Royal Britain's Interesting History During The 15th & 16th Century

Devinder Patel
From 1370 to 1413 many revolutions took place in Britain (not yet "Great") at this time and ultimately the House of Lancaster grabbed the English Throne, but Henry V's reign was quite short (and colourful) from 1413 to 1422.
Territorial gains that the Battle of Agincourt in France brought were very soon lost, even Gascony and then by 1453, Calais remained as the only English possession in Europe.
The loss started a series of bloody events that were horrible in Medieval (or is it MediEVIL !) Britain and it again lost its glory, until Tudor Henry VII came to the throne after winning the battle of Market Bosworth in 1485 and starting another century's history in Britain.
Later Henry VIII could not divorce his wife, as the Roman Pope would not allow it, so in reprisal he burned the Roman Catholic Churches in England and created his own church The Church of England.
According to his new Church, of which of course he was the head, he could divorce his wife Queen Catherine and remarry again whomever he pleased and as many times as he pleased, since he had no descendant/offspring/heirs for the Royal Throne yet.
He was a ruthless ruler hearing nobody but himself, so he burned all the Catholic Monasteries in Britain and the landowners lost their property forever.
He did after all have the King's Divine Right to do this, as this was given to him by God when he was born.
After Henry's death, his daughter Mary took over, but she is mostly hated as she tried to undo everything that her father had done and acted as a Queen Tyrant.
But she left no offspring, so after her death her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth gained control of England.
Her rule is considered to be the Golden Period in Britain's history as she led colonization, explorations, victory in wars and also the arts flourished during this period with writers like Shakespeare and Bacon.
But same as her sister she also faced many revolts like the serious one in 1601 which led to great financial losses for her. Drake started his voyage in 1577, in search of Australia, he did not find it, but got a lot of wealth by looting the Spanish processions in the Pacific and cargoes of spices. He was the first Briton to sail across the world.
Eventually it led to a full fledged war between Britain and Spain. King Philip of Spain assembled the largest fleet the world had ever seen and set it for sail against the heretical Britains.
His aim was to conquer and/or loot Britain in 1588, but the British vessels tried hard to stop him and he reached Calais and anchored there. English fire ships were sent firing and making him retreat and the Spanish Armada went north of Scotland and the Irish coast.
Unfortunately for the Spanish (not for the English) the entire fleet of ships and 20, 000 men vanished without trace, humiliating Spain in the eyes of the world. So much so that they never tried it again.
The Spanish wars had cost Britain lots of money and Elizabeth had to go begging for more money to the English Parliament which got them angry at the Royal Charters that she had granted to her favorites and she gave them a humble "Golden Speech" that made the Parliament realize their mistake.
After some time she fell ill and also she lost to the rebels of Ireland, distorting her health further and as she had no successor, and when she was on her death bed she chose James Stuart, The King of Scotland as the next successor to the English Crown.
When she died, Queen Elizabeth 1 was £400, 000 in debt.
About the author: Devinder Patel has lived and worked in London for 42 years and would love to hear from any incoming UK Visitors who need transportation http://www.london-airport-shuttle.co.uk