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The 95 Theses were Martin Luther's list of grievances with the abuses of the Catholic Church. This made it acceptable to challenge traditional authority and started the Protestant Reformation. -
Out of the need to produce a male heir for the English throne, the English parliament acknowledged that Henry VII was the head of the Church in England. This allowed Henry VII to divorce his first wife, marked a public break from the Catholic Church in England, and made it clear that while England did have a parliament, it was under the king's absolute authority. -
The Third Succession Act returned the protestant Elizabeth and the Catholic Mary to Henry VII's line of succession. This divided the country into Protestant and Catholic sects and started a debate over who was the true Queen of England. -
When the Protestant Elizabeth took the throne, the country was deeply divided over religious issues. Elizabeth's first parliament aimed to settle the tensions. Many of the previous monarchs had failed to unite the country under one ruler and church, so Elizabeth aimed to unite the country by striking a balance between Catholicism and Protestantism extremes. She was also granted the title of Supreme governor to the Church of England, finalizing England's break with the Catholic Church. -
When Charles I succeeded his father, James I, it reignited Protestant anxieties of a Catholic takeover, as Charles was married to a Roman Catholic. Charles I also constantly quarreled with parliament. Mainly what an English monarch needed parliament for was to authorize funding for wars. With a large debt, parliament refused to fund the monarchy. Charles I was a strong believer in the divine right of kings, and felt this refusal was a personal attack. -
The English Civil War was fought over issues of religious freedom and Charles I's questionably legal and oppressive policies (such as his ship tax). People saw the Church of England as turning too far towards Catholicism. The war was brought to an end by a series of decisive parliamentarian victories and Oliver Cromwell's establishment of the stratocratic Commonwealth. As a result, the divine right of kings was no longer relevant in England, and the monarch no longer controlled parliament. -
After a time of relative peace in England, the Catholic monarch James II took the English throne. This prompted fears of a repeat of the English Civil war. When James II suspended the British and Scottish parliaments, these fears were all but confirmed. English politicians reached out to William of Orange for aid in preserving religious freedoms in England. William was successful in deposing James II. This significantly reduced the monarchy's power and stamped out the Catholic Church in England.