RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
A1 Beneš, Miroslav
T1 William Cecil and the Crisis of Early Elizabethan England (1558-1560)
JF Historica Olomucensia
YR 2018
VO 54
IS 1
SP 49
OP 68
DO 10.5507/ho.2018.003
UL https://historica.upol.cz/artkey/hol-201801-0003.php
AB The British Isles in the 16th century was an area filled with religious and political changes which were often fundamentally interconnected with the international political situation. Unions were quickly made as well as cancelled. The power rivalry between England and Scotland was not new. Nevertheless, the imperial wishes of Henry VIII. started a period of Tudor campaigns, which outcome was not a unity of insular kingdoms under the reign of the English king but an the international crisis which reached the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Early modern relations between England, Scotland and Ireland are yet at the margin of an academic interest. The research, therefore, brings an overview of English and Scottish relations in the 16th century and maps the genesis of unexplored political vision of William Cecil, the closest adviser of Elizabeth I. He tried to unify the British Isles under the reign of a sole sovereign and he accomplished absolute turn in English and Scottish relations in the scope of years 1558-1560. By this, he factually laid the foundations for the origin of the English-Scottish protestant union.