Anglican history begins with the English Reformation. When Henry VIII broke from the authority of Rome in the 1530s, the English Church began a period of doctrinal change that continued through the reign of his son, Edward VI, whose government introduced the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549 under Archbishop Thomas Cranmer.
This reform was briefly reversed under the Catholic Mary I, before the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559, under Elizabeth I, re-established a reformed Church of England and set much of the lasting shape of Anglicanism — a settlement refined further with the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1571 and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
From the seventeenth century onward, Anglicanism spread across the world through colonial settlement and missionary activity, giving rise to national and regional churches on every continent. In 1867, these churches were formally drawn together as the Anglican Communion at the first Lambeth Conference — the worldwide fellowship of Anglican churches that continues today.