England
King Henry VIII of England's reign brought broad, sweeping changes to England, not the least of which was England's break from the catholic church and the formation of the church of England when the pope refused to grant him a divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Henry would marry five more times during his reign and father three children who lived into adulthood.
Henry was succeeded on his death by the staunchly protestant Edward VI, then only 9. Edward's uncle, Edward Seymour, earl of Hertford, ruled as regent for the young king and soon led a campaign against Scotland in hopes of capturing the then infant Mary Queen of Scots, so that she might be wed to Edward and thus unite the English isle under one ruler. Mary was spirited off to France, however, to marry the young French prince, and Edward Seymour soon set his sights on marrying his young ward, Jane Grey, to the king. This was not to be, however, and in 1553 the young king took ill and died, leaving the kingdom in disarray as Henry's other two children, Mary and Elizabeth, had both been declared bastards.
Edward Seymore, anxious to maintain his position of power, hatched a plan to marry Lady Jane Grey, who was legitimate and had a claim to the throne's pre-Tudor dynasty, to his son. Lady Jane was manipulated by both her grasping parents and Edward Seymore into claiming the throne, and ruled for only 9 days before the people of England rallied to Mary Tudor and she was imprisoned and later killed. This began the reign of "Bloody" Mary Tudor in England, so called because she, unlike her siblings, was devoutly catholic and wanted to bring the people back to the church. As part of her campaign, she had hundreds of English convicted of heresy and burned alive. To further ally England with the catholic church, Mary wed Philip II of Spain, also deeply catholic and a rampant opponent of the protestant movement. The marriage was very unpopular in England, as the English were unhappy with the depth of the religious persecution in England and feared, rightly, that the Spanish would draw England into its wars with France on the continent. This is exactly what did happen, resulting in the loss of the city of Calais in France to the French.
The union did not produce children, and Mary died in 1558, and was succeeded by the last living child of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I. Elizabeth, like her brother Edward, was a protestant, and broke off the catholic ties that Mary had reestablished. Elizabeth, having witnessed the religious strife and contention of the last few decades, developed more moderate policies concerning religion, and her 45 year reign was a period of relative calm that produced many notable figures in literature and exploration such as William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, and Francis Drake. Elizabeth maintained a tenuous peace with England's arch rivals Spain and France for 30 years, until the Spanish declared war on England in 1588, for both religious reasons and as punishment for the English encroaching on Spanish interests in the new world. The invasion failed miserably, due largely to storms which wrecked the Spanish armada, costing the Spanish a great deal of money and significantly lowering their prestige. Elizabeth died in 1603, and was succeeded by James I, son of Mary Queen of Scots, who united Scotland and England under one crown.
Some popular English names include:
Men - Abraham, Andrew, Barnaby, Christopher, Daniel, Edmund, Francis, Fulke, Geoffrey, George, Gregory, Humphrey, James, John, Leonard, Luke, Martin, Nathaniel, Nicolas, Richard, Robert, Thomas, Walter, William
Women - Agnes, Alice, Amy, Anne, Audrey, Barbara, Beatrice, Bridget, Catherine, Cecily, Charity, Clemence, Dorothy, Edith, Elinor, Ellen, Elizabeth, Emma, Fortune, Gillian, Grace, Helen, Jane, Janet, Joan, Joyce, Judith, Lucy, Mabel, Margaret, Margery, Marion, Martha, Mary, Millicent, Rachel, Rose, Sarah, Susanna, Sybil, Ursula
Additional Information:
Website: Life in Elizabethan England, a Compendium of Common Knowledge
Website: The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I
Book: Behind the Mask: The Life of Queen Elizabeth I, Jane Resh Thomas
Book: English Society, 1580-1680, Keith Wrightson
Book:
Book: Life of Elizabeth I, Alison Weir
