The English Renaissance is a long period which covers the 16^th century and part of the 17^th up to the Restoration of monarchy. It is divided into the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age and the Age of Milton.

In 1485 the Civil war between the two most important family, York and Lancaster, ends with Henry VII started the Tudor dynasty on the throne of England. Henry’s reign has a period of prosperity and peace: new classes began to emerge, he enforce law and order, restored to the Crown much of its former prestige and encouraged commerce.
Unlike his father, Henry VIII, followed imperialistic dreams. One example for describe the person who was he is that he break up with Rome only for economic reasons. In fact, he founded the Church of England with the Act of Supremacy in 1534 and proclaimed himself the Head of it, in such a way that he can appropriate of the treasures hidden in monasteries and to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. All Englishmen who refused to take an oath, known as Oath of Supremacy, by which they accepted the rejection of the Pope’s authority and recognized the marriage with Anne Boleyn as lawful, were condemned to death on charge of high treason.
After Henry’s death the religious struggles went on with an alternation of persecution: first of Catholics and then of Protestants.

Internal peace and stability was achieved when Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558. She re-established the Anglican Church. A second Act of Supremacy in 1559 restated the independence of the Church of England and the Act of Uniformity made the use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory. Moreover, Elizabeth supported the new explorations thanks to the creations of a powerful fleet. The only internal threat she has, was her Catholic cousin Mary Stuart, next in succession after her. Elizabeth kept her prisoner for nineteen years and, when the latest plot was discovered, Elizabeth consented to Mary’s execution.

When Elizabeth died, the throne went to James VI of Scotland. He ruled both England and Scotland as James VI of Scotland and James I of England. The two countries remained separate until May 1^st, 1707 when, under the terms of The Treaty of Union, England and Scotland became a single state , the United Kingdom of Great Britain. James I was an educated man but he made many heavy mistakes: the country he inherited from Elizabeth was very difficult to be ruled because of the internal tensions in the final period of Elizabeth’s reign. Severe laws and restrictive measures were passed against all dissenters. Puritans, too, were persecuted. A group of them, known as “The Pilgrim Fathers”, to escape persecution, sailed on the “Mayflower” and landed in North America, starting the beginning of the future United States.