The Tudors and Stuarts

Henry VII and Henry VIII

Henry VII made his throne secure by strengthening central government, cutting the nobles' power and saving money. His son Henry VIII carried on centralising power, but is best known for breaking with the Church of Rome and marrying six times.

• Catherine of Aragon — Spanish princess; mother of Mary; divorced when she could have no more children
• Anne Boleyn — English; mother of Elizabeth; executed at the Tower of London
• Jane Seymour — gave Henry his son Edward, but died soon after the birth
• Anne of Cleves — German princess; a political marriage, quickly ended in divorce
• Catherine Howard — Anne Boleyn's cousin; executed
• Catherine Parr — a widow; outlived Henry and married again

Memory aid for the wives' fates: divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.

The Church of England and the Reformation

Henry needed the Pope's approval to divorce Catherine of Aragon. When the Pope refused, he created the Church of England, in which the king — not the Pope — appointed bishops and decided how people worshipped. At the same time the Reformation was spreading across Europe: Protestants rejected the Pope's authority, read the Bible in their own language, did not pray to saints or at shrines, and stressed each person's own relationship with God. Protestant ideas grew in England, Wales and Scotland during the 16th century, but in Ireland attempts to impose them caused rebellion and brutal fighting.

In Henry VIII's reign the Act for the Government of Wales formally united Wales with England; Welsh MPs went to the House of Commons and Welsh law was reformed. Henry also took the title 'King of Ireland'.

Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I

Edward VI was firmly Protestant; the Book of Common Prayer was written in his reign. He died at 15. His half-sister Mary, a devout Catholic, persecuted Protestants and became known as 'Bloody Mary'. After her short reign came Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth, a Protestant, restored the Church of England. Everyone had to attend church, but she did not pry into private beliefs, and by balancing Catholics and stricter Protestants she avoided serious religious conflict. She became hugely popular, above all after 1588, when the English defeated the Spanish Armada — a fleet sent by Spain to conquer England and bring back Catholicism.

Scotland and Mary, Queen of Scots

In 1560 the mainly Protestant Scottish Parliament abolished the Pope's authority and banned Catholic services. A Protestant Church of Scotland with elected leaders was set up — unlike in England, it was not a state Church. Mary Stuart, Mary Queen of Scots, was a Catholic who became queen when only a week old and grew up largely in France. Suspected of involvement in her husband's murder, she fled to England and gave her throne to her Protestant son, James VI. Elizabeth, her cousin, feared she wanted the English throne, held her prisoner for 20 years and finally had her executed for plotting.

Exploration, poetry and drama

The Elizabethan age was a time of growing English patriotism. Sir Francis Drake, a commander against the Armada and a founder of England's naval tradition, sailed the Golden Hind around the world. English settlers began colonising America's east coast. It was also the age of William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon — playwright, actor and poet, regarded by many as the greatest playwright ever. The Globe Theatre in London is a modern copy of the theatres his plays were first staged in.

James VI and I, and Ireland

Elizabeth never married. On her death in 1603 her cousin James VI of Scotland became James I of England, Wales and Ireland — but Scotland remained a separate country. His reign produced the King James (Authorised) Version of the Bible. In mainly Catholic Ireland, Henry VII and Henry VIII had already extended English rule beyond the Pale. Under Elizabeth I and James I, the government settled Scottish and English Protestants in Ulster on land taken from Catholics — the plantations — with lasting consequences.

The Civil War and the republic

James I and his son Charles I believed in the 'Divine Right of Kings'. Charles ruled without Parliament for 11 years, but when he tried to force a new Prayer Book on the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, a Scottish army rose against him and he had to recall Parliament in 1640 to pay for his own. Parliament, where many members were Puritans, refused. After a rebellion in Ireland, Parliament demanded control of the army; Charles entered the Commons to arrest five leaders (no monarch has entered it since). Civil war broke out in 1642 between the Cavaliers (for the king) and the Roundheads (for Parliament).

The king lost at Marston Moor and Naseby, Parliament had clearly won by 1646, and Charles I was executed in 1649. England became a republic, the Commonwealth. Oliver Cromwell crushed the Irish revolt with great violence, then beat Charles II's Scottish army at Dunbar and Worcester — Charles escaped, famously hiding in an oak tree. Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector until he died in 1658; his son Richard could not hold power, and after 11 years as a republic people wanted a king again.

The Restoration

In May 1660 Parliament invited Charles II back from the Netherlands. He accepted that he must sometimes compromise with Parliament, and the Church of England was restored. London suffered plague in 1665 and the Great Fire the following year; Sir Christopher Wren designed the new St Paul's Cathedral, and Samuel Pepys recorded it all in his diary. The Habeas Corpus Act (1679) guaranteed that no one could be imprisoned unlawfully. Charles II also backed science: the Royal Society, the world's oldest surviving scientific society, was formed, with early members including Edmund Halley and Isaac Newton.

James II and the Glorious Revolution

Charles II had no legitimate children, so in 1685 his Catholic brother became James II (James VII of Scotland). James favoured Catholics and arrested Church of England bishops. People hoped his Protestant daughters would succeed him — until his wife had a son. In 1688 leading Protestants invited William of Orange, ruler of the Netherlands and husband of James's daughter Mary, to take the throne. James fled to France without a fight, and William and Mary ruled jointly. This 'Glorious Revolution' secured the power of Parliament.

James tried to win back the throne through Ireland but William beat him at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In Scotland a Jacobite rising was defeated at Killiecrankie, and the MacDonalds of Glencoe were massacred for swearing loyalty to William too late. James's supporters were called Jacobites.

At William and Mary's coronation a Declaration of Rights was read, and the Bill of Rights of 1689 confirmed Parliament's rights and limited the monarch's power. The monarch had to be Protestant, a new Parliament had to be elected at least every three years, and the army and navy needed Parliament's approval for funding every year.

Exam tip: the order is 1642 Civil War → 1649 Charles I executed → 1660 Restoration → 1665 plague → 1666 Great Fire → 1679 Habeas Corpus → 1688 Glorious Revolution → 1689 Bill of Rights. Cavaliers backed the king; Roundheads backed Parliament.