This timeline covers the main points of British (and English) foreign policy from 1485 to the early 21st century.
16th century Henry VII becomes king (1485–1509), founding the Tudor dynasty and ending the long civil war called "Wars of the Roses". His foreign policy involves an alliance with Spain, cemented by the marriage of his son Arthur, Prince of Wales to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. However, after 5 months, Arthur dies at the age of 15. Henry VII reverses the Plantagenet policy of acquiring more French territory; he generally pursues a more defensive, Anglo-centric policyJohn M. Currin, "Henry VII and the treaty of Redon (1489): Plantagenet ambitions and early Tudor foreign policy", History (1996) 81# 263, pp 343–58 1485–1509: The king promotes the woolen trade with Netherlands; helps English merchants compete with the Hanseatic League; sends John Cabot to explore the New World (1497); launches the Royal Navy 1489–91: England sends three expensive military expeditions to keep Brittany out of French control, but fails. 1502: Treaty of "perpetual peace" signed with Scotland. The marriage of King James IV of Scotland to Margaret Tudor will eventually lead to the Stuart succession to the English throne. 1509–47: Henry VIII becomes king; he revives the old claim to the French throne but France is now a more powerful country and the English control is limited to Calais 1511–16: War of the League of Cambrai allied with Spain against France; on losing side. 1513: English defeat & kill King James IV of Scotland at Battle of Flodden Field; he was allied with France. 1520: 7 June: Henry VIII meets with Francis I of France near Calais at the extravagant "Field of the Cloth of Gold"; no alliance results.Joycelyne Gledhill Russell, The Field of the Cloth of Gold: Men and Manners in 1320 (1969). 1521–26: Italian War of 1521–1526 allied with Spain against France; on winning side 1525: Queen Catherine does not produce the male heir the king demands, so he decides on a divorce (which angers Spain). 1526–30: War of the League of Cognac, allied with France; Spain wins 1533: Henry VIII severs ties with Rome because of marriage issue; and declares himself head of the English church; Catholic Spain supports the Pope. 1533: Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry and annuls his divorce from Catharine 1542: War with Scotland. James V defeated at the Battle of Solway Moss 1551–59: Italian War of 1551–59; allied with Spain against France; on winning side 1553–58: Mary I is queen; she promotes Catholicism and an alliance with Catholic SpainDavid M. Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government and Religion in England, 1553–58 (1991) 1554: Mary I marries Prince Philip of Spain, the king of Spain (1556–98). "The Spanish marriage" was unpopular even though Philip was to have little or no power. However he pushes Mary into alliance with Spain in a war with France that resulted in the loss of Calais in 1558 1558–1603: Elizabeth I as Queen;Charles Beem, The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I (2011) excerpt and text search Sir William Cecil (baron Burleigh, 1571) serves as chief advisor; they avoid European wars.Benton Rain Patterson, With the Heart of a King: Elizabeth I of England, Philip II of Spain & the Fight for a Nation's Soul & Crown (2007) Her spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham thwarts numerous plots supported by Spain or France to assassinate the Queen. The long-term English goal becomes a united and Protestant British Isles, through conquest of Ireland and alliance with Scotland. Defence is the mission of a strengthened Royal Navy.Jane E.A. Dawson, "William Cecil and the British Dimension of Early Elizabethan Foreign Policy", History, June 1989, Vol. 74 Issue 241, pp 196–216 1573: Convention of Nymegen a treaty with Spain promising to end support for raids on Spanish shipping by English privateers such as Drake and Hawkins.R.B. Mowat, History of European Diplomacy, 1451–1789 (1928) pp 133–40. 1580–1620s: English merchants form the Levant Company to promote trade with Ottoman Empire; they build a presence in Istanbul and trade grew as the Turks bought arms and cloth.Maria Blackwood, "Politics, Trade, and Diplomacy: The Anglo-Ottoman Relationship, 1575–1699", History Matters (May 2010), pp 1–34 1585: By the Treaty of Nonsuch with the Netherlands, England supported the Dutch revolt against Spain with soldiers and money. Spain decides this means war and prepares an armada to invade England.R. B. Wernham, Before the Armada: The growth of English foreign policy 1485–1588 (1966) 1585–1604: Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an undeclared intermittent naval conflict; English strategy focused on raids on ports such as Cadiz, and seizure of Spanish merchant ships because it was much cheaper than land forces—using privateers ("Sea Dogs") who turned a large profit when they captured prizes—let the naval warfare pay for itself.Angus Konstam and Angus McBride, Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560–1605 (2000) p. 4 1588: Massive Spanish invasion thwarted by destruction of Spanish Armada; it is celebrated for centuries as a decisive defeat for England's Catholic enemy.Geoffrey Parker, "Why the Armada Failed", History Today (May 1988) pp 26–33.
17th century 1603–1714 was the Stuart periodG.M.D. Howat, Stuart and Cromwellian Foreign Policy (1974) 1603: James VI of Scotland crowned King of England (as James I of England (1603–25), marking a permanent union of the two thrones 1604: King James achieves peace with Spain in Treaty of London; both sides will no longer support rebellions
1613: James marries his daughter Elizabeth to Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, leader of the Protestant Union of German princes. James associates his kingdoms with the anti-Habsburg forces with this marriage.W. B. Patterson, "King James I and the Protestant cause in the crisis of 1618–22." Studies in Church History 18 (1982): 319–334. 1613–20: Netherlands becomes England's major rival in trade, fishing, and whaling. The Dutch form alliances with Sweden and the Hanseatic League; England counters with an alliance with Denmark 1610s: English involvement with Russia; strengthens the Muscovy Company, which has a monopoly on trade with Russia. In 1613 it obtains a monopoly on whaling in Spitsbergen. A Russian embassy comes to London in 1613.Maija Jansson, Nikolai Rogozhin, and Paul Bushkovitch, eds. England and the North: The Russian Embassy of 1613–1614 (1994). 1613: The English captain John Saris arrives at Hirado, Japan, with the intent of establishing a trading factory. He met with Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, during the ten-year activity of the company between 1613 and 1623, only four English ships brought cargoes directly from London to Japan.Adam Clulow, "Commemorating Failure: The Four Hundredth Anniversary of England's Trading Outpost in Japan." Monumenta Nipponica 68.2 (2013): 207-231. online 1623: The Amboyna massacre occurs in Japan. England closes its commercial base at Hirado. The relationship ends for more than two centuries.Karen Chancey, "The Amboyna massacre in English politics, 1624–1632." Albion 30.4 (1998): 583-598. 1624–25: The king turns to France after negotiations with Spain for a marriage to the infanta had stalled. With religion closely tied to politics, France demanded an end to the persecution of Catholics in England as a condition for the marriage. The negotiations fail. 1627–28: English attempt to aid besieged Huguenots in the Siege of La Rochelle, but fail. This is the only major English contribution to the Thirty Years' War.Thomas Cogswell, "Prelude to Ré: the Anglo-French struggle over La Rochelle, 1624-1627." History 71.231 (1986): 1-21. 1639–40: Bishops' Wars with Scotland 1642: English Civil War begins see Timeline of the English Civil War and Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1652–54: First Anglo-Dutch WarTimothy Venning, Cromwellian Foreign Policy (1995) 1654–60: Anglo-Spanish War (1654–60)T.P. Grady, Anglo-Spanish Rivalry in Colonial South-East America, 1650–1725 (Routledge, 2015). 1657: Alliance with France signed against Spain. 1661: King Louis XIV of France begins his personal reign, taking control of the state. Louis as the leader of the most powerful nation in western Europe begins a policy of aggressively asserting French interests and expanding the borders of France. Until his death in 1715, France's hegemonic aspirations are the principle driving drive in diplomacy in western Europe.R. M. Hatton, Louis XIV and Europe (1976). 1665–67: Second Anglo-Dutch War.James Rees Jones, The Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century (1996) 1665: Charles II of Spain begins his reign. The last of the Spanish Habsburgs. As Carlos is childless with no Spanish relatives and as he is very sickly, his expected death raises the highly controversial issue of succession to the Spanish throne. The main candidates for the Spanish succession are the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs. 1667: War of Devolution. France attacks Spain and occupies much of the Spanish Netherlands and the Franche-Comté. The prospect that France might annexe the entire Spanish Netherlands is viewed as a threat in London. 1667: Treaty of Breda ends of the Dutch war. It is a major turning point after which mercantilism ceased to dominate Anglo-Dutch relations.Gijs Rommelse, "The role of mercantilism in Anglo-Dutch political relations, 1650–74", Economic History Review (2010) 63#3 pp 591–611 1668: Triple Alliance of England, Sweden and the United Provinces formed to oppose France. Spain is defeated, but the threat that the Triple Alliance might intervene on Spain's side forces the French to make peace. Louis annexes less Spanish territory than what he planned on. The French decide that the Dutch will be their next target, and accordingly Louis seeks to break up the Triple Alliance by bidding for English and Swedish friendship.Lynn, The French Wars 1667–1714, p 35–36, 40 1670: Treaty of Dover. Secret Anglo-French alliance formed. In exchange for French subsidies and a promise to send an army to England should another civil war break out between king and Parliament, Charles II agrees to convert to Catholicism and to fight with France against the Dutch. Until the Glorious Revolution of 1688, England was a close ally of France.R. Hutton, "The Making of the Secret Treaty of Dover, 1668–1670", Historical Journal (1986) 29#2 pp. 297–318 in JSTOR 1672–74: Third Anglo-Dutch War begins. 1673: Revelation of the pro-Catholic Secret Treaty of Dover causes public backlash against the war and the Crown. 1688–89: William of Orange invades from the Netherlands as King James II flees; becomes William III; called the Glorious RevolutionSteven C. A. Pincus, 1688: The First Modern Revolution (2009) Louis continues to recognise the deposed James II/VII, who takes refuge in France and is promoted by France as the legitimate king of England, a policy known as Jacobitism. French support was a major factor in British diplomacy until the mid-18th century. William allows James and his family to escape after being captured as the threat of a Jacobite restoration supported by France forces gives those who supported the Glorious Revolution a vested interest in ensuring that England is not defeated by France, and James is restored. Parliament accordingly votes for all the war taxes William requests. From William's viewpoint, James is more useful as king in exile in France than as a prisoner in the Tower of London. 12 May 1689: Reflecting the changed foreign policy orientation caused by the Glorious Revolution, William has England join the anti-French League of Augsburg and declare war on France (as a stadtholder of the United Provinces, William had already declared war on France on 26 November 1688.Lynn, The French Wars 1667–1714, page 10).