From Tudors to Glorious Revolution

From Tudors to Glorious Revolution

The middle and the late 15^th century are marked by an infamous fight of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet. The so called War of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York had a very simple reason, English Throne. Eventually, the final victory went to Henry Tudor who defeated Richard III, who was famous for a number of mystical deaths of his family members.

Richard got rid of anyone who could possible succeed the throne; he was also the last king who died in battle. Henry VII after his success married Elizabeth of York to make his right for the throne bulletproof. As a monarch, Henry was successful in restoring peace and stability to the land. He is known as the founder of Tudor dynasty, after his reign, the throne was peacefully succeeded by his son, Henry VIII. He is best known by the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church.

The reason for the separation was the dissolution of the marriage with Catherine of Aragon. Not only this decision made his relations with Rome even worse, it escalated to the point, where Henry established himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Ironically, he still believed in Catholic teachings, even though he was excommunicated. It was not until the last monarch from the Tudor dynasty, who was able to calm down the tension.

One of the first moves of Elizabeth I as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. More so, she was successful enough to defeat the Spanish Armada, which is thought to be one of the greatest victories in English history. After her death, James VI showed his claim to the throne. He, at the end of the day, became the King of England and Ireland as James I, but also King of Scotland as James VI. The period of his reign is known as Jacobean era.

Next important inner conflict was the Civil War, in which Parliamentarians fought with Royalists. The first two conflicts were fought between the supporter of Charles I. and the Long Parliament, the third one saw the fighting between the forces of Charles II. and the Rump Parliament.

Eventually, Oliver Cromwell, head of the Parliament was the one who stood on the winning side. After the fights his first steps where extremely radical, especially towards his opponents. He made sure that Charles I. was executed and his son exiled. During Lord Protector’s power over England, monarchy was no more. The restoration of the monarchy lasted for decades, finally ending during the reign of Charles II.

Naturally, this was not Charles´s only problem. The next setback proved to be the Glorious revolution, which was basically an overthrow of Charles II. by English Parliamentarians this time, accompanied with William of Orange. William’s invasion was successful; his reward was the English throne. He ruled as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England.

The Revolution of 1688 resulted in the Bill of Rights, which ended the absolute monarchy, limited the power of monarch, set the rules for parliament and the right of speech in parliament. Last but not least, in the same year of 1689 the Act of toleration was also passed, it allowed nonconformists to build their own places of worship and their own teachers, if they accepted certain oaths of allegiance.

The 17^th century, brought many conflicts, the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution are still thought to be crucial to the English history. England lost many people, but mostly, the country was low on morale. Even though, it is recorded that many of the major participants who witnessed the events said it was needed for the good of the country.