The history of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom covers English, British, and United Kingdom's foreign policy from about 1500 to 2000. For the current situation since 2000 see foreign relations of the United Kingdom.
Britain from circa 1750 to the 1910s took pride in an unmatched economic base; comprising industry, finance, shipping and trade that largely dominated the globe. Foreign policy based on free trade (from the mid-1840s to the 1920s) kept the economy flourishing. The overseas First British Empire was devastated by the loss of the thirteen American colonies in a war when Britain had no major allies. The Second British Empire was built fresh in Asia and Africa and reached its zenith in the 1920s. Foreign policy made sure it was never seriously threatened. The Statute of Westminster granted effective independence to Britain's self governing Dominions in 1931. In the era of Pax Britannica, 1815 to 1914, The British dominated world trade, finance and shipping. In what historians call "The Imperialism of Free Trade", London had a strong political voice in many nations in Latin America and Asia. The Royal Navy was used to help suppress the African slave trade, and to reduce piracy.
A favoured diplomatic strategy against France before 1815 was subsidising the armies of continental allies, such as the Kingdom of Prussia, thereby turning London's enormous financial power to military advantage. After 1815 the British Empire was kept secure by reliance on the Royal Navy. It remained the most powerful fleet afloat with a vast network of bases across the globe. London ensured it was larger than the next two largest navies combined informally and then formally in 1889, coming into parlance as the Two-Power Standard, until the First World War.
English foreign policy before 1700 In 1500 the Kingdom of England had only a modest population (3.8 million) compared to its much larger rivals of France (15 million), Spain (6.5 million), and the Holy Roman Empire (17 million). It was three times larger than its naval rival, the Netherlands, and eight times larger than Scotland.Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, Atlas of world population history (Penguin, 1978) pp. 43, 47, 57, 65,71, 101 The limited budget, limited ambitions on the continent, avoidance of alliances, and the protection afforded by the English Channel (despite Scotland) from foreign invasion combined to make foreign affairs less pressing for the British government before 1688. Nevertheless, under the stable autocracy that the destruction of much of the (traditionally antagonistic to the Crown) English aristocracy during the Wars of the Roses had gifted the Tudor dynasty, England found her coffers full (especially after the Dissolution of the Monasteries) and was able to weigh in as a third wheel on European balance of power as an effective player with her own agency. England threw her weight behind either the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor or France depending on the political wind, in spite of French attempts to neutralise England with the Auld Alliance. England after Henry VIII settled into another period of relative weakness as the Crown focused on religious rebellions and an attempted alliance with Habsburg Spain by Mary Tudor, but her half sister Elizabeth returned the country to relative stability and therefore was again able to play the Continental powers against each other, funding the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years’ War against Spain and the Huguenots against Catherine de Medici's court in France. Scotland was neutralised when Mary Queen of Scots was forced out by her own nobility in 1568, and the last door to Continental English invasion was closed with the colonisation of Ireland in the 1590s. These thwarted the Spanish attempts to invade England, the most famous of which was the Spanish Armada of 1588, which laid the foundations for English naval predominance and colonial and mercantile competition in respectively the New World and Far East for resources with Spain and Portugal.
With the union of the Crowns of England and Ireland with the Crown of Scotland in 1603, the new “British” entity was able to continue exercising the role of auxiliary power tipping the scales against Spain or France, but the English aristocracy's resentment of the Stuart dynasty meant they could never be as absolutist in England as the Tudors, and from 1639 a series of rebellions in Ireland and Scotland forced the English crown into civil war with Parliament over taxation, royal prerogative and religious and social discontent, setting England out of Continental affairs for a generation.
The military (de jure Republican) Cromwell regime tried to assert itself against te now independent Dutch and Spain in 1651 and 1655, but military victories won with support from France (like at the Battle of the Dunes in 1658) were minor and the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 heralded no major improvements on England's position relative to under Cromwell. England nearly became a French auxiliary, as Louis XIV funded Charles II, and committed him to disastrous wars in the name of French interests against the Dutch and Spanish, which saw the Royal Navy challenged seriously. The accession of the even more pro-French James II in 1685 led to the Whigs (opponents to power of the crown) backing the Dutch stadholder William III's invasion.
Tudor foreign policy King Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509) concentrated on establishing peace in England, especially against the threatened rebellions by the newly defeated House of York. Foreign affairs apart from Scotland were not a high priority. Scotland was an independent country, and peace was agreed to in 1497. Much of his diplomacy involved treaties for marriages with ruling houses in Europe. He married his eldest daughter Margaret Tudor to King James IV of Scotland in 1503. Henry tried to marry his daughter Mary to the man who later became Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but that fell through. Henry VIII finally married her to King Louis XII of France as part of a peace treaty in 1514; Louis died after three months and Henry demanded and got most of her dowry back. The other main diplomatic success of Henry VII was an alliance with Spain, sealed by the marriage in 1501 of his heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Catherine of Aragon, Infanta of Spain (second daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile). When his Queen died in 1503, Henry VII searched the European marriage market for a diplomatic marriage with a large dowry for himself, but was unable to find a match.P.S. Crowson Tudor Foreign Policy (1973) ch 1–2.
Arthur died in 1502 and the second son married the widow in 1509, just after he became king as Henry VIII.
Henry VIII
King Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547) paid special attention to expanding the English Navy, to protect the rapidly expanding merchant fleet. He also commissioned privateers from the merchant fleets to act as auxiliary warships that captured and resold enemy merchant ships. Some of his foreign and religious policy revolved around annulling his marriage to Catherine of Aragon in 1533 despite the opposition of Pope Clement VII — his solution was to remove the Church of England from the pope's authority, thereby launching the English Reformation.R.B. Wernham, Before the Armada: the growth of English foreign policy, 1485–1588 (1966) pp. 111–35.
In 1510, France, with a fragile alliance with the Holy Roman Empire in the League of Cambrai, was winning a war against the Republic of Venice. Henry renewed his father's friendship with Louis XII of France, and signed a pact with his father-in-law King Ferdinand of Spain. After Pope Julius II created the anti-French Holy League in October 1511, Henry followed Spain's lead and brought England into the new League. An initial joint Anglo-Spanish attack was planned for the spring to recover Aquitaine for England, the start of making Henry's dreams of ruling France a reality. The attack failed and it strained the Anglo-Spanish alliance. Nevertheless, the French were pushed out of Italy soon after, and the alliance survived, with both parties keen to win further victories over the French.J.J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (1958) pp 27–34.
On 30 June 1513, Henry invaded France, and his troops defeated a French army at the Battle of the Spurs – a relatively minor result, but one which was seized on by the English for propaganda purposes. Soon after, the English took Thérouanne and handed it over to Maximillian; Tournai, a more significant settlement, followed. Henry had led the army personally, complete with large entourage.Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, pp 35–56. His absence from the country, however, had prompted James IV of Scotland, to invade England at the behest of Louis. The English army, overseen by Queen Catherine, decisively defeated the Scots at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, in which James IV and many senior Scottish nobles died.R.L. Mackie, King James IV of Scotland: A brief survey of his life and times (1976).
Charles V ascended the thrones of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire following the deaths of his grandfathers, Ferdinand in 1516 and Maximilian in 1519. Francis I likewise became king of France upon the death of Louis in 1515, leaving three relatively young rulers and an opportunity for a clean slate. The careful diplomacy of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey had resulted in the Treaty of London in 1518, an early non-aggression pact among the major kingdoms of western Europe.Garrett Mattingly, "An Early Nonaggression Pact," Journal of Modern History 10#1 (1938): 1–30. online In a significant follow-up, Henry met Francis I on 7 June 1520 at the Field of the Cloth of Gold near Calais for a fortnight of lavish and extremely expensive entertainment. Charles brought his Holy Roman Empire into war with France in 1521; Henry offered to mediate, but little was achieved and by the end of the year Henry had aligned England with Charles. He still clung to his previous aim of restoring English lands in France, but also sought to secure an alliance with Burgundy, then part of Charles' realm, and the continued support of Charles. Charles defeated and captured Francis at Pavia and could dictate peace; but he believed he owed Henry nothing. Henry had repeatedly raised taxes to pay for his foreign operations until upscale passive resistance in 1525 forced the ending of the newest tax known as the "Amicable Grant."G.W. Bernard, War, Taxation, and Rebellion in Early Tudor England: Henry VIII, Wolsey, and the Amicable Grant of 1525 (1986). Lack of money ended Henry's plans for an invasion of France and he took England out of the war with the Treaty of the More on 30 August 1525.Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, pp 135–42.
New World In 1497 Henry VII commissioned the Italian mariner John Cabot who had settled in England, to explore the New World. Cabot was the first European since the Norsemen to reach parts of what is now Canada, exploring from Newfoundland to as far south as Delaware. He found no gold or spices and the king lost interest. Colonisation was not a high priority for the Tudors, who were much more interested in raiding the Spanish treasure ships than in acquiring their own colonies.J. A. Williamson, The voyages of the Cabots and the English discovery of North America under Henry VII and Henry VIII (1929).
Conflict with Spain, 1568–1604 Treasure crisis of 1568