The two centuries covered in Volume II, from 1485 to 1688, were the years which saw the Golden Age and the beginning of the world's greatest empire; then the seventeenth century, the century of internal strife in which the English Parliament developed from an advisory to a governing body, arbiter of the highest affairs of State. These were also the years when the New World of the American continent was discovered and settled by European adventure. Volume I: The Birth of Britain Volume II: The New World Volume III: The Age of Revolution Volume IV: The Great Democracies