ABSTRACT
The concepts of 'Christendom' and 'Europe' coexisted in the sixteenth century in uneasy juxtaposition, sometimes being held to be synonymous, sometimes pointing to different realities. 'Britain' could not escape this European/Christian upheaval but geography could determine the nature and extent of its involvement in a manner not open to mainland states. The English and Scottish governments did not dispense entirely with their armies but their chief purpose was still to prepare to fight each other or to intervene, with internal allies, in each other's domestic affairs. The advent of Cromwell and the Commonwealth caused understandable consternation in European royal circles, but the possibility of a European monarchical combination against the regicide regime was not strong. Within a period of some twenty years, there had been a dramatic transformation in Britain's standing as a European state. England and Scotland became a United Kingdom just at the point when it could be claimed that the new state was a European Great Power.
