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160-557: Nicholas Udall (or Uvedale Udal , Woodall , or other variations) (1504 – 23 December 1556) was an English playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author of Ralph Roister Doister , generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English language . Udall was born in Hampshire and educated at Winchester College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford . He was tutored under the guidance of Thomas Cromwell , who mentions him in
320-502: A royal charter to the Muscovy Company under governor Sebastian Cabot , and commissioned a world atlas from Diogo Homem . Adventurers such as John Lok and William Towerson sailed south in an attempt to develop links with the coast of Africa. Financially, Mary's regime tried to reconcile a modern form of government—with correspondingly higher spending—with a medieval system of collecting taxation and dues. Mary retained
480-530: A Protestant, "was undone by Papist lies." England – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the United Kingdom (green) England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom . It is located on the island of Great Britain , of which it covers about 62%, and more than 100 smaller adjacent islands . It has land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to
640-518: A ceremonial county, or be a district tier within a shire county , be a royal or metropolitan borough , have borough or city status , or be a unitary authority . At the community level, much of England is divided into civil parishes with their own councils ; in Greater London only one such parish, Queen's Park , exists as of 2014 after they were abolished in 1965 until legislation allowed their recreation in 2007. From 1994 until
800-512: A geographical frame of reference. Of these, 38 developed gradually since the Middle Ages ; these were reformed to 51 in 1974 and to their current number in 1996. Each has a Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff ; these posts are used to represent the British monarch locally. Some counties, such as Herefordshire , are only divided further into civil parishes. The royal county of Berkshire and
960-536: A household, which included the reinstatement of Mary's favourite, Susan Clarencieux . Mary's Privy Purse accounts for this period, kept by Mary Finch , show that Hatfield House , the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence, as well as Henry's palaces at Greenwich , Westminster and Hampton Court . Her expenses included fine clothes and gambling at cards, one of her favourite pastimes. Rebels in
1120-466: A letter to John Creke of 17 August 1523 as 'Maister Woodall' and he appears again in Cromwell's accounts for 1535 as 'Nicholas Woodall Master of Eton'. After graduation from Oxford, he taught at a London grammar school in 1533. He taught Latin at Eton College , of which he was headmaster from about 1534 until 1541, when he was forced to leave after being convicted of offences against his pupils under
1280-539: A mere province of the Habsburg Empire. This was of particular concern to the landed gentry and parliamentary classes, who foresaw having to pay greater taxes to cover the cost of England’s participation in foreign wars. Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the English House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned Mary to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of
1440-466: A military force at Framlingham Castle , Suffolk. Northumberland's support collapsed, and Jane was deposed on 19 July. She and Northumberland were imprisoned in the Tower of London . Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August 1553, on a wave of popular support. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen. One of Mary's first actions as queen
1600-462: A mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin. In September 1554, Mary stopped menstruating. She gained weight, and felt nauseated in the mornings. For these reasons, almost the entirety of her court, including her physicians, believed she was pregnant. Parliament passed the Treason Act of 1554 making Philip regent in the event of Mary's death in childbirth. In the last week of April 1555, Elizabeth
1760-539: A person whom the religious and political interests of the world recommended for Mary. The Spanish prince had been widowed a few years before by the death of his first wife, Maria Manuela of Portugal , mother of his son Carlos and was the heir apparent to vast territories in Continental Europe and the New World. Both Philip and Mary were descendants of John of Gaunt . As part of the marriage negotiations,
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#17327799301011920-601: A portrait of Philip by Titian was sent to Mary in the latter half of 1553. Mary was convinced that the safety of England required her to form a closer relationship with Charles's family, the Habsburgs , and she decided to marry Philip. A marriage treaty was presented to the Privy Council on 7 December 1553, and even though the terms clearly favoured England and included several safeguards, many still thought that England would be drawn into Philip's wars and become
2080-660: A profound and permanent effect on the English language. Subsequently, the House of Plantagenet from Anjou inherited the English throne under Henry II , adding England to the budding Angevin Empire of fiefs the family had inherited in France including Aquitaine . They reigned for three centuries, some noted monarchs being Richard I , Edward I , Edward III and Henry V . The period saw changes in trade and legislation, including
2240-564: A reasonable regret for her death." Although Mary's will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother, she was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December, in a tomb she eventually shared with Elizabeth. The inscription on their tomb, affixed there by James I when he succeeded Elizabeth, is Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis ("Consorts in realm and tomb, we sisters Elizabeth and Mary here lie down to sleep in hope of
2400-547: A revolt". Mary persevered with the policy, which continued for the rest of her reign and exacerbated anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feeling among the English people. The victims became lauded as martyrs . Reginald Pole, the son of Mary's executed governess, arrived as papal legate in November 1554. He was ordained a priest and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury immediately after Cranmer's execution in March 1556. As long as
2560-576: A son, Edward . Mary was made godmother to her half-brother and acted as chief mourner at the Queen's funeral. Mary was courted by Philip, Duke of Bavaria , from late 1539, but he was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful. Over 1539, the King's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell , negotiated a potential alliance with the Duchy of Cleves . Suggestions that Mary marry William I, Duke of Cleves , who
2720-450: A struggle for hegemony between Northumbria and Mercia, which in the 8th century gave way to Mercian preeminence. In the early 9th century Mercia was displaced as the foremost kingdom by Wessex. Later in that century escalating attacks by the Danes culminated in the conquest of the north and east of England, overthrowing the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. Wessex under Alfred
2880-470: A trait she inherited from her father. Despite his affection for Mary, Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons. By the time Mary was nine years old, it was apparent that Henry and Catherine would have no more children, leaving Henry without a legitimate male heir. In 1525, Henry sent Mary to the border of Wales to preside, presumably in name only, over the Council of Wales and
3040-686: Is a non-departmental public body, established in 1995 and sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with responsibilities relating to the protection and enhancement of the environment in England. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the minister responsible for environmental protection, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England. Mary I of England Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor , and as " Bloody Mary " by her Protestant opponents,
3200-412: Is also applied to England in a more poetic capacity, though its original meaning is the island of Britain as a whole. The earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor , dating to about 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago. Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during
3360-492: Is damp relatively frequently and is changeable. The coldest months are January and February, the latter particularly on the English coast , while July is normally the warmest month. Months with mild to warm weather are May, June, September and October. Rainfall is spread fairly evenly throughout the year. Important influences on the climate of England are its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean , its northern latitude and
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#17327799301013520-641: Is governed directly by the Parliament of the United Kingdom , although other countries of the United Kingdom have devolved governments. There has been debate about how to counterbalance this in England. Originally it was planned that various regions of England would be devolved, but following the proposal's rejection by the North East in a 2004 referendum , this has not been carried out. In 2024, an England-only intergovernmental body, known as
3680-669: Is high moorland in upland areas, indented by fertile valleys of the region's rivers. They contain two national parks , the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District . In the West Country , Dartmoor and Exmoor of the Southwest Peninsula include upland moorland supported by granite. The English Lowlands are in the central and southern regions of the country, consisting of green rolling hills, including
3840-780: Is known as the lost colony after it was found abandoned on the return of the late-arriving supply ship. With the East India Company , England also competed with the Dutch and French in the East. During the Elizabethan period, England was at war with Spain. An armada sailed from Spain in 1588 as part of a wider plan to invade England and re-establish a Catholic monarchy. The plan was thwarted by bad coordination, stormy weather and successful harrying attacks by an English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham . This failure did not end
4000-623: Is mostly found in the north and west, including Dartmoor , the Lake District , the Pennines , and the Shropshire Hills . The country's capital is London , the metropolitan area of which has a population of 14.2 million as of 2021, representing the United Kingdom's largest metropolitan area. England's population of 56.3 million comprises 84% of the population of the United Kingdom, largely concentrated around London,
4160-613: Is not clear whether this was caused by stress, puberty or a more deep-seated disease. She was not permitted to see her mother, whom Henry had sent to live away from court. In early 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn , and in May Thomas Cranmer , the Archbishop of Canterbury , formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage to Anne valid. Henry repudiated the Pope's authority, declaring himself Supreme Head of
4320-562: Is part of the United Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system . There has not been a government of England since 1707, when the Acts of Union 1707 , putting into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union , joined England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain . Before the union England was ruled by its monarch and the Parliament of England . Today England
4480-472: Is similar to that of other areas in the British Isles with a wide range of vertebrate and invertebrate life in a diverse range of habitats. National nature reserves in England are designated by Natural England as key places for wildlife and natural features in England. They were established to protect the most significant areas of habitat and of geological formations. NNRs are managed on behalf of
4640-519: The 1535–1542 acts . There were internal religious conflicts during the reigns of Henry's daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I . The former took the country back to Catholicism while the latter broke from it again, forcefully asserting the supremacy of Anglicanism . The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor age of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I ("the Virgin Queen"). Historians often depict it as
4800-635: The Act of Succession 1544 (also known as the Third Succession Act), placing them after Edward – though both remained legally illegitimate. Henry VIII died in 1547, and Edward succeeded him. Mary inherited estates in Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex , and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own. Since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout
4960-589: The Acts of Union brought into effect a political union with the Kingdom of Scotland that created the Kingdom of Great Britain . England is the origin of the English language , the English legal system (which served as the basis for the common law systems of many other countries), association football , and the Anglican branch of Christianity; its parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into
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5120-643: The Age of Discovery . Henry VIII broke from communion with the Catholic Church, over issues relating to his divorce, under the Acts of Supremacy in 1534 which proclaimed the monarch head of the Church of England . In contrast with much of European Protestantism , the roots of the split were more political than theological. He also legally incorporated his ancestral land Wales into the Kingdom of England with
5280-583: The Angeln region of what is now the German state of Schleswig-Holstein . The earliest recorded use of the term, as " Engla londe ", is in the late-ninth-century translation into Old English of Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English People . The term was then used to mean "the land inhabited by the English", and it included English people in what is now south-east Scotland but was then part of
5440-590: The Battle of Trafalgar confirmed the naval supremacy Britain had established during the course of the eighteenth century. The Napoleonic Wars fostered a concept of Britishness and a united national British people , shared with the English, Scots and Welsh. London became the largest and most populous metropolitan area in the world during the Victorian era , and trade within the British Empire – as well as
5600-536: The Battle of Watling Street . The author of one study of Roman Britain suggested that from 43 AD to 84 AD, the Roman invaders killed somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 people from a population of perhaps 2,000,000. This era saw a Greco-Roman culture prevail with the introduction of Roman law , Roman architecture , aqueducts , sewers , many agricultural items and silk. In the 3rd century, Emperor Septimius Severus died at Eboracum (now York ), where Constantine
5760-676: The British Isles , but also from the Commonwealth , particularly the Indian subcontinent . Since the 1970s there has been a large move away from manufacturing and an increasing emphasis on the service industry . As part of the United Kingdom, the area joined a common market initiative called the European Economic Community which became the European Union . Since the late 20th century the administration of
5920-565: The Buggery Act 1533 . The felony of buggery , like all other felonies, carried a sentence of capital punishment by hanging , but Udall wrote an impassioned plea to his old friends from Cromwell's household Thomas Wriothesley and Sir Ralph Sadler , then joint king's Secretaries , and his sentence was commuted to just under a year, which he served in the Marshalsea prison. The pupils in question were not prosecuted. A former pupil,
6080-557: The Church of England . Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales (a title she would have held as Arthur's widow), and Mary was deemed illegitimate. She was styled "The Lady Mary" rather than Princess, and her place in the line of succession was transferred to Henry and Anne's newborn daughter, Elizabeth . Mary's household was dissolved; her servants (including the Countess of Salisbury) were dismissed and, in December 1533, she
6240-610: The Cotswold Hills , Chiltern Hills , North and South Downs ; where they meet the sea they form white rock exposures such as the cliffs of Dover . This also includes relatively flat plains such as the Salisbury Plain , Somerset Levels , South Coast Plain and The Fens . England has a temperate maritime climate : it is mild with temperatures not much lower than 0 °C (32 °F) in winter and not much higher than 32 °C (90 °F) in summer. The weather
6400-744: The Court of Appeal , the High Court of Justice for civil cases, and the Crown Court for criminal cases. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the highest court for criminal and civil cases in England and Wales . It was created in 2009 after constitutional changes, taking over the judicial functions of the House of Lords . A decision of the Supreme Court is binding on every other court in
6560-583: The Courts of England and Wales continued, under the Treaty of Union , as a separate legal system from the one used in Scotland . The general essence of English law is that it is made by judges sitting in courts, applying their common sense and knowledge of legal precedent – stare decisis – to the facts before them. The court system is headed by the Senior Courts of England and Wales, consisting of
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6720-736: The French Revolution , under George III and William Pitt the Younger . The regency of George IV is noted for its elegance and achievements in the fine arts and architecture. During the Napoleonic Wars , Napoleon planned to invade from the south-east ; however, this failed to manifest and the Napoleonic forces were defeated by the British: at sea by Horatio Nelson , and on land by Arthur Wellesley . The major victory at
6880-735: The Labour Party , 116 from the Conservative Party , 65 from the Liberal Democrats , five for Reform UK and four for the Green Party of England and Wales . The English law legal system, developed over the centuries, is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States (except Louisiana ). Despite now being part of the United Kingdom, the legal system of
7040-400: The Latin word Anglii is used. The etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars; it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. How and why a term derived from the name of a tribe that was less significant than others, such as the Saxons , came to be used for the entire country is not known, but it seems this is related to
7200-424: The Mayoral Council for England , was established to bring together ministers from the UK Government , the Mayor of London and the leaders of combined authorities . In the House of Commons which is the lower house of the British Parliament based at the Palace of Westminster , there are 543 members of parliament (MPs) for constituencies in England, out of the 650 total. England is represented by 347 MPs from
7360-438: The Ministry of Justice , manages most prisons, housing 81,309 prisoners in England and Wales as of September 2022 . The subdivisions of England consist of up to four levels of subnational division , controlled through a variety of types of administrative entities created for the purposes of local government . Outside the London region, England's highest tier is the 48 ceremonial counties . These are used primarily as
7520-518: The Severn is the longest river flowing through England. It empties into the Bristol Channel and is notable for its Severn Bore (a tidal bore ), which can reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height. However, the longest river entirely in England is the Thames, which is 215 miles (346 km) in length. There are many lakes in England ; the largest is Windermere , within the aptly named Lake District . Most of England's landscape consists of low hills and plains, with upland and mountainous terrain in
7680-416: The South East , and conurbations in the Midlands , the North West , the North East , and Yorkshire , which each developed as major industrial regions during the 19th century. The name "England" is derived from the Old English name Englaland , which means "land of the Angles ". The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages . They came from
7840-479: The State Opening of Parliament by the British monarch when the doors of the House of Commons are slammed in the face of the monarch's messenger, symbolising the rights of Parliament and its independence from the monarch. With the founding of the Royal Society in 1660, science was greatly encouraged. In 1666 the Great Fire of London gutted the city of London, but it was rebuilt shortly afterward with many significant buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren . By
8000-451: The Stuart dynasty England expanded in trade, finance and prosperity. The Royal Navy developed Europe's largest merchant fleet. After the parliaments of England and Scotland agreed, the two countries joined in political union , to create the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. To accommodate the union, institutions such as the law and national churches of each remained separate. Under the newly formed Kingdom of Great Britain, output from
8160-433: The Trinovantes . The Romans invaded Britain in 43 AD during the reign of Emperor Claudius , subsequently conquering much of Britain , and the area was incorporated into the Roman Empire as Britannia province . The best-known of the native tribes who attempted to resist were the Catuvellauni led by Caratacus . Later, an uprising led by Boudica , Queen of the Iceni , ended with Boudica's suicide following her defeat at
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#17327799301018320-419: The Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years. After the last ice age only large mammals such as mammoths , bison and woolly rhinoceros remained. Roughly 11,000 years ago, when the ice sheets began to recede, humans repopulated the area; genetic research suggests they came from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula . The sea level
8480-433: The Upper Paleolithic . It takes its name from the Angles , a Germanic tribe who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had extensive cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery , which began during the 15th century. The Kingdom of England , which included Wales after 1535, ceased to be a separate sovereign state on 1 May 1707, when
8640-470: The canal age in Britain . In 1825 the world's first permanent steam locomotive-hauled passenger railway – the Stockton and Darlington Railway – opened to the public. During the Industrial Revolution , many workers moved from England's countryside to new and expanding urban industrial areas to work in factories, for instance at Birmingham and Manchester , with the latter the world's first industrial city. England maintained relative stability throughout
8800-435: The decline of the Roman Empire , Britain was left exposed by the end of Roman rule in Britain and the withdrawal of Roman army units, to defend the frontiers in continental Europe and partake in civil wars. Celtic Christian monastic and missionary movements flourished. This period of Christianity was influenced by ancient Celtic culture in its sensibilities, polity, practices and theology. Local "congregations" were centred in
8960-434: The golden age in English history that represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of great art, drama, poetry, music and literature. England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government. Competing with Spain , the first English colony in the Americas was founded in 1585 by explorer Walter Raleigh in Virginia and named Roanoke . The Roanoke colony failed and
9120-451: The home counties around London in mid-1528. Throughout Mary's childhood, Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, Mary was promised to Francis, Dauphin of France , the infant son of King Francis I , but the contract was repudiated after three years. In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor . However, Charles broke off
9280-473: The jet engine led to wider air travel . Residential patterns were altered in England by private motoring, and by the creation of the National Health Service in 1948, providing publicly funded health care to all permanent residents free at the point of need. Combined, these prompted the reform of local government in England in the mid-20th century. Since the 20th century, there has been significant population movement to England, mostly from other parts of
9440-426: The 32 London Boroughs and the 25 Wards of the City of London . Geographically, England includes the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus such offshore islands as the Isle of Wight and the Isles of Scilly . It is bordered by two other countries of the United Kingdom: to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. England is closer than any other part of mainland Britain to
9600-516: The 6th century. Contemporary texts describing this period are extremely scarce, giving rise to its description as a Dark Age . Details of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain are consequently subject to considerable disagreement; the emerging consensus is that it occurred on a large scale in the south and east but was less substantial to the north and west, where Celtic languages continued to be spoken even in areas under Anglo-Saxon control. Roman-dominated Christianity had, in general, been replaced in
9760-440: The Catholic faith, opponents of Northumberland, lived there. On 9 July, from Kenninghall , Norfolk, she wrote to the privy council with orders for her proclamation as Edward's successor. On 10 July 1553, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by Northumberland and his supporters, and on the same day Mary's servant, Thomas Hungate , arrived in London with her letter to the council. By 12 July, Mary and her supporters had assembled
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#17327799301019920-433: The Church of England, repudiate papal authority, acknowledge that the marriage between her parents was unlawful, and accept her own illegitimacy. She attempted to reconcile with Henry by submitting to his authority as far as "God and my conscience" permitted, but was eventually bullied into signing a document agreeing to all of Henry's demands. Reconciled with her father, Mary resumed her place at court. Henry granted her
10080-407: The Dudley conspiracy, was betrayed, and the conspirators in England were rounded up. Dudley remained in exile in France, and Noailles prudently left Britain. Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a renewed war against France . Mary was in favour of declaring war, but her councillors opposed it because French trade would be jeopardised, it contravened
10240-406: The Edwardian appointee William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester , as Lord High Treasurer and assigned him to oversee the revenue collection system. A failure to apply new tariffs to new forms of imports meant that a key source of revenue was neglected. To solve this, Mary's government published a revised "Book of Rates" (1558), which listed the tariffs and duties for every import. This publication
10400-452: The Emperor abdicated. Mary and Philip were still apart; he was declared king of Spain in Brussels, but she stayed in England. Philip negotiated an unsteady truce with the French in February 1556. The next month, the French ambassador in England, Antoine de Noailles, was implicated in a plot against Mary when Henry Dudley , a second cousin of the executed Duke of Northumberland, attempted to assemble an invasion force in France. The plot, known as
10560-448: The English kingdom of Northumbria . The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded that the Domesday Book of 1086 covered the whole of England, meaning the English kingdom, but a few years later the Chronicle stated that King Malcolm III went "out of Scotlande into Lothian in Englaland", thus using it in the more ancient sense. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus , Germania , in which
10720-502: The Eucharist and Thomas Gemini's Anatomia . His most famous work, the play Ralph Roister Doister , was probably presented to Queen Mary as an entertainment around 1553, but not published until 1566. With John Leland , he wrote a number of songs to celebrate the coronation of Anne Boleyn on 31 May 1533, using his Latinized name "Udallus". Likewise, he is the author of a Latin textbook, Flowers for Latin Speaking (1533), which utilizes material from his comedy as well as works by
10880-416: The European continent. It is separated from France ( Hauts-de-France ) by a 21-mile (34 km) sea gap, though the two countries are connected by the Channel Tunnel near Folkestone . England also has shores on the Irish Sea , North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. The ports of London, Liverpool , and Newcastle lie on the tidal rivers Thames , Mersey and Tyne respectively. At 220 miles (350 km),
11040-574: The French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles . Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen receded. Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to "end in wind rather than anything else". It was most likely a false pregnancy , perhaps induced by Mary's overwhelming desire to have a child. In August, soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, which Mary considered "God's punishment" for her having "tolerated heretics" in her realm, Philip left England to command his armies against France in Flanders . Mary
11200-403: The Great was left as the only surviving English kingdom, and under his successors, it steadily expanded at the expense of the kingdoms of the Danelaw . This brought about the political unification of England, first accomplished under Æthelstan in 927 and definitively established after further conflicts by Eadred in 953. A fresh wave of Scandinavian attacks from the late 10th century ended with
11360-400: The Habsburgs. The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear that with the restoration of Catholicism and the arrival of the Spanish King, the Inquisition would come to judge Protestant heretics. Many English people knew the stories of the torments and cruelties suffered by the prisoners of
11520-587: The Inquisition, and there were even those “who had suffered from the rack of the inquisitors” themselves. It was not just the English who were alarmed by the pending marriage of Mary and Philip. France feared an alliance between England and Spain. Antoine de Noailles , the French ambassador to England, "threatened war and began immediate intrigues with any malcontents he could find". Before Christmas in 1553, anti-Spanish ballads and broadsheets were circulating in
11680-574: The Marches . She was given her own court based at Ludlow Castle and many of the royal prerogatives normally reserved for a Prince of Wales . Vives and others called her the Princess of Wales , although she was never technically invested with the title. She appears to have spent three years in the Welsh Marches , making regular visits to her father's court, before returning permanently to
11840-519: The North of England, including Lord Hussey, Mary's former chamberlain, campaigned against Henry's religious reforms, and one of their demands was that Mary be made legitimate. The rebellion, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace , was ruthlessly suppressed. Along with other rebels, Hussey was executed, but there is no suggestion that Mary was directly involved. In 1537, Queen Jane died after giving birth to
12000-550: The North, and the successful Norman Conquest in October 1066, accomplished by an army led by Duke William of Normandy invading at Hastings late September 1066. The Normans themselves originated from Scandinavia and had settled in Normandy in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. This conquest led to the almost total dispossession of the English elite and its replacement by a new French-speaking aristocracy, whose speech had
12160-584: The Papacy became strained, since Pope Paul IV was allied with Henry II of France . In August, English forces were victorious in the aftermath of the Battle of Saint Quentin , with one eyewitness reporting, "Both sides fought most choicely, and the English best of all." Celebrations were brief, as in January 1558 French forces took Calais , England's sole remaining possession on the European mainland. Although
12320-631: The Pope. During the 14th century, the Plantagenets and the House of Valois claimed to be legitimate claimants to the House of Capet and of France; the two powers clashed in the Hundred Years' War . The Black Death epidemic hit England ; starting in 1348, it eventually killed up to half of England's inhabitants . Between 1453 and 1487, a civil war known as the War of the Roses waged between
12480-403: The Queen remained childless, her half-sister Elizabeth was her successor. Mary, concerned about her sister's religious convictions (Elizabeth only attended mass under obligation and had only superficially converted to Catholicism to save her life after being imprisoned following Wyatt's rebellion, although she remained a staunch Protestant), seriously considering the possibility of removing her from
12640-746: The Queen should not marry a foreigner, since that could lead to the interference of a foreign power in English affairs. On 16 November 1553, a parliamentary delegation went to her and formally requested that she choose an English husband, with its obvious although tacit candidates being her kinsmen Edward Courtenay , recently created Earl of Devon, and the Catholic Cardinal Reginald Pole . But Mary's first cousin, Charles V , also king of Spain, saw that an alliance with England would give him supremacy in Europe; he sent his minister to England to propose his only legitimate son, Philip , as
12800-537: The Robes . On 1 October 1553, Gardiner crowned Mary at Westminster Abbey . Now aged 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next in line under the terms of Henry VIII's will and the Act of Succession of 1544 ) from succeeding to the throne. While the English expected her to marry, there was a general consensus that
12960-645: The Roman poet Terence . Udall wrote a propaganda tract in response to the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, An Answer to the Articles of the Commoners of Devonshire and Cornwall Declaring to the Same How they have been Seduced by Evil Persons . This tract has sometimes been wrongly attributed to Philip Nichols . It has been argued that Udall is the author of the interlude Respublica , which
13120-1015: The Royal Society and other English initiatives combined with the Scottish Enlightenment to create innovations in science and engineering, while the enormous growth in British overseas trade protected by the Royal Navy paved the way for the establishment of the British Empire . Domestically it drove the Industrial Revolution , a period of profound change in the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of England, resulting in industrialised agriculture, manufacture, engineering and mining, as well as new and pioneering road, rail and water networks to facilitate their expansion and development. The opening of Northwest England's Bridgewater Canal in 1761 ushered in
13280-570: The Tower rather than immediately executed, while Lady Jane's father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk , was released. Mary was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put Lady Jane on the throne. She appointed Gardiner to the council and made him both Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor , offices he held until his death in November 1555. Susan Clarencieux became Mistress of
13440-432: The United Kingdom has moved towards devolved governance in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England and Wales continues to exist as a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. Devolution has stimulated a greater emphasis on a more English-specific identity and patriotism. There is no devolved English government, but an attempt to create a similar system on a sub-regional basis was rejected by referendum . England
13600-607: The United Kingdom as part of the Allies . Two decades later, in World War II , the United Kingdom was again one of the Allies . Developments in warfare technology saw many cities damaged by air-raids during the Blitz . Following the war, the British Empire experienced rapid decolonisation , and there was a speeding-up of technological innovations; automobiles became the primary means of transport and Frank Whittle 's development of
13760-411: The age of 15, Edward VI died of a lung infection, possibly tuberculosis . He did not want the crown to go to Mary because he feared she would restore Catholicism and undo his and their father's reforms, and so he planned to exclude her from the line of succession. His advisers told him that he could not disinherit only one of his half-sisters: he would have to disinherit Elizabeth as well, even though she
13920-543: The age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Mary's and Edward's Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey , as queen instead. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who
14080-577: The area, the Beaker culture people made bronze , and later iron from iron ores. The development of iron smelting allowed the construction of better ploughs , advancing agriculture (for instance, with Celtic fields ), as well as the production of more effective weapons. During the Iron Age , Celtic culture , deriving from the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures , arrived from Central Europe. Brythonic
14240-767: The auspices of James VI and I the Authorised King James Version of the Holy Bible was published in 1611. It was the standard version of the Bible read by most Protestant Christians for four hundred years until modern revisions were produced in the 20th century. Based on conflicting political, religious and social positions, the English Civil War was fought between the supporters of Parliament and those of King Charles I , known colloquially as Roundheads and Cavaliers respectively. This
14400-406: The break with Rome her father instituted and the establishment of Protestantism by her brother's regents. Philip persuaded Parliament to repeal Henry's religious laws , returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction. Reaching an agreement took many months and Mary and Pope Julius III had to make a major concession: the confiscated monastery lands were not returned to the church but remained in
14560-546: The brief, disputed reigns of the Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey—England's first queen regnant . Further, under the English common law doctrine of jure uxoris , the property and titles belonging to a woman became her husband's upon marriage, and it was feared that any man she married would thereby become king of England in fact and name. While Mary's grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella had retained sovereignty of their respective realms during their marriage, there
14720-531: The conquered territories by Anglo-Saxon paganism , but was reintroduced by missionaries from Rome led by Augustine from 597. Disputes between the Roman- and Celtic-dominated forms of Christianity ended in victory for the Roman tradition at the Council of Whitby (664), which was ostensibly about tonsures (clerical haircuts) and the date of Easter, but more significantly, about the differences in Roman and Celtic forms of authority, theology, and practice. During
14880-541: The conquest of this united kingdom by Sweyn Forkbeard in 1013 and again by his son Cnut in 1016, turning it into the centre of a short-lived North Sea Empire that also included Denmark and Norway . However, the native royal dynasty was restored with the accession of Edward the Confessor in 1042. A dispute over the succession to Edward led to an unsuccessful Norwegian Invasion in September 1066 close to York in
15040-624: The country. For example, the Act of Uniformity 1549 prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer . Mary remained faithful to Roman Catholicism and defiantly celebrated traditional Mass in her own chapel. She appealed to her cousin Emperor Charles V to apply diplomatic pressure demanding that she be allowed to practise her religion. For most of Edward's reign, Mary remained on her own estates and rarely attended court. A plan between May and July 1550 to smuggle her out of England to
15200-454: The course of the fifth and sixth centuries, initially in the eastern part of the country. Their advance was contained for some decades after the Britons' victory at the Battle of Mount Badon , but subsequently resumed, overrunning the fertile lowlands of Britain and reducing the area under Brittonic control to a series of separate enclaves in the more rugged country to the west by the end of
15360-883: The custom of calling the Germanic people in Britain Angli Saxones or English Saxons to distinguish them from continental Saxons (Eald-Seaxe) of Old Saxony in Germany. In Scottish Gaelic , the Saxon tribe gave their name to the word for England ( Sasunn ); similarly, the Welsh name for the English language is Saesneg . A romantic name for England is Loegria , related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr , and made popular by its use in Arthurian legend . Albion
15520-637: The early 2010s England was divided for a few purposes into regions; a 1998 referendum for the London Region created the London Assembly two years later. A failed 2004 North East England devolution referendum cancelled further regional assembly devolution with the regional structure outside London abolished. Ceremonially and administratively, the region is divided between the City of London and Greater London ; these are further divided into
15680-464: The education of girls. By the age of nine, Mary could read and write Latin. She studied French, Spanish, music, dance, and perhaps Greek. Henry VIII doted on his daughter and boasted to the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustinian that Mary never cried. Mary had a fair complexion with pale blue eyes and red or reddish-golden hair, traits very similar to those of her parents. She was ruddy-cheeked,
15840-527: The end of September 1553, leading Protestant churchmen—including Thomas Cranmer , John Bradford , John Rogers , John Hooper , and Hugh Latimer —were imprisoned. Mary's first Parliament, which assembled in early October, declared her parents' marriage valid and abolished Edward's religious laws . Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles of Henry VIII, which (among other things) reaffirmed clerical celibacy. Married priests were deprived of their benefices . Mary rejected
16000-433: The engagement within a few years with Henry's agreement. Cardinal Wolsey , Henry's chief adviser, then resumed marriage negotiations with the French, and Henry suggested that Mary marry the French king Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either Francis I or his second son Henry, Duke of Orléans , but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without
16160-419: The execution of Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard , the unmarried Henry invited Mary to attend the royal Christmas festivities. At court, while her father was between marriages and thus without a consort, Mary acted as hostess. In 1543, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr , who was able to bring the family closer together. Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession through
16320-464: The foreign war provisions of the marriage treaty, and a bad economic legacy from Edward VI's reign and a series of poor harvests meant England lacked supplies and finances. War was only declared in June 1557 after Reginald Pole's nephew Thomas Stafford invaded England and seized Scarborough Castle with French help, in a failed attempt to depose Mary. As a result of the war, relations between England and
16480-616: The hands of their influential new owners. By the end of 1554, the Pope had approved the deal, and the Heresy Acts were revived . Around 800 rich Protestants, including John Foxe , fled into exile . Those who stayed and persisted in publicly proclaiming their beliefs became targets of heresy laws. The first executions occurred over five days in February 1555: John Rogers on 4 February, Laurence Saunders on 8 February, and Rowland Taylor and John Hooper on 9 February. Thomas Cranmer,
16640-538: The hierarchy, which must follow its directions. The Secretary of State for Justice is the minister responsible to Parliament for the judiciary , the court system and prisons and probation in England. Crime increased between 1981 and 1995 but fell by 42% in the period 1995–2006. The prison population doubled over the same period, giving it one of the highest incarceration rates in Western Europe at 147 per 100,000. His Majesty's Prison Service , reporting to
16800-697: The imprisoned archbishop of Canterbury, was forced to watch Bishops Ridley and Latimer being burned at the stake. He recanted, repudiated Protestant theology, and rejoined the Catholic faith. Under the normal process of the law, he should have been absolved as a repentant, but Mary refused to reprieve him. On the day of his burning, he dramatically withdrew his recantation. In total, 283 were executed, most by burning. The burnings proved so unpopular that even Alfonso de Castro , one of Philip's own ecclesiastical staff, condemned them and another adviser, Simon Renard , warned him that such "cruel enforcement" could "cause
16960-594: The marriage was not to the kingdom's advantage, she would refrain from pursuing it. On reaching London, Wyatt was defeated and captured. Wyatt, the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane, and her husband Guildford Dudley were executed. Courtenay, who was implicated in the plot, was imprisoned and then exiled. Elizabeth, though protesting her innocence in the Wyatt affair, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, then put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace . Mary was—excluding
17120-609: The marriage. In 1528, Wolsey's agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of her marriage to her cousin James V of Scotland with the Scottish diplomat Adam Otterburn . According to the Venetian Mario Savorgnano, by this time Mary was developing into a pretty, well-proportioned young lady with a fine complexion. Although various possibilities for Mary's marriage had been considered, the marriage of Mary's parents
17280-453: The metropolitan counties have different types of status to other ceremonial counties. The second tier is made up of combined authorities and the 27 county-tier shire counties . In 1974, all ceremonial counties were two-tier; and with the metropolitan county tier phased out, the 1996 reform separated the ceremonial county and the administrative county tier. England is also divided into local government districts. The district can align to
17440-707: The mid-to-late 17th century, two political factions had emerged – the Tories and Whigs . Though the Tories initially supported Catholic king James II , some of them, along with the Whigs, during the Revolution of 1688 invited the Dutch Prince William of Orange to defeat James and become the king. Some English people, especially in the north, were Jacobites and continued to support James and his sons. Under
17600-569: The monastic community and monastic leaders were more like chieftains, as peers, rather than in the more hierarchical system of the Roman-dominated church. Roman military withdrawals left Britain open to invasion by pagan, seafaring warriors from north-western continental Europe, chiefly the Saxons, Angles , Jutes and Frisians who had long raided the coasts of the Roman province. These groups then began to settle in increasing numbers over
17760-611: The nation, many by Natural England themselves, but also by non-governmental organisations, including the members of The Wildlife Trusts partnership, the National Trust , and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds . There are 221 NNRs in England covering 110,000 hectares (1,100 square kilometres). Often they contain rare species or nationally important populations of plants and animals. . The Environment Agency
17920-421: The new queen; however, if her sister gave birth to a healthy baby, Elizabeth's chances of becoming queen would recede sharply. Thanksgiving services in the diocese of London were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe. Through May and June, the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant. Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to
18080-613: The north and west of the country. The northern uplands include the Pennines , a chain of uplands dividing east and west, the Lake District mountains in Cumbria, and the Cheviot Hills , straddling the border between England and Scotland. The highest point in England, at 978 metres (3,209 ft), is Scafell Pike in the Lake District. The Shropshire Hills are near Wales while Dartmoor and Exmoor are two upland areas in
18240-543: The poet Thomas Tusser , later claimed that Udall had flogged him without cause. An adherent of the Reformed Church of England , Udall flourished under Edward VI and survived into the reign of the Roman Catholic Mary I . In 1547, he became Vicar of Braintree , in 1551 of Calborne , Isle of Wight , and in 1554 returned to teaching as headmaster of Westminster School . Udall died in 1556 and
18400-443: The resurrection"). John White , Bishop of Winchester, praised Mary at her funeral service: "She was a king's daughter; she was a king's sister; she was a king's wife. She was a queen, and by the same title a king also." She was the first woman to successfully claim the throne of England, despite competing claims and determined opposition, and enjoyed popular support and sympathy during the earliest parts of her reign, especially from
18560-515: The safety of the European mainland came to nothing. Religious differences between Mary and Edward continued. Mary attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas 1550, where the 13-year-old Edward embarrassed Mary, then 34, and reduced both her and himself to tears in front of the court, by publicly reproving her for ignoring his laws regarding worship. Mary repeatedly refused Edward's demands that she abandon Catholicism, and Edward persistently refused to drop his demands. On 6 July 1553, at
18720-450: The settlement period the lands ruled by the incomers seem to have been fragmented into numerous tribal territories, but by the 7th century, when substantial evidence of the situation again becomes available, these had coalesced into roughly a dozen kingdoms including Northumbria , Mercia , Wessex , East Anglia , Essex , Kent and Sussex . Over the following centuries, this process of political consolidation continued. The 7th century saw
18880-477: The signing of Magna Carta , an English legal charter used to limit the sovereign's powers by law and protect the privileges of freemen. Catholic monasticism flourished, providing philosophers, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded with royal patronage. The Principality of Wales became a Plantagenet fief during the 13th century and the Lordship of Ireland was given to the English monarchy by
19040-636: The south-west of the country. The approximate dividing line between terrain types is often indicated by the Tees–Exe line . The Pennines, known as the "backbone of England", are the oldest range of mountains in the country, originating from the end of the Paleozoic Era around 300 million years ago. Their geological composition includes, among others, sandstone and limestone , and also coal. There are karst landscapes in calcite areas such as parts of Yorkshire and Derbyshire . The Pennine landscape
19200-531: The stake in the Marian persecutions . Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon . She was declared illegitimate and barred from the line of succession following the annulment of her parents' marriage in 1533, though she would later be restored via the Third Succession Act 1543 . Her younger half-brother, Edward VI , succeeded their father in 1547 at
19360-547: The standing of the British military and navy – was prestigious. Technologically, this era saw many innovations that proved key to the United Kingdom's power and prosperity. Political agitation at home from radicals such as the Chartists and the suffragettes enabled legislative reform and universal suffrage . Power shifts in east-central Europe led to World War I; hundreds of thousands of English soldiers died fighting for
19520-416: The streets of London. When Mary insisted on marrying Philip, insurrections broke out. Thomas Wyatt the Younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt's rebellion , which also involved the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane's father. Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage and if Parliament decided that
19680-639: The succession and naming as her successor her Scottish first cousin and devout Catholic, Margaret Douglas . Furthering the Tudor conquest of Ireland , English colonists were settled in the Irish Midlands under Mary and Philip's reign. Queen's and King's Counties (later called Counties Laois and Offaly) were founded, and their plantation began. Their principal towns were named, respectively, Maryborough (later called Portlaoise ) and Philipstown (later Daingean ). In January 1556, Mary's father-in-law
19840-401: The territory was financially burdensome, its loss was a mortifying blow to the Queen's prestige. According to Holinshed's Chronicles , Mary later lamented (although this may be apocryphal), "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying in my heart". The weather during the years of Mary's reign was consistently wet. The persistent rain and flooding led to famine. Another problem
20000-491: The threat: Spain launched two further armadas, in 1596 and 1597 , but both were driven back by storms. The political structure of the island changed in 1603, when the King of Scots , James VI , a kingdom which had been a long-time rival to English interests, inherited the throne of England as James I, thereby creating a personal union . He styled himself King of Great Britain , although this had no basis in English law. Under
20160-584: The throne of England but also heir to the Spanish Empire in the event that Philip's eldest son, Don Carlos, died without issue. To elevate his son to Mary's rank, Emperor Charles V ceded to Philip the crown of Naples as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem . Mary thus became queen of Naples and titular queen of Jerusalem upon marriage. Their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting. Philip could not speak English, and so they spoke
20320-752: The two branches of the royal family, the Yorkists and Lancastrians . Eventually it led to the Yorkists losing the throne entirely to a Welsh noble family the Tudors , a branch of the Lancastrians headed by Henry Tudor who invaded with Welsh and Breton mercenaries, gaining victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field where the Yorkist king Richard III was killed. During the Tudor period , England began to develop naval skills , and exploration intensified in
20480-499: The unlikely charges against him was that he had plotted to marry Mary himself. Anne consented to the annulment of the marriage, which had not been consummated, and Cromwell was beheaded. In 1541, Henry had the Countess of Salisbury, Mary's old governess and godmother, executed on the pretext of a Catholic plot in which her son Reginald Pole was implicated. Her executioner was "a wretched and blundering youth" who "literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces". In 1542, following
20640-428: The warming of the sea by the Gulf Stream . Rainfall is higher in the west, and parts of the Lake District receive more rain than anywhere else in the country. Since weather records began, the highest temperature recorded was 40.3 °C (104.5 °F) on 19 July 2022 at Coningsby , Lincolnshire , while the lowest was −26.1 °C (−15.0 °F) on 10 January 1982 in Edgmond , Shropshire. The fauna of England
20800-429: The west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 census , the population was 56,490,048. London is both the largest city and the capital . The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during
20960-425: The world's first industrialised nation. England is home to the two oldest universities in the English-speaking world: the University of Oxford , founded in 1096, and the University of Cambridge , founded in 1209. Both universities are ranked among the most prestigious in the world. England's terrain chiefly consists of low hills and plains , especially in the centre and south . Upland and mountainous terrain
21120-508: Was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation , which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII . Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament , but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at
21280-475: Was Frances Brandon, Mary's cousin and goddaughter. Just before Edward's death, Mary was summoned to London to visit her dying brother, but was warned that the summons was a pretext on which to capture her and thereby facilitate Jane's accession to the throne. Therefore, instead of heading to London from her residence at Hunsdon, Mary fled to East Anglia , where she owned extensive estates and Northumberland had ruthlessly put down Kett's Rebellion . Many adherents to
21440-418: Was a Protestant. Guided by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland , and perhaps others, Edward excluded both from the line of succession in his will. Contradicting the Act of Succession 1544 , which restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, Edward named Northumberland's daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey , the granddaughter of Henry VIII's younger sister Mary , as his successor. Lady Jane's mother
21600-399: Was a precocious child. In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained a visiting French delegation with a performance on the virginals (a type of harpsichord ). A great part of her early education came from her mother, who consulted the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives for advice and commissioned him to write De Institutione Feminae Christianae , a treatise on
21760-415: Was acted before Queen Mary in 1553. In Ford Madox Ford 's trilogy of historical novels, The Fifth Queen , the character Magister Nicholas Udal is a decidedly heterosexual profligate, who serves as Latin tutor to Mary I of England and Henry VIII 's "fifth queen," Catherine Howard . He defends himself of charges that he was "thrown out of his mastership at Eton for his foul living" by claiming that he,
21920-453: Was an interwoven part of the wider multifaceted Wars of the Three Kingdoms , involving Scotland and Ireland . The Parliamentarians were victorious, Charles I was executed and the kingdom replaced by the Commonwealth . Leader of the Parliament forces, Oliver Cromwell declared himself Lord Protector in 1653; a period of personal rule followed. After Cromwell's death and the resignation of his son Richard as Lord Protector, Charles II
22080-445: Was betrothed to Francis, Dauphin of France . Philip persuaded his wife that Elizabeth should marry his cousin Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy , to secure the Catholic succession and preserve the Habsburg interest in England, but Elizabeth refused to agree and parliamentary consent was unlikely. In the month following her accession, Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion, but by
22240-705: Was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England . She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon , to survive infancy. Before Mary, her mother had three miscarriages and stillbirths and one short-lived son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall . Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth. Her godparents included Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey ; her great-aunt Catherine, Countess of Devon ; and Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk . Henry VIII's first cousin once removed, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury , stood sponsor for Mary's confirmation , which
22400-453: Was born, and Mary was forced to accept that her half-sister Elizabeth would be her lawful successor. Mary was weak and ill from May 1558. In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer , she died on 17 November 1558, aged 42, at St James's Palace , during an influenza epidemic that also claimed Archbishop Pole's life later that day. She was succeeded by Elizabeth. Philip, who was in Brussels, wrote to his sister Joanna : "I felt
22560-428: Was buried in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster . No monumental inscription can now be traced. Udall translated part of the Apophthegms by Erasmus , and translated in part and oversaw the English version of the Paraphrases of Erasmus , published in 1548 as The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente . Other works he translated were Pietro Martire 's Discourse on
22720-421: Was conducted immediately after the baptism. The following year, Mary became a godmother herself when she was named as one of the sponsors of her cousin Frances Brandon . In 1520, the Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary's governess . Sir John Hussey (later Lord Hussey) was her chamberlain from 1530, and his wife Lady Anne, daughter of George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent , was one of Mary's attendants. Mary
22880-401: Was established with the Bill of Rights in 1689. Among the statutes set down were that the law could only be made by Parliament and could not be suspended by the King, also that the King could not impose taxes or raise an army without the prior approval of Parliament. Also since that time, no British monarch has entered the House of Commons when it is sitting, which is annually commemorated at
23040-422: Was eventually beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda —the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, she married Prince Philip of Spain , becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556. After Mary's death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in England was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I . Mary
23200-426: Was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression. Michieli was touched by the Queen's grief; he wrote she was "extraordinarily in love" with her husband and disconsolate at his departure. Elizabeth remained at court until October, apparently restored to favour. In the absence of any children, Philip was concerned that one of the next claimants to the English throne after his sister-in-law was Mary, Queen of Scots , who
23360-399: Was invited to return as monarch in 1660, in a move called the Restoration . With the reopening of theatres, fine arts, literature and performing arts flourished throughout the Restoration of the "Merry Monarch" Charles II. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, it was constitutionally established that King and Parliament should rule together, though Parliament would have the real power. This
23520-447: Was itself in jeopardy, which threatened her status. Disappointed at the lack of a male heir, and eager to remarry, Henry attempted to have his marriage to Catherine annulled , but Pope Clement VII refused his request. Henry claimed, citing biblical passages ( Leviticus 20:21), that the marriage was unclean because Catherine was the widow of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (Mary's uncle). Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur
23680-572: Was lower than the present day and Britain was connected by land bridge to Ireland and Eurasia . As the seas rose, it was separated from Ireland 10,000 years ago and from Eurasia two millennia later. The Beaker culture arrived around 2,500 BC, introducing drinking and food vessels constructed from clay, as well as vessels used as reduction pots to smelt copper ores. It was during this time that major Neolithic monuments such as Stonehenge (phase III) and Avebury were constructed. By heating together tin and copper, which were in abundance in
23840-404: Was never consummated and so was not a valid marriage. Pope Julius II had issued a dispensation on that basis. Clement VII may have been reluctant to act because he was influenced by Charles V, Catherine's nephew and Mary's former betrothed, whose troops had sacked Rome in the War of the League of Cognac . From 1531, Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression, although it
24000-517: Was no precedent to follow in England. Under the terms of Queen Mary's Marriage Act , Philip was to be styled "King of England", all official documents (including Acts of Parliament ) were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple, for Mary's lifetime only. England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip's father in any war, and Philip could not act without his wife's consent or appoint foreigners to office in England. Philip
24160-415: Was not extensively reviewed until 1604. English coinage was debased under both Henry VIII and Edward VI . Mary drafted plans for currency reform but they were not implemented until after her death. After Philip's visit in 1557, Mary again thought she was pregnant, with a baby due in March 1558. She decreed in her will that her husband would be the regent during the minority of their child. But no child
24320-543: Was refused permission to visit Catherine. When Catherine died in 1536, Mary was "inconsolable". Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral , while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. In 1536, Queen Anne fell from the King's favour and was beheaded. Elizabeth, like Mary, was declared illegitimate and stripped of her succession rights . Within two weeks of Anne's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour , who urged her husband to make peace with Mary. Henry insisted that Mary recognise him as head of
24480-460: Was released from house arrest, and called to court as a witness to the birth, which was expected imminently. According to Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian ambassador, Philip may have planned to marry Elizabeth if Mary died, but in a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian of Austria , Philip expressed uncertainty as to whether Mary was pregnant. Mary's pregnancy had its pros and cons for Elizabeth: if Mary died during childbirth, Elizabeth would become
24640-626: Was sent to join her infant half-sister's household at Hatfield Palace , Hertfordshire. Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess, enraging King Henry. Under strain and with her movements restricted, Mary was frequently ill, which the royal physician attributed to her "ill treatment". The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser, and interceded, unsuccessfully, on her behalf at court. The relationship between Mary and her father worsened; they did not speak to each other for three years. Although both she and her mother were ill, Mary
24800-568: Was subsequently proclaimed emperor a century later. There is debate about when Christianity was first introduced; it was no later than the 4th century, probably much earlier. According to Bede , missionaries were sent from Rome by Eleutherius at the request of the chieftain Lucius of Britain in 180 AD, to settle differences as to Eastern and Western ceremonials, which were disturbing the church. There are traditions linked to Glastonbury claiming an introduction through Joseph of Arimathea , while others claim through Lucius of Britain. By 410, during
24960-480: Was the decline of the Antwerp cloth trade. Despite Mary's marriage to Philip, England did not benefit from Spain's enormously lucrative trade with the New World . The Spanish guarded their trade routes jealously, and Mary could not condone English smuggling or piracy against her husband's subjects. In an attempt to increase trade and rescue the English economy, Mary's counsellors continued Northumberland's policy of seeking out new commercial opportunities. She granted
25120-402: Was the same age, came to nothing, but a match between Henry and the Duke's sister Anne was agreed. When the King saw Anne for the first time in late December 1539, a week before the scheduled wedding, he found her unattractive but was unable, for diplomatic reasons and without a suitable pretext, to cancel the marriage. Cromwell fell from favour and was arrested for treason in June 1540; one of
25280-401: Was the spoken language during this time. Society was tribal; according to Ptolemy 's Geographia there were around 20 tribes in the area. Like other regions on the edge of the Empire, Britain had long enjoyed trading links with the Romans. Julius Caesar of the Roman Republic attempted to invade twice in 55 BC; although largely unsuccessful, he managed to set up a client king from
25440-513: Was to order the release of the Roman Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk , and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London, as well as her kinsman Edward Courtenay . Mary understood that the young Lady Jane was essentially a pawn in Northumberland's scheme, and Northumberland was the only conspirator of rank executed for high treason in the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup. Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley , though found guilty, were kept under guard in
25600-471: Was unhappy with these conditions but ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage. He had no amorous feelings for Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains; his aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels , "the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries ." A future child of Mary and Philip would be not only heir to
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