England

===Early modern period===
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| image1            = After Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-8-1543) - Henry VIII (1491-1547) - RCIN 404438 - Royal Collection.jpg
| caption1          = [[King Henry VIII]] (1491–1547)
| image2            = Elizabeth I in Parliament Robes.jpg
| caption2          = [[Queen Elizabeth I]] (1558–1603)
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During the [[Tudor period]], England began to develop [[English Navy|naval skills]], and exploration intensified in the [[Age of Discovery]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Navy History, Tudor Period and the Birth of a Regular Navy |url=http://www.royal-navy.org/lib/index.php?title=Tudor_Period_and_the_Birth_of_a_Regular_Navy_Part_Two |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118040146/http://www.royal-navy.org/lib/index.php?title=Tudor_Period_and_the_Birth_of_a_Regular_Navy_Part_Two |archive-date=18 January 2012 |access-date=24 December 2010}}; {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Goldwin |url={{GBurl|id=RdOTQUDgH54C|q=england under the tudors by goldwin smith}} |title=England Under the Tudors |page=176 |publisher=Forgotten Books |access-date=26 December 2010 |isbn=978-1-60620-939-4}}</ref> [[Henry VIII]] broke from communion with the Catholic Church, over issues relating to his divorce, under the [[Acts of Supremacy]] in 1534 which proclaimed the monarch head of the [[Church of England]]. In contrast with much of European [[Protestantism]], the [[English Reformation|roots of the split]] were more political than theological.{{Efn|As [[Roger Scruton]] explains, "The Reformation must not be confused with the changes introduced into the Church of England during the "Reformation Parliament" of 1529–36, which were of a political rather than a religious nature, designed to unite the secular and religious sources of authority within a single sovereign power: the Anglican Church did not make substantial change in doctrine until later."{{Sfn|Scruton|1982|p=470}}}} He also legally incorporated his ancestral land Wales into the Kingdom of England with the [[Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542|1535–1542 acts]]. There were internal religious conflicts during the reigns of Henry's daughters, [[Mary I of England|Mary I]] and [[Elizabeth I]]. The former took the country back to Catholicism while the latter broke from it again, forcefully asserting the supremacy of [[Anglicanism]]. The [[Elizabethan era]] is the epoch in the Tudor age of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I ("the Virgin Queen"). Historians often depict it as the [[Golden age (metaphor)|golden age]] in English history that represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of great art, drama, poetry, music and literature.<ref>From the 1944 Clark lectures by [[C. S. Lewis]]; Lewis, ''English Literature in the Sixteenth Century'' (Oxford, 1954) p. 1, {{OCLC|256072}}</ref> England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tudor Parliaments |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/TUDparliament.htm |access-date=4 April 2021 |website=Spartacus Educational |language=en}}</ref>

Competing with [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], the first English colony in the Americas was founded in 1585 by explorer [[Walter Raleigh]] in [[Virginia]] and named [[Roanoke Colony|Roanoke]]. The Roanoke colony failed and is known as the lost colony after it was found abandoned on the return of the late-arriving supply ship.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ordahl |first=Karen |url={{GBurl|id=W8cr4Vgt9ekC|q=roanoke colony}} |title=Roanak:the abandoned colony |date=25 February 2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield publishers Inc |isbn=978-0-7425-5263-0 |access-date=24 December 2010}}</ref> With the [[East India Company]], England also competed with the [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] and [[French colonial empire|French]] in the East. During the Elizabethan period, England was at war with Spain. An [[Spanish Armada|armada]] sailed from Spain in 1588 as part of a wider plan to invade England and re-establish a Catholic monarchy. The plan was thwarted by bad coordination, stormy weather and successful harrying attacks by an English fleet under [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Lord Howard of Effingham]]. This failure did not end the threat: Spain launched two further armadas, in [[2nd Spanish Armada|1596]] and [[3rd Spanish Armada|1597]], but both were driven back by storms.