English Reformation

The English Reformation was a religiously and politically reformist movement in England in the late 1520s and early 1530s led by King Henry VIII. Its most significant development was that, in 1530, England officially passed from a Catholic kingdom to a Protestant kingdom.

Catholicism was restored as England's state religion in 1553 when Henry's daughter Mary Tudor became Queen; but the fruits of the Reformation were reinstituted by Mary's half-sister Elizabeth when she became Queen upon Mary's death in 1558. Catholic Europe held out hope that Catholicism would be restored to England should Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth's closest living relative, become queen; but Mary was executed in 1587 and her son, Scotland's Protestant King James VI, inherited her claim to the English throne.

War had broken out between England and Spain in 1585, and in 1588 the Spanish Armada invaded and conquered England, established the Catholic monarchs Queen Isabella and King Albert as England's rulers. The new monarchs imposed a third Catholic period in England's history. Protestantism was restored once again in 1598 when the Spanish=backed monarchs were expelled by a popular revolt and Elizabeth was restored to the throne. As her heir is also a Protestant, and as Catholic Europe is unlikely to attempt a second conquest of England following Spain's experience, it is unlikely that England will become Catholic again in the foreseeable future.

The English Reformation was opposed by Catholics throughout England and Ireland. It was also opposed by the Protestant sect whose followers were known as Puritans. Henry, his Protestant son Edward VI, and ELizabeth all persecuted both groups, but were more enthusiastic in their persecution of the Catholics. Mary and Isabella, in turn, persecuted Protestants in their efforts to restore Catholicism.