Учебное пособие: Deep Are the Roots A Concise History of Britain
Within a few years an enormous wealth went into the empty treasury of the King.
In 1536 he managed to unite Wales with England, as the Welsh nobility were showing interest in the support of their representative on the English throne. It was the first Act of Union in the history of Britain.
His beloved wife Jane Seymour left him the long-waited-for heir Prince Edward. Mary and Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate. He wanted to achieve a betrothal of his son with the future Mary Queen of Scots who was born when Edward was 5 years old. The Scots refused the wooing of the English King as they could see through his far-reaching plans and sent Mary to France. On her return she became Queen of Scots (1561-1567).
Henry died in 1547. Though he was a gross and selfish tyrant he left his country more united and more confident than before, and his reign was glorified by the Utopian vision of More, drawings of Holbein, poetry and music of the Tudor court and other claims to greatness.
Henry VIII had destroyed the power of the Pope in England, but he didn't change the religious doctrine. He appointed Protestants as guardians of the young Edward VI (1547-1553) and they carried out the religious reformation.
After the death of Edward VI there was a highly unstable situation in the country. In his will which contradicted his father's bequest, King Edward VI disinherited his sisters and proclaimed Lady Jane Grey the Queen of England (1553). Jane Grey ruled only for nine days. But the people opposed her reign and supported the claim of Mary, the daughter of Catherine ofAragon.
Queen Mary I was determined to return England back to the Pope, as she was a fanatic Roman Catholic. She failedto understand the English hostility to Catholic Spain, and her marriage to Philip of Spain, son of the Emperor Charles V, was her own idea, celebrated in July 1554 despite the pleas of privy councillors and Parliament. Parliament had to accept Philip as King of England for Mary's lifetime; moreover, his rights in England were to expire if Mary died childless, which proved to be the case. Her marriagewas very unpopular andcaused several uprisings simultaneously. She crushed the rebels and pursued an aggressive policy against protestants:more than 300 people were executed in the worst traditions of the Inquisition – burned them. That is why she earned the nickname Bloody Mary.
During the reign of Bloody Mary France was the traditional enemy and England was little better than a Province of Spain. Being the wife of Philip II she got England to be drawn into a war with France and Calais, the last English possession on the continent, was lost in 1558.
Her reign and life were a political and a personal disaster. When Mary died in November 1558, deserted, unhappy and hated by many, people in the streets of London danced and drank to the health of the new queen.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, succeeded her half-sister to the great delight of the people.
Princess Elizabeth after her mother's execution was declared illegitimate, she spent her childhood in loneliness, and only sometimes enjoyed the company of her brother Edward, encouraged by her step mother Catherine Parr.
Elizabeth was a well educated, remarkable woman, who had endured the hardships other youth and succeeded to a dangerous heritage. The country was surrounded by powerful enemies: Spain possessed the Netherlands and France controlled Scotland, where the French mother of the 16 year old Mary Queen of Scots was Regent. To all the true Catholics Elizabeth still remained illegitimate, but Mary Stuart, the great granddaughter of Henry VII Tudor by his daughter Margaret was supported in her claim to the English throne as the rightful Queen of England.
Yet Elizabeth wa