How did the protestant Reformation change the relationship between Essay

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