England's Interesting History During the 15th & 16th Century

From 1370 to 1413 many revolutions took place inEngland's history as she led colonization, explorations,
England and at this time ulltimately the House ofvictory in wars and also the arts flourished during this
Lancaster grabbed the English Throne, but Henry V'speriod with writers like Shakespeare and Bacon.
reign was quite short (and colourful) from 1413 toBut same as her sister she also faced many revolts
1422.like the serious one in 1601 which led to great financial
Territorial gains that the Battle of Agincourt in Francelosses for her. Drake started his voyage in 1577, in
brought were very soon lost, even Gascony andsearch of Australia, he did not find it, but got a lot of
then by 1453, Calais remained as the only Englishwealth by looting the Spanish processions in the
possession in Europe.Pacific and cargoes of spices. He was the
The loss started a series of bloody events that werefirst Englishman to sail across the world.
horrible in Medieval (or is it MediEVIL !) England and itEventually it led to a full fledged war between
again lost its glory, until Tudor Henry VII came to theEngland and Spain. King Philip of Spain assembled the
throne after winning the battle of Market Bosworthlargest fleet the world had ever seen and set it for
in 1485 and starting another century's history insail against the English..
England.His aim was to conquer and/or loot England in 1588,
Later Henry VIII could not divorce his wife, as thebut the English vessels tried hard to stop him and he
Roman Pope would not allow it, so in reprisal hereached Calais and anchored there. English fire ships
burned the Roman Catholic Churches in England andwere sent firing and making him retreat and the
created his own church The Church of England.Spanish Armada went north of Scotland and the Irish
According to his new Church, of which of course hecoast.
was the head, he could divorce his wife QueenUnfortunately for the Spanish (not for the English)
Catherine and remarry again whomever he pleasedthe entire fleet of ships and 20,000 men vanished
and as many times as he pleased, since he had nowithout trace, humiliating Spain in the eyes of the
descendant/offspring/heirs for the Royal Throne yet.world. So much so that they never tried it again.
He was a ruthless ruler hearing nobody but himself,The Spanish wars had cost England lots of money
so he burned all the Catholic Monasteries in Englandand Elizabeth had to go begging for more money to
and the landowners lost their property forever.the English Parliament which got them angry at the
He did after all have the King's Divine Right to do this,Royal Charters that she had granted to her favorites
as this was given to him by God when he was born.and she gave them a humble "Golden Speech" that
After Henry's death, his daughter Mary took over,made the Parliament realize their mistake.
but she is mostly hated as she tried to undoAfter some time she fell ill and also she lost to the
everything that her father had done and acted as arebels of Ireland, distorting her health further and as
Queen Tyrant.she had no successor, and when she was on her
But she left no offspring, so after her death herdeath bed she chose James Stuart, The King of
Protestant half-sister Elizabeth gained control ofScotland as the next successor to the English Crown.
England.When she died, Queen Elizabeth 1 was £400,000 in
Her rule is considered to be the Golden Period indebt.