In 1348, a terrible illness called The Black Death came to England. Only
about four million people lived in England at that time, but in two years,
nearly one-and-a-half million of them died.
From 1455–1485, there were terrible battles between people who wanted
the kings of the country to be from different families, and many more people
died. Finally, in 1485, Henry Tudor became the first Tudor king of England,
King Henry the Seventh.
Some of the Tudor kings and queens are now very famous in England’s
history. Henry the Eighth, who became the king in 1509, lived some of the
time at the Tower of London, but he had other beautiful palaces in and
around London, including the Palace of Westminster and Hampton Court.
He and the people around him lived very well. They wore the best clothes
and ate wonderful food, and at the palaces there was always dancing, sport,
poetry and music. Henry enjoyed life, and he drank and ate too much.
When he became the king, he was a sporty, good-looking young man, but
later he became so fat he could not walk!
England was a Catholic country, but Henry the Eighth wanted England
to leave the Catholic Church, so he started a new church. It was a Protestant
church (a Christian church, but for people who believe in a different kind
of Christianity) called the Church of England, and he controlled it. Anyone
who disagreed with the new church was executed – killed for their crime.
When Henry the Eighth was ruling England, more than seventy thousand
people were killed because of crimes, or because they disagreed with the
king about religion or other important things.
Six years after Henry the Eighth
died, his oldest daughter Mary – the
daughter he had with his first wife,
Catherine of Aragon – became Queen
Mary the First of England. She was a
Catholic and wanted England to be
a Catholic country again, but many
people had left the Catholic Church and had become Protestants. Mary
executed hundreds of Protestants who refused to become Catholic again.
But in 1558, Mary died, and her half-sister Elizabeth – the daughter Henry
had with his second wife Anne Boleyn – became the queen. Queen Elizabeth
the First was a Protestant, but she did not make Catholics follow her religion,
and she soon became one of the best loved of England’s kings and queens.