Edward was in his tenth year, and the government was vested in a regency. In this reign the church of England was established, and the nation placed on the Protestant side in the struggle then going on in Europe. When Edward VI. died, July 6, 1553, Lady Jane Grey, to whom Edward had bequeathed the crown, was queen for ten days, when her party was dispersed, and Mary, eldest daughter of Henry VIII., ascended the throne.
The marriage of Mary with Philip II. of Spain led to war between England and France, [468] and an English army joined the Spanish force that invaded France. Mary was a devout Catholic, and caused Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, and about three hundred other Protestants to be burned. Her death, November 17, 1558, left the throne to Elizabeth, who sided with the Protestants.
Elizabethan Period.—The reign of Elizabeth, which lasted nearly forty-five years, is one of the most brilliant in English history. She triumphed over her enemies, and raised her kingdom to the first place in Europe. She ruled over Scotland in fact, and put the queen of that country, the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, to death, after having held her in captivity nearly nineteen years. The Huguenots of France and Henry IV. received aid from her, and but for the assistance which she gave the Dutch they would have sunk under the power of Spain. She invited the Turks to join her in attacking the pope and Phillip II.; and over both those potentates she achieved a great triumph in 1588, when the Spanish armada was destroyed. The enterprise of Englishmen led them to circumnavigate the globe, to attempt colonization, to extend commerce, and to inaugurate trade relations with India. Elizabeth died March 24, 1603, and with her terminated the Tudor dynasty, after an existence of nearly one hundred and eighteen years.
House of Stuart.—Elizabeth was succeeded by James VI. of Scotland, the son of her victim, Mary Stuart, and first king of England of the Stuart line, who inherited the English crown in virtue of his descent from Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VII., who had married his great-grandfather, James IV. The new king, under the title James I., was hailed with much satisfaction by the English; but he was a pedant and a tyrant, and soon lost his popularity. His first parliament, 1604, in reply to his assertion that all their privileges were derived from him, asserted all those principles for which the English constitutionalists contended as facts not to be questioned.
Then began that civil contest which lasted down to 1689 in full force, and which was not utterly at an end till 1746. The foreign policy of James was as vicious as his home policy, and England sank in the estimation of Europe. He died in 1625, and was succeeded by his son Charles I.
For eleven years (1629-1640) this ruler called no parliament, and England was ruled as despotically as France. His chief instruments were Wentworth, afterward earl of Strafford, and Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. Laud sought to fasten the English church policy on Scotland. War between the Scotch people and the English government followed, and Charles was compelled to call a parliament April, 1640, which was dissolved in a few days, and became known as the “short parliament.” Six months later assembled the famous “long parliament,” which proceeded to divest the king of much of his power.
Period of the Commonwealth.—The contest between the king and parliament under the lead of Vane, Cromwell and others, led to the great English Civil war, which began in the latter part of 1642. Cromwell was everywhere victorious in the field. The army became the source of all power. The king was tried, condemned and executed. Ireland was conquered by Cromwell, who was almost equally successful in Scotland. The battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651, crushed the royalists for nearly nine years. In 1653 Cromwell dissolved the parliament by force, and was master of England for five years, as Lord Protector. After his death, in 1658, the military and civil republicans quarreled.
Restoration of the House of Stuart.—Richard, the son and successor of the great Protector, resigned, and the restoration of the Stuarts was effected in the person of Charles II., 1660, whose reign in law dates from the time of his father’s execution, January 30, 1649. The king’s popularity soon declined, mainly on account of his foreign policy. An unnecessary war with the Dutch produced much disgrace. The triple alliance with Sweden and Holland for a brief interval stayed the course of Louis XIV., but the king’s forces assisted in the war on Holland made by Louis, and afterward assistance was sent to the Dutch.
The peace of 1678 was followed by the excitement caused by the alleged popish plot. Parliament after parliament was elected, met, set itself in decided opposition to the government, and was dissolved. The leading object of the opposition was the exclusion of the duke of York, Charles’ brother, from the line of succession. Charles II. died in February, 1685, and his brother James II., an avowed Roman Catholic, came to the throne.
James II. was bent on the establishment of a despotism, by the destruction of the constitution in church and state. He punished Monmouth’s rebellion with excessive vindictiveness. The king prorogued parliament in November, 1685, and that body never met again. For three years he governed despotically, and a perpetual contest was waged between him and his people.