HISTORY 



49 



was by his son Henry VIII. exerted in a tyran- 

 nical and capricious manner. The most impor- 

 tant event of the reign was undoubtedly the 

 Reformation; though it had its origin rather 

 in Henry's caprice and in the casual situation 

 of his private affairs than in his conviction of the 

 ity of a reformation in religion, or in the 

 solidity of reasoning employed by the reformers. 

 Henry had been espoused to Catharine of Spain, 

 who *was first married to his elder brother 

 Arthur, a prince who died young. Henry became 

 <! with his queen, and enamored of one 

 maids of honor, Anne Boleyn. He had 

 96, therefore, to the pope to dissolve a 

 marriage which had at first been rendered legal 

 only by a dispensation from the pontiff; but 

 failing in his desires he broke away entirely from 

 :<>ly See, and in 1534 got himself recog- 

 ni/ed by act of parliament as the head of the 

 English Church. He died in 1547. He was 

 1 MX times, and left three children, each 

 of whom reigned in turn. These were: Mary, 

 by his first wife. Catharine of Aragon; Eliza- 

 . by his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and 

 Edward, by his third wife, Jane Seymour. Kd- 

 ;. who reigned first, with the title of Edward 

 VI.. was nine years of age at the time of 

 ssion, and died in 1553, when he was j 

 only >i\teen. His short reign, or rather the 

 reign of the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of 

 Somerset, who was appointed regent, was dis- 

 tinguished chiefly by the success which attended 

 the measures of the reformers, who acquired gn at 

 of the power formerly engrossed by the 

 Catholics. The intrigues of Dudley, Duke of 

 Northumberland, during the reign of Edward, ' 

 'd Lady Jane Grey to be declared his suc- 

 cessor; but her reign, if it could be called such, 

 d only a few days. Mary, daughter of 

 Henry VIII., was placed upon the throne, and 

 .lane Grey and her husband were both 

 i ted. Mary, a zealous Catholic, seems to 

 wished for the crown chiefly to aid in 

 il'lishing the Roman Catholic faith. Polit- 

 ical motives had induced Philip of Spain to 

 of her as a spouse ; but sne could never 

 prevail on her subjects to allow him any share of 

 She died in 1558. 



U-th. who succeeded her sister Mary, 

 was attached to the Protestant taith, and found 



little difficulty in establishing it in Midland. 

 ni: concluded peace with Franc- 

 bi-th set herself to promote the confu- 

 which prevailed in Scotland. t<> which 

 i-in Mary had returned from I-' ranee as 

 queen in i.-<il. In this she was so far s 



ry placed hermit j,, \ lt . r , , owe r (1568), 



and after many year* imprisonment was sent to 



i l.">87). As the most powerful 



nit nation, and as a rival to Spain in the 

 Aorld. it was natural that Finland should 



involved in difficulties with that country. 



:on of the Armada by (he I 

 fleet under Howard. Drake, and Hawkins was 

 the mo-t brilliant event of a Sniggle which 

 l--d in minor feats of valor 

 n-iiMi London became "t tl,, 



world'- trade, tin- extec Britiafc eon 



rprisc Ix-iiiu coincident with the 

 ruin of Antwerp in 1/ix.V The parliament \\a- 



increased by the creation of sixty-two new bor- 

 oughs, and its members were exempted from 

 arrest. In literature not less than in politics 

 and in commerce the same full life displayed it- 

 self, and England began definitely to assume the 

 characteristics which distinguish her from the 

 other European nations of to-day. 



To Elizabeth H in 1003) James VI. of 



Scotland and I. of England, son of Mary Queen 

 of Scots and Darnley. His accession to the 

 crown of England in addition to that of Scotland 

 did much to unite the two nations, though a 

 certain smoldering animosity still lingered 11.- 

 dissimulation, however, ended in his satisfying 

 neither of the contending ecclesiastical pa 

 the Puritans or the Catholics; and his absurd 

 insistance on his divine right made his reign a 

 continuous struggle between the preroga' 

 the crown and the freedom of the people. Hi* 

 extravagance kept him in constant d 

 with the parliament, who would not grant him the 

 sums he demanded, and com|>clled him to resort 

 to monopolies, loans, benevol. -m < <. and other 

 illegal methods. The nation at large. h 

 continued to prosper through the whole of this 

 inglorious reign. His son, Charles I., who suc- 

 ceeded him in 1625, inherited the same < 

 ideas of royal prerogative, and his marria- 

 a Catholic, his arbitrary rule, and illegal methods 

 of raising money, provoked bitter hostility. 

 Under the guidance of Laud and Strafford things 

 went from bad to worse. Civil war broke out 

 in Kill' between the kind's party and that of tin- 

 parliament, and. the latter proving victorious, 

 in 164 ( .) the king was beheaded. 



A commonwealth or republican government 

 was now established, in which the mo.-t promi- 

 nent figure was Oliver Cromwell. Mutinies in 

 the army among Fifth-monarchists and I 

 lers were subdued by Cromwell and Fairfax, and 

 Cromwell in a series of masterly movements 

 subjugated Ireland and gained the important 

 battles of Dunbar and Worcester. At sea Blake 

 had destroyed the Royalist fleet under Ku|>crt. 

 and was engaged in an honorable stnipgl 

 the Dutch under Van Tronip. Hut within the 

 governing body matters had come to a deadlock. 

 A dissolution was necessary, yet parliament 

 shrank from dissolving itself, and in the mean- 

 time the reform of thel : uen t with regard 

 to tin- Church, and other important i 

 remained untouched. In April. lt." 

 cut the knot by forcibly ejecting the in> 

 and putting the keys of the house in hi> | 

 From this time he was practically head ! the 

 i:o\ eminent . which was vested in a council of 

 iiament the I. -tile or Bare- 

 1'arliament was summoned and in 

 December of t he same year Cromwell u 

 stalled Lord Protector Of the Commonwealth of 

 F.nirland. Scotland, ami Ireland. With more 

 than t' he WCCeedcd m dom- 

 inating the confusion at home and 

 country feared throughout the \\hole of KumtN*. 

 Cromwell died i! : the bri. 



rate of his son Hichard followed. 



There \\as now a widen)" 

 country would be better undei 

 government, and Charles II.. s- Hes I.. 



was called to the throne by the Rentorat 



