Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- TRANSLATORS' PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK I THE CHIEF CRISES IN THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLAND
- BOOK II ATTEMPTS TO CONSOLIDATE THE KINGDOM INDEPENDENTLY IN ITS TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL RELATIONS
- BOOK III QUEEN ELIZABETH. CLOSE CONNEXION OF ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH AFFAIRS
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAP. I Elizabeth's accession. Triumph of the Reformation
- CHAP. II Outlines of the Reformation in Scotland
- CHAP. III Mary Stuart in Scotland. Relation of the two Queens to each other
- CHAP. IV Interdependence of the European dissensions in Politics and Religion
- CHAP. V The fate of Mary Stuart
- CHAP. VI The Invincible Armada
- CHAP. VII The later years of Queen Elizabeth
- BOOK IV FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN. FIRST DISTURBANCES UNDER THE STUARTS
- BOOK V DISPUTES WITH PARLIAMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF JAMES I AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- TRANSLATORS' PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK I THE CHIEF CRISES IN THE EARLIER HISTORY OF ENGLAND
- BOOK II ATTEMPTS TO CONSOLIDATE THE KINGDOM INDEPENDENTLY IN ITS TEMPORAL AND SPIRITUAL RELATIONS
- BOOK III QUEEN ELIZABETH. CLOSE CONNEXION OF ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH AFFAIRS
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAP. I Elizabeth's accession. Triumph of the Reformation
- CHAP. II Outlines of the Reformation in Scotland
- CHAP. III Mary Stuart in Scotland. Relation of the two Queens to each other
- CHAP. IV Interdependence of the European dissensions in Politics and Religion
- CHAP. V The fate of Mary Stuart
- CHAP. VI The Invincible Armada
- CHAP. VII The later years of Queen Elizabeth
- BOOK IV FOUNDATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN. FIRST DISTURBANCES UNDER THE STUARTS
- BOOK V DISPUTES WITH PARLIAMENT DURING THE LATER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF JAMES I AND THE EARLIER YEARS OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES I
Summary
To appreciate the motives which led Henry VIII to attach such importance to a male heir, and to exclude his daughter by the Spanish marriage from the succession, we need only cast our eyes on what happened under her, when in spite of all she had become Queen. The idea with which the Tudors had ascended the throne, and administered the realm, that of founding a political power strong in itself and alike independent of home factions and foreign influence, was sacrificed by Mary to her preference for the nation from which her mother came and from which she chose her husband. The military power of England served to support the Spanish monarchy at a dangerous and doubtful moment in the course of its formation. And while Mary's father and brother had made it the object of their policy to deprive the hierarchy of all influence over England, she on the contrary reinstated it: she put the power and all the resources of the State at its disposal. Though historically deeply rooted, the Catholic tendency showed itself, through the reactionary rule which it brought about and through its alliance with the policy of Spain, pernicious to the country. We have seen what losses England suffered by it, not merely in its foreign possessions, but–what was really irreparable–in men of talent and learning, of feeling and greatness of soul; and into what a state of weakness abroad and dissolution at home it thereby fell.
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- A History of EnglandPrincipally in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1875