Elizabeth I1533 - 1603 (ruled England 1558 -1603)

The last of the Tudors

Elizabeth I -overview

The daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn

Took the throne on the death of Mary I

Established England as a Protestant country, reversing the Marian Counter-Reformation

Expanded England's overseas trade and resisted invasion by Spain

Managed Parliament effectively

Was Queen long enough to start to help a sense of national identity and help stimulate an expansion of Art, Drama, Music and Architecture.

When Mary I died Elizabeth took the throne

She faced a number of immediate problems:

She was very young

She was a woman

Her country was split by religious differences

Her Exchequer was low

England faced threats from abroad

However she had a number of advantages

She was a Tudor and the dynasty was now well established

She had clarity over the religious situation ~ she had to be a Protestant to be legitimate

She was young, attractive, highly intelligent and well educated.

She was very experienced in the field of politics and political survival

She was able to surround herself with highly skilled advisors who were fanatically loyal to her.

The key issues were

How to achieve a religious settlement

within England

The Royal Marriage Question

Foreign policy

Advisors and Parliaments

Elizabeth was fortunate to be able to gather around her a number of very talented, relatively young advisers.

The most important of these were: William Cecil (her privy secretary); Francis Walsingham (her ‘spymaster’)

Elizabeth managed her Parliaments very well, getting them to support her, grant her money but not question over-much what she was doing. When doing this she recognised how effective her femininity was.

The Elizabethan Religious SettlementElizabeth did not want to 'make windows into men's souls'

As a result the Elizabethan Religious Settlement was very tolerant - it was a requirement that all of her subjects be Protestant but, until the war with Spain, a blind eye was turned on Catholics who worshiped in secret. Extreme Protestantism was not tolerated either.

England had to be Protestant because other wise Elizabeth was not legitimate.

The Royal Marriage Question

Elizabeth faced the same problems that Mary I had faced ~ namely that every option presented substantial negative consequences.

Despite pressure from her advisors Elizabeth eventually came to the conclusion that it was too dangerous politically for her to marry anyone, although she could use the threat or the promise of the possibility of marriage as a substantial lever to get her own way.

This was a substantial sacrifice for Elizabeth because she knew it meant ending the Tudor dynasty and the loss of motherhood.

The Gloriana CultElizabeth promoted for herself the image of the self-sacrificing, Virgin Queen who was married to her country and her subjects.

This caused a personality cult to grow up around her whereby her courtiers behaved as if they were all in love with her, despite the fact that she was unattainable ~ a little like the personality cults which grow up around celebrities these days only on a national level.

It led to an explosion of creative, artistic, architectural, and literary activity amongst the gentry and the nobility.

Mary Queen of ScotsMary had been forced to flee to England as a result of a protestant uprising against her in Scotland.

Elizabeth had her imprisoned in England ‘for her own safety’. The result was that she became the centre of various Catholic plots as she had a claim to the throne of England if Elizabeth was dead.

Initially Elizabeth refused to act against her cousin but eventually Cecil and Walsingham (Elizabeth’s spy-master and head of security) convinced her that this was the only way ahead.

Walsingham trapped her in a conspiracy, gathered convincing evidence and thus Mary was executed.

Foreign PolicyElizabeth did not wish to become involved in the multi-layered war between France and Spain which was raging in Europe.

However she recognised that this was difficult to do. Initially she used the possibility of a marriage alliance with both countries as a way of playing one off against another

When this strategy wore out she prepared for war against Spain (the bigger threat to England) without an alliance with France by supporting the Dutch Protestant rebels against the Spanish in Flanders and authorising English privateers to attack Spanish merchant ships.

The Armada WarThe Spanish decided that they could not accept the situation with England any longer and that they would need to conquer her.

The plan called for a massive Spanish fleet (the armada) to destroy the English Navy in the Channel, transport ground troops from Flanders to England where they would take advantage of a general Catholic uprising in England itself.

Elizabeth would be displaced and replaced by Philip himself. England would be returned to the Catholic faith and would become a Spanish possession.

This plan failed because the Spanish were unable to destroy the English Navy as a result of a combination of different tactics and technologies linked to bad weather.

Although England was saved, the Spanish War ran on inconclusively elsewhere in the world until the end of Elizabeth’s reign. What it did do was establish England as a maritime power and make her realise that eventually her security required a navy and her prosperity lay in international trade and empire.

A copy of this set of slides along with suggestions for

further study can be found at:

www.mrcarlysle.wordpress.com