King Henry VII
Arguably, the seeds of Empire were sown as far back as the reign of King Henry VII (b. 1457 d. 1509, reign 1485 to 1509), the last king of England to win his crown on the battlefield.
During the reign of Henry VII, Britain’s navy was significantly strengthened, great steps were made in the direction of realising absolute monarchy, diplomatic foreign policy led to greater economic prosperity, and the country was, broadly, reaching unity under centralised rule. Although as late as the mid 16th century, England was perceived to lag its educated European neighbours, particularly France, Spain and Portugal, in many fields, it led them in shifting away from serfdom, the source of much civil unrest, and establishing a sense of national unity.
Like many of his European counterparts, one of Henry VII’s overwhelming interests was foreign policy. Henry realised the benefits of overseas diplomacy, seeing it as a reliable substitute for the violence used by his predecessors. He established England’s first diplomatic envoys, and a system of spies brought forth information from many European seats of power.
However, the focus of Henry’s foreign policy was to develop ties and policy that would stimulate domestic economic development. With sheep outnumbering men by about three to one, the legendary English wool so admired and bought copiously by Italian merchants was in good supply. However, it left English shores on German controlled ships to be profitably dispersed by Hanseatic traders. Henry set about establishing a protective legal framework for English traders (under a series of ‘Navigation Acts’) from which he aggressively sought to secure greater economic benefit for the nation.
At the time of accession, the English fleet and supporting infrastructure had degenerated almost to the point of extinction; some report as few as three sea-worthy vessels, with pirates free to roam the English Channel unhindered. Henry commissioned a series of large ‘Man-o-War’ ships, built the naval bastion at Portsmouth (including the dry dock in 1495), and provided funding for a number of large merchant ships under the condition that they would be put at the disposal of the navy if needed. By Henry VII’s passing in 1509, the English navy comprised 15 vessels built to the highest standards of the day.
It was a generation later, in 1533, that Henry VII’s third child, then King Henry VIII solemnly decreed in the Act of Restraint of Appeals that “with the consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons [...] this realm England is an Empire.”
The architects of this statute were not proclaiming any notion of world dominion. Moreover, it was a statement of independence. An emphatic severance from Papal control and influence, setting England on a path that, within a generation, would see her merchants and explorers span the globe to lay the cornerstones of the largest Empire the world has seen.