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372 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALthe supremacy, and only exchanged the power of the popein England for his own, without tolerating the Protestantdoctrine, the adherents of which he persecuted, there couldbe no union between him and the Protestant princes ofGermany ; and the attempts which he made to attain thisobject were necessarily fruitless.Under the government of his son and successor, EdwardVI., the political connexion with the continent was not initany way strengthened was, on the contrary, made ; apparent, that the ties by which, under Henry VIII., Englandhad been united to the continent, had arisen, not from anynational interest, but from the caprices of that king. Although, during this reign, the Reformation was introducedinto England, that country was not involved in the greatcrisis, by which the condition of the Protestants of Germanywas determined, although so fair an opportunity of its becoming so was offered by the alliance of HenryII. of Franceand Maurice, against Charles V. But upon the prematuredeath of Edward, and the succession of his sister Mary,England was brought into a new connexion with the continent, and one which might have had the most fatal consequences, by the union of Mary and Philip II. of Spain(1554). It is true, the parliament took all possible precautions, but had there been any children of the marriage,Philip's unwearied activity might easily have overcome thesedifficulties. Even as itwas, the political relations of Englandwere affected by When it. Philip II., soon after his succession, saw himself compelled (1557) to a war with France,he contrived, byhis personal influence with his wife, to makeher a party to it. The result was the loss of Calais, the onlyremains of the old conquests of Britain in continental France. 1Calais was taken by the French in 1558, and at the timewas considered a most serious loss ;but in reality it was again to England. It was this that chiefly tended to dispelthe old visions of conquest in France, which had so oftenbeen the occasion of undertakings against that country, although the impracticability of the design might long havebeen discovered.From what has been said, it is clear that, although England during this period occasionally interfered1The islands of Guernsey and Jersey she still retains.in the affair*