Henry VII. was at this time the repre sentative of the House of Lancaster, and in order at once to strengthen his own title, and to put an end to the rivalry between the Houses of York and Lan caster, he married in 1486 Elizabeth, the sister of Edward V. and heiress of the House of York. His reign was dis turbed by insurrections attending the im postures of Lambert Simnel (1487) and Perkin Warbeck (1488) ; but neither of these attained any magnitude. The king's worst fault was avarice. His adminis tration throughout did much to increase the royal power and to establish order and prosperity. He died in 1509.
The authority of the English crown, which had been so much extended by Henry VII., was by his son Henry VIII. exerted in a tyrannical and capricious manner. The most important event of the reign was undoubtedly the Reforma tion; though it had its origin rather ;n Henry's caprice and in the casual situa tion of his private affairs than in his conviction of the necessity of a reforma tion in religion, or in the solidity of rea soning employed by the reformers. Henry had been espoused to Catherine of Spain, who was first married to his elder brother Arthur, who died young. Henry became enamored of one of her maids of honor, Anne Boleyn. He had recourse to the Pope to dissolve his marriage; but failing in his desires he broke away entirely from the Holy See, and in 1534 got himself recognized by act of Parlia ment as the head of the English Church. He died in 1547. He was married six times, and left three children, each of whom reigned in turn. These were: Mary, by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon; Elizabeth, by his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and Edward by his third wife, Jane Seymour.
Edward, who reigned first with the title of Edward VI., was nine years of age at the time of his succession, and died in 1553, when he was only 16. His short reign, or rather the reign of the Earl of Hertford, afterward Duke of Somerset, who was appointed regent, was distinguished chiefly by the success which attended the measures of the reformers, who acquired great part of the power formerly engrossed by the Catholics. The intrigues of Dudley, Duke of North umberland, during the reign of Edward, caused Lady Jane Grey to be declared his successor; but her reign, if it could be called such, lasted only a few days. Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. was placed on the throne, and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were both ex ecuted. Mary seems to have wished for the crown only for the purpose of re establishing the Roman Catholic faith. Political motives had induced Philip of Spain to accept of her as a spouse; but she could never prevail on her subjects to allow him any share of power. She
died in 1558.
Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary, was attached to the Protestant faith, and found little difficulty in estab lishing it in England. Having concluded peace with France (1559), Elizabeth set herself to promote the confusion which prevailed in Scotland, to which her cousin Mary had returned from France as queen in 1561. In this she was so far successful that Mary placed herself in her power (1568), and after many years' imprisonment was sent to the scaffold (1587). As the most powerful Protes tant nation, and as a rival to Spain in the New World, it was natural that Eng land should become involved in difficulties with that country. The dispersion of the Armada by the English fleet under Howard, Drake, and Hawkins was the most brilliant event of a struggle which abounded in feats of valor. In Eliza beth's reign London became the center of the world's trade, the extension of Brit ish commercial enterprise being coin cident with the ruin of Antwerp in 1585. The Parliament was increased, and its members were exempted from arrest. In literature not less than in politics and in commerce the same full life displayed itself, and England began definitely to assume the characteristics which dis tinguish her from the other European nations of to-day.
To Elizabeth succeeded (in 1603) James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, son of Mary Queen of Scots and Darn ley. His accession to the crown of Eng land in addition to that of Scotland did much to unite the two nations, though a certain smoldering animosity still lingered. His dissimulation, how ever, ended in his satisfying neither of the contending ecclesiastical parties—the Puritans or the Catholics; and his absurd insistence on his divine right made his reign a continuous struggle between the prerogative of the crown and the freedom of the people. His extravagance kept him in constant dis putes with the Parliament, and compelled him to resort to monopolies, loans, be nevolences, and other illegal methods. The nation at large, however, continued to prosper. His son, Charles I., who suc ceeded him in 1625, inherited the same exalted ideas of royal prerogative, and his marriage with a Catholic, his arbi trary rule, and illegal methods of rais ing money, provoked bitter hostility. Civil war broke out in 1642, between the king's party and that of the Parliament, and the latter proving victorious, in 1649 the king was beheaded.