6 RELIGION, COLONISING AND TRADE 
Queen Elizabeth, a sense of wishing to gain something 
for, and give something to, their king or queen, which 
was wholly wanting in the next century. It was a 
very different matter when the Tudots were replaced by 
the Stuarts, when a Scottish king sat upon the throne 
of England, and when the pretensions of James I in 
his capacity of sovereign challenged contrast with the 
real greatness of Elizabeth. Among the immense 
majotity of Englishmen the personal feeling for a 
personal sovereign either ceased to exist or existed in 
the form of dislike rather than affection. 
The first of the Tudors, Henry VII, who, before the 
sixteenth century began, licensed John Cabot to make 
his memorable voyage of discovery, by his solicitude 
for the trading interests of England and for her 
strength at sea, deserved well of the future empire. 
So also, in two respects very especially, did his son, 
Henry VIII, to whom Robert Thorne wrote his letter. 
His naval and his ecclesiastical policy, both alike, were 
most fruitful for the coming time. He made a long 
and lasting move onward towards the creation of a 
royal navy, and gave every encouragement to English 
sea-craft and study of the sea. ‘The main outcome of 
his Church policy as embodied in the Reformation and 
the total severance of England from the Papacy, was 
that religion became to Englishmen a most powerful 
motive of empire. A subsidiary result was that, owing 
to the dissolution of the monasteries, pauperism and 
unemployment were greatly increased in England and, 
as has been seen, it was proposed to provide for the 
paupets by sending them over the seas. 
From the days of Columbus onward the lure of gold