1500–1750 Early Modern Migrations

 

Overview

The Battle of Bosworth in 1485 ended a long period of civil wars and struggles for the throne. For over a century the Tudors ran a strong centralised monarchy in which it was dangerous to be ‘the other’, with beliefs or lifestyles that were different from what the rulers required. This applied at different times to both Protestants and Catholics, when their faith conflicted with the monarch of the time. It also applied to Romani Gypsies who had slowly migrated across Europe from northern India over several centuries and whose nomadic way of life was seen as a threat. Laws made it punishable by death to be a Gypsy or follow a similar lifestyle, and a few who refused to abandon their culture were executed...

Migration stories: 1500–1750

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