The Opening of Anglo-Russian Relations
Christopher Lloyd asserts that the first contacts between Elizabethan England and the Russia of Ivan the Terrible mark the true birth of the British Empire.
The man who has the best title to be called the father of the British Empire was an Italian who spent most of his life in Spain—“that good olde gentleman, Sebastian Cabotta.” The English claim to the North American continent rested on the discoveries made by him and his father in the days of Henry VII. After spending most of the reign of Henry VIII abroad, because that monarch showed no inclination for maritime enterprise, Cabot returned to this country to become “the chiefest setter forth” of the voyage of Willoughby and Chancellor, the four hundredth anniversary of which fell last year. That voyage was really the beginning of the Elizabethan Age, because from it we can trace the continuous history of British enterprise overseas. It also marks the opening of the erratic story of Anglo-Russian relations. It was thus an epoch-making as well as a cheerful scene which occurred when the Bona Esperanza, the Edward Bonaventure and the little Bona Confidentia sailed down London river on May 11th, 1553.
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