CHAPTER XV - The Completion of the Reformation

Ten year old Edward VI. has ascended the throne of England, and is ruling through the Duke of Somerset.

Somerset has the grandiose idea that the English and the Scots - currently at war - should live under one government as Briton. This is not a popular proposal and to make his point, Somerset decides to invade Scotland in 1547, which is initially successful.

In 1553 however, Edward dies, aged just short of 16. His disliked half-sister Mary I. becomes queen of England.

Mary spends her reign attempting to bring back Catholicism, and while she manages to pass a variety of laws, the now enthusiastically reformed English are not amused.

At age 37, she marries Phillip, heir to the Spanish and Dutch crown. Again, this move is unpopular and some rebellion break out, which she manages to strike down.

Mary I. is becoming ever more bigoted - she had ordered the death of 277 people, for the charge of heresy.

She dies herself in 1558 and is succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth I., daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth establishes the Church of England proper. The head of the church isn’t the pope but the monarch and every person is now required to go to church on Sunday.

The Catholic church responds with a counter.reformation and corrects the issues the reformers have with it, and subsequently re-convert the Irish.

Meanwhile in Scotland, a reform all of its own is happening. While the English reform is brought upon the people by the crown; in Scotland it is the crown that has to bend to its people. This reformation leads to a Scotland under Presbyterian belief.