The Pope's no to The People's yes: The tide of British History. (1).

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                                             Henry VIII.- Hampton Court?
                                             No, it's just his new codpiece.

     In its history, Britain (largely England for this period) has been invaded by Romans and Normans, and bossed about by Angles, Saxons and Danes. It has been riven by religious strife and convulsed by civil war and revolution. So how did this "miserable little island off the coast of France" as Frank Zappa called it, manage to develop, by the 19th Century, into the greatest power in the world?
     One of the most important factors in tracing the development of British power is the English Reformation. This action would provide the broad root that would twist, turn and ultimately support the growth of the English oak over the next 100 years. For the step away from traditional thought freed up new information and new ideas,  and  growth is impossible without these things. 
     In 1527, Henry VIII asked Pope Clement VII to annul his own marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. The King was desperate for a male heir and wished for a new wife to provide that heir (ironic, considering how well his daughter Elizabeth would do as Queen.) The Pope's subsequent refusal led to Henry withdrawing The Church of England from the authority of Rome.
     The context of the times was the Renaissance, when there was an influx of ancient Greek ideas and scholars to Europe. Information, like type and people, had become much more movable, and following inevitably behind new information were new ideas:

                                                        
         
       The English Reformation would turn out to be one of Henry's most important children. With the Pope no longer able to influence England, the country had gained a powerful and important independence, it now had the freedom to explore many new avenues.
    So it was, with the death of Henry, England, in its wisdom, crowned his 9 year old son as Edward VII.   
     During young Edward's six-year reign Protestantism was firmly established as the ruling creed. Until a few years later when Bloody Mary, happily burning Protestants at the stake,  re-established  Roman Catholicism as the correct and Holy ideas to live by.
     All of that would, in turn, be reversed when Mary's half-sister became Elizabeth I in 1558.
     After this swaying back and forth between the religious poles, Elizabeth's reign would provide a fortunate period of stability that allowed more growth.
     The maelstrom of swirling thought created by the previous monarchs produced  waves in the culture great enough to support the rise of English drama. The great writers of the time naturally produced works that addressed recent history, and Shakespeare in particular developed stories and characters that spoke to, and of, the swirling information and ideas of the times:
 
              
                 "O Wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here.
                         How beauteous mankind is!
                              O Brave new world that has such people in't!"

        Independent of Rome, the beauteous English would use their new freedom to attack the other great powers and their allies and holdings. For people from Plymouth to Newcastle, the famous sailor Sir Francis Drake would be a national hero. In Spain he was simply described as: "a pirate." International affairs remain broadly similar today.

       

    After Elizabeth came James I, whose patronage of the world of letters would produce the most famous translation of Christian scripture: The King James Bible.
    The information contained within the most important book in the country was becoming freely available to all who could read. Naturally enough, this new bay of information combined with all the religious earthquakes of the preceding decades to produce a tsunami powerful enough to wash across the land, leaving strange new sects and never-before seen cults wriggling in its wake.
     Those referred to as Puritans would flourish in this fertile ground of early 17th century England as bishops, ministers and lay-people all argued over the correct interpretation of God's word. This tide of un-orthodox thought would eventually rise high enough to engulf the Crown itself;  Charles I would reign in a land which had moved on from asking: Do we need a Pope? to: Do we need a King?
     Charles didn't help his own cause by exclaiming: "Kings are not bound to give an account of their actions but to God alone." On an island now set in surging seas of increased communication, James' refusal to explain himself set him firmly against the tide of history.

     The English Revolution of 1640-1660 saw the execution of Charles I and  Oliver Cromwell take power. His governance of the country would be essentially fascistic with his belief that, guided by God, he should oversee a land where: "A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman, the distinction of these: that is a good interest of the nation, and a great one." Domestic affairs remain broadly similar today.
      Fascists are fundamentally anti-communication, and Cromwell ordered the closure of all the theatres to ensure that no naughty and satanic ideas could fester on the open stage. Laws such as this, as well as those preventing the celebration of Christmas and the playing of football on a Sunday would, in fact, quite naturally only ensure that the country would eventually tire of Cromwell's reign. The nation would sway back again towards the crown with the restoration of Charles II.
      Britain, by the end of the 17th Century was profiting from conquest and trade and had a culture that had evolved to cope with a plurality of views. It was a place where describing and explaining and asking and checking  were practiced as much as anywhere on the planet, and this gave it the right soil from which could spring the first shoots of modern science.
      The bonds of religion, loosened throughout the previous 100 years, were now lax enough to allow many cats to slip out of all kinds of bags.
      And all around the country, the natural philosophers were busy opening cans containing all manner of worms.