The sixteenth century

The power of the English monarch increased in this period. The strength of the great barons had been greatly weakened by the Wars of the Roses. Bubonic plague (known in 'England as the Black Death) contributed to the reduction of their power. It killed about a third of the population in its first outbreak in England in the middle of the fourteenth century and continued to reappear periodically for another 300 years. The short of labour which-this caused, and the increasing importance of trade in the towns, helped to weaken the traditional ties between feudal lord and peasant.

The Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) established a system of government departments, staffed by professionals who depended for their position on the monarch. Parliament was traditionally split into two ‘Houses’. The House of Lords consisted of the feudal aristocracy and the leaders of the Church; the House of Commons consisted of representatives from the towns and the less important landowners in rural areas. It was now more important for monarchs to get the agreement of the Commons for policy-making because that was where the newly powerful merchants and landowners (the people with the money) were represented.

The direct cause of the rise of Protestantism in England was political and personal rather than doctrinal. Henry VIII wanted a divorce which the Pope would not give him. Also, by making himself head of the ‘Church of England’, independent of Rome, all church lands came under his control and gave him a large new source of income.

This rejection of the Roman Church accorded with a new spirit of patriotic confidence in England. An increasing European exploration of the Americas and other parts of the world meant that England was closer to the geographical centre of western civilisation.

It was therefore patriotism as much as religious conviction that had caused Protestantism to become the majority religion in England by the end of the century. It took a form known as Anglicanism, which was not so very different from Catholicism in its organization and ritual.

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The medieval period (1066-1485)	\|	The seventeenth century

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