Editing Bristol (section)

=== 15th and 16th centuries ===
[[File:bristol.cathedral.west.front.arp.jpg|thumb|alt=A stone built Victorian Gothic building with two square towers and a central arched entrance underneath a circular ornate window. A Victorian street lamp stands in front of the building and on the right part of a leafless tree, with blue skies behind.|West front of [[Bristol Cathedral]]]]

During the 15th century, Bristol was the second most important port in the country, trading with Ireland,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Childs |first=Wendy R. |date=1982 |title=Ireland's trade with England in the Later Middle Ages |journal=Irish Economic and Social History |volume=IX |pages=5–33 |doi=10.1177/033248938200900101 |s2cid=165038092}}</ref> Iceland{{sfn|Carus-Wilson|1933|pp=155–182}} and [[Gascony]].{{sfn|Carus-Wilson|1933|pp=183–246}} It was the starting point for many voyages, including [[Robert Sturmy]]'s (1457–58) unsuccessful attempt to break the Italian [[monopoly]] of Eastern Mediterranean trade.{{sfn|Jenks|2006|p=1}} New exploration voyages were launched by Venetian [[John Cabot]], who in 1497 made landfall in North America.{{sfn|Jones|Condon|2016}} A 1499 voyage, led by merchant [[William Weston (explorer)|William Weston]] of Bristol, was the first expedition commanded by an Englishman to [[North America]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Evan T. |date=August 2010 |title=Henry VII and the Bristol expeditions to North America: the Condon documents |journal=Historical Research |volume=83 |issue=221 |pages=444–454 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2009.00519.x|doi-access=}}</ref> During the first decade of the 16th century Bristol's merchants undertook a series of exploration voyages to North America and even founded a commercial organisation, 'The Company Adventurers to the New Found Land', to assist their endeavours.{{sfn|Jones|Condon|2016|pp=57–70}} However, they seem to have lost interest in North America after 1509, having incurred great expenses and made little profit.

During the 16th century, Bristol merchants concentrated on developing trade with Spain and its American colonies.{{sfn|Connell-Smith|1954|p=10}} This included the [[smuggling]] of prohibited goods, such as food and guns, to Iberia<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Evan T. |date=February 2001 |title=Illicit business: accounting for smuggling in mid-sixteenth-century Bristol |url=https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/ws/files/3005375/Illicit%20Business%20EcHR.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/ws/files/3005375/Illicit%20Business%20EcHR.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=17–38 |doi=10.1111/1468-0289.00182 |hdl=1983/870}}</ref> during the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Croft |first=Pauline |date=June 1989 |title=Trading with the Enemy 1585–1604 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=281–302 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00012152 |jstor=2639602 |s2cid=162433225}}</ref> Bristol's illicit trade grew enormously after 1558, becoming integral to its economy.{{sfn|Jones|2012}}

The original [[Diocese of Bristol]] was founded in 1542,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horn |first=Joyce M |year=1996 |title=Bristol: Introduction |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol8/pp3-6 |url-status=live |journal=Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857: Volume 8: Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford and Peterborough Dioceses |pages=3–6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044250/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol8/pp3-6 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref> when the former [[Abbey]] of [[Augustine of Canterbury|St. Augustine]] (founded by [[Robert Fitzharding]] four hundred years earlier){{sfn|Bettey|1996|pp=1–5}} became [[Bristol Cathedral]]. Bristol also gained [[City status in the United Kingdom|city]] status that year.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3FTAAAAcAAJ&q=bristol+charter+1155&pg=PA1149 |title=Appendix to the First Report of the Commissioners Appointed to inquire into the Municipal Corporations of England and Wales, Part 2: South-Eastern and Southern Cities|year=1835 |page=1158 |access-date=1 July 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref> In the 1640's, during the [[English Civil War]], [[Bristol in the English Civil War|the city]] was occupied by [[Cavalier|Royalists]], who built the [[Royal Fort House]] on the site of an earlier [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] stronghold.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 April 2009 |title=Royal Fort dig |url=http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6291.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328093546/http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2009/6291.html |archive-date=28 March 2012 |access-date=21 July 2011 |publisher=University of Bristol}}</ref>