The two centuries from 1500-1700 saw momentous changes in both society and the state and in the relationship of the two in the British Isles. The nature of monarchy developed amidst deeply controversial and indeed violent debates about the nature and extent of its authority and its relationship with the nation and with parliament. The Protestant Reformation divided Britain from the European mainstream and introduced tensions and divisions into society which helped drive profound political change. The apparatus of the state itself developed as it became a means to regulate the lives, the behaviour and the welfare of its subjects in ever more elaborate ways. The financial basis of state power shifted entirely as new forms of taxation developed, as trade and a developing empire assumed greater importance in the life of the nation, and as the British state became increasingly geared to foreign war. On a political level, events were shaped in vital ways by both groups such as the nobility and gentry, the mercantile interest and religious groupings as well as by remarkable individuals. Change in the state was driven both from above, by the Tudor and Stuart monarchies, and from below, by the demands of their subjects for order, for effective government, and for some measure of political control.