Early relations In circa 595,
Pope Gregory I sent a mission now known as the
Gregorian Mission to the
Kingdom of Kent.
Augustine became the first
Archbishop of Canterbury in circa 597. During the
Middle Ages and until the
Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the
Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of Scotland were
Catholic kingdoms with diplomatic relations with the
Papal States. In 1154 the English bishop Nicholas Breakspear was elected
Pope Adrian IV, the only person from the British Isles to have been the Pope. In 1209,
Pope Innocent III put the Kingdom of England under
interdict amidst rising disputes with
John, King of England, after he refused to accept
Stephen Langton, the papal candidate for
Archbishop of Canterbury. The dispute was resolved in 1213 when John conceded power to the Pope by becoming his vassal and agreed to pay feudal taxes to the Catholic Church. In 1479,
Edward IV of England appointed
John Sherwood as the first Resident Ambassador in the Papal States.
Diplomatic Rift Diplomatic relations were broken in 1536, following the establishment of the
Anglican Church by
Henry VIII. Diplomatic relations were re-established in 1553 under
Mary I of England, who appointed
Sir Edward Carne as her Ambassador. During the reign of
Elizabeth I diplomatic relations were broken again due to the
papal bull Regnans in Excelsis in 1570. Official relations with the Papal States were then prohibited by law. The two countries nevertheless had occasional contacts. In 1621, the English court despatched George Gage to the Papal court in order to obtain permission for
Charles I of England to marry the Spanish infanta, a marriage that in the event did not take place. But when Charles I married a French Catholic princess named
Henrietta Maria, he obtained the blessing of
Pope Gregory XV, who used the opportunity to despatch
Gregorio Panzani to England as his envoy. Panzani was followed as papal envoy by the Scottish Franciscan
George Conn. In 1686, King
James VII of Scotland and II of England despatched as envoy to the Papal States
the Earl of Castlemaine and received as papal envoy Count
Fernando D'Adda. Relations were broken again following the
Glorious Revolution in 1688. The Papal States recognised
James Francis Edward Stuart as James VIII and III until his death in 1766, but not his son
Charles, which gave subtle recognition to the reigning
House of Hanover. This helped start the reform of the anti-Catholic penal laws, achieved in part by the
Quebec Act 1774 and the
Papists Act 1778. Sir
John Coxe Hippisley's brief mission to Rome to explore the possibility of restoring relations failed in 1779–1780. Unofficial relations were formed again during the
French Revolution, as both the British and the Papal courts were interested in coordinating policies against the spread of the revolution across Europe. In 1792, the British court despatched Sir
John Coxe Hippisley to Rome as envoy, a position he held until 1795. The papal court despatched Monsignor
Charles Erskine to London as envoy, a position he held until 1801. Both countries found themselves at various times enemies of France during this period and therefore had a degree of commonality of interests, not least because of the
dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution and the French establishment of the
Roman Republic of 1798–99.
After the UK's formation The
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into existence in 1801 with the
union of the Kingdom of Ireland to Great Britain, which had been formed by the
union of the Kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707. With the
Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, all of Ireland became an independent dominion. Northern Ireland exercised its right under that treaty to separate from the remainder of Ireland and maintain the union with Great Britain, which created the current state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Holy See is the pre-eminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church and recognised in international law as a sovereign entity with which diplomatic relations can be maintained.
Pastor Bonus, an
apostolic constitution, defines the Vatican's diplomatic relations with states as the Holy See. Due to the continuity of the Holy See from early times, it is possible to see that the various parts of the United Kingdom had relations with the Holy See prior to their incorporation within the Union (and in Ireland's case, following it - see
Holy See – Ireland relations). Following the
Catholic Emancipation Act 1829, legal obstacles to relations with the Papal States were removed, but the British government still refrained from accrediting an envoy to Rome, though British envoys to some Italian city states were also charged with conducting negotiations with the Papal Court. During the Irish tenants'-rights
Plan of Campaign in the 1880s, the Papacy condemned the activities in the encyclical "Saepe Nos" (1888), even though most of the tenants were Catholics.
20th century The United Kingdom did not re-establish relations with the Holy See until December 1914, following the outbreak of the
First World War, as the British government was apprehensive about possible growing German and Austrian influence over Vatican policies. The first envoy selected was
Henry Howard, a British Catholic, who was followed by the 7th
Count de Salis. In order to maintain that this diplomatic mission was temporary in nature, it was titled "Special Mission to the Vatican". Only in 1923 was the mission's title changed to "His Majesty's Legation to the Holy See". During the
Second World War when Italy was at war with Britain, the British mission and those other allied countries were located in a pilgrim hostel attached to the Convent of Santa Marta within the
Vatican City. Until the liberation of Rome in 1944, the British Envoy
Sir D'Arcy Osborne could not leave the Vatican without special Italian permission. In May 1949,
Princess Margaret visited
Pope Pius XII in the Vatican City. It was the first visit of a British Royal to the Holy See after hundreds of years. The
problem of Northern Ireland has been a major issue in British-Vatican relations, and during the 1970s the Holy See expressed its hopes for a speedy and just solution on the issue. On 1 June 1974,
Pope Paul VI called on all armed factions to take part in peace talks: The Holy See also supported the British efforts at bringing to an end to racial segregation in Rhodesia (present day
Zimbabwe) and commended
Queen Elizabeth II for her activities for peace among nations, and for peace between Catholics and Anglicans.
Recent developments Full relations were recognised in 1982 when
Pope John Paul II visited the UK. This led to the first full exchange of ambassadors between the UK and the Holy See that year. On 9 September 2011, Ambassador
Nigel Marcus Baker presented his credentials to
Pope Benedict XVI. In his speech, the British Ambassador presented three main goals of Vatican-UK relations, namely facing existential threats such as climate change and nuclear proliferation, promoting interfaith dialogue to achieve peace and working to reduce world poverty. The UK Embassy to the Holy See is co-located with the
UK Embassy to the Republic of Italy at Via XX Settembre in Rome, following the 2006 closure of the rented building that had served as the UK's Embassy to the Holy See. Some in the Vatican protested the co-location of the UK's embassies, complaining that senior officials of the Holy See should not be required to visit the UK embassy to Italy, a country with which the Holy See has an entirely different and at times fractious relationship. The Holy See's Nunciature to Great Britain is the diplomatic post of the Holy See whose representative is called the
Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain with the rank of an ambassador. The office of the nunciature is located at 54 Parkside,
Wimbledon Village, London. ==State visits==