This article from McGraw-Hill Higher Education discusses European exploration in the late 1400s and 1500s and its impact on English colonization hundreds of years later.

Read about how the Renaissance played out in European countries outside of Italy. Users can follow links to further information on the Elizabethan Era, William Shakespeare, the Reformation, and other connected topics.

From his politics and religious writings to "Paradise Lost", this article traces how the life and work of John Milton were guided by the principle of freedom of thought and how in doing so he challenged fundamental aspects of...

John Cardinal Fisher (c.1469 - 22 June 1535), from 1935 Saint John Fisher, was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal and martyr. He shares his feast day with Saint Thomas More on June 22 in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and 6 July...

Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 - 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of...

Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 - 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of...

This is a biography of Florence Nightingale, the English leader in the reform of hospitals during the Victorian era.

Read the full text of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens. Written as a satire of the English judicial system, "Bleak House" helped lead to legal reforms in the 1870's.

This essay discusses the cultural influence of the Methodist movement. The author theorizes that this factor may have had more impact on England's literary ideas than that of enhancing or neutralizing the revolutionary fervor of the...

John Wycliffe (mid-1320s - 31 December 1384) was an English theologian, translator and reformist. Wycliffe was an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He is considered the founder of the Lollard movement,...

John Wycliffe (mid-1320s - 31 December 1384) was an English theologian, translator and reformist. Wycliffe was an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He is considered the founder of the Lollard movement,...

A sculpture of John Wycliffe, an English theologian, lay preacher, translator and reformist. Wycliffe was an early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers are known as Lollards, a somewhat rebellious...

John Jewel (May 24, 1522 - September 23, 1571), was an English bishop of Salisbury. Under Elizabeth's succession he returned to England, and made earnest efforts to secure what would now be called a low-church settlement of religion; he...

Fordham University provides the text of a description of the "Peterloo Massacre" of 1819 by 19th century English radical Samuel Bamford in support of some radical efforts to make reforms in 19th century Britain.

(1696-1785) "English soldier, reformer and colonist, founder of the State of Georgia." -Foster, 1921.

An American lexicographer and English spelling reformer. He is famous for his contributions to the Merriam-Webster dictionaries.

William Tyndale (sometimes spelled Tindall or Tyndall; (c. 1494 - 1536) was a 16th-century Protestant reformer and scholar who translated the Bible into the Early Modern English of his day. While a number of partial and complete Old...

Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 - 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his...