Being Catholic countries in 1493, England as well as France worked to 're-interpret' the Doctrine of Discovery to serve their own colonial interests. In the 16th century, England established a new interpretation of the Doctrine: "the new theory, primarily developed by English legal scholars, argued that the Catholic King Henry VII of England, would not violate the 1493 papal bulls, which divided the world for the Spanish and Portuguese." This interpretation was also supported by Elizabeth I's legal advisors in the 1580s and effectively set a precedent among European colonial nations that the first Christian nation to occupy land was the 'legal' owner and that this had to be respected in international law. This rationale was used in the colonization of what was to become the American colonies. James I stated in the First Virginia Charter (1606) and the Charter to the Council of New England (1620) that colonists could be given property rights because the lands were "not now actually possessed by any Christian Prince or People..." English monarchs issued that colonists should spread Christianity "to those as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, [and to bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those parts, to human civility, and to a settled and quiet Government."