Editing History of England (section)

===Union of the Crowns===
[[File:JamesIEngland.jpg|thumb|[[King James I of England]]]]

When Elizabeth died, her closest male Protestant relative was the [[King of Scots]], [[James VI and I|James VI]], of the [[House of Stuart]], who became King James I of England in a [[Union of the Crowns]], called James I and VI. He was the first monarch to rule the entire island of Britain, but the countries remained separate politically. Upon taking power, James made peace with Spain, and for the first half of the 17th century, England remained largely inactive in European politics. Several assassination attempts were made on James, notably the [[Main Plot]] and [[Bye Plot]]s of 1603, and most famously, on 5 November 1605, the [[Gunpowder Plot]], by a group of Catholic conspirators, led by [[Robert Catesby]], which caused more antipathy in England towards Catholicism.