This was a period of great upheaval and saw power and wealth removed from the church during The Reformation. The Dissolution of the Monastaries gave the state control over some of the great English religious houses and their lands, lands which brought wealth to a new class of gentry.

The short rule of the boy-king Edward VI ended with his guardian, the Duke of Northumberland, trying to replace the dying monarch with Lady Jane Grey. This failed and the Catholic Queen Mary I took control of the throne. Mary was deeply unpopular and tried to reimpose Catholicism on the country burning some 274 protestants on the way.

After Mary's death, Elizabeth I, brought a long period of stability to the country. She established the Church of England and a policy of tolerance between Catholics and Protestants. It was during Elizabeth's reign that the Spanish Armada was defeated by Sir Francis Drake in 1588.

The Stuarts and the English Civil War

Elizabeth had no heir and so the Stuart King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England. In 1605 he survived the famous Gun Powder plot when conspirators led my Guy Fawkes attempted to blow him up in Parliament.

The English Civil War started in 1642 as a result of conflict between Charles I and Parliament. The royalist armies were destroyed at the Battle of Naesby in 1645 and after a brief resumption in hostilities Charles I was executed in 1649 at Whitehall Gate in London. The Parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell, then abolished the monarchy and ruled as Lord Protector until 1660 when Charles II returned to London.

In 1665 Britain suffered the Great Plague and the following year much of the timbered City of London was destroyed in the Great Fire of London.

The close of the 17th century saw the Catholic King James II replaced by the Dutch protestant William of Orange who became William III in 1689. The start of the 18th century witnessed the Act of Union in 1707 which united Scotland with England and Wales to form Great Britain.

Industrial Revolution and the Modern Era

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Britain moved from an agrarian society to one of large scale industrial production. This was possible due to rapid advances in technology and mechanisation that replaced traditional cottage industries. Cities expanded quickly as the countryside was emptied and this led to widespread social deprivation and crime in urban areas.

The Act of Union in 1801 created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with London as capital. The new working classes formed guilds and unions and in 1832 the Reform Bill gave the vote to the largely male middle classes. The Peoples Charter of 1838 attempted to address the imbalance of the Reform Bill towards the working class and helped prevent the revolutions of mainland Europe spreading to Britain.

The Anglo Irish treaty of 1921 established the Irish Free State and the UK became Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Although Britain was part of the allied victory in the second world war the effort had economically drained the country and its power waned in the years that followed. In 1999 political devolution meant that Wales and Scotland gained their own Parliaments with England retaining its hold on overall British political power.