Oliver Cromwell: Constitutional Crisis in England

The constitutional crisis did not begin in England until the seventeenth century, but the outcome of the struggle for power had far-reaching results. Henry VIII had been able to disengage England from Rome with a minimum of difficulty. One daughter, Mary, had made England Catholic again, and another daughter, Elizabeth, had returned her country to the Protestant fold. These sudden changes provoked only minor uprisings and posed no major constitutional problems except in the relationship between church and state.