Decline of the British and American Empires Part II: The End of English Continental Ambitions

Great Britain’s rise to power in the 18th and 19th centuries had its origins in the weaknesses of the kingdom of England and the failures of the ruling dynasties of Plantagenet, which ruled England from 1154 to 1485 until the Tudors overthrew the dynasty at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

This led to the death of England’s last Plantagenet king, Richard the Third.

Then we have the Tudors, who ruled England from 1485 until the death of Queen Elizabeth I, England’s last Tudor monarch, from 1558 until 1603.

Then we have the Stewart dynasty, which ruled England and Scotland from 1603 until the death of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch of England, who died in 1714.

King Richard III of England

Some historical context for the failures of England’s ruling elite is that, from the legacy of the Norman conquest in 1066, the ruling nobility in England and France were strongly interconnected due to the nobility of both kingdoms, respectively, coming from the same stock.

Furthermore, at different times, the kings of England had more land than the kings of France within France itself.

Within the kingdom of France, this meant both ruling dynasties of both kingdoms from 1066 until England’s defeat in the…