellor, Thomas More. More, Bishop Fisher, and several others were put to death for their refusal to take the oath. This marked the beginning of the present-day Anglican Church as well as the suppression of the Catholic Church in England.

Henry’s Subsequent Wives and Children

The hoped-for male heir did not come from Anne Boleyn. In September 1533, Anne bore Henry a daughter named Elizabeth, eventually crowned Queen Elizabeth I. Anne and Henry’s relationship slowly worsened after their marriage, but it was in April 1536 after Anne miscarried a baby boy that rumors of Anne’s infidelity surfaced.

Charges of infidelity and treason were brought against Anne and her supposed lovers (though it is not clear how truthful the charges were). Anne and several men were put to death in May 1536. Two weeks after Anne’s death, Henry married Jane Seymour, a woman he had been courting for several months. Jane bore a son, Edward VI, in September 1537 and died soon after from the effects of childbirth. Henry was not to have any more children.

Henry did have three more wives in succession. After a series of negotiations in 1540, Henry agreed to marry Anne of Cleves, the sister of an influential German duke. Assured that Anne was a great beauty, Henry was greatly disappointed upon meeting her, nearly putting off the marriage. Henry divorced her six months later in order to marry his new lover, Catherine Howard, in July 1540. His choice of Catherine was an unwise one.

Unbeknown to Henry, Catherine had several previous lovers and perhaps had continued a relationship with one of them after her marriage. This eventually came to the notice of Henry’s councillors, and with Henry’s consent, Catherine was tried and convicted of treason and executed in February 1542. In July 1543, Henry married Catherine Parr. Only Catherine Parr and Anne of Cleves outlived Henry.

By 1544 at age 53, Henry was an old man. He was substantially overweight, and his legs gave him great trouble with infections nearly killing him. He rallied at the prospect of invading France, which he did in July 1544, capturing the city of Boulogne at a high cost of men and supplies. War with France continued till 1546, when a treaty was signed between Henry and Francis I.

By this time, Henry could no longer walk or stand without assistance (though he could still be lifted onto a horse and enjoy a hunt). Later in 1546, Henry realized he had not long to live and set about eliminating opponents to the succession of his heirs, most notably the duke of Norfolk and his son, the earl of Surrey, who were convicted on charges of treason just before Henry’s own death.

Henry died on January 28, 1547. He was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI.

Henry VII

Henry VII

Henry Tudor was born to Margaret Beaufort of the House of Lancaster—the “red roses” in 15th century England’s War of the Roses—and Edmund Tudor, the earl of Richmond, who died in Henry’s infancy. The War of the Roses came to a lull in 1471 when Edward IV (of the House of York, the opposing “white roses”) was restored to the throne—but his death 12 years later returned turmoil to England.

Encouraged by his Lancastrian maternal family, Henry contested the claim to the throne made by Richard III, the duke of Gloucester and Edward’s brother and most powerful general. It took two years, but Henry’s eventual victory ended the War of the Roses decisively and established the House of Tudor in the monarchy of England.

Peace and prosperity were Henry’s watchwords as king of England. Though his taxes were often high, they aimed not to line pockets but to restore the coffers depleted by civil war, and a treaty with the French that granted to them much of the territory they had gained during previous reigns brought substantial money to the royal treasury and spared the kingdom further fighting over matters now generations in the past.

Economic reforms presaged the weakening of the nobility’s financial power compared to that of the merchant class, which under Tudor rule would become more and more significant up through the English Renaissance (both Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were Tudor monarchs).


Henry also turned the Star Chamber—a court that had developed from the royal council—into a special tribunal whose sessions were closed to the public, which made them available to commoners who sought to make complaints against the nobility.

Although the Star Chamber could examine and overturn the decisions of lower courts, it was explicitly used by Henry to ensure the power to prosecute individuals considered untouchable by ordinary courts. It was not a new concept—similar courts had been used across Europe for centuries—but Henry’s application of it at the end of the War of Roses helped to turn the chaos of that period into the opportunity for a new order.

Though it was his son and successor, Henry VIII, who would split the Church of England off from the diocese of Rome, Henry VII in a sense got the ball rolling: When his oldest son died, he sought to marry his daughter-in-law, Catherine of Aragon, to Henry VIII, his younger son.

A papal dispensation was necessary, and although it was granted, the necessity lent a tense tenor to European affairs for most of a year. Eventually, Henry decided against the marriage, and the dispensation was not required—but this betrothal was instrumental in influencing young Henry VIII’s opinion of the pope’s influence in royal matters.

Henry IV

Henry IV

Henry was born in Pau, Béarn, Navarre, on December 13, 1552, to Antoine de Bourbon, duke of Vendôme (1518–62). Antoine was descended from the Capetian royal line, became Huguenot (Protestant), but then returned to Roman Catholicism.

Henry’s mother, Jeanne d’Albret, the Huguenot queen of Navarre (1528–72), raised Henry as a Huguenot in Béarn. Henry received a military education from French general Gaspard de Coligny (1519–72) and became the Huguenot leader in 1569.

Henry succeeded to the throne of Navarre upon his mother’s death on June 9, 1572. On August 18, 1572, he married Marguerite de Valois (1555–1615), his second cousin and childhood playmate. The marriage was arranged to alleviate the divisions wrought by the French Wars of Religion and reconcile the Roman Catholics with the Huguenots.

Queen Mother Catherine de Médicis (1519–89) forced King Charles IX (1550–74) and the future Henry III (1551–89) to order the Huguenot guests at the wedding to be killed. Some 3,000 Huguenots were killed in Paris, including de Coligny.


Despite a royal order to stop the killing, the slaughter spread throughout France, and 70,000 more Huguenots were killed. To save his life, Henry was forced to become Roman Catholic and stay confined to the court. He escaped and returned to Navarre and the Huguenot faith.

The Catholic League was formed in 1576 to oppose the Huguenots. It operated under the guidance of Henry, duke of Guise (1550–88), who controlled Henry III. Henry III and Guise fought Henry of Navarre unsuccessfully at the Battle of Coutras on October 20, 1587. Henry III was afraid of Guise’s popularity and his secret longing for the throne and ordered his assassination; he promptly left Paris under threat by Guise supporters.

Henry III reconciled with Henry in Navarre to gain his military support against the league and to win control over Paris. Together, they besieged Paris on July 30. Henry III was assassinated on August 2, 1589, and Henry of Navarre became king. The Catholic League, which was financially supported by Roman Catholic Spain, would not accept him as monarch and forced him to fight for the throne.

On July 25, 1592, Henry was encouraged by his mistress and mother of three of his illegitimate children, Gabrielle d’Estrée (1571–99), to repudiate his Protestant faith and permanently become Roman Catholic. He did so in July 1593.

He was immensely popular not only because he ended decades of war, but also because he was conciliatory and practical. Henry declared the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which established Roman Catholicism as the state religion and offered religious toleration to the Huguenots, who were heavily engaged in trade.

The Wars of Religion had taken an enormous toll on France, so Henry’s immediate goal was reconstruction. Rather than exhaust the treasury with more wars, Henry paid off the nobles who disagreed with him. He systemized finances and soon created a reserve of 18 million livres.

Henry’s marriage to Marguerite of Valois was annulled by Pope Clement VIII (1536–1605) in 1599. Henry married Marie de Médicis (1573–1642) on December 17, 1600. They had six children, the first of whom would become Louis XIII.

The couple welcomed Marguerite of Valois into their family; she helped rear the children and was very popular with the French people. Henry also had eight more illegitimate children with various other mistresses.

Henry sent Samuel de Champlain, Pierre Dugua, sieur de Monts to the New World to claim it for France. Henry’s foreign policy was meant to bring France to the forefront of power. He made alliances with Italy, the Swiss, and some Protestant German princes.

He was assassinated on May 14, 1610, by a religious fanatic. He was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica, the burial place of French monarchs. His legal son and heir, the future Louis XIII, was only nine years old, so Marie de Médicis served as regent until 1617.

Glorious Revolution

Glorious Revolution

The 1688 Glorious Revolution, sometimes known as the “Bloodless Revolution,” represented a culminating stage in Britain’s tumultuous 17th century history, a history characterised by the struggle between king and Parliament, and most notably, between Catholic and Protestant.

The crisis of 1688 came about following the succession of James II to the throne following the death of his brother, Charles II, in 1685. James was a committed Catholic; he hoped to strengthen the Catholic position if not restore it and return lost powers to the monarchy. James also wanted to transform and expand the army, which was dominated by a Protestant officer corps of aristocrats and gentlemen.

James desired more Catholic officers whose loyalty was to the Crown. A more Catholic army might help him pursue his political agenda. This aktivitas brought him into conflict with the Test Act, passed under Charles II, which required all those seeking military or civil posts to accept the Anglican Church and its teachings.


Following the earlier suppression of the Monmouth and Argyll rebellions, James was emboldened and started his campaign to reject the Test Act, and appointed Catholic loyalists to key state and university positions.

He issued a Declaration of Indulgence in 1687, which ended penal laws against Catholics, and followed this with a Second Declaration of Indulgence in 1688, which furthered the pro-Catholic policy and led to unrest among his bishops, and the alienation of both the Tories and Whigs in Parliament. James increased the political divides within the country, and when his wife, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son on June 10, 1688, there was now the prospect of a Catholic succession.

The conspiracy to overthrow James began in earnest, and a mixed Tory and Whig parliamentary group approached the Dutch prince, William of Orange, and his wife, Mary, the Protestant daughter of James, to go to England to assume the throne. William agreed to accept the Crown in order to gain English resources for his war against Louis XIV of France.

William landed at Brixham, near Torbay in Devon, on November 5, 1688, with an army of some 14,000 composed mainly of Dutch, Brandenburger, Finnish, Swedish, and French troops. Although James’s army stationed on Salisbury Plain had double the manpower, his confidence failed, and on November 23, he withdrew toward London.

His meddling with the army now took its toll and many of his men deserted, including Lord Churchill (later duke of Marlborough), so that by December 10, his force was reduced to approximately 4,000 men. Lord Feversham, James’s leading commander, interpreted the situation as hopeless and disbanded his army without a fight.

On December 17, Dutch Guards took over Whitehall, the seat of government, and James attempted to flee the country. He was captured in Kent, but eventually was allowed to leave England. The taste for further regicide had passed.

In 1689, a Convention of Parliament decided that James’s departure was an abdication. William and Mary could now accept the throne on February 13, 1689, as legitimate joint rulers. To prevent future disruptions of this sort, Parliament passed a Declaration of Rights and a Bill of Rights in 1689.

These acts redefined the monarch’s position and authority in regard to his/her subjects, ending absolutism and any possibility of a Catholic monarchy. This redefinition of power created a constitutional monarchy, the form of government that continues today.

James however was not finished with his struggle to regain the throne. In 1689–90 he turned his attention to Scotland and Ireland, where he hoped to exploit nationalist and Catholic feeling. This first Jacobite rebellion in Scotland failed, and it led to the construction of Fort William to subdue the region.

In March 1689, James landed in Ireland with French troops thinking it would become a base to retake England. At Enniskillen, the Jacobites were pushed back. In June 1690, William landed his forces in Ireland and encountered James’s army at the Boyne on July 1, 1690.

William outflanked the Jacobite army, who were forced to retreat, while James once more fled to France. The remnants of James’s army continued to struggle on. They suffered further defeat at Aughrim on July 12, 1691, before surrendering totally that October.

The Glorious Revolution, according to some historians, was more of a coup d’etat than a revolution proper and might better be described as the Revolution of 1688. The after-effects were not bloodless. The revolution helped seal English rule over Ireland, the seed of future unrest. However, its most lasting effects were constitutional monarchy, the end of absolutism, and the ascendancy of Parliament as the nation’s paramount political force.

George II - King of England

George II - King of England

George II was born into the House of Hanover in 1683 in the Schloss (Castle) Herrenhausen, which had been the seat of the dynasty since George, the duke of Brunswick-Luneberg, moved to Hanover during the Thirty Years’ War. When George II’s father became king of England, the court moved from Herrenhausen to London.

Unlike George I, who had a bevy of mistresses, George II was devoted to his wife, Caroline of Anspach, whom he wed in 1705. Caroline, the daughter of the margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, accompanied her husband to England when his father, usually known as the elector of Hanover, became king of England in 1714.

Caroline of Anspach was one of the most illustrious women of her age and a patroness of science and philosophy. When the great philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) was at Schloss Herrenhausen, Caroline was his best student.

The rule of George I featured a stormy relationship between George I and his son. In a dispute over British policy in Germany, the future George II broke with his father when Robert Walpole, George I’s prime minister, felt that British interests were being subordinated to those of Hanover in Europe.


With Caroline’s help, the future George II set up what amounted to a government in exile at Leicester House, where Caroline established a learned salon similar to what she had at Schloss Herrenhausen. However, father and son were reconciled and in 1720, Walpole returned to the government.

When George I died in Germany in 1727, his son immediately became king, as much a testimony to the skill of Walpole as to the Act of Succession of 1701. When James Edward Stuart, the son of James II, invaded Scotland in 1715 and 1719, it showed the value of his legislation in the eyes of those who favored the Hanovers over the Stuarts.

For the duration of George I’s reign and much of George II’s, the threat of a Stuart restoration to the throne was real. In 1745, the son of James Edward, Bonnie Prince Charlie, did in fact land in Scotland and administer two stinging defeats to the Hanoverian army at Prestonpans and Falkirk and occupied Scotland.

This precipitated the greatest crisis of George II’s kingship. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached as far south as Derby in England, but concerned about a lack of support among the English, he began his retreat north again.

George II, who at Dettingen in 1743 in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) had been the last British king to take part in a battle, sent his son, George Augustus, duke of Cumberland, in pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie. At Culloden Moor in April 1746, Cumberland defeated him in a decisive engagement.

Aside from the Stuart threat, the kingdom, which included Scotland and Ireland, enjoyed peace and stability, shown by the rise of the middle class and the birth of modern English literature. Henry Fielding gained prominence in the reign of George II.

Fielding’s satiric plays incurred the wrath of Walpole, who set about closing Fielding’s theater. Rebounding from this defeat, he would go on to write his greatest novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), which perhaps better than any other work presents life in the time of the second George. Daniel Defoe had an active career through the reigns of Queen Anne, George I, and George II.

In 1756, Britain became involved in the Seven Years’ War, which had actually begun in the conflict between the British and French colonies in North America in 1754. The war soon spread to encompass much of the world, although the decisive battles would be fought in Europe and America. Britain’s greatest ally was Frederick the Great of Prussia, an admirer of the French field marshal Maurice de Saxe.

The use of English money as a subsidy, an inheritance from Walpole’s passionate pursuit of mercantilism, enabled Frederick to field an army that, along with his undisputed military genius, would keep at bay the combined forces of France, the Austrian Empire, and Russia.

William Pitt was an accomplished and reliable wartime prime minister for England. He strategically strengthened the British navy, sent fleets where they would be most effective, and oversaw supply exchanges with allies. After several years of reverses, British arms in 1758 scored several victories against France, earning both the king and Pitt great popularity among the people.

In 1760, at the height of his power, George tragically succumbed to a stroke. Since his son Frederic Louis had died in 1751, his grandson succeeded him on the throne as George III. From his grandfather, George III inherited a monarchy—and an empire—at the height of its power and prestige.

George I - King of England

George I - King of England

George I of England came to the throne of England through the Act of Settlement of 1701. This legislation, passed by the British parliament, ensured the succession of Protestant heirs to the throne of England.

James II of the House of Stuart had been a Roman Catholic and had been expelled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Carried to England on a “Protestant wind,” his daughter Mary and her husband, William III of Orange, the stadtholder of the Netherlands, took his place on the throne.

Although William would act as king, it was always clear that he did so through his wife, Mary. The line of succession was established so that if William and Mary were to die without producing an heir, the Crown would pass to Mary’s Protestant sister, Anne.

Mary died in 1694, and William would follow her in death in 1702. Anne, who had been born in 1665, became queen on William’s death. Anne, too, would die without issue in 1714, and, under the explicit terms of the Act of Settlement, the throne passed to Sophia, the electress of Hanover in Germany.


The English parliament decided to amend the law of succession to the throne in favor of the Protestant House of Stuart. In default of heirs from William III of Orange—who had ruled alone in England after the death of Mary in 1694—or Anne, the act declared that the English Crown would devolve upon Princess Sophia and her Protestant heirs.

Ironically, Sophia died before Anne in August 1714. Therefore, the Crown of England passed to her son, who became George I, king of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the elector of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire. The lineage made George I’s succession direct and in accord with the Act of Succession.

Born in 1660, George I was the son of Elector Ernest and Sophia, who was the granddaughter of James I of England. James himself, first the king of Scotland, had established the Stuart dynasty on the English throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the House of Tudor to rule in England, in 1603.

New in his realm, George I at first relied on advisers from Hanover. Although he was not a man of particularly acute knowledge, as had been King Charles II, he was able to judge those who had talent. He used these able men to govern his new kingdom for him.

Under George I, John Churchill, the first duke of Marlborough, was allowed again to enjoy the fruits of his victories, as England’s most respected general. In politics, Robert Walpole was the brightest star. A leading member of the Whig Party, Walpole became so central to the administration of government that some historians consider him the first British prime minister.

However, Walpole’s period of favor with the king was relatively brief. His concern that George I was subordinating England’s interests to Hanover, especially since the British sacrifices in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13), led to a complete rupture with the monarch. Walpole left office and George’s own son, the future George II, left the royal palace to set up an opposing government.

Three years after he broke with Walpole, George I invited Walpole back to his government in 1720. Moreover, Walpole effected a reconciliation between the king and his son. By 1724, Walpole and his brother-in-law, Charles, Viscount Townshend, virtually were the government.

In foreign and military affairs, George I had difficulty in his choice of advisers. In September 1715, John Erskine, the earl of Mar, raised the standard of Anne’s half brother James, whose goal was to attempt a restoration of a Catholic Stuart dynasty in Scotland.

Mar represented perhaps George’s worst political mistake; Mar turned against the king after he was driven out of government. Parliament passed the Riot Act and 100,000 British pounds was offered for the apprehension of James.

With the Jacobites, as the supporters of James were known (James is Jacobus in Latin), the British military authorities immediately turned toward Marlborough. On November 13, 1715, the government troops under the duke of Argyll defeated the Jacobites at Sheriffmuir.

Mar withdrew, and by the time James finally arrived, the most that he could do was to evacuate some of his followers back with him to France. George’s punishment against his enemies was swift and harsh; 30 Jacobites were executed. Still, the Jacobites rose again four years later in a rebellion against Scotland launched from Spain.

As with the majority of the British, the Lowland Scots had come to associate George I with stability that made everyday life feel safe. Thus, by 1724, England enjoyed a peaceful life, with a steady government led by Walpole. In 1727, George I suffered a stroke and died on his way to his beloved Hanover.

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I is regarded as one of the greatest monarchs in English history, reigning as queen of England and queen of Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603, and, in name only, styling herself as queen of France.

Elizabeth was born the second daughter of King Henry VIII. King Henry had the marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, annulled as she had given birth to a daughter, Mary, and he had started a romance with Anne Boleyn, whom he married.

She gave birth to Elizabeth on September 7, 1533, and although Anne Boleyn was pretty, intelligent, witty, clever, and a devout Protestant, her inability to give Henry VIII a son essentially caused her to be executed, although the charge leveled against her was incestuous adultery.

As a result, Elizabeth, who was three when her mother was executed, grew up secluded from the court. When Henry VIII died in 1547, he was succeeded by his sickly son Edward VI. By this time Elizabeth could speak and read not only English and Latin, but also ancient Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish.


She managed to keep a low profile during the reign of Edward VI and tried to do the same during the reign of her older sister Mary, after Edward had died in 1553. Mary, however, was a devout Roman Catholic and determined to rebuild the Catholic Church in England. Elizabeth, by contrast, was Protestant but she was careful to keep herself removed from plots against her Catholic sister.

The most serious of these was Wyatt’s Rebellion of 1554, which sought to depose Mary and replace her with Elizabeth. Even though she was not involved, Elizabeth was, nevertheless, arrested and placed in the Tower of London, making the entry by boat through “Traitor’s Gate.”

The death of Mary on November 17, 1558, led to Elizabeth’s succeeding to the throne. She was crowned on January 15, 1559, by Owen Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, as the Roman Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, Reginald Pole, had already fled and refused to take part in the coronation.

It was to be the last coronation where the Latin service was used; all subsequent coronations except that of George I in 1714 were in English. In 1559, Queen Elizabeth enacted the Act of Uniformity whereby all churches had to use the Book of Common Prayer.

In the same year, she also signed into law the Act of Supremacy whereby all public officials had to acknowledge, by oath, Elizabeth’s right, as sovereign, to be head of the Church of England. In these two acts, her main adviser, who would remain as such for the rest of her reign, was Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley).

There were many stories regarding whether Queen Elizabeth I wanted to marry. Certainly she enjoyed a long affair with Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, whom she appointed as master of the Queen’s Horse.

She was acutely aware of her sister’s bad move in marrying Philip II of Spain, and anxious not to marry any foreign Roman Catholic prince, although there were moves made by the French. With constant plots against Elizabeth, she faced trouble in Scotland from Mary, Queen of Scots, who was her first cousin once removed. Mary was the granddaughter of Margaret, sister of Henry VIII.

Mary was, however, unpopular in Scotland and after the death of her first husband in France, she returned to Scotland, where her second husband was murdered, most probably by the man whom she was subsequently to marry, Lord Bothwell. Mary was hounded out of Scotland, fleeing to England, where she was arrested and held in close confinement for the next 18 years.

In 1569, the Northern Rebellion led by Thomas Howard, the fourth duke of Norfolk; Charles Neville, the sixth earl of Westmoreland; and Thomas Percy, the seventh earl of Northumberland, failed, although it led to Elizabeth’s being excommunicated by the pope.

With Elizabeth allying herself to the Protestants in France and the Netherlands (United Provinces), she viewed the developments in Europe with concern, especially when Philip II of Spain became the king of Portugal after the last Portuguese king, Henry, died childless.

There was also a rebellion in Ireland, and when Sir Francis Walshingham, Elizabeth’s main spymaster, uncovered the Babington Plot implicating Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary was put on trial for treason, sentenced to death, and beheaded on February 8, 1587, at Fotheringay Castle.

With Mary having willed her lands to Philip II, Elizabeth was facing a major threat from the Spanish king, who was also angered at the way in which English ships attacked his treasure ships and others bringing wealth from the Americas. Francis Drake, who circumnavigated the world in 1577–79, Walter Raleigh, and John Hawkins, and Martin Frobisher were among the “sea dogs” preying on the Spanish ships.

In 1588, Philip II sent a massive navy and expeditionary force known as the Spanish Armada against England. By a mixture of luck and good planning, the Spanish Armada was crushed, with a few ships managing to escape around the northern coasts of Scotland and Ireland.

Queen Elizabeth I’s speech at Tilbury, rallying her soldiers and sailors, is one of the most famous in history: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.”

The reign of Queen Elizabeth I, known as the Elizabethan age, was also a period of great prosperity in England, with the Levant Company leading to the later formation of the East India Company. Many books were published, and many playwrights, notably William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, wrote large numbers of plays.

During the 1590s, Elizabeth continued to receive threats to her rule in Ireland, and in 1599 a plot was mounted by Robert Dudley’s stepson, Robert Devereaux, the earl of Essex, who had emerged as Elizabeth’s new favorite. Essex was executed on February 25, 1601. Elizabeth gradually came to see that her heir would be King James VI of Scotland, and when she died on March 24, 1603, James succeeded her.

Edward VI - King of England

Edward VI - King of England

Edward VI was the only son of Henry VIII, king of England, born from his marriage to his third wife, Jane Seymour, on January 28, 1537. He succeeded to the English throne at age nine by his father’s last will and by the parliamentary statute of 1543, and died unmarried at the age of 16 on July 6, 1553.

The young king inherited from his father a constitution, under which he was not only the secular king but also the supreme head of the Church of England. However, the kingdom was deeply divided among factions of great nobles in the court, and, in the countryside, the people were unsettled by the direction of the religious policy under the new king.

In spite of his lovable personality, good education, and well-respected intellectual capacity, the young king could hardly design and dictate policies on his own. Edward Seymour, the duke of Somerset and the king’s maternal uncle, ran the kingdom as lord protector in loco parentis (in the place of a parent) for the first three years.

After his dismissal from the court in 1549, John Dudley, the earl of Warwick, who became duke of Northumberland in 1551, ruled the nation as the chief minister under the pretense that the king had assumed full royal authority.


The two chief ministers shared similar interest in moving the Church of England toward Protestantism. In 1547, Parliament repealed the Six Articles, enacted in 1534 by the Reformation Parliament, to keep Catholic doctrines and practices in the Church of England. In 1549, the publication of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer and the adoption of his 42 Articles by Parliament pushed the Anglican Church closer to Calvinism.

In 1552, Parliament enacted the Act of Uniformity, requiring all Englishmen to attend Calvinist-styled Anglican Church services. Moreover, Parliament stopped enforcing laws against heresy, permitted priests to get married, and even confiscated the property of Catholic chantries, where for centuries, local priests had been praying for souls wandering in purgatory.

To the Protestants in the Continent, these policy changes made England a safe haven and an escape from persecution by the Catholic Church. In England, the Protestants welcomed the reforms, although they felt that the policies did not satisfy their Calvinist needs. The Catholics, however, were shocked by their loss of properties, privileges, and powers and were provoked into rebellions in 1549.

Edward VI coat of arms

Neither of the two chief ministers was a master of statesmanship. They failed to curb runaway inflation and continuous devaluations of English currency. They lacked competence in pacifying domestic unrests caused by enclosure of land and worsening living conditions of the rural poor.

They appeared shortsighted and clumsy in maneuvering diplomacy to meet increasingly complicated challenges from other European nations. Most of all, they mismanaged the young king’s marriage, the great affair of the state.

The duke of Somerset invaded Scotland in 1547, intending to conclude the negotiation, which had begun under Henry VIII, for the marriage of Edward VI to Mary of Stuart, the four-year-old daughter of King James V.

Although the duke defeated the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie, the Scots betrothed the princess to Francis, the dauphin of the French throne, in 1548. After the fall of Somerset, the duke of Northumberland appeared to be actively negotiating a marriage of Edward to Elizabeth, the daughter of French king Henry II, in 1551.

The marriage never materialized. In 1553, rumors spread around the diplomatic circle in Paris that the duke was going to manage a marriage between Edward VI and Joanna, a daughter of Ferdinand, the brother of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor.

Despite his apparent busy diplomacy, the duke was secretly carrying out a plan of his own, probably with the king’s knowledge, that would enable Lady Jane Grey, his daughter-in-law and the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, to succeed Edward and thus disinherit Mary I, the Catholic sister of the king, who had been bastardized by her father but later placed to succeed her brother in his last will.

Following the death of Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen with the military support of her father-in-law. However, much of the nation, though favoring a Protestant ruler, rallied against the conspiracy of the duke of Northumberland. The “reign” of Lady Jane Grey lasted only nine days, and Mary I eventually succeeded to the throne in 1553.

The dramatic turn toward Protestantism under Edward VI and the even more dramatic restoration of Catholicism under Queen Mary have been viewed as the major aspects of the so-called mid-Tudor crisis by many historians.

Francis Drake - English Explorer

Francis Drake - English Explorer

Sir Francis Drake was an English mariner-adventurer, and sometime privateer, who circumnavigated the globe. Drake was born near Tavistock, Devon, England, not far from the important port of Plymouth. He came from a well-connected Protestant farming family, one of 12 children born to Edmund Drake.

At approximately age 13, Francis went to sea on a cargo bark and eventually became the master of the ship at age 20. These early seafaring years spent in the North Sea built his experience as a skillful sailor and navigator and gave him a sense of command. When he was 23 he joined his cousin Sir John Hawkins and for the first time voyaged to the New World. In association with Hawkins, he undertook the initial English slave-trading expeditions to the New World.

Drake discovered the lure of the Spanish Main with all its riches in silver, gold, and slaves. He disliked the Spanish from the onset, no doubt in part for their Catholicism, and in the 1560s, began his campaign against Spanish interests, appearing a pirate to some and a privateer to others. His raids demonstrated his bravado and determination, but almost cost him his life.

Drake’s most famous attack came in 1573 when he took the Spanish Silver Train at the port of Nombre de Dios. Finding the silver too heavy to carry, he took all the gold he could and returned to Plymouth on August 9, 1573, with 30 survivors. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth I had undertaken a temporary truce with Philip II of Spain, and Drake’s exploits were not officially celebrated.


In 1577, Queen Elizabeth, facing new Spanish hostilities, sent Drake with 150 men and five ships on an expedition against the Spanish interests on the Pacific coast of the Americas. Two ships had to be abandoned at Río de la Plata and the remaining three navigated the Straits of Magellan, making Drake the first Englishman to do so.

The voyage continued to be difficult; another ship was destroyed, and still another separated and returned to England. Drake sailed along the coast of South America alone in the Golden Hind, attacking Spanish interests, plundering Valparaíso, and seizing cargo as he moved. He continued along the coast of North America looking for a passage to the Atlantic, possibly as far north as the present state of Washington.

He stopped for supplies and repairs in San Francisco Bay and named the area New Albion. Drake now made the decision to cross the Pacific. He rounded the Cape of Good Hope and eventually returned on September 26, 1580, to Plymouth, laden with treasure. His exploits could not be denied even in the face of Spanish fury, and Queen Elizabeth knighted him.

War with Spain

Another war with Spain in 1585 put Drake back in his element. He took command of a fleet and launched assaults against Vigo in Spain, São Tiago in the Cape Verde Islands, and the New World ports of Santo Domingo and Cartagena, as well as St. Augustine in Florida.

In 1587, he “singed the King of Spain’s beard” with a preemptive and destructive raid on Cádiz, burning 31 ships and holding the town for three days in the process. This attack delayed the Spanish Armada sailing by a year.

Statue of Francis Drake

By the time the Spanish Armada sailed to England to invade in 1588, Drake was vice admiral in command of the English fleet. It was at this time that the famous Drake myth first appeared that had Drake enjoying a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Spanish fleet approached. Here he supposedly stated that he had plenty of time to finish the game before the Spanish arrived.

The English fleet pursued the Spanish through the channel. Drake caught the rich galleon Rosario and Admiral Pedro de Vales in the process. On July 29, 1588, Drake and Lord Howard of Effingham organized the fire ships that broke the Spanish formation, causing damage that forced the Spaniards into the open sea toward Calais. The following day, Drake and the rest of the English fleet defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Gravelines.

Drake’s tamat expedition against the Spanish occurred in 1595, supported by Hawkins. On this occasion, the Spanish inflicted defeat, particularly against Drake’s raids on San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hawkins died off Puerto Rico and Drake became ill from dysentery and died on January 28, 1596, while in the process of mounting a further attack on San Juan. Placed in a lead coffin, Drake was buried at sea with his crew burning the town of Puerto Bello as a dedication to his passing.

Drake’s life was one of adventure and determination, which helped enrich England with his plunder. He established claims to the New World and made England a recognized naval power.