European Union - The Road To Rome

The Myth of Modern Secularism

History is boring, and nobody remembers any of that stuff about the Magna Carta, the Reformation and Oliver Cromwell. Papal interference in British politics seems to be in the dim and distant past, and in any case nobody goes to church any more and we are all much too pre-occupied with materialism, consumerism, sport and entertainment. Such is the myth, but the facts are as follows:

• Just because people don't go to church, that doesn't make them atheists. Many people have left the church because of internal politics and the ambitions of career theologians. They continue to pray and study their Bibles in their homes and are willing to talk about their faith to others.
• We are all affected by our history and the faith of our ancestors. The Reformation was one of the primary motivations for the move from authoritarianism to Parliamentary democracy. If we continue to hold Parliament in high esteem, in spite of the obvious weaknesses of the politicians who assemble there, then we should remember the Reformation and our deliverance from Papal tyranny.
• Germany, in spite of its appearance as a modern secular state, is still very traditional. Shops and businesses are all closed on Sundays, and many of them close at lunch-time on Saturday. A very large proportion of the German people pay the "kirch-steuer" or "church-tax". This is an additional tax, on top of their income tax, and it is paid directly to the church to which they are affiliated. When someone applies for a job they have to fill in a form and give their religious denomination. If they have the most tenuous association with either the Catholic or Lutheran Church, they will have to pay the church tax. If they say something unusual like "Pentecostal" or "Messianic Jewish", they might get out of it, and some employers will quietly register them as "atheist" to avoid controversy. Germany is full of very large and well-maintained churches, where there is hardly any congregation. People continue to pay the church tax even though they hardly ever go there.
• As I was write this article, Europe is involved in a conflict between two religious groups, Albanian Muslims and Serbian Orthodox Christians in Kosovo. The Kosovan population was driven out, and then they returned with the help of NATO (which has got involved for reasons best known to themselves) and the Serbians are leaving. It's a re-run of the conflict in Bosnia, but with greater tension and bitterness. Whatever the eventual outcome of this, it is impossible to say that religion in Europe is a matter of no consequence, particularly as Islam always tries to expand by establishing Islamic States.

The Old English Government

Before the Norman Conquest in 1066, England had a system of democracy which worked from the bottom upwards. Ordinary people could choose their own earldormen, who in turn helped to choose the King. In addition, people had the right to own freehold land. The system worked as follows:

• A number of households, in which every man had his own freehold land, made up a village, and they had their village meetings under the supervision of a "village-reeve".
• A number of villages, between 100 and 120, made up a "Hundred", and they had meetings under the supervision of a "hundred-elder".
• A number of "Hundreds" made up a "Shire", and they had meetings under the supervision of an "earldorman".
• The Shires made up the Kingdom which was ruled jointly by the King and the Witenagemot, or Witan, the "Meeting of the Wise Men". The approval of the King and Witan was required to appoint an earldorman to a Shire.

When the Normans invaded in 1066, they abolished the Old English Government and replaced it with their own Feudal System, in which the King owned everything and distributed it to his knights, earls and barons in a way that maximised his own influence and power. The Norman Conquest was so devastating that it took another 229 years, until 1295, to re-establish a Parliamentary system, and even then it was made up by privilege rather than election.

The Normans, the Barons and the Magna Carta

The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 led to a succession of kings as follows:

Norman kings:

• William I (William the Conqueror). 1066-1087
• William II. 1087-1100. Second son of William I. Never married.
• Henry I. 1100-1135. Third son of William I.
• Stephen. 1135-1154. Son of Adela, daughter of William I

Angevin / Plantagenet kings:

• Henry II. 1154-1189. Son of Matilda, daughter of Henry I. His father was Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou.
• Richard I (Richard the Lionheart). 1189-1199. Second surviving son of Henry II. Married Berengaria of Navarre but had no children.
• John. 1199-1216. Youngest child of Henry II.

Plantagenet kings:

• Henry III. 1217-1272. Eldest son of John.
• Edward I. 1272-1307. Eldest son of Henry III.
• After the fall of the Angevin Empire, the Plantagenet line continued until the House of Lancaster in 1399.

Church and State

William the Conqueror's policy towards the Church was to strengthen it, but to keep it under his control, so that it could be used as an instrument of the State, and he implemented the following measures:

• In 1070 he deposed Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and appointed Lanfrac, the Norman Abbot of Bec.
• He passed laws which meant that the Pope could do nothing in England without the consent of the King.
• He established ecclesiastical courts, which were separate from the secular courts.

In politics, as in all other activities in life, you get back what you give out. As long as the King was strong, the Church was subject to the King, but when the King was weak, he would become subject to the Church. The effect was to bring the Church closer to Rome, and the Pope was able to impose his will on the State whenever he found the opportunity.

Henry II, Thomas Becket, and the Constitutions of Clarendon

The consequence of establishing ecclesiastical courts was that clergy were able to commit crimes and get away with it. The clergy, including clerical servants who obtained "benefit of clergy" by knowing just a few words of Latin, could only be tried in the Bishop's Courts where they would be punished with censures, excommunications and penance. Everybody else had to be tried in the King's Courts, where they could receive the death sentence.

In 1162, Henry II attempted to correct the abuse of church power by appointing his Chancellor, Thomas Becket, as Archbishop of Canterbury. However, in 1164, Becket changed his mind and opposed Henry's church reforms. A crisis developed when a clerk committed a murder and was allowed to go unpunished. Henry responded by drawing up the Constitutions of Clarendon, which included the following provisions:

• Clergy charged with criminal offences had to be tried in the King's Courts.
• No appeal can be made to the Pope without the King's consent.
• Forfeited goods cannot be protected within the churches.

Becket reluctantly signed the Constitutions, but then appealed to the Pope to free him from his oath. The Papal annulment of oaths is a measure which was used later, during the reign of King Henry III, when the King was released from his oath to form a Parliament. Papal interference in the affairs of State were commonplace in those days.

Becket was summoned by the King to give an account of his behaviour. He defied King's authority at the Council of Northampton, then he fled to France, disguised as a monk, and was received by Louis VII.

In 1170, Henry's eldest son, Prince Henry, was crowned by Roger, Archbishop of York. This type of coronation was a way of bestowing a title, rather that giving up the throne to a successor. In effect it meant there were two kings, Henry II and his son. The young King never had the opportunity to rule on his own, because he died earlier than his father.

Thomas Becket, Louis VII and the Pope were infuriated, because only the Archbishop of Canterbury had the right to perform a coronation. The Pope responded by threatening to excommunicate Henry, and forced him to become reconciled with Becket, who was able to return to England. The reconciliation was very shallow, and Becket continued his rebellion by excommunicating Roger, Archbishop of York, together with two other Bishops who had supported him.

Henry, in a moment of exasperation, uttered the words "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest". Four of his knights took him seriously, and went off to Canterbury. They demanded that Becket should withdraw the excommunications, and when he refused they killed him on the steps of the Cathedral. Thomas Becket was buried in the Cathedral and was considered by the Church to be a martyr. He was subsequently canonised and Henry did penance at his tomb to appease public feeling. Thomas Becket's shrine became a place of penance for thousands of pilgrims.

A shallow martyrdom indeed. Thomas Becket was no campaigner for social justice, civil rights or even the salvation of souls. If he believed in the salvation of souls, according to the Catholic definition, he would not have excommunicated the Archbishop of York and two Bishops for purely political reasons. All he wanted was to maintain the privileged status of the clergy. I remember in 1982 when Pope John Paul II visited Britain, I watched on television while he marched down the aisle of Canterbury Cathedral, with Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, and they paid their respects to Thomas Becket while the congregation sang "For all the saints, who from their labours rest". Only those who don't take the trouble to read up the history of this affair would be fooled by their hypocrisy.

The Angevin Empire

The Normans and their Angevin successors built an empire that included England and most of France as far as the Mediterranean coast. The empire was somewhat united by intermarriage between royal households and somewhat disunited by family squabbles. It reached its peak in the days of Henry II who inherited England, Normandy and Maine from his mother Matilda, and Anjou and Touraine from his father Geoffrey. In addition to this, Henry gained control of large provinces of southern France from his marriage to Ealanor of Guienne, the divorced wife of Louis VII.

The Angevins were not content just to rule England and France. They also wanted to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. Richard I (Richard the Lionheart), succeeded Henry II in 1189 and went off to the Crusades, leaving the English administration in the hands William Longchamp who was appointed Justiciar. The expedition was hugely expensive, but even more expensive was the ransom of £100,000 that had to be paid to get Richard released when he was captured by Leopold, Archduke of Austria, on his way back to England. This ransom was more than twice his entire revenue, and some of his castles in Normandy and Touraine were lost in the effort to raise the money. After his release, he made a brief visit to England in 1194, and then spent the next five years recovering his lost territories. Then in 1199 he died in a confrontation with a man on the battlements while laying siege to a castle.

Richard had two younger brothers, Geoffrey and John. Geoffrey had a son called Arthur. John had been prepared as a possible successor to the throne, but Richard and John had been bitter rivals since childhood, so that Richard preferred to leave the kingdom to his nephew Arthur instead of his brother John. However, John behaved himself well enough during the last five years of Richard's lifetime to gain his favour as successor. When Richard died, John's claim to the throne was recognised in England and Normandy, but not in Anjou, Maine and Touraine where Arthur was favoured as king. This led to a civil war in which John captured Arthur and threw him into the dungeon at Rouen Castle, and it is generally supposed that he killed him.

John, the Tax Man

John had won the kingdom, but with the loss of Normandy and Anjou which was seized by Philip II of France. The expense of the war, together with the cost of getting Richard out of prison, had left John with an empty treasury. In the circumstances, it might have seemed sensible for him to forget about France and consolidate his control of England, but that was not the way of things in those days. Lost territory had to be recovered, as a matter of honour. In 1206 he went on an expedition to Poiteau which failed due to lack of funds, and then he spent the next eight years in England raising money for future campaigns.

The people of England were not used to having a king who was resident in the country for so long, and they resented his continual demands for money. He never took any interest in the welfare of the people, and considered them to be just a resource from which money could be raised to fight foreign wars. Against this background, the legend of Robin Hood developed, although it is debatable how much of the story is actually true.

John, the Reluctant Vassal of Rome

One of John's biggest mistakes was to engage in a dispute with the Pope, which he eventually lost so that he became the Pope's vassal. The Norman invasion had brought the church closer to Rome, so that the European influence of the Vatican was extended to England. In all the nations that were considered to be within the domain of the Vatican, no king could rule effectively without the consent of the Pope. John had a dispute with Pope Innocent III about the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Archbishop Hubert died in 1205 and there was disagreement among the monks about whether to appoint Reginald, the sub-prior of Canterbury, or John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich who was favoured by King John. The monks appealed to the Pope for a decision, but the Pope rejected both candidates and ordered the appointment of Stephen Langton. John refused to receive Langton and the Pope proceeded to punish him with the following measures:

• In 1208, an interdict was issued, so that church services in England and Wales were forbidden for at least four years, and possibly as many as six years.
• In 1209, John was excommunicated.
• In 1212, the Pope declared that John was no longer king, and called on his old enemy, Philip II of France, to depose him.

These three measures were so damaging to John's authority as king, that he was forced to patch up his relationship with the Pope. In 1213, he did so by paying "homage", a procedure in which one party submits to the other party, recognises him as a superior authority and becomes his "vassal". John's homage was received and accepted at Dover by Pandulf, the Pope's legate. John promised to accept Langton as archbishop and restore the church property that he had taken in his attempts to raise funds. He also agreed to pay an annual tribute of 1,000 marks to the Pope. In response, the Pope ordered Philip not to make war against John.

Philip was angry at being deprived of his opportunity to attack John, and instead he attacked John's ally, the Count of Flanders. John allied himself with Otto, Emperor of Germany, and sent out an army under the command of the Earl of Salisbury to defend the Count of Flanders, but they were all defeated by Philip at the Battle of Bouvines.

John's reconciliation with the Pope did little to enhance his popularity among the people of England. They said that "John had forfeited the name of King, and had become the Pope's man".

The Revolt of the Barons

John's defeat at the Battle of Bouvines had made him weak and vulnerable, giving the Barons, mostly from the North of England, an opportunity to air their grievances about his heavy taxation policies. The Baron's revolt was led by Gerald Fitzwalter and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. In 1215 they met first at St. Albans to prepare a declaration of their grievances, and then at St. Paul's where Stephen Langton laid before them the Coronation Charter of Henry I. From this they put together the Magna Carta ("Great Charter"), containing provisions about the legal ownership of property, inheritance and civil liberties.

The Barons met again at Bury St. Edmunds in 1214 and took an oath that they would compel John to sign the Magna Carta, and if necessary take up arms against him. John asked for three months to consider it, and in the meantime he tried to consolidate his weakened position with the following measures:

• He gave the clergy the freedom of election to higher ecclesiastic positions, in an attempt to separate the Church from the Barons.
• He took the oath of the Crusaders to try and get the protection of the Church.
• He recruited mercenaries from Poitou.

The Barons met again at Brackley in 1215 and marched on London where they were welcomed by the people. John's army deserted him, and he was compelled to meet the Barons at Runnymede where he signed the Magna Carta on June 15th. It was also signed by 25 Surety Barons who would enforce the Charter, with the right to go to war against him if he should violate it.

The Magna Carta was a document of immense importance. It formed the basis of English Common Law and established that England would be a free country even if all other laws were repealed. It has been ratified by successive monarchs and parliaments at least 38 times.

It is debatable whether the Barons were supporting the Magna Carta for the benefit of the people as a whole, or as a means of regaining and preserving their own estates which had been ravaged by the Angevin Empire. Whatever their motivation, the Charter was drafted as a document for all the people, and could not have succeeded if it had been put together any other way.

Interference from Rome

Although the Magna Carta was a document of great benefit to English civil liberties, the Pope did not see it that way. He had accepted John as his vassal and did not want to see him weakened or overthrown. He considered the Magna Carta to be an act of rebellion, both against the English Crown and against Rome. On 24th September 1215 he declared the Magna Carta to be null and void, and excommunicated all the 25 Surety Barons who had signed it. He also suspended Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, an act that entailed some irony, considering that he had fought so hard to get Langton appointed in the first place.

This enabled John to defy the Barons, and he recruited mercenaries and ravaged the North of England. The Barons responded by appealing to Louis, King of France, and invited him to take the Crown. Louis was the son of Philip II who had already defeated John's army at the Battle of Bouvines, and accepted the opportunity for further war against John. In May 1216, Louis invaded and entered London unopposed, while John was still in the North. John set off to march on London, but lost all his baggage and treasure while crossing the Wash. He retired to Swinestead Abbey near Newark, where he died.

Henry III

Henry III ascended the throne in 1216 after the death of John. Henry was only nine years old, and was assisted by William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, who was appointed as his Regent. He inherited a disputed kingdom, and his immediate task was to dispose of his rival, King Louis. This was settled in 1217, firstly at the Fair of Lincoln where Louis was defeated, and then at sea near Dover where the French reinforcement fleet was destroyed. Louis was obliged to make a treaty with William Marshall, declaring a general amnesty, liberal terms for the former rebels and a bribe to Louis to leave the country.

The Barons were sometimes supportive and sometimes in opposition to Henry III, depending on whether or not he supported the Magna Carta. Many of them had deserted Louis and supported Henry at his coronation, since he was the legitimate King of England. Their main argument had been with his predecessor John, not with Henry. In 1227, when Henry reached his majority at the age of 19, he was on reasonably good terms with the Barons, based on his acceptance of the Magna Carta.

In 1236, Henry married Ealanor of Provence, with the result that many French immigrants arrived from Provence and gained wealth by inter-marriage and appointment to high positions in Church and State. He appointed foreigners as his own counsellors, causing irritation for the Barons who were deprived of contact with the King.

In 1242, Henry followed the example of his ancestors and engaged in a war to regain the French territories, but he lost, leaving him with less territory than he had to start with. In 1250, he took the cross and raised funds with the intention of going on a crusade, but the money was diverted to an unsuccessful attempt to gain Sicily for his son Edward.

The Second Baron's Revolt

In 1258 there was a second Baron's revolt, led by Simon de Montfort, brother-in-law of the King. This revolt was motivated by Henry's partiality to foreigners and his defeat in France and Sicily. They held the so-called "Mad Parliament" in Oxford and presented the King with a new constitution called the "Provisions of Oxford", which both Henry and his son Prince Edward agreed to accept. The provisions were as follows:

• 24 Barons should be appointed to reform the Government;
• There should be three Parliaments every year;
• The King cannot act without the authority of a permanent body of 15 advisors;
• A committee should be appointed to manage financial affairs.

More Interference from Rome

As if it was not enough to oppose the civil liberties of the Magna Carta, the Pope also opposed this first rudimentary attempt to form a Parliament. The only type of government, favoured by the Vatican, was a King who could do as he pleases within his own territory, because such a King would be easier to manipulate.

In 1261, the Pope intervened and absolved Henry from his oath to keep the Provisions of Oxford. Here is an interesting theological question. The Bible says that if you swear an oath you have to keep it (Num. 30:2). Yeshua advised against swearing elaborate oaths with words such as "by heaven" or "by the earth". He said we should just keep it simple and say "yes" or "no" (Matt 5:33-37). In Roman Catholic theology, an oath is an oath, only until it gets dissolved by the Pope. Even the oaths sworn by a King to his counsellors amount to nothing if the Pope says so.

In 1264 the matter was referred to Louis IX for arbitration, and he ruled in favour of the Pope, to cancel the Provisions of Oxford. This led to a civil war in which the King was defeated by Simon de Montfort at Lewes and was taken prisoner, together with his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall. A treaty was made in which Prince Edward gave himself up as a ransom for the King, leaving Simon de Montfort in complete control of the kingdom.

The First House of Commons

In pre-Norman times, as described earlier, the Kingdom was ruled jointly by the King and a council called the Witan, made up of representatives from a number of Shires. The Norman Kings, in contrast, did virtually anything they wanted, appointing counsellors at their own convenience, but they were out of the country so much on foreign conquests they had hardly any time to listen to counsellors anyway. The main function of the King's officials was to raise taxes and manage the affairs of England while he was away.

In 1265, Simon de Montfort organised the first House of Commons, which was the first real Parliament since the Norman Conquest. It included the Barons, the Clergy, two Knights from each county and two representatives from each of the main cities and boroughs. It didn't last long because the involvement of so many minor officials was making Simon de Montfort too powerful, causing resentment among the Barons. They also resented the imprisonment of Prince Edward, and were given some satisfaction when Edward escaped from prison, raised and army, defeated Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham, and killed him.

In 1266 the Dictum of Kenilworth was signed which restored Henry to his full authority and cancelled the Provisions of Oxford, provided that the King observed the Magna Carta.

Edward I

Prince Edward ascended the throne when Henry died in 1272.

From 1277-1284, Edward was at war with Llewellyn, the Prince of Wales, who had taken sides with Simon de Montfort. The war broke out when a marriage was arranged between Lewellyn and de Montfort's daughter, but Edward captured her and detained her in England. Llewelyn was killed in battle, his brother David was captured and executed, and Wales was annexed to England so that it became subject to the same laws, although it was not until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) that Wales was represented in the English Parliament.

In 1291, there was an internal dispute in Scotland between John Balliol, Robert Bruce and John Hastings about who would ascend the throne of Scotland. Edward was invited to arbitrate, and he ruled in favour of Balliol, who paid homage and became his vassal. In 1296, Edward was at war with France, and Balliol invaded Cumberland in an attempt to gain independence, but failed. Scotland ceased to be a kingdom and was totally dependent on England, but there were a number of rebellions which eventually achieved the independence of Scotland under Robert Bruce in 1314, when Edward II was King of England.

The First Complete Parliament

Edward I took a keen interest in the law-making process and instituted a number of constitutional changes, regarding the titles to lands, inheritance, local defence and public safety, crime prevention, taxation and the organisation of law courts.

In 1295 Edward summoned the First Complete Parliament, made up of the Lords, Commons and Clergy, which is generally considered to be the origin of the Parliament that we have today. His motivation was to raise funds to pay for his wars, and since he had to raise funds from all classes of people, he might as well give them a say in how it was raised. He said "That it was right that what concerned all, should be approved of all".

Parliamentary Democracy

The term "approved of all" did not mean all people. It only meant all people of great importance, but it was a distribution of people from around the country and was much better than having a king who could do what he liked. The right to vote in Parliamentary elections was not given to ordinary people until 1832, and even then it was only given to wealthy and middle-class owners of property. Through a series of subsequent acts it was gradually extended until the Representation of the People Act was passed in 1948, which governs our current electoral system. Universal suffrage got off to a slow start, considering the number of centuries that passed with a Parliament made up of privileged members. It took a long time to create a democracy that was in any way comparable to the Old English Government that preceded the Norman Conquest.

The European Union

During the period of history, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 until the establishment of the First Complete Parliament in 1295, Britain gained the following benefits from Europe:

• The Old English Goverment, with a system of democracy involving the Witan, the Shires, the Hundreds and the Villages, was abolished and replaced by a dictatorship.
• The right to freehold land was abolished. Almost all land was confiscated and given to the King and his officials.
• The people were considered to be merely a resource from which money could be extracted for fighting foreign wars.
• The Church was brought closer to Rome.
• The Constitutions of Clarendon, containing provisions to end the privileged status of the clergy and their immunity from the civil law, was undermined by Thomas Becket with the assistance of the Pope.
• The Magna Carta, the first attempt to establish civil rights was cancelled by the Pope and had to be re-instated by armed struggle.
• The Provisions of Oxford, calling for the establishment of a regular Parliament, were cancelled by the Pope, leading to civil war.

From this historical example of European Union, are we likely to gain anything positive from the European Union that is being imposed upon us now? We have a Parliamentary system of government for which our ancestors fought long and hard, and our present-day politicians are prepared to surrender this precious democracy and subordinate themselves to a self-appointed committee called the European Commissioners. They know we won't be fooled by the outright cancellation of the electoral system, but they are trying to fob us off with an illusion of democracy called the European Parliament which has no real power. For all it's worth, we might as well have the Norman Conquest all over again.

Renaissance and Reformation in Europe

The news from Europe is not all bad. Both the Renaissance and the Reformation were primarily a European affair from which Britain has greatly benefited. However, it should be noted that all the main players were radical thinkers who took the Bible as their authority instead of ignorance and superstition. If they had any involvement with either the Church or the State, they insisted that it should be run on Biblical principles and not for personal ambition.

The Renaissance preceded the Reformation, but they both worked together to produce an enthusiasm for art and literature, including the Bible in its original languages. The way to heaven was understood to be through personal faith and not by the sacraments and indulgences of the Church.

Renaissance

The Renaissance was basically a change of conciousness that occurred during the 14th to 16th centuries, in which people began to think of themselves as individuals rather than collectively. Italy, and particulary Florence, because the centre of the Renaissance, influenced by the following factors:

• There were many ancient Roman monuments in Italy, which acted as a stimulus to the study of Latin and Roman culture.
• The decline of Byzantium, and particularly the fall of Constantinople in 1453, caused many Greek-speaking intellectuals to move to Italy, creating a revival of interest in the Greek language and classical Greek literature.
• Florence was politically stable and enjoyed economic prosperity, creating leisure time and an opportunity to study.

The Renaissance spread around Europe as people from other regions travelled to Florence to sample its intellectual delights and then returned home, full of enthusiasm, spreading their new ideas. Many travellers came from Northern Europe and England, creating the so-called "Northern Renaissance".

Erasmus

By far the most prominent of the Northern Renaissance intellectuals was a Dutchman called Desidierus Erasmus (1466-1536). He was an Augustinian monk who had been introduced to the monastic life by his guardians, after his parents had died. He became a priest and took monastic vows in 1492, but continued his career as a scholar rather than a priest. He was critical of the behaviour of the monks, and of the church in general, but was personally very devout. After his ordination he lived in Paris until 1498 and made a living by teaching, and then came to England, probably at the invitation of Lord Mountjoy, who was one of his pupils. He lived in Oxford until 1500, then returned to Paris. He made another short visit to England in 1506, then he went to Italy where he was tutor to Alexander, Archbishop of St. Andrews, son of James IV of Scotland. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Erasmus returned to England at the invitation of Lord Mountjoy and held two professorships, in Divinity and Greek at Cambridge. At the time, Mountjoy considered Henry VIII to be a man of virtue who would spread liberality throughout the land, although he could be forgiven for not knowing at the time, what would happen during the reign of Henry VIII. After 1514, Erasmus travelled alternately between Basel and England, then he lived at Louvain from 1517 to 1521.

Erasmus was, in Renaissance terms, a "humanist". This meant something very different from humanism today, and has got nothing to do with atheism, agnosticism, the abolition of religion, or even the advancement or benefit of society. During the Renaissance, humanism meant "eloquence" and anyone who was skilled in the arts and literature was considered to be a "humanist".

Erasmus wrote satirical articles about the behaviour of the church, mostly to entertain and amuse, rather than to promote head-on confrontation and revolution. Among his famous works were "Handbook of the Christian Soldier" and "The Praise of Folly". He was a very popular author and everything he wrote was immediately published and devoured by a hungry public.

His most important work of all was to compile and publish a Greek New Testament, which became known as the "Textus Receptus", or "Received Text". Although a large number of manuscripts were available to him, he only used a few of them, from Greek Orthodox, Syrian and Waldensian sources. The number of documents does not matter greatly, since they were all basically the same. They were of Byzantine origin, and came from a family of documents known as the "Majority Text", representing the large number of manuscripts which were commonly used in the churches.

The philosophy of the early church was to distribute their manuscripts as widely as possible, rather than keeping them hidden away in dusty archives where they would be destroyed by the next invasion.

And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. (Acts 13:49).

The free movement of documents from one place to another meant that each new document could be compared with all the others, and any errors could be easily corrected. In this way, the Word of God was preserved intact. Any document that was significantly different from the others was excluded from the Majority Text family of documents and was either destroyed or stuffed away somewhere and not used. We should therefore take great care when someone comes up with an old document that has been hidden away for centuries, claiming that it must be correct because of its antiquity. The reason that it was hidden away in the first place is because nobody believed in it. Any document that is actually used should be expected to fall apart and be replaced by copies, just like any good preacher's well-thumbed Bible.

Erasmus did not trust the Latin Vulgate, which was used by the Roman Catholic Church, and he considered it to be inaccurate. He also did not trust a Greek document called "Codex Vaticanus" or "Vaticanus B" which had come from Alexandria and was hidden away in the Vatican for centuries, hardly ever used. Alexandria had been a hotbed of Greek philosophy during the first few centuries of the church, where theologians considered Plato to be just as important as the Bible, and currupted their manuscripts accordingly. Most of the Alexandrian manuscripts, including the Codex Vaticanus, belong to a relatively small family of documents called the "Minority Text". In spite of their unreliability, they have been used as the basis for many modern English translations which are inferior to the King James Authorised Version and should not be taken seriously.

Erasmus knew about the variant Greek manuscripts and he was supplied with them by Professor Paulus Bombasius, the Papal librarian. In 1533, a Catholic priest called Juan Sepulveda sent extracts of the Codex Vaticanus to Erasmus, hoping he would use them. It was a bit late in the day, because Erasmus had already published and printed the fourth edition of his Greek New Testament, and was about to produce his fifth edition. Erasmus rejected all the variant readings and stuck to the Majority Text because he knew it was correct.

In the early 16th century, the printing industry had only recently reached the stage where it could handle large amounts of Greek text, and there was a race to see who could be first to produce a Greek New Testament. In 1514, Cardinal Francisco Ximenes of Spain published a Greek New Testament as part of a larger six-volume work called the Complutensian Polyglot, but he did not publish it as a separate edition until 1922. In the meantime, Erasmus continued working on his Greek New Testament and published it as a separate volume for distribution in 1516, printed by John Froben of Basle. This was immediately seized upon by a hungry public, all waiting for the next offering from Erasmus, and was soon out of print. Erasmus had won the publishing race because of his popularity and established reputation as an author, while Cardinal Ximenes was virtually unknown. It is also possible that Cardinal Ximenes was slowed down by political problems. The history of Greek New Testament editions is as follows:

• The first edition of the Greek New Testament, published by Erasmus in 1516, was soon sold out.
• In 1518, Aldus Manutius published a complete Greek Bible made up of the Septuagint Old Testament and the Greek New Testament of Erasmus.
• In 1519, a second edition was published, correcting some errors in the first edition that were mostly typographical and had occurred during the laborious task of typesetting by hand.
• In 1522, 1527 and 1535, Erasmus published his third, fourth and fifth editions.
• In 1546, the French editor and printer, Robert Estienne (Latinised as Stephanus then Anglicised as Stephens) published an edition that was almost identical to that of Erasmus. He produced three further editions in 1549, 1550 and 1551, and the last of these contained verse numbers.
• From 1565 to 1604, Theodore Beza produced a number of editions. His 1598 edition was used by the translators of the King James Authorised Version, published in 1611.
• In 1624 and 1633, Bonaventure and Abraham Elzevir produced their first and second editions. The Preface to the second edition says "Therefore you have a text now received by all, in which we give no alteration or corruption". The name "Textus Receptus" or "Received Text" is derived from this Preface, and has subsequently been applied to the entire chain of editions, starting with the first edition of Erasmus in 1516. Elzevir's second edition was used to make translations into European languages.

The availablility of the New Testament, in the original Greek language, and in the languages of Europe, meant that the Reformation was unstoppable. In fact, by the time the KJAV was published in 1611, the Reformation was virtually complete, having proceeded throughout the period of re-publication and revision that had occurred since the first edition of Erasmus was produced in 1516. People who were familiar with the Latin Vulgate could see immediately that the Greek New Testament was different, and they knew they had been duped.

The Reformation

Martin Luther (1483-1546) is well known as the central figure of the Reformation in Germany. He became an Augustinian monk in 1505 and was a contemporary of Erasmus. They both had similar views, to some extent, but very different temperaments. Luther was a fiery, outspoken campaigner, while Erasmus was a careful scholar, full of humour and wit. When the Lutheran Reformation was getting under way, the Lutherans called on Erasmus to cast in his lot with them, but he refused, believing that he could do more good by continuing his work as a scholar. Erasmus was a Reformer of a different type, treading a middle road in the belief that if learning could be restored, all the other evils would disappear. The Lutherans called him a coward, but in the end it turned out that he was right. Without his Greek New Testament, the Reformation could not have succeeded. The Roman Catholic Church charged him with having "laid the egg that Luther hatched", and in his usual good humour he half-admitted the charge, but said he had expected another kind of bird.

The context of the Reformation was social and economic, as much as it was theological. The Roman Catholic Church had for a long time listened to confessions, and suggested that people should do some charitable works to show that they are serious and make amends. The priests were considered to be the most charitable people of all, full of good works, so it made sense to buy some good works from the priests if you did not have any of your own. The practice of buying good works from the church was called "indulgences". They were a means of forgiving, not the sins, but the temporal punishments applied to those sins. It was such a good way of making money for the church, that the alternative method of doing your own good works became obsolete. The cost of indulgences gradually became more and more expensive, so that the church became rich and the people became poor. People became demoralised and discouraged, because the only way to get absolution from their sins was to pay out large amounts of money.

Luther's emphasis on personal faith, rather than church sacraments, was very attractive, because it was much cheaper. In particular, he used to preach:

The just shall live by faith. (Rom. 1:17).

On the basis of this and other, similar texts, the whole edifice of the Roman Catholic theology of sacraments came crashing down. The rejection of indulgences was just the starting point for the rejection of the entire heirarchy of the church. No longer was it necessary to ask a priest for absolution, or to make appeals to the Pope. The Lutheran Movement emphasised a personal relationship with God, who would deliver all spiritual and temporal benefits directly to the believer, without any need for favours from a priest. Personal prayer and study was encouraged, and along with it came a concept of personal freedom, and then political and economic freedom.

The battle between Luther and the Church eventually led to his excommunication in 1521 and he formed his own, independent Lutheran church.

There is just one sad epitaph on the life of Martin Luther. At the end of his life he became frustrated at the reluctance of the Jews to accept his teaching, and became anti-semitic, calling for the destruction of synagogues. His advice was acted upon three centuries later by Hitler, who murdered six million Jews, knowing that the German Lutheran Church would do nothing to stop him. Luther started off well but finished badly. His fiery temperament was eventually his downfall, and I much prefer the humour and wit of Erasmus. The most generous epitaph that I could give to Martin Luther would be "We have this treasure in earthen vessels". (2 Cor. 4:7).

The Lutheran Reformation spread throughout Germany and the German-speaking cities of Switzerland, namely Zurich, Bern and Basel, but it took a little longer to reach the French-speaking city of Geneva. They had been ruled by the House of Savoy, but had overthrown them, and in 1533 the Protestant Canton of Bern sent Protestant reformers to Geneva. In 1535, it officially became a Protestant city.

John Calvin (1509-1564) was a successful lawyer, and was invited to Geneva to build the Reform church. He was both a religious and political thinker, and wanted to build the organisation of both the church and the city on Biblical principles. At first, the people of Geneva thought he was building a heirarchy similar to the Catholic church, and in 1538 they threw him out. He went to Strasbourg where he began writing his commentaries, and finished his account of Protestant doctrine known as "The Institutes of the Christian Church".

In 1540 there were some new city officials in Geneva who invited him back, and he began a process of reform which enabled the church to be involved in the government of the city. He also created a heirarchy in the church with four levels:

• Pastors - five men to have authority over religious matters in Geneva;
• Teachers - a larger group to teach doctrine;
• Elders - twelve men (after the twelve apostles), who were chosen by the city council, to oversee everything that people did in the city;
• Deacons - appointed to take care of the sick, widows, elderly and poor.

With a structure like this, we might well ask, how is it different from Roman Catholicism, and were the previous city officials right to kick him out? The difference is that Calvin emphasised the study of the Bible, where as the Catholic Church built their edifice on ignorance and superstition. Calvin insisted on the literal reading of the Bible, and everything explicitly found in the Bible had to be faithfully observed. If something was not literally and explicitly found in the Bible, it had to be rejected. There was no room for reading between the lines or creating allegories based on one's own imagination.

One of Calvin's most important doctrines of salvation was predestination, which meant that God knows the future, and therefore God knows in advance who will be saved and who will not. Therefore, although from our point of view, it appears that we have chosen to be saved, by believing in Yeshua (Jesus) and his redemptive work on the cross, in reality it is God who chooses us. Luther taught us that we cannot boast of our good works, because we are saved by faith and not works. Calvin taught that we cannot even boast of our faith, because we never chose to have faith. It was God who gave it to us. We can only boast of the grace of God, which comes entirely from God himself and not from ourselves.

This has, of course, created endless discussion between the Calvinists and the "Arminian" school of theology who believe that we are saved by our own choice. I used to listen to a preacher who tried to reconcile the two ideas by saying that salvation is like walking through a door. As you approach the door, you see written on the doorpost "Whosoever will may come", and then after you have gone through you look back and see another inscription saying "Saved by the grace of God". If this is considered a rather simplistic example of two apparent opposites that are both true at the same time, consider also Einstein's theory of relativity. How is it possible for the same beam of light to travel at two different speeds, depending on the speed of the person who is observing it?

The Counter-Reformation

The Roman Catholic Church did not take kindly to the collapse of their sacramental edifice and the transformation of their mass into a mass desertion. They responded in a number of ways:

They encouraged simple ethical living and piety among the clergy, as a way of cleaning up their act.

They founded the "Society of Jesus", otherwise known as the "Jesuits". This was a reactionary movement within the Catholic church, under the leadership of Ignatius of Loyola, which began in the 1530's and was officially recognised by the Catholic Church about ten years later. They emphasised extreme self-denial and total obedience to the Catholic heirarchy. Ignatius, in his "Rules for Thinking with the Church" said "I will believe that the white that I see is black if the heirarchical Church so defines it". It is hard to imagine how this could persuade a free-thinking Protestant to return to the Catholic fold, but it might have prevented some devout Catholics from falling away.

They organised the Council of Trent, which met in a number of sessions. In their fourth session in 1546, they issued a statement that can be summarised as follows:

• Scripture cannot be regarded as the only source of revelation. The unwritten traditions, from the mouth of Christ or the Apostles, are also important.
• Protestant lists of canonical books are deficient. The Council produced a full list of books which it considered to be canonical, including the Apocryphal writings.
• The Latin Vulgate is authoritative and no-one should dare to reject it.
• The Roman Catholic Church has the authority to interpret Scripture, and nobody else has the right to disagree.
• Roman Catholics are not allowed to publish any work relating to the interpretation of Scripture, unless it is first vetted and approved by his superiors in the Church. Roman Catholics are also not allowed to read, write, circulate or possess any book that is anonymous, unless the Church has approved it in writing, and the approval appears at the beginning of the book.

The measures issued by the Council of Trent had the effect of restoring order within the ranks of the Catholic Church, but at a high price. Catholic learning and scholarship was brought to a standstill, because the only possible answer to any theological question was to ask the person next in line up the heirarchy. It also meant that Catholics were unable to argue with Protestants, because they could not express any view unless they were sure that it had been approved by the Church. Catholic scholarship was reduced to the boring routine of finding out what was approved by the Church and what was not. This situation existed until Vatican II was held in 1962 to 1965, so that for more than three centuries the Catholic Church was a prisoner in its own house as far as theology was concerned, but active in other areas such as politics, social welfare and evangelism of the ignorant.

Early British Christianity

Before considering the Protestant Reformation in Britain, it is first necessary to consider how deeply rooted was the Christian faith among the inhabitants of these islands. Christianity has existed in Britain from very early times, probably as early as the first century AD.

The Ancient Britons

One of the earliest migrations to Britain was led by an Italian called Brutus, who went to Greece and then Egypt, and then arrived in Totnes, Devon sometime between 1104 and 1121 BC (difficult to get precise dates that far back). His arrival is commemorated by the "Brutus Stone" which bears his name, and it is thought that the "Britons" were named after him. The pre-Christian calendar is thought to be dated from his arrival.

About seven or eight centuries BC, there were two Celtic migrations across Europe. The first wave was Gaelic and they occupied the northern parts of Scotland and Ireland. The second wave occupied most of England and Wales, and they were called "Britons", adding to the population that had already arrived with Brutus.

The Celtic Britons were pagan Druids, and the arrival of Christianity was probably an indirect result of the Roman invasion.

The Family of Caractacus

Caractacus was a Welsh king who held out against the Romans but was eventually defeated in 50 AD and taken to Rome in chains. He was tried in the Roman Senate where he made a brave and passionate speech about how he had defended his hereditary domains, as any king would be expected to do. He was pardoned by the Senate, and was allowed to live in a house in Rome, together with other members of his family. He was sent back to Britain in 51 AD as a Roman provincial governor. His father, Bran, was held hostage for a while and then sent back to Britain in 58 AD. The family who remained in Rome was very friendly with the Romans and intermarried with them.

Gladys, the daughter of Caractacus, was re-named Claudia, probably in honour of the Emperor who had pardoned them, and she married a Roman senator called Rufus Pudens. They were active members of the early church in Rome, and had a number of children who all became martyrs during the subsequent persecutions. Claudia had a brother called Linus who was the first Bishop of Rome. All three of them are mentioned in 2 Tim. 4:21.

Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.

There is also some evidence that when Bran returned to Britain in 58 AD, he was accompanied by Aristobulus who is mentioned in Rom. 16:10.

Salute Appeles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus household.

Note that Paul refers to the household of Aristobulus, not to Aristobulus himself, implying that he had gone away somewhere.

Details of these events, and some historical documentation, is given in my book Forgotten History of the Western People.

Did Jesus Come to Britain?

My book also discusses the possibility that Joseph of Arimathea was the great-uncle of Jesus, that he was in the tin trade, and he visited the tin mines of Cornwall. The New Testament does not specifically say that Joseph was related to Jesus, but he might have been, considering that he was able to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus and was granted immediate permission. There are some historical claims that Joseph brought Jesus to Britain as a young boy. He then apparently made another trip to Britain after Jesus had been crucified, bringing with him the communion cup that was used by Jesus at the last supper, known as the "Holy Grail". He is alleged to have built a church on Glastonbury Thor. At this point it becomes difficult to separate fact from legend. There are claims that the monks at Glastonbury invented the story to enhance the status of their Abbey and resist the Norman Conquest. There are counter-claims that the Roman Catholic Church would not tolerate the prospect of Glastonbury becoming more important than Rome, and destroyed all available records. Whatever the truth might have been, the suggestion that Jesus came to Britain has been a matter of intrigue for many people, for example William Blake who wrote the famous hymn "And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountains green...".

How Did Christianity Arrive in Britain?

The story of Joseph of Arimathea, or even Jesus himself arriving in Britain, would be of immense importance if it could be shown to be true, but unless there is some more substantial evidence, it has to be denounced as a myth. The story about the family of Caractacus has much more credibility, and it is very likely that Bran and Aristobulus brought the Christian faith to Britain when they arrived in 58 AD, having been inspired by their experience of the early church in Rome. Whatever the precise details might be, there can be little doubt that Celtic Christianity existed in Britain during the first century.

Lucius, the Christian King, 124-201

Lucius was a British king who founded a church called St. Peter on Cornhill, probably the first Christian church in London. It was destroyed by the Great Fire but the dedication stone is preserved in the vestry.

St. Alban, Martyred in 209

St. Alban was martyred at Verulamium, now known as St. Albans in his honour.

Decline of the Roman Empire

During the third century, the northern limits of the Roman Empire were invaded and the Romans were unable to resist.

• The Caledonians or Picts invaded from Scotland.
• The Scots from Northern Ireland (yes, that's right!) invaded Britain and occupied the western shores from the Clyde to the Severn.
• The Saxons, from Germany harrassed the eastern coast of Britain.

British Ancestry of Constantine the Great

King Coel had a daughter called Elaine (Helen) who became a Christian. Constantius Chlorus came from Rome to subdue Coel, and then married Helen. They had a son called Constantine, who became known as Constantine the Great and was the first Christian Emperor. In 313 AD he declared that Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. His Christian faith was undoubtedly derived from his mother, who was British. However, the purity of his Christianity is questionable and he seems to have considered the Christian God to be someone who would help him with his battles.

The adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire seemed like good news at the time, but it caused the church to lose its vitality and become institutionalised. It created the opportunity for the Roman Catholic Church to rise as a political and religious power which would attempt to subjugate the true followers of Christianity into sumbission to the Pope.

St. Patrick of Ireland

A young boy called Succat, born in 384 and brought up in a Christian household, was captured by Niall and taken to Ireland. He was rescued, but stayed in Ireland to preach Christianity to the Irish pagans. He became known as St. Patrick and founded many churches.

Collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain

In 410, the Roman Empire was in such a state of decline that the Emperor Honorius told the Britons that they would have to defend themselves against the Picts, Scots and Saxons, and Britain ceased to be a Roman province. In 446 the Britons made their final appeal to the Romans, known as "the groans of the Britons", but no help came. The Britons were pushed westward into Wales by the Angles (from Denmark) and the Saxons (from Germany) who became known as the Anglo-Saxons.

St. Columba and the Abbey at Iona

Columba was the great grandson of Niall, who had captured St. Patrick. In 563 he built an abbey at Iona in the Western Hebrides. They spread the Gospel to Scotland, Bangor in Wales, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

"Saint" Augustine

Pope Gregory was passing through the slave market in Rome when he saw some Anglo-Saxon children with fair hair and blue eyes. He was impressed by their appearance and said "Not Angles, but Angels". In 597 he sent Augustine, together with 40 other missionaries, to Britain. They landed in Kent and went to Canterbury, where they persuaded Aethelbert, the Saxon king of South-East England, to accept Roman Catholicism, including the authority of the Pope.

Catholicism began to spread around the Saxon areas of England, but the Welsh Britons and the Ionians in the North refused to submit to the Pope. Augustine attempted to hold a conference with Dinud, the leader of a Christian centre in Bangor, requiring him to submit to the Pope. Dinud refused with the words:

We desire to love all men and what we do for you we do for you also whom you call the Pope. But he is not entitled to call himself "father of fathers", and the only submission we can render him is that which we owe to every Christian.

Augustine responded with the following threat, which was later considered by the "venerable" Bede to be a prophecy.

If you will not unite with us in showing the Saxons the way of life, you shall receive from them the stroke of death.

In response to Augustine's threat, the Saxons attacked Bangor. They massacred 1,200 monks who had gathered to pray for the success of the British forces, but were then driven back. Note: According to Theophilus Evans, this was in Bangor-is-y-coed, about four miles south-east of Wrexham, not Bangor on the Menai Strait near Anglesey.

I use the word "saint" in quotes because Augustine was no saint. He was an envoy of the Pope and a warmonger. He never brought Christianity to Britain as is commonly supposed. Christianity had already been well established among the Britons since the first century, and Augustine was bringing a different type of religion that required submission to the Pope.

The Council of Whitby

The Saxons did not have any deep devotion to the Catholic faith and many of them reverted back to their previous pagan beliefs. The Saxon king Oswiu was unable to make up his mind so in 664 he called a conference in Whitby where he could hear the opposing views of the Catholics in the south and the Columbans from Iona in the north. He was persuaded to follow the Catholics, because of their claim that Peter has the "keys of the kingdom of heaven". The Catholic faith spread further throughout England, but never gained total control. Even after the Norman Conquest, a succession of English kings resisted the power of Rome and proclaimed that the King of England has authority in his own domain.

Renaissance and Reformation in Britain

Now that we have reviewed the early history of Christianity in Britain, we can see how the Renaissance and Reformation spread to Britain. Basically it followed the same pattern as Europe. There was a revival of interest in art and literature, followed by a rejection of the Roman Catholic heirarchy and a move towards Protestantism. In particular, Britain was influenced by the following factors:

• Britain had always been in a state of tension with Rome. In particular, the Welsh Britons who had been driven westward by the Anglo-Saxons, and then attacked again at the instigation of Augustine, had maintained the true Christian faith that they had inherited from the early church.
• Henry VII, the first Tudor King of England, was Welsh, and brought his Protestant heritage to the throne of England.
• Erasmus was in England for a number of successive periods. He was in Cambridge continuously from 1509 to 1514, then he travelled alternately between England and Basel until 1517 while working on his Greek New Testament.
• The Authorised Version of the Bible was produced during the reign of James I.
• There was a high level of literacy among all those who could afford an education, and there were many people who could understand Latin and Greek.
• The Welsh Protestant influence of Henry VII did not last for ever. Britain had a succession of monarchs who caused the nation to oscillate from Catholic to Protestant and back again. Eventually it became obvious that stability could only be achieved by having a strengthened Parliament in which both Catholics and Protestants could participate, and a constitutional monarchy with limited powers.

The Rival Houses of Lancaster and York

The predecessors of Henry VII were the rival houses of Lancaster and York, descended from two of the sons of Edward III. His third son, John of Gaunt, was the Duke of Lancaster. His fourth son, Edmund of Langley, was the Duke of York. Their respective emblems were a red rose for the House of Lancaster and a white rose for the House of York. The wars fought between these two houses were called the "Wars of the Roses".

Henry VII the Protestant

Henry VII was a Lancastrian, the great grandson of John of Gaunt, through his mother Margaret Beaufort. His father was Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, but he died before Henry was born. He was taken prisoner by the Yorkists and died at Carmarthen Castle.

Margaret was taken into the care of Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, at his stronghold of Pembroke Castle, where Henry was born in 1457. When he was only four years old, Edward IV seized the Crown and Pembroke fell to the Yorkists. Jasper fled abroad, but Henry was still able to stay at Pembroke under the guardianship of William Herbert, the new owner, who was given Jasper's earldom. Margaret married a Lancastrian Knight, sir Henry Stafford. Henry was parted from his mother, but he still received a sound schooling.

When Henry was twelve years old, Herbert was executed for alleged treason. The following year, Henry VI was restored to the throne and Jasper returned from exile. Henry VI died a year later leaving Henry Tudor as the true heir to the House of Lancaster. Edward IV of the House of York took the crown at the battle of Barnet in 1471, and it was no longer safe for either Henry Tudor or his uncle Jasper to remain in Wales, so they went to north-west France. Henry was in France for 14 years and during that time Edward V took the throne for only two months in 1483 and then Richard III took the throne. Richard's usurpation of the throne antagonised many in the Yorkist camp. The Duke of Buckingham had staged rebellion against Richard, but failed, and the rebels who fled to France rallied to the support of Henry. In 1485, Henry returned to Wales and landed at Pembrokeshire, where he was very popular because of his Welsh blood. He rallied a large army and fought against Richard at Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. Richard was defeated and killed, and Henry took the throne.

Henry's first act was to marry Elizabeth of York, which he had vowed to do before he returned from France. His marriage to Elizabeth united the houses of Lancaster and York, and put an end to their bitter feuding. He built a strong, centrally-controlled kingdom to hand on to his son, Henry VIII.

Henry VIII the Protestant

The story of Henry VIII and his wives is probably the most well-known story of British history, and like most well-known stories it is not known well enough. It is commonly supposed that his only reason to break with Rome was to resolve his domestic affairs. It would be a mistake to assume that the great Protestant Reformation in Britain was based on something so trivial. Henry was the son of a Welsh Protestant, and his dislike for Rome was derived from his Protestant heritage, not from his domestic affairs. His domestic problems were the issues that he quarrelled over, but the real issue was the right of the King of England to reign in his own country without having to submit to Rome.

His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, gave him a son called Henry who lived for only six weeks, and then a daughter called Mary. They had no other children, and Henry wanted the Pope to annul the marriage on the grounds that she had previously been his deceased brother's wife, but the Pope refused. In 1534, Parliament abolised the authority of the Pope in England, and with the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, they gave Henry the marriage annulment that he wanted. In 1535, Parliament declared Henry to be "Supreme Head of the Church of England".

Edward VI the Protestant Child King

In 1547, Edward VI, son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour, ascended the throne at the age of nine. He was a sickly child and his reign lasted only six years. Edward Seymour, Earl of Hereford, became his guardian and regent, and was given the title "Duke of Somerset". Seymour was effectively the ruler of England, and made the country into an unequivocally Protestant state. Acts of Parliament were passed abolishing Catholic practices of worship, and a Second Prayer Book was published. Despite his youth, King Edward was fully persuaded as a staunch Protestant. Before he died, he signed a document saying that Lady Jane Grey, the grand-daughter of Mary, the younger sister of Henry VIII would succeed him, rather than giving the throne to his older half-sister Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, who was a Catholic.

Mary I the Catholic

In 1553, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen, but the people supported Mary as the rightful successor. The Duke of Northumberland sent an army to capture Mary, who was in Norfolk, but his army deserted him. Mary came to London where she was welcomed by the people and proclaimed Queen. Lady Jane Grey, her husband Guildford Dudley, and Northumberland, were all taken to the Tower, and Northumberland was executed. Mary proceeded with the restoration of Roman Catholicism. A number of prominent Catholics, who had been imprisoned in the Tower, were released, and the Protestant Bishops Cranmer and Latimer were imprisoned, together with others. All the religious Acts of Parliament passed during the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VI were cancelled. Married priests were driven out of their houses, the Second Prayer Book was forbidden, and the mass was restored.

In 1554, Mary announced her intention to marry her cousin, Philip II of Spain, who was also a staunch Catholic. This caused some alarm among the people who thought that Philip would become King and would bring the Spanish Inquisition to England. There was a rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt, but it failed because Mary appealed to the people and promised not to marry without the consent of Parliament. Consent was given and the marriage took place, but Parliament would not allow Philip to be crowned King. Thomas Wyatt, Lady Jane Grey, her husband, father and uncle were all executed, and more than 100 common people were hanged. Mary's younger sister, Princess Elizabeth, was sent to the Tower because she was a Protestant, although she had never actively taken part in any rebellion against the Queen.

During Mary's reign, there were many Protestant martyrs, including Rogers, Hooper, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer. More than 280 people were burnt at the stake and many others were imprisoned, fined, or had their property confiscated.

Elizabeth I the Protestant

In 1558, Elizabeth I ascended the throne. She restored the Protestant Acts of Parliament that had been cancelled by her predecessor, and attendance at Sunday services at the Church of England became compulsory. Elizabeth took the view that as long as the Catholics showed up at the Church of England, she didn't mind if they also held their own Catholic mass in private. However, she had a problem with a newly-emerging group called the Puritans. They wanted a purer form of religion without the rituals of the Church of England, and many of them were fined or imprisoned for refusing to attend services.

There was a dispute over the succession of Queen Elizabeth because Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic, was considered by some people to be the rightful heir. Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII, had married King James IV of Scotland, and Mary was their grand-daughter. Mary had married Francois II, King of France, but Francois died in 1560. She returned to Scotland in 1561, and in 1565 she married her cousin, Lord Darnley. Then she married Lord Bothwell after her husband Darnley had been mysteriously murdered in 1567. There was a rebellion, led by the Earl of Murray, because she was suspected of being an accomplice in the murder. She was defeated at Carberry Hill and imprisoned, and was forced to abdicate in favour of her son, James VI of Scotland, who subsequently became James I of England. Mary escaped and attempted to make a comeback, but was defeated at Langside and fled to England where she was taken prisoner by Queen Elizabeth.

The Roman Catholic Church plotted against Elizabeth, taking sides with Mary in her claim to the throne of England. The Pope excommunicated Elizabeth, a rather meaningless action in itself, considering that Elizabeth was a Protestant, but it was a way of declaring that they did not recognise her as Queen. Mary requested that Elizabeth should at least name her as successor, but Elizabeth refused. There was a series of plots and insurrections, including a plot by Babington to kill Elizabeth. Mary was put on trial for conspiracy with Babington's plot, and was executed in 1557.

The next major event was the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth had given support to the people of the Netherlands in their revolt against Spanish rule, and Philip II sent the Armada because he considered England to be the leading Protestant nation of Europe. He also wanted revenge for the execution of Mary. The Armada was anchored off Calais but was taken by surprise when the English fleet arrived and sent fire-ships among them. They slipped their cables and drifted out to sea. There was a battle off Gravelines where many Spanish ships were sunk or run aground. Strong winds prevented them from returning to Spain through the English Channel, so they attempted to return around the north of Scotland, but they were unable to navigate the area, and many more ships ran aground. Out of 129 ships that left Spain, only 53 returned. This was considered by many to be an act of providence, that God was preserving Protestant England.

James I the Protestant

Although Elizabeth never recognised Mary Queen of Scots as a possible successor to the throne of England, she did not object to the succession of her son James, who was a Protestant. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I of England, so the two nations became united under a single monarchy. Scotland continued to have its own Parliament until it was dissolved in 1707. James was the son of Henry Stuart, so he was the first of the Stuart line of kings.

In 1604, he held a conference at Hampton Court, to try and settle the dispute between the Puritans and the Episcopalians (the supporters of the Church of England). The Puritans argued that the Episcopacy should be abolished, and provoked James to say "No bishop, no king". He threatened to throw the Puritans out of the land if they wouldn't conform. At the same time, he ordered a new Bible called the Authorised Version to be produced. There were also some small changes to the Book of Common Prayer.

In 1605, the Catholics created trouble for James which was far greater than the Puritans had ever done. A small band of conspirators tried to get rid of the King and Parliament, and restore the Roman Catholic religion. They attempted to blow up Parliament while the King and the entire house was in session, but the plot was discovered and Guy Fawkes was discovered in a vault, ready to set light to 36 barrels of gunpowder. James had previously waived the penalties against Catholics for not attending Sunday services at the Church of England, but he re-imposed them and passed severe laws against the Catholics. Guy Fawkes and his conspirators were hanged on the scaffold.

In 1611, the King James Authorised Version of the Bible was completed and published, having been translated mainly from the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament and Theodore Beza's edition of the Greek New Testament, based on the work of Erasmus. The KJAV is widely considered to be an excellent translation and a masterpiece of English literature. It has been widely used in the churches throughout the English-speaking world for more than three hundred years and has been the bedrock of world missions.

The translators of the KJAV included the following text in their Preface, addressed to King James:

So that if, on the one side, we shall be seduced by Popish Persons at home or abroad, who therefore will malign us, because we are poor instruments to make God's holy Truth to be yet more and more known unto the people, whom they desire still to keep in ignorance and darkness; or if, on the other side, we shall be maligned by self-conceited Brethren, who run their own ways, and give liking unto nothing, but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their own anvil; we may rest secure, supported within by the truth and innocency of a good conscience, having walked in the ways of simplicity and integrity, as before the Lord; and sustained without by the powerful protection of Your Majesty's grace and favour, which will ever give countenance to honest and Christian endeavours against bitter censures and uncharitable imputations.

They obviously regarded the KJAV to be an instrument that would bring people together and protect the established order from the extreme positions of both the Catholics and the Puritans. Up to a point, it has been successful because it has been used by Episcopalians, Puritans and all the Protestant denominations that have emerged since that time, although the Catholics have stuck with their Latin Vulgate.

In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers sailed to America on the Mayflower to start a new life. In spite of the reforms they had achieved since the Hampton Court Conference in 1604, many Puritans felt that in England they did not have freedom to worship in their own way.

James I was an authoritarian King who believed that the right to rule was given to him by God, and he dissolved Parliament when he could not get his own way.

• He wanted a regular income from Parliament, and they were willing to grant him £200,000/year if he gave up feudal dues and ceased the practice of impositions (increase of customs and duties without the consent of the Commons), but he refused and dissolved Parliament in 1611.
• In 1614 he called his second Parliament but it did not pass a single act because the argument about impositions was still going on and Parliament was dissolved.
• From 1614 to 1621 he ruled without a Parliament.
• In 1621 he called his third Parliament and they made a protest about their long dissolution. They declared that Parliament is the birthright of the English people and not a gift from the Crown; that they had a right to discuss matters of public interest; and they had a right of liberty of speech. James tore the protest document out of the Journal of the House and dissolved Parliament.

Charles I, Catholic or Protestant?

In 1625, Charles I succeeded James I. He was a meglomaniac ruler with a complete disregard for Parliament, much worse than his father James. He was at war with France and Spain, but both campaigns were unsuccessful and Parliament refused to supply funds, so he billeted soldiers without paying for them, and collected taxes illegally, without the consent of Parliament. He held three Parliaments during the first few years of his reign and dissolved all of them when they would not give him what he wanted. The third Parliament, in 1628, achieved some reforms by passing the Petition of Right which stated:

• No taxes can be raised without the consent of Parliament;
• Soldiers and sailors cannot be billeted in private houses;
• No-one can be imprisoned without showing a cause;
• No-one can be tried by martial law.

The King was forced to accept the Petition, because of his financial difficulty, and it became second in importance to the Magna Carta. However, in 1629 he refused to authorise the reading of a resolution against illegal taxation and religious innovations. The resolution was read out anyway, while the Speaker was held down in his chair, and then Parliament was dissolved in a state of tumult.

The King ruled without a Parliament from 1629 to 1640, then he held a fourth Parliament when he was badly short of money, but it lasted only three weeks. In 1640 he held a fifth Parliament, and in 1641 they passed a Bill to prevent Parliament from being dissolved without its own consent. This Parliament lasted longer than the King himself because in 1649 they executed him.

Not only did Charles antagonise people with his arbitrary taxes, he also antagonised the Puritans and other reformist Protestants by encouraging Catholic worship and rituals in the Church of England. He promoted "Arminians" or high-churchmen who opposed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and believed that salvation is a matter of free will. Charles never openly declared himself to be a Catholic, but many people believed that he was one.

Now here is a lesson about how the Calvinist/Arminian debate spills over into politics. Calvinists believe that only God can determine who is saved and who is not, and that once a person is saved, they are always saved. Arminians believe that people are saved by their own free choice, and they can lose their salvation just as easily as they can gain it. The Arminian position gives greater opportunities for Catholic priests, who can use the instrument of absolution to mitigate the effects of someone's sin, or the instrument of excommunication to cancel their salvation and exclude them from the church. Thus, salvation becomes the choice of the priest, just as much as the choice of the person who wants to be saved. The instruments of absolution and excommunication become political tools to keep the people under control and make sure they are obedient to both the priest and the king. The Calvinists were obviously a thorn in the flesh for any authoritarian king, because there are no priests who can cancel salvation which is given by the grace of God alone.

Charles introduced his religious reforms in England, but there was a rebellion when he tried to imposed them in Scotland. In 1637, almost the whole of Scotland signed the "National Covenant", pledging to resist the Popery and Episcopacy. An army of 16,000 men was raised, known as the "Covenanters", under the leadership of Alexander Leslie.

From 1642 to 1648 there was a civil war in which the nation became divided between the Royalists (or Cavaliers) who supported the King, and the Parliamentarians (or Roundheads) who supported Parliament. The divide was not purely religious or political, but a bit of each. People took sides depending on how they felt about the issues. Neither was it purely geographical as there were some Scots who supported the Royalists because Charles was a Stuart King and his father, James I had come from Scotland. In 1648, Charles took refuge with some of his Scottish supporters who invaded England, but they were defeated by Oliver Cromwell and Charles was captured and taken to London. There was debate in Parliament about the trial of the King, and 100 Presbyterian members were excluded from the House because they refused to sit in judgement of him. The remaining 53 Independent members, known as the "Rump" voted to put the King on trial. In 1649, Charles was tried by the High Court of Justice, charged with "having levied war against his kingdom and the Parliament". He was found guilty and executed.

The Commonwealth and Protectorate

After the execution of Charles I, Parliament continued in session and ruled without a king. For the first four years, from 1649 to 1653 it was called the "Commonwealth" and was ruled by the Rump. They appointed a Council of State consisting of 41 members with Bradshaw as President and Milton as Latin Secretary. Oliver Cromwell was the most influential figure of Parliament, because his military success had secured the capture of the King, and he continued to preserve the status of Parliament by putting down a number of other rebellions. In 1653, he wanted to bring in some Parliamentary reforms, which would require dissolving Parliament and starting a new one. The Rump feared that the new Parliament would be controlled by the army, so they attempted to pass a Bill saying that members were to keep their seats without re-election and would also have the right to exclude all newly elected members. Cromwell responded to this by forcibly dissolving the House.

In 1653, Parliament was re-assembled, and after a few months deliberating over institutional reforms, they drew up the "Instrument of Government" which gave supreme authority to the "Lord Protector" and a Council of State of 15 members. It also stated that a Parliament of 400 members should be held every three years and should sit for at least five months. In 1654, the first Parliament was held under the "Instrument of Government", with Cromwell as Lord Protector. It was made up of Protestant Parliamentarians, and all declared Royalists and Roman Catholics were excluded. There were three Parliaments altogether. During the second of these Parliaments, a plot to kill Cromwell was discovered, and Parliament responded by drawing up the "Humble Petition and Advice" which gave Cromwell all the powers of a King, including the right to appoint his successor, and even attempted to give him the title of King. He accepted the new powers but refused to be called "King", believing the "Lord Protector" was sufficient.

Since Cromwell had risen to a position of supreme power as a result of his military success, it meant that Britain was effectively being ruled by a military government. Cromwell died in 1658, during the third Parliament, and his son, Richard, was appointed as his successor, but Richard was not a military man like his father and he resigned. The Rump took over for a short time, and then Parliament was dissolved in 1660.

A Convention was held, consisting of both Royalists and Parliamentarians, believing that the time had come for a compromise solution that would be more acceptable to all parties. A resolution was passed to re-establish the old form of government, including the monarchy, with Charles II as King. Charles responded by issuing the Declaration of Breda which included the following:

• A general pardon to all persons, subject to the approval of Parliament.
• Liberty of conscience in religious matters, subject to the approval of Parliament.
• Claims to landed property and arrears of payments to the army would be settled by Parliament.

From this point onwards, the powers of the King were gradually reduced, leading to the constitutional monarchy that we have today.

Charles II, Probably a Catholic

In 1660, Charles II became King. Although he was probably a Catholic, he refrained from declaring himself as such because there were laws which prevented Catholics from holding public office. His declaration of religious liberty was ignored by Parliament which was dominated by Episcopalians who were anxious to maintain the influence of the Church of England.

• In 1661, the Corporation Act was passed to reduce the influence of Nonconformists in the towns. All members of a Corporation were expected to take communion under the rules of the Church of England.
• In 1662, the third Act of Uniformity was passed, which required the Puritan Clergy to conform or leave the Church of England. About 2,000 clergy refused and were thrown out of their homes.
• In 1664, the Conventicle Act was passed, to prevent Nonconformists from having their own private meetings. If five persons, not of the same household, held a meeting that was not in accordance with the rites of the Church of England, they would be fined or imprisoned for first and second offences, and transported for seven years for a third offence. Many people were sent to prison, including John Bunyan who wrote "Pilgrim's Progress".
• In 1670, Charles made a secret treaty with Louis XIV of France, in which he agreed to declare himself a Roman Catholic, although circumstances appear to have prevented him from actually doing so. In 1672, he issued the Declaration of Indulgence, to repeal all laws that had been passed against Roman Catholics and Nonconformists. Parliament rejected the declaration, but 12,000 people were released, who had been imprisoned under the Conventicle Act.
• In 1673, the Test Act was passed, to keep Roman Catholics out of public office. All persons holding office under the Crown were obliged to take communion under the rules of the Church of England, and were expected to renounce their belief in transubstantiation.
• In 1678, there was a suspected "Popish Plot" to murder the King, overthrow the Government and restore Roman Catholicism. The Disabling Bill was passed, preventing Roman Catholics from sitting in either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, with the exception of the Duke of York. More than 2,000 Catholics were imprisoned and all Catholics in London were ordered to leave the city. Lord Stafford, the leader of the Roman Catholic Party, was sent to the Tower and executed in 1680. After that, no Roman Catholic sat in either House for 150 years.
• In 1679, the Commons attempted to pass the Exclusion Bill, supported by Shaftesbury, to prevent James, Duke of York from succession to the throne because he was a Catholic, but Charles stopped the Bill by dissolving Parliament. In 1680 the Petitioners (who became known as "Whigs") urged the King to re-assemble Parliament and pass the Exclusion Bill. They were opposed by the Abhorrers (who became known as "Tories"). When Parliament met, they passed the Exclusion Bill, but the Lords rejected it.

Although these religious laws might sound archaic, primitive and draconian from our point of view, looking back on them from more than 300 years into the future, we have to understand the real fears of the people at that time. From the time when Henry VIII broke with Rome and was declared Supreme Head of the Church in 1535, until the Corporation Act was passed in 1661, only 126 years had passed. During that time, Britain had lurched repeatedly between Protestant and Catholic rule, including a bitter civil war which had resulted in the monarchy being suspended for 11 years. There was popular support for any measures that would prevent a return to the Papal domination that had existed since the time of the Norman Conquest.

The Church of England was considered to be the front line of defence against Rome. Stability, together with a certain amount of freedom of thought (which was never available under the Papacy) could be achieved by maintaining a strong Church of England. The Puritans and other Nonconformists were considered to be a threat, not because there was anything particularly obnoxious about their views, but because they were sowing division within the Church of England. Any weakness in the Church of England was perceived as an opportunity for a Catholic takeover and had to be avoided at all costs. Although we might justifiably throw up our hands in horror at the religious laws that were passed by this Parliament, we have to ask ourselves, what would we have done in the circumstances?

Apart from the religious laws, there is another important Bill that was passed during the reign of Charles II. In 1679 the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, affirming the following rights that already existed primarily in the Magna Carta:

• Any unconvicted prisoner, except those charged with treason, can demand a writ of Habeas Corpus, so that the prisoner has to be taken to court and the cause of imprisonment must be stated.
• Time limits were imposed so that a prisoner must be put on trial within a reasonable period of time and cannot be held indefinitely.
• A person cannot be put on trial more than once for the same offence.
• A person cannot be imprisoned out of England.

James II the Catholic

In 1686, James II, the younger brother of Charles II, ascended the throne. His ambition was to gain absolute rule by restoring Roman Catholicism. He adopted the profile of a tolerant libertarian, opposing the religious laws that kept both the Nonconformists and Catholics under restraint. He wanted to restore the position and influence of Roman Catholics in society, and he didn't mind if some liberty for Nonconformists was achieved at the same time, since it was just a means to an end. His actions were as follows:

• He used the "Dispensing Power" (the right of the King to set aside individual penal cases) to aquit Edward Hales, a Roman Catholic and regimental Colonel, who had been brought to trial under the Test Act.
• He tried unsuccessfully to get the Test Act and Habeas Corpus Act repealed. Although the Habeas Corpus Act, passed in 1679, was just an affirmation of existing law, and contained nothing new of any significance, the repeal of the Act would have been a disaster for genuine civil liberties because it would have undermined the Magna Carta.
• He established an Ecclesiastical Commission and used it to make appointments at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. At Oxford he appointed Dr. Massey, a Catholic, as Dean of Christ Church, and he expelled the Fellows of Magdalen College because they would not elect a Roman Catholic as their President. At Cambridge he expelled Dr. Pechel, the Vice-Chancellor.
• He maintained an army of 13,000 men under his his own control, independently of Parliament, ready to subjugate London if necessary.
• In 1688, he issued a Second Declaration of Indulgence, on his own authority and without the consent of Parliament, suspending all penal laws against Nonconformists and Roman Catholics. He ordered the clergy to read it in church, but many of them refused. Seven bishops petitioned the King to be excused from reading it, and James put them on trial on the grounds that their action was libelous, but the trial failed and they were aquitted.

The Revolution

When James issued his Declaration of Indulgence and put the bishops on trial, Parliament decided they had had enough and invited his Protestant nephew and son-in-law, William of Orange, to come over from Holland with his army.

William was Stadtholder of the Netherlands. He was born in 1650, the posthumous son of William II, Prince of Orange, who had died the same year. His mother was Mary, the older sister of James. He was married to the eldest daughter of James, who was also called Mary. So he was related to James through birth and also through marriage. Their association with the House of Orange had arisen because his great-grandfather, William I, had inherited the French principality of Orange.

When Parliament issued their invitation to William of Orange, James dissolved the Ecclesiatical Commission and reinstated the Fellows of Magdalen College, but it wasn't enough to appease Parliament, the people, or even his own army and navy. William landed at Torbay with a large army and marched on Exeter, then went to London. James was left undefended because his army deserted him and his navy went entirely over to William. James fled from London and boarded a ship, but was caught and brought back to London. William allowed him to flee again and he went to France.

William III and Mary II, the Protestants

In 1689, after James had fled to France, a Convention met (a Parliament not summoned by a monarch) and declared William and Mary to be joint monarchs, with executive power vested in William. They also drew up a Declaration of Rights which William and Mary accepted. This Declaration limited the power of the monarchy, and condemned the way that James II had used his royal prerogatives to dispense with the laws.

The Convention was declared to be a Parliament and passed the following Acts:

• Anyone holding offices in either church or state should swear allegiance to William. Seven bishops and about 300 clergy refused and were removed from office. They became known as the Non-Jurors.
• The First Mutiny Bill was passed, declaring that the army is under martial law and the maintenance of any army without the consent of Parliament is illegal. This was obviously a response to the behaviour of James II, who had raised his own private army to oppose Parliament.
• The Toleration Act was passed, allowing freedom of worship to all Protestant Nonconformists. Now that Parliament, King and Queen were all Protestants, the Church of England was strengthened and there was no longer any reason to keep the Nonconformists under control. Besides, William was a Calvinist and he had to declare liberty for his own denomination.
• The Bill of Rights was passed, which was basically an enactment of the Declaration of Rights that William and Mary had accepted at their coronation. It abolished the supposed power of the monarch to cancel or suspend the laws. It abolished the Ecclesiastical Commission that was set up by James II. It declared that raising taxes without the consent of Parliament is illegal. It declared that maintaining an army without the consent of Parliament is illegal (basically an affirmation of the First Mutiny Bill), but it allowed Protestants to have arms for their defence. It declared that the election of Members of Parliament should be free, that speeches and debates in Parliament should be free, that Parliament should meet frequently, and that subjects have a right to petition the King. It also declared that bail, fines and punishments should not be excessive.

In 1689, James II made a comeback in Ireland with the support of Tyrconnel, head of the Roman Catholics, and ruled as King in Dublin, but the Protestants in the North declared their support for William. About 30,000 Protestants were kept under siege at Londonderry by the Roman Catholic army under Hamilton. The siege lasted for 105 days until relief arrived and Colonel Wolsey defeated the Irish army at Newton Butler.

In 1690, William arrived in Carrickfergus and defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne. In 1691 he subdued the South of Ireland, except for Limerick, and then returned to England. Ginkel remained in Ireland and defeated Limerick, bringing the war to an end. He made a treaty at Limerick, stating that Irish Roman Catholics should be able to continue their religion, and Irish army officers and soldiers should be taken to France if they wished to go. About 10,000 Irish soldiers went to France where they joined Louis XIV and became known as the "Irish Brigade". The Battle of the Boyne is still celebrated today by the Protestant Orangemen in Northern Ireland, who march through the streets every year, much to the displeasure of the Roman Catholic Republicans.

James II, thrown out of England and then thrown out of Ireland, was not finished yet. He joined up with Louis XIV, who assembled a large fleet at Brest and an army of 30,000 men in Normandy in 1692, ready to invade England, but was defeated by Lord Russell off Cape La Hogue and abandoned any further attempt to invade England.

In 1692, in an attempt to ensure that everything was in order in Scotland, William ordered the highland chiefs to take the oath of allegiance, but Ian Macdonald of Glencoe neglected to do so. This was misrepresented as an act of rebellion, and almost the whole Macdonald clan was massacred by their old enemies, the Campbells.

In 1694, Queen Mary died of smallpox. William continued to reign alone and did not marry again.

In 1694, the Triennial Bill was passed, to regularise the provision in the Bill of Rights, that Parliament should meet frequently. The duration of Parliament was limited to three years, and the interval between successive Parliaments was also limited to three years.

In 1697 the Peace of Ryswick was agreed between England, France, Holland and Spain, acknowledging William as King of England and Anne as his successor. Anne was the Protestant daughter of James II, through his first wife Anne Hyde. She was married to George of Denmark.

In 1701, the Act of Settlement, otherwise known as the Succession Act was passed, to ensure the Protestant succession to the throne of England. The provisions were:

• Sophia, the grand-daughter of James I, would be next in line to Anne as successor to the throne. After that her heirs would succeed her, but only if they were Protestants. Sophia was married to Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Luneborg, but she never actually took the throne. Instead her son, George I took the throne in 1714 and was the first monarch of the Hanover-Brunswick line.
• The monarch should be in communion with the Church of England.
• The monarch should not leave England without the consent of Parliament.
• The nation should not go to war in defence of any territory not belonging to England.
• The judges should hold their offices, provided they are well behaved, and can only be removed on the agreement of both Houses of Parliament.

The Act of Settlement was built upon the Peace of Ryswick, agreed with Louis IV in 1697, but he did not keep his word for long. From 1698 to 1701 there were a number of attempts to partition different parts of Europe, because Charles II of Spain was close to death and had no children. His nearest relative was Philip, the grandson of Louis IV, but the other European states did not wish to see Spain and its territories joined to France because it would become a large Catholic empire that would dominate the rest of Europe. In 1701, the Grand Alliance was formed between England, Holland and Austria, to place Archduke Charles of Austria on the Spanish throne, instead of Philip. James II died in the same year, and Louis IV went back on his agreement to recognise Anne as the successor of William, and claimed that James Francis Edward (the Old Pretender), the Catholic son of James II through his second wife Mary of Modena, was the rightful heir to the throne. Parliament was enraged at this abrogation of the Peace of Ryswick, and declared war on France, although William did not take part in it because he fell off his horse and died while making preparations for it. The war continued during the reign of the next monarch, Queen Anne, and was known as the War of the Spanish Succession.

Protestant England

The Succession Act of 1701 established England as a Protestant nation, and was passed at a crucial time when the James II, the last Catholic king had been thrown out, and all his attempts to make a comeback during the reign of William III had failed. England continued as a Protestant nation and there were no more Catholic monarchs. From this point onwards, we shall focus mainly on what Parliament was doing, rather than what the successive monarchs were doing, because the Succession Act, together with the Bill of Rights, created a constitutional monarchy with Parliament in control of the affairs of the nation.

Queen Anne

In 1702, Anne, the daughter of James II ascended the throne and reigned until she died in 1714.

The War of the Spanish Succession and the Treaty of Utrecht

In 1701 (see the end of the last section) there was a dispute between Louis IV of France and the Grand Alliance, about the succession to the Spanish throne. Louis, unable to get his way, recognised James Francis Edward (the Old Pretender) as the rightful successor to the English throne instead of Anne. This was clearly a last-ditch attempt to restore the Catholic monarchy in England, and Parliament responded by declaring war on France. The war began in 1702 and continued with indecisive results until 1713. The English won some battles and the French won others, until both sides were worn out and people were complaining about the heavy taxes that were levied to pay for the war. In 1713 there was the Treaty of Utrecht which declared that:

• Philip V, grandson of Louis IV could be King of Spain, provided that the French and Spanish crowns are not united.
• France should acknowledge the Protestant succession to the throne of England, and should cease to support the Pretender.

In those days, people were careful to avoid the union of France and Spain because a large Catholic empire would dominate the rest of Europe.

Act for the Union of England and Scotland

In 1707, the Scottish Parliament was dissolved, so that both England and Scotland were governed by the Parliament at Westminster, and the two countries would be called "Britain". Scottish MPs were appointed to Parliament. The laws relating to trade and customs duties would be the same in both countries, but Scotlland would have its own church, criminal laws and courts of justice.

The Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 as part of the devolution of Scotland and Wales. The concept of self-government for Scotland and Wales is actually an illusion, because they are both Euro-constituencies and are heavily influenced by the European Union.

George I of the House of Hanover-Brunswick

In 1714, George, son of Sophia the grand-daughter of James I ascended the throne. His father was Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Luneborg. George I was the first King of the House of Hanover-Brunswick. The succeeding monarchs of this dynasty were George II, George III, George IV, William IV and Victoria.

The Jacobite Rebellion and the Riot Act

In 1715 there was a rebellion in Scotland, when the Earl of Mar declared in favour of James Francis Edward, the "Old Pretender" at Braemar. The rebellion spread to England, particularly in the Midlands. James landed in Scotland but had to return to France with the Earl of Mar. Six Scottish leaders of the rebellion were condemned to death, but Nithsdale escaped from the Tower wearing his wife's dress. In 1716, Parliament passed the Riot Act, stating that if twelve or more persons are assembled to disturb the peace, a justice can issue an order for them to disperse, and if they remain assembled for more than one hour afterwards they will have committed an offence.

War with Spain

In 1717 there was an alliance between England, France and Holland, to uphold the Treaty of Utrecht by recognising the succession of the House of Hanover to the English throne, and the succession of the House of Orleans to the French crown if the young King Louis XV should die. In 1718, Austria joined the alliance.

Cardinal Alberoni, the chief minister of Philip, King of Spain, wanted to destroy the Treaty of Utrecht and tried to persuade Charles XII of Sweden to invade Scotland in support of the Pretender.

Philip invaded Sardinia and attacked Sicily, but was defeated by the English navy off Cape Passero under the command of Admiral Byng.

From 1739 to 1742 there was further war with Spain, mainly over issues to do with smuggling and the presumed right of the Spanish to search English ships at sea. Walpole opposed this war and in 1742 he was compelled to resign his office as Prime Minister, but he was given a peerage as the Earl of Orford.

Walpole, the first Prime Minister

In 1721, Robert Walpole was appointed as First Lord of the Treasury and was the first person to be given the title of "Prime Minister".

George II

In 1727, George II ascended the throne.

Wesley and Whitefield

In 1739, John Wesley and George Whitefield began their religious revival and formed a new branch of Nonconformists called the Methodists. Their ministry was mainly among the poorer people who had not been reached by the Anglican Church, although the Anglicans also benefited from the revival.

War with France, the Young Pretender, the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War

In 1743 there was a dispute over the succession to the Austrian throne. The hereditary successor was Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI of Austria, but there were other claims to the succession. When Charles died, Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great) invaded Silesia, and the Elector of Bavaria invaded Austria with the support of France and Spain. In response to this, England and the German House of Hanover, under the command of George II, went to war against France and defeated them at the battle of Dettingen.

In 1744, France sent a fleet of 15,000 men against England, under the command of Charles Edward, the son of the Old Pretender, but the fleet was scattered by a storm and the attempt was abandoned. However, in 1745 the French defeated the English and their Allies at Fontenoy, giving encouragement to the Jacobites to renew their campaign. Charles Edward, known as the "Young Pretender", landed in Scotland with only seven men but soon raised a large army, marched on Edinburgh and declared in favour of his father, the Old Pretender. Then he marched on England, thinking that he would receive support, but was disappointed and retreated to Glasgow. In 1746 he was defeated by the Duke of Cumberland. He wandered about in the Highlands for five months and then escaped to France with a price of £30,000 on his head.

In 1748 the dispute over the Austrian succession was settled by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle which stated that there should be a restitution of conquests, with the exception of Prussia which was allowed to keep Silesia. Francis of Lorraine, the husband of Maria Theresa was acknowledged as Emperor. The Treaty also stated that France should acknowledge the Protestant succession in England, and the Pretender should be expelled from France. It effectively put an end to the rebellions of the Stuarts.

There was a relationship through intermarriage between Prussia and England because Frederick II was the son of Sophia Dorothea, the younger sister of George II. She had married Frederick William I, the previous King of Prussia. England's royal intermarriages with the House of Hanover and subsequently Prussia were basically political affairs, to keep Europe divided and prevent the formation of other alliances that would have too much power. In particular, the objective was to limit the power of France and Spain, which had both persistently tried to undermine the succession of Protestant monarchs.

From 1756 to 1763 there was the seven year's war. Maria Theresa attempted to recover Silesia from Frederick II, with the support of France, Russia and Saxony. England was in alliance with Prussia, for the reasons described above. There was also war between England and France in India and Canada. England suffered a few defeats in 1757, but then both England and Prussia had many victories against the French. This was the first war in which the Scottish highland regiments fought together with the English. England was also successful in India, securing the French downfall. The capture of Quebec in 1759 ensured the conquest of Canada, and helped to establish the United States. In 1762, England declared war against Spain and took Havana and Manila. The war ended in 1763 with the First Treaty of Paris (Fontainebleau), where England, France, Spain and Portugal agreed about how to carve up their territories in Europe, India, America, Canada and the West Indies.

These wars were hugely expensive for England. The War of the Austrian Succession cost £54 million and the Seven Years' War cost a further £75 million.

George III

In 1760, George III, son of Frederick Lewes, Prince of Wales, and grandson of George II ascended the throne. At that time, the Seven Years' War was still in progress. When the war ended in 1763, George was in possession of a huge colonial empire.

British Colonialism

Britain's wars with France and Spain were primarily an attempt to prevent either of them from subverting the Protestant succession to the throne and re-installing a Catholic monarchy. However, war has a momentum of its own, so that once started, new objectives begin to emerge. Britain was not content just to fight off the French and Spanish invasions in the Channel whenever they occurred. A more ambitious objective was to weaken both France and Spain so that further invasions would become impossible. During the Seven Years' War, Britain sought to achieve this objective by attacking the furthest reaches of the French and Spanish dominions around the world, but never expected to be so successful. Instead of gaining just a few isolated territories, a world empire fell into our hands.

When the war ended in 1763 with the First Treaty of Paris, England was left in possession of Minorca, Canada, all land in America east of the Missisippi, some of the West Indies and most of India.

The American War of Independence

Obviously it seemed an absurdity for the American colonists to be governed by Britain, by a Parliament where most of the members had never been to America, and were only interested in America for what they could get out of it (for example taxes and trade restrictions). The American War of Independence began in 1775. The Declaration of Independence was made by Congress on 4th July 1776, but Britain did not recognise it and continued the war. In 1778, France took sides with America and recognised their independence, but mainly to get back at Britain because of the Seven Years' War. Spain joined forces with France and together they beseiged Gibraltar from 1779 to 1782, but their ships were destroyed by red-hot shot from the British fortress. In 1780, Russia, Sweden and Denmark went into an alliance called the Armed Neutrality, and were later joined by France, Spain, H