ABSTRACT
Britain had long been an empire when Victoria became Queen in 1837. There was an Angevin Empire in the twelfth century, ruled over by Henry II and extending from Aquitaine to Ireland. His son Richard sought kingdoms in distant Palestine, Edward I conquered Wales, and Edward III and Henry V both won and lost great parts of France. The continental Empire had no sooner ended with the loss of Calais in 1558 than Queen Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to the Spanish Main, the Earl of Essex to Ireland, and Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland where, in 1583, he founded the first British colony in the New World. Newfoundland was the first of many colonies that by the end of the eighteenth century formed the basis of a colonial Empire that stretched from Calcutta to Toronto.
