Elizabeth 1558-1603

Elizabeth 1603

1558-

The death of Queen Mary without children left the throne to his half-sister Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn. She was the last and greatest of the Tudors. “The Tudor Despotism.” It was the government of people for people, but not by people.

Dangers (1558-1563)

Elizabeth was confronted at her succession by another claimant to the throne

 Mary Stuart claims. 1-Catholics denied Cranmer´s power to annul Henry VIII´s marriage to Catherine of Aragone. Elizabeth was an illegal child. 2-She was a very powerful personage. She was Queen of Scotland in her own right, her husband became King of France in 1559.  3-Catholics everywhere believed that she was the rightful heir.

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Against her assets 1-She lost control over Scotland owing to a great Religious revolution which swept the country in 1559. Scottish protestants asked for Elizabeth’s support and expelled the French. 2-Mary lost all chance of French support when her husband died in 1560. He was succeeded by his young and brother Charles IX, which meant that power was in the Queen-Mother, who had no love for her daughter-in-law . 3- national feeling was stronger than religious feeling in the country

Religious Strife  Elizabeth established a truly national Church formed by both Catholics and Protestant.  The Act of Supremacy (1559) merely said that she was “supreme governor as well of things spiritual as of things temporal.”  The Act of Uniformity (1559) compelled the clergy to use the English Prayer Book compiled by Cranmer.

3º King Philip II  As husband of the late Queen he had contrived that England should once more come under the spiritual authority of the Pope, so he offered marriage to Elizabeth. She was at first tempted, but eventually she refused the proposal

4º Economic Distress  To lessen the bad Statute of effects ofApprentices (1563), which enacted that nobody might carry on trade “enclosures”, she until he had served a seven years´ apprenticeship, and the masters were to encouraged be responsible for the welfare of their manufactures and apprentices. Poor Laws (the last and most important in commerce. 1601), which provided that a poor-rate should be raised from landowners in each district, and used for the relief of the destitute by elected “overseers.”

The Queen versus the Catholic Reaction (15601580)

 The Counter Reformation: “A Counter-Reformation” for the recovery of the Catholic Church took place during the ´sixties and ´seventies  Philip of Spain  Elizabeth Supports Foreign Rebellions Secretly  Elizabeth profited from the problems that France and Spain had at home  The Huguenots, as the French Protestants  Netherlands revolt of the Prince of Orange

Catholic Plots The First Catholic Plot: The Catholic Plot: HerSecond own Catholic subjects were ready to conspire

In the following year, the Pope issued a Bull of Excommunication (1570) against her government. The menace came from against Elizabeth, declaring that she was a usurper, the Northern counties andThey calling upon Englishgreat Catholics to help to dethrone her. hated Elizabeth’s minister, Sir William Cecil prevented the assassination of the Queen. Cecil In 1568, the northern shires welcomed Mary queen of Scots The Duke of Norfolk and the Earls of Westmorland andofNorthumberland formed a Persecution Catholics Begins: conspiracy compel Elizabeth to dismiss Cecil, Theseto events cause a change for the worse in the and recognised as the heir to the throne of position ofMary English Catholics England. their forces meltedsuffered away. death for TwoEventually, hundred English Catholics their faith in the last twenty years of the reign

The Birth of British Sea-power (1550-1580)  Before Britannia ruled the Waves:  In the Middle Ages European commerce centred in the Mediterranean, and English merchants for the most part confined their voyages to the Channel and the North Sea.  Hawkins and Drake.  Sir John Hawkins sold negro slaves to the Spaniards.  Drake was a young man who made up his mind to get even with the Spaniards on his account  Unofficial War:  The inquisition was established in Spanish pots on both sides of the Atlantic, and a terrible fate awaited English crews who fell into its clutches. So seamen avenged their peers by clutching Spanish vessels

The Crisis of the Reign (1580-1588) 

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Alliance with France:By 1580, it had become clear that Elizabeth would not be able to hold off the attack of Philip II much longer. He had acquired now Portugal. This drew England and France together, signalised by negotiations for a royal marriage: the Count of Anjou Steps Towards War: In 1583, Burghley unearthed another plot against the Queen.This time papers related to the Pope, Mary, and the Spanish ambassador were found. Then came the murder of William of Orange. Philip tried to gain the Netherlands back. Execution of Ex-Queen Mary: One of Cecil’s spies induced a Catholic name Babington to enter into plot to dethrone Elizabeth with the help from Spain. The ex-Queen could not deny the plot. The court condemned her to death King Philip prepared his “Invincible Armada” Drake sailed into Cadiz destroying everything. Then came the death of the able admiral whom Philip had appointed, and he was replaced by a nobleman who had never been to see. The weather was in Elizabeth’s behalf.

“ The Spacious Days” (1588-1603)  The Results f the Victory:  She became a sort of mythical figure to her people- “Gloriana,” the “Virgin Queen.”  Literature took the form of play-going  The Persecution of “Puritanism. She much disliked their view that bishops should be abolished, for she appointed the bishops herself, and it was this which gave her control over the Church  An Anticlimax:  The year 1598 really marked the end of what we called “The Age of Elizabeth.” For one thing, Lord Burghly, who had helped the Queen to guide the destinies of England for forty years, died in that year

Essex in Ireland:  The outstanding members of the Council during the last years of the reign were now Robert Cecil, the son of Lord Burghley, and Robert Devereux, the brilliant young Earl of Essex. When a rebellion broke out in Ireland in 1598, Essex felt that his chance had come to make a great name for himself so he could dominate the Queen and her Council. This was a futile campaign.  Essex was sent away from the Court in disgrace. He entered a conspiracy to compel Elizabeth to dismiss his rivals from the Council.  Essex was convicted of high treason, and beheaded

 Gradually, Elizabeth’s strength ebbed away, and in March 1603, she died. One of her last actions was to signify that she wished King James of Scotland to be her successor