[1485 - 1714] Union and Revolution

The year is 1485. On a wet, muddy field at Bosworth, the bloody Wars of the Roses reach their savage conclusion. King Richard III is slain, and a Welsh exile, Henry Tudor, snatches the crown, becoming King Henry VII. He is a king born of battle, his claim to the throne tenuous at best. His reign is one of cautious, almost paranoid, consolidation. He tames the over-mighty nobles, fills the royal treasury with ruthless efficiency, and marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York. He brings a fragile peace to a weary kingdom, building a foundation of stability and wealth that his son would soon enjoy—and spectacularly squander. That son is Henry VIII, a monarch who storms onto the stage of history with all the charisma and force of a summer tempest. Young Henry is everything his father was not: tall, athletic, a Renaissance prince in love with music, jousting, and himself. But his obsession with securing the Tudor dynasty with a male heir leads him, and his kingdom, down a revolutionary path. When his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, fails to produce a son, Henry’s desire for Anne Boleyn drives him to do the unthinkable. He breaks with the Pope in Rome, declares himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and grants himself his own divorce. This single act of personal will unleashes a torrent of change. Between 1536 and 1541, his agents dissolve over 800 monasteries, priories, and friaries, seizing their immense wealth and land. The great stone buildings that had been centers of charity, learning, and healthcare for centuries are stripped of their lead roofs and left as skeletal ruins upon the landscape. The social fabric is torn, and England’s very soul is put up for debate. Henry’s marital carousel continues—six wives in total, two divorced, two beheaded—while the nation holds its breath, swinging between the old Catholic faith and the new Protestant ideas spreading via the recently invented printing press. The religious pendulum swings violently after Henry’s death. His frail son, Edward VI, pushes the nation further into austere Protestantism. But his early death ushers in the reign of his half-sister, Mary I, a devout Catholic determined to drag England back to Rome. Her methods are brutal. In her short five-year reign, nearly 300 Protestants are condemned for heresy and burned at the stake. The stench of burning flesh hangs over public squares like Smithfield in London, earning the queen the grim moniker ‘Bloody Mary’. Her reign ends in failure and misery, and the crown passes to her younger half-sister, the enigmatic Elizabeth I, in 1558. Elizabeth’s 45-year reign is often called a ‘Golden Age’. It is the age of Shakespeare, whose plays in the new Globe Theatre draw crowds from every social class. It is the age of explorers like Sir Francis Drake, who circumnavigates the globe, plundering Spanish treasure ships along the way. Yet, this golden age is precarious. As an unmarried, childless Protestant queen, Elizabeth is a constant target. Catholic plots swirl around her, many centered on her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Her greatest test comes in 1588. Philip II of Spain, Europe’s most powerful monarch, sends a mighty Armada of 130 ships to crush England once and for all. The fate of the nation hangs in the balance as England’s smaller, more nimble fleet, aided by ferocious storms they call the ‘Protestant Wind’, heroically repels the invasion. Elizabeth becomes a legend, but she leaves behind a critical problem: with no heir, the Tudor dynasty dies with her. The crown passes to her nearest relative, King James VI of Scotland, who becomes James I of England in 1603, uniting the crowns of the two kingdoms. A new dynasty, the Stuarts, now reigns. James is a learned but awkward king who firmly believes in the Divine Right of Kings—the idea that his authority comes directly from God and he is answerable to God alone. This immediately puts him on a collision course with an English Parliament that is growing in confidence and believes it has the right to control the nation's finances. The tension is palpable, and nearly explodes in 1605 with the Gunpowder Plot, a Catholic conspiracy to blow the King and his entire government to smithereens. The plot's failure creates a national sense of deliverance, but the fundamental conflict between King and Parliament only festers. His son, Charles I, inherits this conflict and lacks any of his father’s pragmatism. Aloof and unbending, Charles attempts to rule without Parliament altogether for eleven years, raising funds through controversial and ancient taxes. His attempt to impose an Anglican-style prayer book on fiercely Presbyterian Scotland is the final spark. War breaks out with Scotland, and Charles, desperate for money, is forced to recall Parliament. The showdown that has been brewing for decades has arrived. By 1642, the country descends into Civil War. It is a war that pits neighbor against neighbor: the Royalist ‘Cavaliers’ with their long hair and lavish attire against the Parliamentarian ‘Roundheads’ with their sober clothes and Puritan zeal. After years of bloody conflict, the disciplined, professional New Model Army of the Parliamentarians, led by the brilliant general Oliver Cromwell, is victorious. In a move that shocks all of Christendom, they put the king on trial for treason. In January 1649, King Charles I is publicly beheaded outside his own Banqueting House in Whitehall. The monarchy is abolished, and England becomes a republic. This ‘Commonwealth’ is dominated by Oliver Cromwell, who eventually rules as a military dictator with the title ‘Lord Protector’. It is an era of grim, puritanical rule. Theatres are closed, public celebrations like Christmas are suppressed, and strict moral laws are enforced. The experiment in republicanism, held together only by Cromwell's force of will, dies with him. By 1660, a weary nation invites the executed king’s exiled son back to the throne. The Restoration of King Charles II is met with joyous relief. Theatres reopen, culture flourishes, and a sense of libertine fun returns. But this new age is soon scarred by biblical-scale disasters. In 1665, the Great Plague devastates London, killing an estimated 100,000 people, a quarter of the city's inhabitants. Just a year later, the Great Fire of London reduces the medieval heart of the capital to ash. Yet from these ashes, a new city rises, designed by architects like Sir Christopher Wren, whose magnificent St. Paul’s Cathedral comes to symbolize London's rebirth. The final crisis of this revolutionary century is, once again, about religion and power. Charles II’s brother and successor, James II, is an avowed Catholic. When his wife gives birth to a son, the prospect of a permanent Catholic dynasty terrifies the Protestant establishment. This time, there is no civil war. Instead, a group of powerful nobles orchestrates a coup. They invite James’s Protestant daughter, Mary, and her powerful Dutch husband, William of Orange, to bring an army and seize the throne. James II flees to France, and the event is dubbed the ‘Glorious Revolution’ for its relative lack of bloodshed in England. Its true glory, however, lies in the aftermath. The new monarchs, William and Mary, agree to the 1689 Bill of Rights, a document that permanently limits the power of the crown, guarantees the rights of Parliament, and lays the foundation for a constitutional monarchy. The absolute power of the monarch is broken forever. Under the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, the final piece of the modern state is put in place. The 1707 Act of Union formally dissolves the English and Scottish parliaments and creates a single, unified Kingdom of Great Britain. When Anne dies childless in 1714, the turbulent Stuart era ends, and the crown passes peacefully to a German cousin, George of Hanover, securing a Protestant future for the newly forged nation.