How did the protestant Reformation change the relationship between England and Spain - Essay Example

Protestant Reformation and Early Relationships between England and Spain Protestant Reformations were a series of protests staged by some Christian movements in Europe, who believed that the current church had erred, and that there needed to be a change in the way worship was done (Kingstone 19-21). This was sparked by the nailing of 95 theses by a catholic clergyman, Martin Luther King. These theses were a list of the things that the church was doing wrong, which needed redress. In Rome, where the protestant reformations started, the problem was easily solved by the splitting of the church into two groups, those who remained to be catholic and followed the old doctrines and those who joined the newly formed protestant church.

As Franklin (19-21) points out, the problem of Protestantism was not easily solved anywhere. For instance, in England, it led to a bloody religious war that led to the execution of Queen Mary on the order of her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth. Spain, under King Philip, remained faithful to the catholic faith and as a result, it supported the side of England that was supporting catholic faith. After the defeat of the catholic side by the execution of Queen Mary, political tension between Spain and England started to build and within no time, the two nations were on each other’s throat.

In early 17th century for instance, King Philip of Spain sent an army of professional military men to go and fight for the side of England that was supporting catholic faith. This was however retaliation to the action of England fighting non Protestants in Netherlands, which at the time was a colony of Spain. These religious wars continued for decades before ever reaching an amicable diplomatic solution.According to William (205), it was not just political relations between these two countries that were severed, since trade was also very much severed between the two nations.

At that time, there was almost no private sector and any private businesses that traded internationally. They were only trading locally, and governments were very much involved in international businesses and there were times when people would entirely depend on the government to import essential things such as food and clothing. In realization of this, King Henry of England tried to build a good relationship with Spain, in order to improve the trade between Spain and England. This was achieved by the use of marriages between the sons of King Henry and a Spanish princess (Brans et al. 452). However, when one of the sons decided to divorce his wife, this created problems because the church (catholic) opposed the divorce and this is the time the King fell out of love with the Catholic Church.

This culminated to the tensions between two nations and led to a thirty year religious war. Trade was affected and political relations were severed in the aftermath of the war. However, later, this was to lead to a collegial relationship between Spain and England, because as they both had a common enemy, France. While Spain and England were involving themselves in political and religious battles, France was growing itself in terms of political and military power. England was still holding a grudge against France due a war that England had previously lost to France, and Spain was concerned of the growing power that France was gaining over time.

The former wars between England and Spain had created a platform for the two nations to reconcile and create a coalition against France. After all, as Ulm (20) says, England’s Queen Elizabeth and Spain’s king Philip were now having a respectful relationship and held each other in high esteem.Works Cited Brands, Billiam et al. American Stories: A History of the United States, Volume 1. New york, NY: Pearson Education, 2011. Print. Franklin, Learnard. "International Politica nd History.

" Journald or Political Science (2009): 20- 29. Print. Kingstone, Gerald. "Protestantsm and Early European History." Journal do History (2009): 19- 21. Print. Ulm, Wes. The Spanish Armada of 1588 . NA NA 2012. Web. 7 September 2012. William, Jared. History of Early eurpean Politcs. New York, NY: Pearson Education Books, 2009. Print.