After the War of the Roses a new family gained the British throne: the Tudors. King Henry VII gave England a financial and governmental stability. The old feudal structure were swept away.
His son, Henry VIII, asked Pope Clement VII to dissolve his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The Pope reject his request because Henry VIII’s wife was also the Spanish king daughter and Spain was the greatest supporter of the Roman Church. Thus in 1534 the Parliament, which supported the King, passed the Act of Supremacy. It declared the king the only, supreme head of the Church in England and it marked the division between Roman and Anglican Church. The political power took advantage of the situation and in 1539 all the Roman Catholic monasteries and convents were abolished and their possessions became property of Britain.
Elizabeth I became queen in 1558, she believed that God had destined her to rule. Elizabeth I re-established the Anglican Church but she avoided any radical conflicts with Catholics. When some of them started to look at Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, as a possible her substitute, she executed her (1587). Her greatest military success was the victory of the English fleet over Philip II of Spain’s Invincible Armada in 1558. She died a “Virgin Queen” in 1603.

In 1625, Charles I became king. He immediately tried to impose an absolute monarchy, as a matter of fact he imposed new taxation without parliamentary consent. In 1628, Parliament presented the famous Petition of Rights in which it remembered the king that he could not take some decisions without Parliament’s agreement. The king reject the Petition. For the next twenty years Charles I took all the important decisions alone and the situation became unacceptable.
A Parliamentary Army was created in 1642 and Civil War broke out. Charles I was executed in 1649, for the first time in the history a king was judged and condemned by a court. Under Cromwell’s leadership, a republic was instituted in London, but when he died no one seemed able top succeed him and the monarchy was restored (1660).

At Charles II death, his brother James II tried to imposed Catholic religion in England. His act led to the Glorious Revolution, called “Bloodless Revolution” because the king was deposed without shedding any blood.
Parliament offered the throne to William of Orange and his wife Mary, the king’s elder daughter under the condition defined in the Bill of Rights. It limited the power of the monarchy: Parliament was freely elected, had control over the government finance and the Crown could not change the laws nor keep any army without Parliament’s consent.

In 1707, with the Act of Union the United Kingdom was born by the union of England and Scotland.

At Queen Anna death in 1714, the Crown passed to the House of Hanover. The new King George I could not even speak English and showed little interest in governing Britain. The same did his son King George II. King George III ruled during a turbulent period turned by the Industrial, American and French Revolutions. Despite all this and his mental illness England was able to increase its wealth and to defeat Napoleon’s army in the battle of Waterloo.

In 1832 under the reign of William IV, passed the First Reform Act which extended the right to vote to men belonging to the middle classes and in 1833 slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire which included also the colonies.