5.17 The English Reformation

Many believe that when Henry VIII of England separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church this made the Anglican Church Protestant. This is not true. The only thing Henry did was have himself named the head of the Church in England. It will be his son, Edward VI, who first turns the Anglican Church Protestant, but even this won’t last. When Edward dies without an heir at the tender age of 15, his Catholic sister Mary Tudor becomes Queen Mary I and reinstitutes Catholicism in England. She is so devout in her beliefs and so violent in her actions that any English person who does not disavow Protestantism is subject to punishment. She burns so many Protestants creating martyrs for the faith that she acquires the nickname “Bloody” Mary.

Mary was in her thirties when she became queen and thus probably past child bearing age, but she was desperate to become pregnant. She married her first cousin, Philip II of Spain, and although he was named king of England and Ireland, the marriage contract stipulated he could never rule on his own. This meant that without a natural heir, Mary’s successor would be her half-sister, Elizabeth. Mary died a short five years after taking the throne without ever bearing a child and Elizabeth was crowned Queen Elizabeth I. It would be Elizabeth who turned England Protestant for good.

Like Mary, though, Elizabeth never bore any children. Upon her death, after a reign of 45 years, the throne of England passed to the Scottish house of Stuart, first cousins to the Tudors. King James VI of Scotland would become King James I of England as well. James had been a king since he was 6-months old and he brought with him ideas of divine right monarchy and absolutism that will be discussed in our final module. James had observed the explorations of the New World, and with England’s richer coffers at his disposal; James was determined to prove the might of his realm through colonization.