Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Elizabeth I Of England shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Elizabeth I Of England offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Elizabeth I Of England at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Elizabeth I Of England? Wrong! If the Elizabeth I Of England is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Elizabeth I Of England then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Elizabeth I Of England? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Elizabeth I Of England and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Elizabeth I Of England wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Elizabeth I Of England then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Elizabeth I Of England site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Elizabeth I Of England, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Elizabeth I Of England, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
{{Infobox British Royalty|majesty the queen| name =Elizabeth I| title =Queen of England and Ireland...| image =Elizabeth I Darnley Portrait.jpg| caption =The "Darnley Portrait", circa 1570| reign =
17 November 1558 – 24 March 1603 [1559| successor =[James I of England| royal house =
Tudor dynasty| father =Henry VIII of England| mother =Anne Boleyn| date of birth =| place of birth =
Greenwich Palace| date of death =| place of death =Richmond Palace|-->
Elizabeth I ([7 September 1533 – 24 March
1603) was
List of British monarchs,
France (
English claims to the French throne), and
Queen of Ireland from
17 November 1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as
The Virgin Queen,
Gloriana, or
Good Queen Bess, and was immortalised by Edmund Spenser as the
Faerie Queene. Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the
House of Tudor (the other Tudor monarchs having been her grandfather Henry VII of England, her father Henry VIII of England, her half-brother Edward VI of England, and her half-sister
Mary I of England, also known as Mary Tudor or "Bloody Mary"). She reigned for almost 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide, as well as great religious turmoil within England.
Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the
Elizabethan era or the Golden Age of Elizabeth. Playwrights
William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and
Ben Jonson all flourished during this era; Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe;
Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of
North America took place under Sir James Huckle, Walter Raleigh and
Humphrey Gilbert. Elizabeth was a decisive ruler. (Numerous observations by Anne Somerset in
Elizabeth I do not support this, at least in some circumstances.) Her favourite motto was
video et taceo ("I see and keep silent"). Day Keeper journal. This last quality, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Like her father Henry VIII of England, she was a writer and poet. She granted
Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (its official name is the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Elizabeth near
Dublin) in 1592 and the British East India Company (1600).
In her nearly forty-five years as queen, she created only nine Peerage, one earldom and seven baronies in the
Peerage of England, and one barony in the Peerage of Ireland. She also reduced the number of
Privy Council from thirty-nine to nineteen, and later to fourteen.
Biography
Early life
Elizabeth is the second child of Henry VIII of England to survive infancy; her mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. The couple had been secretly married sometime between the winter of 1532 and late January of 1533. In later life Elizabeth reported to the Venetian ambassador that she had been told it was the earlier date, possibly in November. See A. Weir
The Children of England, for Elizabeth's comments on the matter and J. Denny
Anne Boleyn: A new life of England's tragic queen and D. Starkey
Six Wives, for the arguments that Anne and Henry were probably married on
14 November 1532. Elizabeth was born in the
Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, on 7 September
1533. She was named for her paternal grandmother
Elizabeth of York. Upon her birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England despite having an older half-sister, Mary I of England; Mary was not considered by Henry VIII to be a legitimate heir because Henry had annulled his marriage to her mother, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Although the popular rumour would have it that Mary disliked her younger half-sister, in fact they appear to have been fond of one another. However their relationship suffered when the three women were placed in opposite camps by religion and politics.
Henry required a legitimate son in order to continue the Tudor succession (he had an acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, by Elizabeth Blount, but the boy, who lived 1519–1536, was ineligible to succeed due to his bastardy), but following Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne was unable to provide such an heir, and instead suffered at least two miscarriages, one in 1534 and another at the beginning of 1536. The latter miscarriage was swiftly followed by the downfall of the Queen, who was arrested on 2 May, 1536, imprisoned, and executed (
beheaded) on
19 May 1536 after being convicted of treason;
incest with her younger brother, George Boleyn; and
witchcraft. Historians debate the exact reason why Anne fell from power, but it is generally agreed that she was innocent of the charges against her, and that her death was orchestrated by her political rivals.E.W. Ives,
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.R.M. Warnicke's
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn offers a different timetable of events.K. Lindsey's
Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, a more critical interpretation of Henry's actions, arguing that Henry, not Anne's enemies, deliberately orchestrated her death.
Nearly three years old when her mother was executed, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and lost the title of princess. She also lost the money and gifts her mother had routinely showered upon her. After Anne's death, she was addressed as the Lady Elizabeth and lived separately from her father as he married his succession of four more wives. In 1537, her father's third wife,
Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son, Edward VI of England, who became the heir apparent to the throne.
in 1544. The embroidered binding with the monogram KP for "Katherin Parr" is believed to have been worked by Elizabeth.Davenport, Cyril,
English Embroidered Bookbindings, edited by Alfred Pollard, London, 1899Elizabeth's first governess was
Lady Margaret Bryan, a Baron whom Elizabeth called "Muggie". At the age of four, Elizabeth acquired a new governess, Catherine Champernowne (later Lady Catherine Ashley), whom she often referred to as "Kat". Champernowne developed a close relationship with Elizabeth and remained her confidante and good friend for life. Matthew Parker, her mother's favourite priest, took a special interest in Elizabeth's well-being, particularly because a fearful Anne had entrusted her daughter's spiritual welfare to Parker before her death. Parker later became Elizabeth's first Archbishop of Canterbury after she became queen in 1558. One companion, to whom she referred with affection throughout her life, was her cousin, the Irishman
Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, later 3rd
Earl of Ormonde (d. 1615).
Elizabeth was resourceful, determined, and exceedingly intelligent. She loved learning for its own sake. Like her mother and father, she was flirtatious and charismatic. She also inherited their sharp tongues and fiery tempers.
King Edward VI
Henry VIII died in 1547, at which point Elizabeth was 13 years old; Henry was succeeded by Edward VI.
Catherine Parr, Henry's last wife, married
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Edward VI's uncle, and took Elizabeth into her household. There, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham. She came to speak and read six languages: her native English language, as well as French language, Italian language, Spanish language,
Greek language, and Latin language. In later life she acquired a working knowledge of German language, reportedly so she could read religious and military works in that language. Elizabeth was an avid reader and often spent hours reading Greek or Latin literature. Under the influence of Catherine Parr and Ascham, Elizabeth was raised in the new
Church of England.
Elizabeth did not live with her step-mother for long. At Whitsun in May 1548, she was sent to Cheshunt, the home of Sir Anthony Denny, by the then-pregnant Catherine, who had become concerned about the closeness between Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, and the behaviour of the two: Seymour's behaviour was by the standards of the time thoroughly inappropriate (on one occasion he and Catherine had cut a gown Elizabeth was wearing to pieces; on another, he entered her room when she was still in her nightclothes), and rumours claimed that Seymour had seduced his young charge, or that he had intended to marry her. Elizabeth never saw her step-mother again, although they exchanged cordial letters before the death of the latter; Catherine died of
puerperal fever after childbirth on
5 September 1548. Elizabeth was then moved to the royal manor at
Hatfield House.
Elizabeth became implicated in Thomas Seymour's schemes to seize control of England in March 1549; when Thomas was arrested for attempting to kidnap the King, and for plotting a coup against the Lord Protector, it was suggested that she had been a party in this matter, and that she had encouraged him in his apparent ambitions to marry her. Elizabeth, though questioned by Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, was accepted as being innocent, and was not charged. Seymour, less fortunate, was convicted and executed. Later legend claimed that when Elizabeth heard of his execution, she commented, "
Today died a man with much wit and not much judgment"; in fact, the story appears to be untrue.
imprisoned her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth, in the
Tower of London for suspected treason and collaboration with the traitor Thomas WyattAs long as Edward VI, her half-brother, remained on the throne, Elizabeth's own position remained secure. In 1553, however, Edward died of
tuberculosis and assorted other ailments, aged only fifteen. He left a will, in which he attempted to nullify his father's wishes for the succession: disregarding the Succession to the Crown Act 1543, the new document excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne and declared Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France) (Henry VIII's sister) to be heiress. This change was part of a plan hastily thought up by the regent,
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was determined to maintain his power and his reforms, and who had been surprised by Edward's sudden decline; with the connivance of Lady Jane's family, the Greys, Dudley married the heiress to his youngest son, Guilford Dudley. After Edward's death, Lady Jane ascended the throne, but was
Deposition (politics) less than two weeks later. Armed with popular support, Mary rode triumphantly into London, her 20-year-old half-sister Elizabeth at her side.
Queen Mary
Mary Tudor contracted a marriage with Prince Philip of Spain (later
Philip II of Spain), seeking to strengthen the Catholic influence in England.
Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 sought to prevent Mary from marrying Philip, and after its failure, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the
Tower of London for her alleged involvement. There were demands for Elizabeth's execution, but few Englishmen wished to put a member of the popular House of Tudor to death. The Lord Chancellor
Stephen Gardiner wanted to remove Elizabeth from the line of succession, but neither Mary nor Parliament would allow it. After two months in the Tower, Elizabeth was released on the same day her mother had been executed eighteen years earlier. She was then put under house arrest under the guard of
Sir Henry Bedingfield.
Following a moderate start to her reign, the Roman Catholic Mary opted for a hard line against Protestants, whom she regarded as
heretics and a threat to her authority. In the ensuing persecution she came to be known as "
Bloody Mary (person)". She urged Elizabeth to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, but Elizabeth, instead, kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions. By the end of that year, when Mary was mistakenly rumoured to be pregnant, Elizabeth was allowed to return to court at Philip's behest. He worried that his wife might die in childbirth, in which case he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than Elizabeth's next-closest relative, Mary I of Scotland, also known as "
Mary, Queen of Scots". Mary Stuart had grown up in the French court and was betrothed to Francis II of France, the
Dauphin of France. Although Mary Stuart was Catholic like Mary Tudor, Philip did not desire Mary Stuart to grasp the English crown because her political stance would be heavily influenced by the French. Mary Tudor died in November 1558 possibly from ovarian cancer which also killed her mother Catherine of Aragon, leaving Elizabeth as heir to the English throne.
There was rejoicing in the streets of London upon Mary's death, and in November 1558 Elizabeth was set to succeed to the throne. Legend has it that she was sitting beneath an oak tree reading the Bible at Hatfield House when the news reached her - although this is unlikely given the winter season. A manservant approached her and breathlessly said, "Your Majesty…" Elizabeth then quoted s:Bible World English/Psalms#Psalm 118 in response: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes".
Queen Elizabeth
During her procession to the throne, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the common people, who performed plays and read poetry extolling her beauty and intelligence. Elizabeth's
coronation was on
January 15,
1559. She was 25 years old. Since the senior bishops declined to participate in the coronation because Elizabeth was illegitimate under both
canon law and
statute, the relatively unknown
Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle crowned her. The Mass (liturgy)#The Communion rite was celebrated by Oglethorpe, but a few weeks before the coronation, she demanded that he not elevate the host, which the Bishop refused. Offended by this intransigence, Elizabeth I walked out after the reading of the gospel. Elizabeth I's coronation was the last one during which the Latin service was used; future coronations except for that of
George I of Great Britain used the English service. She later made her mother's chaplain,
Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Elizabeth and the 1559 Religious Settlement
One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth’s early reign was
Christianity. Communion with the Roman Catholic Church had been reinstated under Mary, but was again severed by Elizabeth. She relied primarily on her chief advisors, Sir William Cecil, as her
Secretary of State, and Nicholas Bacon, as the
Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, for direction on the matter.
Parliament of England was summoned in 1559 to consider the Reformation Bill and to create a new church. The Reformation Bill defined the
Mass (liturgy)#The Communion rite as a consubstantial celebration as opposed to a
transubstantiation celebration, included abuse of the
pope in the
litany, and ordered that ministers should not wear the surplice or other Catholic vestments. It allowed ministers to marry, banned images from churches, and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Head of the Church of England. The bill met heavy resistance in the
House of Lords, as Roman Catholic
bishops as well as the lay peers voted against it. They reworked much of the bill, changed the litany to allow for a transubstantial belief in the Communion and refused to grant Elizabeth the title of Supreme Head of the Church. Parliament was prorogued over Easter, and when it resumed, the government entered two new bills into the Houses — the
Act of Supremacy 1559 and the Act of Uniformity 1559.
Act of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy validated ten Acts that Mary had repealed and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Supreme Governor was a suitably equivocal title that made Elizabeth head of the Church without ever saying she was. This was important because many felt that a woman could not rule the church. Elizabeth's changes were more wholesale than those of her half-brother,
Edward VI. All but
Anthony Kitchin of the bishops lost their posts, a hundred fellows of Oxford colleges were deprived; many dignitaries resigned rather than take the oath. The bishops who were removed from the ecclesiastical bench were replaced by appointees who would agree to the reforms.
On the question of iconclasm, her initial reaction was to allow crucifixes and candlesticks and the restoration of roods, but some of the new bishops whom she had elevated protested. In 1560
Edmund Grindal, one of the Marian exiles now made
Bishop of London, was allowed to enforce the demolition of rood lofts in London and in 1561 the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts.She herself retained a cross and candlesticks in her own chapel: Haigh (ibid) p.244 Thereafter, the determination to prevent any further restoration was evidenced by the more thoroughgoing destruction of
roods, vestments, stone altars, dooms, statues and other ornaments. The queen also appointed a new Privy Council, removing many Roman Catholic counsellors by doing so. Under Elizabeth, factionalism in the Council and conflicts at court greatly diminished. The Act of Supremacy had passed without difficulty.
Act of Uniformity
However, the
Act of Uniformity 1559 which forced people to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church, at which a new version of the
Book of Common Prayer was to be used, was passed by only three votes.Haigh (ibid.) p.237-241. No bishops voted in favour, two were prevented from voting at all, and two other ecclesiastics were absent. The majority were all laymen : J Guy
Tudor England(OUP1988) p. 262 The Bill of Uniformity was more cautious than the initial Reformation Bill. It revoked the harsh laws proposed against Roman Catholics, it removed the abuse of the pope from the litany and kept the wording that allowed for both consubstantial and transubstantial belief in the Communion.
After Parliament was dismissed, Elizabeth, along with Cecil, drafted what are known as the Royal Injunctions. These were additions to the settlement and largely stressed continuity with the Catholic past — ministers were ordered to wear the surplice. Wafers, as opposed to ordinary baker's bread, were to be used as the bread at Communion. There had been opposition to the settlement in the shires, which for the most part were largely Roman Catholic, so the changes were made in order to allow for acceptance to the Settlement. What succeeded more than anything else was the sheer length of Elizabeth's reign; while Mary had been able to impose her programme for a mere five years, Elizabeth had more than forty. Those who delayed, 'looking for a new day' when restoration would again be commanded, were defeated by the passing of years.Haigh (ibid) p.245
Elizabeth ratified the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis established on
April 3,
1559, bringing peace with France. She adopted a principle of "England for the English". Her other realm,
Ireland, was dealt with differently. The English customs enforced in Ireland were unpopular with its inhabitants, as were her religious policies.
Marriage and power
painted by Steven van der Meulen, 1560sSoon after her accession, many questioned whom Elizabeth would marry. Her reason for never marrying is unclear; she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of Henry VIII's wives, her mother's death always in her mind, or perhaps psychologically scarred by her rumoured childhood relationship with
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley while in his household. Contemporary gossip held that she had suffered from a physical defect that she was afraid to reveal, perhaps scarring from smallpox. There was also the story that she would only marry one man, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was rumoured to be deeply in love and whom she appointed her Master of the Queen's Horse; however, until 1560, Dudley was married to Amy Robsart, who died in suspicious circumstances. After Robsart's death, Elizabeth's council refused to consider sanctioning a marriage between the Queen and Dudley, because of Dudley's status as a commoner and his family's past history (his grandfather had been an infamous bureaucrat under Henry VII, executed by Henry VIII; his father had been the still-more infamous Lord Protector). Some believe Elizabeth decided that if she could not have Dudley, she would not marry at all.
{], which Mary had been and Elizabeth now was. In this capacity, she made all decisions herself, advised only at her request. As a married queen, some would have expected her to give over her power to her husband, and take no part in matters of state. It would thus be an appalling prospect if she were to contemplate marriage to one of the Catholic monarchs that were hovering around her court.
Virginity
Elizabeth was honored with a colony in the Americas being named after her. Virginia was named for Elizabeth because she was often referred to as the ‘Virgin Queen”. While this is because she never married, it remains unclear whether she was literally a virgin. Even among her contemporaries she was a social and sexual enigma by refraining from marriage, sex, and childbirth. While a king was expected to keep a mistress or concubine it would have been politically dangerous for a woman to behave in the same manner. The sexuality of the sovereign was as important to the national psyche then as in her father's time — though in a very different way.
It was advantageous in several ways for Elizabeth to retain her reputation as a virgin. Even though — had she married — her status would not have changed from that of a queen regnant to a queen consort, there were other consequences to consider. Because a Christian wife was expected to defer to her husband's authority, a reigning queen risked her political supremacy with marriage. Marital life might have created unwanted tension in the bedchamber, at home and abroad — the marriages of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, were sufficient examples in that regard.
However, rumours of affairs abounded, one of the most enduring being with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Later in her life, the queen was taken with Leicester's stepson, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Conflicts with France and Scotland
The Queen found a dangerous rival in her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who was the wife of the
France King
Francis II of France. In 1559, Mary had declared herself Queen of England with French support. In Scotland, Mary Stuart's mother,
Mary of Guise attempted to cement French influence by providing army fortification against English aggression. A group of Scottish lords allied to Elizabeth deposed Mary of Guise and, under pressure from the English, Mary's representatives signed the
Treaty of Edinburgh, which led to the withdrawal of French troops. Though Mary vehemently refused to ratify the treaty, it had the desired effect and French influence was greatly reduced in Scotland.
Upon the death of her husband, Francis II, Mary Stuart had returned to Scotland. In France meanwhile, conflict between the Catholics and the
Huguenots led to the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion. Elizabeth secretly gave aid to the Huguenots. She made peace with France in 1564, agreeing to give up her claims to the last English possession on the French mainland, Calais, after the defeat of an English expedition at
Le Havre; but not to her claim to the French crown, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III of England during the period of the Hundred Years' War in the
14th century, and was not renounced until the reign of George III of the United Kingdom during the 18th century (a few years after the French Revolution).
Later, several conspiracies aimed at bringing England back into the Catholic Church centered around Mary, Queen of Scots. Secret letters in her own hand were presented as evidence of conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth, and with great reluctance, Elizabeth had her executed for treason in 1587.
Plots and rebellions
At the end of 1562, Elizabeth fell ill with
smallpox, but later recovered. Alarmed by the Queen's near-fatal illness, Parliament asked in 1563 that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent
civil war upon her death. She refused to do either, and in April, she
Prorogation Parliament. Parliament did not reconvene until Elizabeth needed its assent to raise taxes in 1566. The British House of Commons threatened to withhold funds until the Queen agreed to provide for the succession. On
October 19,
1566,
Sir Robert Bell boldly pursued Elizabeth for the royal answer despite her command to desist; in her own words "Mr. Bell with his complices must needs prefer their speeches to the upper house to have you my lords, consent with them, whereby you were seduced, and of simplicity did assent unto it."
Different lines of succession were considered during Elizabeth's reign. One possible line was that of
Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's elder sister, which led to Mary I, Queen of Scots. The alternative line descended from Henry VIII's younger sister,
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France); the heir in this line would be the
Lady Catherine Grey, Lady Jane Grey's sister. An even more distant possible successor was Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who could claim descent only from
Edward III of England, who reigned during the fourteenth century. Each possible heir had his or her disadvantages: Mary I was a Roman Catholic, Lady Catherine Grey had married without the Queen's consent and the Puritanism Lord Huntingdon was unwilling to accept the Crown.
Mary I of Scotland, had to suffer her own troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth had suggested that if she married the Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, then Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir." Mary chose her own course, and in 1565 married a Roman Catholic, who also had a claim to the English throne,
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Lord Darnley was murdered in 1567 after the couple had become estranged. Darnley was a heavy drinker and had approved the murder of Mary's secretary, David Rizzio, with whom he suspected her of having an affair. Mary then married
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to be responsible for Darnley's murder. Scottish nobles then rebelled, imprisoning Mary and forcing her to abdicate in favour of her infant son, who consequently became James I of England.
In 1568, the last viable English heir to the throne, Catherine Grey, died. She had left two sons, but they were deemed illegitimate, owing to the absence of any living witnesses to the marriage, or to any clergy who could attest to having performed it. Her heiress was her sister, the
Lady Mary Grey, a hunchbacked dwarf. Elizabeth was once again forced to consider a Scottish successor, from the line of her father's sister, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Mary I, however, was unpopular in Scotland, where she had been imprisoned. She later escaped from her prison and fled to England, where she was captured by English forces. Elizabeth was faced with a conundrum: sending her back to the Scottish nobles was deemed too cruel; sending her to France would put a powerful pawn in the hands of the French king; forcibly restoring her to the Scottish throne may have been seen as an heroic gesture, but would cause too much conflict with the Scots; and imprisoning her in England would allow her to participate in plots against the Queen. Elizabeth chose the last option: Mary was kept confined for eighteen years, much of it in
Sheffield Castle and
Sheffield Manor in the custody of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his redoubtable wife
Bess of Hardwick. Mary was later removed to
Tutbury Castle.
In 1569, Elizabeth faced a major uprising, known as the Northern Rebellion, instigated by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and
Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland.
Pope Pius V aided the Roman Catholic Rebellion by excommunicating Elizabeth and declaring her deposed in a
papal bull. The Bull of Deposition,
Regnans in Excelsis, was only issued in 1570, arriving after the Rebellion had been put down. After the Bull of Deposition was issued, however, Elizabeth chose not to continue her policy of religious tolerance. She instead began the persecution of her religious enemies, giving impetus to various conspiracies to remove her from the throne. She also permitted the Church of England to take a more explicitly
Anglican line by allowing Parliament to pass the Thirty-Nine Articles. These were not intended as a complete statement of the
Christian faith, but of the position of the Church of England
vis-a-vis the Roman Catholic Church and dissident Protestantism.
Elizabeth then found a new enemy in her former brother-in-law,
Philip II of Spain. After Philip had launched a surprise attack on the English privateers Sir
Francis Drake and John Hawkins in 1568, Elizabeth assented to the detention of a Spanish treasure ship in 1569. Philip was already involved in putting down a rebellion in the
Spanish Netherlands, and could not afford to declare war on England.
Philip II participated in some conspiracies to remove Elizabeth, albeit reluctantly. The 4th Duke of Norfolk was also involved in the first of these plots, the
Ridolfi plot of 1571. After the Roman Catholic Ridolfi Plot was discovered (much to Elizabeth's shock) and foiled, the Duke of Norfolk was executed and Mary lost the little liberty she had remaining. Spain, which had been friendly to England since Philip's marriage to Elizabeth's predecessor, ceased to be on cordial terms.
In 1571, Sir William Cecil was created Baron Burghley. He had been Elizabeth's chief advisor from the earliest days, and he remained so until his death in 1598. In 1572, Burghley was raised to the powerful position of Lord High Treasurer; his post as Secretary of State was taken up by the head of Elizabeth's spy network,
Francis Walsingham.
Also in 1572, Elizabeth made an alliance with
France. The
St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots) were killed, strained the alliance but did not break it. Elizabeth even began marriage negotiations with Henry III of France (later King Henry III of France and of Poland), and afterwards with his younger brother
François, Duke of Anjou. During the latter's visit in 1581, it is said that Elizabeth "drew off a ring from her finger and put it upon the Duke of Anjou's upon certain conditions betwixt them two". The Spanish Ambassador reported that she actually declared that the Duke of Anjou would be her husband. However, Anjou, who was reportedly scarred and hunch-backed, returned to France and died in 1584 before he could be married. After his departure, Elizabeth wrote a poem, "
On Monsieur’s Departure", which appears to refer to their failed negotiations; however, the poem is largely a collection of
Petrarchan commonplaces and thus not a clear picture of the Queen's private thoughts.
Conflict with Spain
(1588), depicted in the background. Elizabeth's international power is symbolized by the hand resting on the globe. The Imperial Crown to her right also indicated England's growth as an international power during her reign.
In 1579, the
Second Desmond Rebellion began in Ireland with the arrival of an invading force funded by Pope Gregory XIII; but by 1583, the rebellion had been put down after a brutal campaign waged by fire, sword and famine, in which a large part of the population of the then County Desmond, the north-western part of the province of
Munster, died; chilling, albeit approving, observations on the campaign are set out in
A View of the Present State of Ireland by the poet, Edmund Spenser (first licensed for publication in 1633, four decades after it was written).
Also in 1580, Philip II annexed Portugal, and with the Portuguese throne came the command of the high seas. After the assassination of the Dutch
Stadholder William I of Orange, England began to side openly with the Dutch Republic of the Netherlands, who were at the time rebelling against Spanish rule. Philip, left without a wife, did propose to Elizabeth but she refused. This, together with economic conflict with Spain and English piracy against Spanish Empire (which included an English alliance with Islamic Morocco), led to the outbreak of the
Anglo–Spanish War (1585) in 1585; and in 1586 the Spanish ambassador was expelled from England for his participation in conspiracies against Elizabeth. Fearing such conspiracies, Parliament had passed the
Act of Association 1584, under which anyone associated with a plot to murder the Sovereign would be excluded from the line of succession. However, another scheme against Elizabeth, the Babington plot, was revealed by Elizabeth's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. The extent to which the plot was created by Walsingham is open to conjecture.
Mary I of Scotland was put on trial for the Babington Plot for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen, including Catholics, presided over by England's Chief of Justice, Sir John Popham. Mary denied the accusation, and remonstrated that she was denied the opportunity of reviewing the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her, that she had been denied access to legal counsel and that she had never been an English subject and therefore could not be convicted of treason. Mary was found guilty and was
decapitation at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire on February 8
1587.
In her will, Mary I of England had left Philip her claim to the English throne; under force of the threat from Elizabeth's policies in the
Netherlands and the East Atlantic, Philip set out his plans for an invasion of England. In April 1587, Sir
Francis Drake burned part of the Spanish fleet at Cádiz, delaying Philip's plans. In July 1588, the
Spanish Armada, a grand fleet of 130 ships bearing over 30,000 men, set sail in the expectation of conveying a Spanish invasion force under the command of the
Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza across the
English Channel from the Netherlands. Elizabeth set out to join her troops wearing little armour over her dress and no guards to accompany her, only pages. Despite the complaints on her safety, Elizabeth addressed her troops with a notable speech, known as the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, in which she famously declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too! And I think it foul scorn that Spain or Parma or any prince of Europe should dare invade the borders of my realm". She was 55 years old at the time.
The Spanish attempt was defeated by the English fleet under Lord High Admiral Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, aided by inclement weather. The Armada was forced to return to Spain, with appalling losses on the North and West coasts of Ireland. The victory tremendously increased Elizabeth's popularity, but it proved far from decisive, and an ambitious strike against Spain in the following year (the
English Armada) ended in complete failure. The war continued in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Estates were seeking independence from Spain. The English government also involved itself in the conflict in France, where the throne was claimed by a Protestant heir,
Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France). Elizabeth sent 20,000 troops and subsidies of over £300,000 to Henry, and 8,000 troops and subsidies of over £1,000,000 to the Dutch.
English
privateers continued to attack Spanish treasure ships from the
Americas. The most famous privateers included
John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher. In 1595 and 1596, a disastrous expedition on the Spanish Main led to the death of the aging Hawkins. Also in 1595, Spanish troops under the command of Don Carlos de Amesquita landed in
Cornwall, where they routed a large English
militia and burned some villages, before celebrating a mass (liturgy) and retiring in the face of a naval force led by Sir
Walter Raleigh.
In 1596, England finally withdrew from France, with Henry IV firmly in control. He had assumed the throne (by agreeing to convert to Roman Catholic Church), commenting that "Paris is worth a mass." The
Catholic League (French), which opposed him, had been demolished, and Elizabeth's diplomacy was beset with a new set of problems. At the same time, the Spanish had landed a considerable force of
tercios in
Brittany, which expelled the English forces that were present and presented a new front in the war, with an added threat of invasion across the channel. Elizabeth sent a further 2,000 troops to France after the Spanish took Calais. Then she authorised an attack on the
Azores in 1597, but the attempt was a disastrous failure. Further battles continued until 1598, when France and Spain finally made peace. The
Anglo-Spanish War (1585) reached a stalemate after Philip II died later in the year. In part because of the war, Raleigh and Gilbert's overseas colonisation attempts came to nothing, and the English settlement of North America was stalled, until James I of England negotiated peace in the Treaty of London, 1604.
Later years
" of Elizabeth I. Tired Elizabeth has Old Father Time sitting on her right while
The Grim Reaper looks over her left shoulder. Two youthful
Cherubs are removing her crown from her tired head indicating the passing of the crown to King James VI of Scotland. The English School c. 1610.
In 1598, Elizabeth's chief advisor, Lord Burghley, died. His political mantle was inherited by his son, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who had previously become Secretary of State in 1590. Elizabeth became somewhat unpopular because of her practice of granting royal
monopoly, the abolition of which Parliament continued to demand. In her famous
Golden Speech to Parliament in November, 1601, the 68-year old monarch promised reforms and reflected on her long reign, saying,
Shortly afterwards, twelve royal monopolies were ended by royal proclamation; further sanctions could be sought in the courts of common law. These reforms, however, were only superficial; the practice of deriving funds from the grants of monopolies continued.
At the same time as England was fighting Spain, it also faced a rebellion in Ireland, known as the
Nine Years War (Ireland). The chief executor of Crown authority in the North of Ireland,
Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, was declared a traitor in 1595. Seeking to avoid further war, Elizabeth made a series of truces with the earl; but during this period, Spain attempted two further armada expeditions against Northern Europe, although both failed owing to adverse weather conditions. In 1598, O'Neill offered a truce, while benefiting from Spanish aid in the form of arms and training; upon expiry of the truce, the English suffered their worst defeat in Ireland at the
Battle of the Yellow Ford.
In 1599, one of the leading members of the navy, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and given command of the largest army ever sent to Ireland, in an attempt to defeat the rebels.
Essex in Ireland was soon dissipated, and after a private parley with O'Neill — in which the latter sat on horseback in the middle of a river — it became clear that victory was out of reach. In 1600, Essex returned to England without the Queen's permission, where he was punished by the loss of all political offices and of the trade monopolies, which were his principal income.
The succession to the throne had been the ultimate political concern in England since Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland in the 1560s, and by the end of the century there was only one question in the minds of Elizabeth's advisors: who next? It is in this context that the behaviour of Essex is best explained. In 1601, he led a revolt against the Queen, but popular support was curiously lacking, and the former darling of the masses was executed.
Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, a bookish man who liked to wrap himself up in scarves, was sent to Ireland to replace Essex. With ruthless intent, Mountjoy attempted to blockade O'Neill's troops and starve his people into submission; the campaign effectively cast the English strategy of the earlier Desmond Rebellion (1580–83) into a larger theatre, with proportionately greater casualties. In 1601, the Spanish sent over 3,000 troops to aid the Irish, with the justification that their intervention countered Elizabeth's previous aid to the Dutch rebels in the campaign against Spanish rule. After a devastating winter siege, Mountjoy defeated both the Spanish and the Irish forces at the Battle of Kinsale; O'Neill surrendered a few days after Elizabeth's death in 1603, although the fact of her death was concealed from the supplicant rebel with great skill and irony on Mountjoy's part.
During her last ailment, the Queen is reported to have declared that she had sent "
wolves, not shepherds, to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing to govern over but ashes and carcasses" (
The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1925)). Elizabeth's successor promoted Mountjoy to the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office in which he showed skill and moderation, until his early death in 1605.
Death
Although the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign were darkened by political misfortunes, they were also backlit by the artistic glories of the age of
Philip Sidney,
Spenser, Marlowe and
Shakespeare, by the navigational achievements of Drake and Hawkins, and by the establishment of the first colony in Virginia, named after her. This period had begun with the repulsion of the Spanish Armada, which secured Elizabeth's authority as a Protestant monarch; it ended with the melancholy of old age and the increasing cynicism of a Court that had grown stale. Yet Elizabeth contrived some of her greatest speeches in the autumn of her reign and continued to survive, as she had all her life, the continual challenges of those who had a claim to the throne.
The Queen's health remained good until the autumn of 1602, when a series of losses among her remaining friends appeared to throw her into a melancholy. In her depression, she was lethargic and silent, quite unlike her usual brisk manner. Her courtiers anxiously tried to cheer her, but as she admonished her godson, John Harington, "When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less." She withdrew to Richmond Palace and to her bedchamber, lying on cushions on the floor and taking no nourishment. To Robert Cecil, insisting she
must go to bed, she flared, "Little man, little man, the word 'must' is not to be used to Princes." Elizabeth became silent, crestfallen and lethargic. She stood upright staring out of her bedchamber window, without relief, for two days, silent, with her finger held in her mouth like a tired child. It was as if she knew that, lying down, she would not rise again.
and VI of England and Scotland, successor to Elizabeth I
On
March 21, 1603, the Lord Admiral finally persuaded the Queen to go to bed. They had to saw the Coronation Ring off her finger where it had grown into the flesh. Queen Elizabeth - by Jacob AbbottCited at Headline History: 1603-1604 - Tudors were very superstitious,
"When Elizabeth I's coronation ring had to be cut off because it had become too tight for her finger, many saw it as a sign of bad news ahead for her." She could no longer speak. Robert Cecil later alleged that she wordlessly signed to him that James VI of Scotland, son of Mary of Scotland, would be her heir. On March 24, with the Archbishop of Canterbury on his knees by her bed, praying with her women for her soul, she died, between two and three o'clock in the morning.Strickland, Agnes,
Lives of the Queens of England, Vol. 8, Philadelph1a, 1902, p. 377–78 One of the royal chaplains later said it was like watching the falling of "a ripe apple from the tree."Cited at "History in Focus: Elizabeth I and James VI and I", Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of London, retrieved 19 August 2007Attributed to the royal chaplain, Dr Henry Parry, at "Elizabeth's Final Years", National Maritime Museum, retrieved 19 August 2007Elizabeth had ruled England for more than 44 years, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. A horseman was already travelling north to Scotland, and James VI, carrying her ring.
The will of Henry VIII had declared that Elizabeth was to be succeeded by the descendants of his younger sister, Mary Tudor (queen consort of France), rather than by the Scottish descendants of his elder sister, Margaret Tudor. If the will were upheld, then Elizabeth would have been succeeded by Lady Anne Stanley. If, however, the rules of primogeniture were upheld, the successor would be James VI, King of Scotland. Still other claimants were possible; they included Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache (the quasi-legitimate son of the Lady Catherine Grey) and William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (Lady Anne Stanley's uncle).
It is sometimes claimed that Elizabeth named James her heir on her deathbed. According to one story, when asked whom she would name her heir, she replied, "Who could that be but my cousin Scotland?" According to another, she said, "Who but a King could succeed a Queen?" Finally, a third legend suggests that she remained silent until her death. There is no evidence to prove any of these tales. At any rate, none of the alternative heirs pressed their claims to the throne. James VI was proclaimed King of England as James I of England a few hours after Elizabeth's death on
March 24, 1603; heralding the end of the Tudor Dynasty and the start of the reign of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of England. James I's proclamation broke precedent because it was issued not by the new sovereign himself but by a Council of Accession, as James was in Scotland at the time. Accession Councils, rather than new sovereigns, continue to issue proclamations in modern practice.
Ancestors
{| class="wikitable"|+
Elizabeth I's ancestors in three generations|-|-| rowspan="8" align="center"|
Elizabeth I Queen of England and Ireland| rowspan="4" align="center"|
Father:[Henry VIII| align="center"|
Paternal Great-grandfather:[Edmund Tudor|-| rowspan="2" align="center"|
Paternal Grandmother:[Elizabeth of York|-| align="center"|
Paternal Great-grandmother:[Elizabeth Woodville, Marchioness of Pembroke| rowspan="2" align="center"|
Maternal Grandfather:[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|-| align="center"|
Maternal Great-grandmother:[Margaret Butler| align="center"|
Maternal Great-grandfather:[Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk|}
Style and arms
Elizabeth I used the official style 'Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of monarchs of England|Quee
{{Infobox British Royalty|majesty the queen| name =Elizabeth I| title =Queen of England and Ireland...| image =Elizabeth I Darnley Portrait.jpg| caption =The "Darnley Portrait", circa 1570| reign =17 November
1558 –
24 March 1603 [1559| successor =[James I of England| royal house =Tudor dynasty| father =
Henry VIII of England| mother =
Anne Boleyn| date of birth =| place of birth =Greenwich Palace| date of death =| place of death =
Richmond Palace|-->
Elizabeth I ([7 September 1533 –
24 March 1603) was
List of British monarchs, France (
English claims to the French throne), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November
1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as
The Virgin Queen,
Gloriana, or
Good Queen Bess, and was immortalised by
Edmund Spenser as the
Faerie Queene. Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the House of Tudor (the other Tudor monarchs having been her grandfather Henry VII of England, her father Henry VIII of England, her half-brother
Edward VI of England, and her half-sister Mary I of England, also known as Mary Tudor or "Bloody Mary"). She reigned for almost 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide, as well as great religious turmoil within England.
Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the
Elizabethan era or the Golden Age of Elizabeth. Playwrights
William Shakespeare,
Christopher Marlowe, and
Ben Jonson all flourished during this era;
Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of
North America took place under Sir James Huckle, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert. Elizabeth was a decisive ruler. (Numerous observations by Anne Somerset in
Elizabeth I do not support this, at least in some circumstances.) Her favourite motto was
video et taceo ("I see and keep silent"). Day Keeper journal. This last quality, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Like her father
Henry VIII of England, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (its official name is the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Elizabeth near
Dublin) in 1592 and the
British East India Company (1600).
In her nearly forty-five years as queen, she created only nine Peerage, one
earldom and seven
baronies in the Peerage of England, and one barony in the
Peerage of Ireland. She also reduced the number of Privy Council from thirty-nine to nineteen, and later to fourteen.
Biography
Early life
Elizabeth is the second child of Henry VIII of England to survive infancy; her mother was Henry's second wife,
Anne Boleyn. The couple had been secretly married sometime between the winter of 1532 and late January of 1533. In later life Elizabeth reported to the Venetian ambassador that she had been told it was the earlier date, possibly in November. See A. Weir
The Children of England, for Elizabeth's comments on the matter and J. Denny
Anne Boleyn: A new life of England's tragic queen and D. Starkey
Six Wives, for the arguments that Anne and Henry were probably married on
14 November 1532. Elizabeth was born in the
Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, on
7 September 1533. She was named for her paternal grandmother
Elizabeth of York. Upon her birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England despite having an older half-sister,
Mary I of England; Mary was not considered by Henry VIII to be a legitimate heir because Henry had annulled his marriage to her mother, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Although the popular rumour would have it that Mary disliked her younger half-sister, in fact they appear to have been fond of one another. However their relationship suffered when the three women were placed in opposite camps by religion and politics.
Henry required a legitimate son in order to continue the Tudor succession (he had an acknowledged illegitimate son,
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, by Elizabeth Blount, but the boy, who lived 1519–1536, was ineligible to succeed due to his bastardy), but following Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne was unable to provide such an heir, and instead suffered at least two miscarriages, one in 1534 and another at the beginning of 1536. The latter miscarriage was swiftly followed by the downfall of the Queen, who was arrested on 2 May,
1536, imprisoned, and executed (
beheaded) on
19 May 1536 after being convicted of
treason; incest with her younger brother, George Boleyn; and witchcraft. Historians debate the exact reason why Anne fell from power, but it is generally agreed that she was innocent of the charges against her, and that her death was orchestrated by her political rivals.E.W. Ives,
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn.R.M. Warnicke's
The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn offers a different timetable of events.K. Lindsey's
Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, a more critical interpretation of Henry's actions, arguing that Henry, not Anne's enemies, deliberately orchestrated her death.
Nearly three years old when her mother was executed, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and lost the title of princess. She also lost the money and gifts her mother had routinely showered upon her. After Anne's death, she was addressed as the Lady Elizabeth and lived separately from her father as he married his succession of four more wives. In 1537, her father's third wife, Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son,
Edward VI of England, who became the heir apparent to the throne.
in 1544. The embroidered binding with the monogram KP for "Katherin Parr" is believed to have been worked by Elizabeth.Davenport, Cyril,
English Embroidered Bookbindings, edited by Alfred Pollard, London, 1899Elizabeth's first governess was
Lady Margaret Bryan, a
Baron whom Elizabeth called "Muggie". At the age of four, Elizabeth acquired a new governess,
Catherine Champernowne (later Lady Catherine Ashley), whom she often referred to as "Kat". Champernowne developed a close relationship with Elizabeth and remained her confidante and good friend for life. Matthew Parker, her mother's favourite priest, took a special interest in Elizabeth's well-being, particularly because a fearful Anne had entrusted her daughter's spiritual welfare to Parker before her death. Parker later became Elizabeth's first
Archbishop of Canterbury after she became queen in 1558. One companion, to whom she referred with affection throughout her life, was her cousin, the Irishman Thomas Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormonde, later 3rd
Earl of Ormonde (d. 1615).
Elizabeth was resourceful, determined, and exceedingly intelligent. She loved learning for its own sake. Like her mother and father, she was flirtatious and charismatic. She also inherited their sharp tongues and fiery tempers.
King Edward VI
Henry VIII died in 1547, at which point Elizabeth was 13 years old; Henry was succeeded by Edward VI. Catherine Parr, Henry's last wife, married
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Edward VI's uncle, and took Elizabeth into her household. There, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham. She came to speak and read six languages: her native English language, as well as French language,
Italian language, Spanish language, Greek language, and
Latin language. In later life she acquired a working knowledge of
German language, reportedly so she could read religious and military works in that language. Elizabeth was an avid reader and often spent hours reading Greek or Latin literature. Under the influence of Catherine Parr and Ascham, Elizabeth was raised in the new Church of England.
Elizabeth did not live with her step-mother for long. At Whitsun in May 1548, she was sent to Cheshunt, the home of Sir Anthony Denny, by the then-pregnant Catherine, who had become concerned about the closeness between Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, and the behaviour of the two: Seymour's behaviour was by the standards of the time thoroughly inappropriate (on one occasion he and Catherine had cut a gown Elizabeth was wearing to pieces; on another, he entered her room when she was still in her nightclothes), and rumours claimed that Seymour had seduced his young charge, or that he had intended to marry her. Elizabeth never saw her step-mother again, although they exchanged cordial letters before the death of the latter; Catherine died of
puerperal fever after childbirth on 5 September 1548. Elizabeth was then moved to the royal manor at
Hatfield House.
Elizabeth became implicated in Thomas Seymour's schemes to seize control of England in March 1549; when Thomas was arrested for attempting to kidnap the King, and for plotting a coup against the Lord Protector, it was suggested that she had been a party in this matter, and that she had encouraged him in his apparent ambitions to marry her. Elizabeth, though questioned by Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, was accepted as being innocent, and was not charged. Seymour, less fortunate, was convicted and executed. Later legend claimed that when Elizabeth heard of his execution, she commented, "
Today died a man with much wit and not much judgment"; in fact, the story appears to be untrue.
imprisoned her half-sister, the Princess Elizabeth, in the
Tower of London for suspected treason and collaboration with the traitor
Thomas WyattAs long as Edward VI, her half-brother, remained on the throne, Elizabeth's own position remained secure. In 1553, however, Edward died of
tuberculosis and assorted other ailments, aged only fifteen. He left a will, in which he attempted to nullify his father's wishes for the succession: disregarding the
Succession to the Crown Act 1543, the new document excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne and declared
Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France) (Henry VIII's sister) to be heiress. This change was part of a plan hastily thought up by the regent,
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was determined to maintain his power and his reforms, and who had been surprised by Edward's sudden decline; with the connivance of Lady Jane's family, the Greys, Dudley married the heiress to his youngest son,
Guilford Dudley. After Edward's death, Lady Jane ascended the throne, but was
Deposition (politics) less than two weeks later. Armed with popular support, Mary rode triumphantly into London, her 20-year-old half-sister Elizabeth at her side.
Queen Mary
Mary Tudor contracted a marriage with Prince Philip of Spain (later
Philip II of Spain), seeking to strengthen the Catholic influence in England. Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 sought to prevent Mary from marrying Philip, and after its failure, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the
Tower of London for her alleged involvement. There were demands for Elizabeth's execution, but few Englishmen wished to put a member of the popular House of Tudor to death. The Lord Chancellor
Stephen Gardiner wanted to remove Elizabeth from the line of succession, but neither Mary nor Parliament would allow it. After two months in the Tower, Elizabeth was released on the same day her mother had been executed eighteen years earlier. She was then put under house arrest under the guard of
Sir Henry Bedingfield.
Following a moderate start to her reign, the
Roman Catholic Mary opted for a hard line against Protestants, whom she regarded as heretics and a threat to her authority. In the ensuing persecution she came to be known as "Bloody Mary (person)". She urged Elizabeth to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, but Elizabeth, instead, kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions. By the end of that year, when Mary was mistakenly rumoured to be pregnant, Elizabeth was allowed to return to court at Philip's behest. He worried that his wife might die in childbirth, in which case he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than Elizabeth's next-closest relative, Mary I of Scotland, also known as "Mary, Queen of Scots". Mary Stuart had grown up in the French court and was betrothed to
Francis II of France, the
Dauphin of France. Although Mary Stuart was Catholic like Mary Tudor, Philip did not desire Mary Stuart to grasp the English crown because her political stance would be heavily influenced by the French. Mary Tudor died in November 1558 possibly from ovarian cancer which also killed her mother Catherine of Aragon, leaving Elizabeth as heir to the English throne.
There was rejoicing in the streets of London upon Mary's death, and in November 1558 Elizabeth was set to succeed to the throne. Legend has it that she was sitting beneath an oak tree reading the Bible at
Hatfield House when the news reached her - although this is unlikely given the winter season. A manservant approached her and breathlessly said, "Your Majesty…" Elizabeth then quoted
s:Bible World English/Psalms#Psalm 118 in response: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes".
Queen Elizabeth
During her procession to the throne, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the common people, who performed plays and read poetry extolling her beauty and intelligence. Elizabeth's
coronation was on
January 15, 1559. She was 25 years old. Since the senior bishops declined to participate in the coronation because Elizabeth was illegitimate under both
canon law and
statute, the relatively unknown Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle crowned her. The Mass (liturgy)#The Communion rite was celebrated by Oglethorpe, but a few weeks before the coronation, she demanded that he not elevate the host, which the Bishop refused. Offended by this intransigence, Elizabeth I walked out after the reading of the gospel. Elizabeth I's coronation was the last one during which the Latin service was used; future coronations except for that of
George I of Great Britain used the English service. She later made her mother's chaplain, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Elizabeth and the 1559 Religious Settlement
One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth’s early reign was Christianity. Communion with the Roman Catholic Church had been reinstated under Mary, but was again severed by Elizabeth. She relied primarily on her chief advisors, Sir William Cecil, as her
Secretary of State, and
Nicholas Bacon, as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, for direction on the matter.
Parliament of England was summoned in 1559 to consider the Reformation Bill and to create a new church. The Reformation Bill defined the Mass (liturgy)#The Communion rite as a consubstantial celebration as opposed to a transubstantiation celebration, included abuse of the
pope in the litany, and ordered that ministers should not wear the surplice or other Catholic vestments. It allowed ministers to marry, banned images from churches, and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Head of the Church of England. The bill met heavy resistance in the House of Lords, as Roman Catholic bishops as well as the lay peers voted against it. They reworked much of the bill, changed the litany to allow for a transubstantial belief in the Communion and refused to grant Elizabeth the title of Supreme Head of the Church. Parliament was prorogued over Easter, and when it resumed, the government entered two new bills into the Houses — the
Act of Supremacy 1559 and the Act of Uniformity 1559.
Act of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy validated ten Acts that Mary had repealed and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Supreme Governor was a suitably equivocal title that made Elizabeth head of the Church without ever saying she was. This was important because many felt that a woman could not rule the church. Elizabeth's changes were more wholesale than those of her half-brother,
Edward VI. All but
Anthony Kitchin of the bishops lost their posts, a hundred fellows of Oxford colleges were deprived; many dignitaries resigned rather than take the oath. The bishops who were removed from the ecclesiastical bench were replaced by appointees who would agree to the reforms.
On the question of
iconclasm, her initial reaction was to allow crucifixes and candlesticks and the restoration of roods, but some of the new bishops whom she had elevated protested. In 1560 Edmund Grindal, one of the Marian exiles now made Bishop of London, was allowed to enforce the demolition of rood lofts in London and in 1561 the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts.She herself retained a cross and candlesticks in her own chapel: Haigh (ibid) p.244 Thereafter, the determination to prevent any further restoration was evidenced by the more thoroughgoing destruction of roods, vestments, stone altars, dooms, statues and other ornaments. The queen also appointed a new Privy Council, removing many Roman Catholic counsellors by doing so. Under Elizabeth, factionalism in the Council and conflicts at court greatly diminished. The Act of Supremacy had passed without difficulty.
Act of Uniformity
However, the
Act of Uniformity 1559 which forced people to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church, at which a new version of the Book of Common Prayer was to be used, was passed by only three votes.Haigh (ibid.) p.237-241. No bishops voted in favour, two were prevented from voting at all, and two other ecclesiastics were absent. The majority were all laymen : J Guy
Tudor England(OUP1988) p. 262 The Bill of Uniformity was more cautious than the initial Reformation Bill. It revoked the harsh laws proposed against Roman Catholics, it removed the abuse of the pope from the litany and kept the wording that allowed for both consubstantial and transubstantial belief in the Communion.
After Parliament was dismissed, Elizabeth, along with Cecil, drafted what are known as the
Royal Injunctions. These were additions to the settlement and largely stressed continuity with the Catholic past — ministers were ordered to wear the surplice. Wafers, as opposed to ordinary baker's bread, were to be used as the bread at Communion. There had been opposition to the settlement in the shires, which for the most part were largely Roman Catholic, so the changes were made in order to allow for acceptance to the Settlement. What succeeded more than anything else was the sheer length of Elizabeth's reign; while Mary had been able to impose her programme for a mere five years, Elizabeth had more than forty. Those who delayed, 'looking for a new day' when restoration would again be commanded, were defeated by the passing of years.Haigh (ibid) p.245
Elizabeth ratified the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis established on April 3, 1559, bringing peace with France. She adopted a principle of "England for the English". Her other realm,
Ireland, was dealt with differently. The English customs enforced in Ireland were unpopular with its inhabitants, as were her religious policies.
Marriage and power
painted by Steven van der Meulen, 1560sSoon after her accession, many questioned whom Elizabeth would marry. Her reason for never marrying is unclear; she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of Henry VIII's wives, her mother's death always in her mind, or perhaps psychologically scarred by her rumoured childhood relationship with
Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley while in his household. Contemporary gossip held that she had suffered from a physical defect that she was afraid to reveal, perhaps scarring from smallpox. There was also the story that she would only marry one man, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was rumoured to be deeply in love and whom she appointed her Master of the Queen's Horse; however, until 1560, Dudley was married to
Amy Robsart, who died in suspicious circumstances. After Robsart's death, Elizabeth's council refused to consider sanctioning a marriage between the Queen and Dudley, because of Dudley's status as a commoner and his family's past history (his grandfather had been an infamous bureaucrat under Henry VII, executed by Henry VIII; his father had been the still-more infamous Lord Protector). Some believe Elizabeth decided that if she could not have Dudley, she would not marry at all.
{], which Mary had been and Elizabeth now was. In this capacity, she made all decisions herself, advised only at her request. As a married queen, some would have expected her to give over her power to her husband, and take no part in matters of state. It would thus be an appalling prospect if she were to contemplate marriage to one of the Catholic monarchs that were hovering around her court.
Virginity
Elizabeth was honored with a colony in the Americas being named after her. Virginia was named for Elizabeth because she was often referred to as the ‘Virgin Queen”. While this is because she never married, it remains unclear whether she was literally a
virgin. Even among her contemporaries she was a social and sexual enigma by refraining from marriage, sex, and childbirth. While a king was expected to keep a mistress or concubine it would have been politically dangerous for a woman to behave in the same manner. The sexuality of the sovereign was as important to the national psyche then as in her father's time — though in a very different way.
It was advantageous in several ways for Elizabeth to retain her reputation as a virgin. Even though — had she married — her status would not have changed from that of a queen regnant to a
queen consort, there were other consequences to consider. Because a Christian wife was expected to defer to her husband's authority, a reigning queen risked her political supremacy with marriage. Marital life might have created unwanted tension in the bedchamber, at home and abroad — the marriages of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, were sufficient examples in that regard.
However, rumours of affairs abounded, one of the most enduring being with
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Later in her life, the queen was taken with Leicester's stepson,
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Conflicts with France and Scotland
The Queen found a dangerous rival in her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who was the wife of the
France King Francis II of France. In 1559, Mary had declared herself Queen of England with French support. In Scotland, Mary Stuart's mother, Mary of Guise attempted to cement French influence by providing army fortification against English aggression. A group of Scottish lords allied to Elizabeth deposed Mary of Guise and, under pressure from the English, Mary's representatives signed the Treaty of Edinburgh, which led to the withdrawal of French troops. Though Mary vehemently refused to ratify the treaty, it had the desired effect and French influence was greatly reduced in Scotland.
Upon the death of her husband, Francis II, Mary Stuart had returned to Scotland. In France meanwhile, conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenots led to the outbreak of the
French Wars of Religion. Elizabeth secretly gave aid to the Huguenots. She made peace with France in 1564, agreeing to give up her claims to the last English possession on the French mainland, Calais, after the defeat of an English expedition at
Le Havre; but not to her claim to the French crown, which had been maintained since the reign of
Edward III of England during the period of the
Hundred Years' War in the 14th century, and was not renounced until the reign of
George III of the United Kingdom during the
18th century (a few years after the
French Revolution).
Later, several conspiracies aimed at bringing England back into the Catholic Church centered around Mary, Queen of Scots. Secret letters in her own hand were presented as evidence of conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth, and with great reluctance, Elizabeth had her executed for treason in 1587.
Plots and rebellions
At the end of 1562, Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox, but later recovered. Alarmed by the Queen's near-fatal illness, Parliament asked in 1563 that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent
civil war upon her death. She refused to do either, and in April, she Prorogation Parliament. Parliament did not reconvene until Elizabeth needed its assent to raise taxes in 1566. The
British House of Commons threatened to withhold funds until the Queen agreed to provide for the succession. On October 19,
1566, Sir Robert Bell boldly pursued Elizabeth for the royal answer despite her command to desist; in her own words "Mr. Bell with his complices must needs prefer their speeches to the upper house to have you my lords, consent with them, whereby you were seduced, and of simplicity did assent unto it."
Different lines of succession were considered during Elizabeth's reign. One possible line was that of
Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's elder sister, which led to Mary I, Queen of Scots. The alternative line descended from Henry VIII's younger sister,
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France); the heir in this line would be the Lady Catherine Grey,
Lady Jane Grey's sister. An even more distant possible successor was Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who could claim descent only from Edward III of England, who reigned during the fourteenth century. Each possible heir had his or her disadvantages: Mary I was a Roman Catholic, Lady Catherine Grey had married without the Queen's consent and the Puritanism Lord Huntingdon was unwilling to accept the Crown.
Mary I of Scotland, had to suffer her own troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth had suggested that if she married the Protestant
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, then Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir." Mary chose her own course, and in 1565 married a Roman Catholic, who also had a claim to the English throne, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Lord Darnley was murdered in 1567 after the couple had become estranged. Darnley was a heavy drinker and had approved the murder of Mary's secretary, David Rizzio, with whom he suspected her of having an affair. Mary then married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to be responsible for Darnley's murder. Scottish nobles then rebelled, imprisoning Mary and forcing her to abdicate in favour of her infant son, who consequently became James I of England.
In 1568, the last viable English heir to the throne, Catherine Grey, died. She had left two sons, but they were deemed illegitimate, owing to the absence of any living witnesses to the marriage, or to any clergy who could attest to having performed it. Her heiress was her sister, the
Lady Mary Grey, a hunchbacked dwarf. Elizabeth was once again forced to consider a Scottish successor, from the line of her father's sister, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Mary I, however, was unpopular in Scotland, where she had been imprisoned. She later escaped from her prison and fled to England, where she was captured by English forces. Elizabeth was faced with a conundrum: sending her back to the Scottish nobles was deemed too cruel; sending her to France would put a powerful pawn in the hands of the French king; forcibly restoring her to the Scottish throne may have been seen as an heroic gesture, but would cause too much conflict with the Scots; and imprisoning her in England would allow her to participate in plots against the Queen. Elizabeth chose the last option: Mary was kept confined for eighteen years, much of it in Sheffield Castle and
Sheffield Manor in the custody of
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his redoubtable wife Bess of Hardwick. Mary was later removed to
Tutbury Castle.
In 1569, Elizabeth faced a major uprising, known as the
Northern Rebellion, instigated by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk,
Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and
Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland.
Pope Pius V aided the Roman Catholic Rebellion by excommunicating Elizabeth and declaring her deposed in a papal bull. The Bull of Deposition,
Regnans in Excelsis, was only issued in 1570, arriving after the Rebellion had been put down. After the Bull of Deposition was issued, however, Elizabeth chose not to continue her policy of religious tolerance. She instead began the persecution of her religious enemies, giving impetus to various conspiracies to remove her from the throne. She also permitted the Church of England to take a more explicitly Anglican line by allowing Parliament to pass the
Thirty-Nine Articles. These were not intended as a complete statement of the Christian faith, but of the position of the Church of England
vis-a-vis the Roman Catholic Church and dissident
Protestantism.
Elizabeth then found a new enemy in her former brother-in-law,
Philip II of Spain. After Philip had launched a surprise attack on the English privateers Sir Francis Drake and
John Hawkins in 1568, Elizabeth assented to the detention of a Spanish treasure ship in 1569. Philip was already involved in putting down a rebellion in the
Spanish Netherlands, and could not afford to declare war on England.
Philip II participated in some conspiracies to remove Elizabeth, albeit reluctantly. The 4th Duke of Norfolk was also involved in the first of these plots, the
Ridolfi plot of 1571. After the Roman Catholic Ridolfi Plot was discovered (much to Elizabeth's shock) and foiled, the Duke of Norfolk was executed and Mary lost the little liberty she had remaining. Spain, which had been friendly to England since Philip's marriage to Elizabeth's predecessor, ceased to be on cordial terms.
In 1571, Sir William Cecil was created Baron Burghley. He had been Elizabeth's chief advisor from the earliest days, and he remained so until his death in 1598. In 1572, Burghley was raised to the powerful position of Lord High Treasurer; his post as Secretary of State was taken up by the head of Elizabeth's spy network, Francis Walsingham.
Also in 1572, Elizabeth made an alliance with
France. The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which thousands of French Protestants (Huguenots) were killed, strained the alliance but did not break it. Elizabeth even began marriage negotiations with Henry III of France (later King Henry III of France and of Poland), and afterwards with his younger brother
François, Duke of Anjou. During the latter's visit in 1581, it is said that Elizabeth "drew off a ring from her finger and put it upon the Duke of Anjou's upon certain conditions betwixt them two". The Spanish Ambassador reported that she actually declared that the Duke of Anjou would be her husband. However, Anjou, who was reportedly scarred and hunch-backed, returned to France and died in 1584 before he could be married. After his departure, Elizabeth wrote a poem, "On Monsieur’s Departure", which appears to refer to their failed negotiations; however, the poem is largely a collection of Petrarchan commonplaces and thus not a clear picture of the Queen's private thoughts.
Conflict with Spain
(1588), depicted in the background. Elizabeth's international power is symbolized by the hand resting on the globe. The Imperial Crown to her right also indicated England's growth as an international power during her reign.
In 1579, the
Second Desmond Rebellion began in Ireland with the arrival of an invading force funded by Pope Gregory XIII; but by 1583, the rebellion had been put down after a brutal campaign waged by fire, sword and famine, in which a large part of the population of the then County Desmond, the north-western part of the province of Munster, died; chilling, albeit approving, observations on the campaign are set out in
A View of the Present State of Ireland by the poet, Edmund Spenser (first licensed for publication in 1633, four decades after it was written).
Also in 1580, Philip II annexed Portugal, and with the Portuguese throne came the command of the high seas. After the assassination of the Dutch
Stadholder William I of Orange, England began to side openly with the
Dutch Republic of the Netherlands, who were at the time rebelling against Spanish rule. Philip, left without a wife, did propose to Elizabeth but she refused. This, together with economic conflict with Spain and English piracy against
Spanish Empire (which included an English alliance with
Islamic
Morocco), led to the outbreak of the
Anglo–Spanish War (1585) in 1585; and in 1586 the Spanish ambassador was expelled from England for his participation in conspiracies against Elizabeth. Fearing such conspiracies, Parliament had passed the
Act of Association 1584, under which anyone associated with a plot to murder the Sovereign would be excluded from the line of succession. However, another scheme against Elizabeth, the Babington plot, was revealed by Elizabeth's spymaster,
Sir Francis Walsingham. The extent to which the plot was created by Walsingham is open to conjecture.
Mary I of Scotland was put on trial for the Babington Plot for treason by a court of about 40 noblemen, including Catholics, presided over by England's Chief of Justice, Sir John Popham. Mary denied the accusation, and remonstrated that she was denied the opportunity of reviewing the evidence or her papers that had been removed from her, that she had been denied access to legal counsel and that she had never been an English subject and therefore could not be convicted of treason. Mary was found guilty and was decapitation at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire on February 8 1587.
In her will,
Mary I of England had left Philip her claim to the English throne; under force of the threat from Elizabeth's policies in the Netherlands and the East Atlantic, Philip set out his plans for an invasion of England. In April 1587, Sir Francis Drake burned part of the Spanish fleet at
Cádiz, delaying Philip's plans. In July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a grand fleet of 130 ships bearing over 30,000 men, set sail in the expectation of conveying a Spanish invasion force under the command of the Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza across the
English Channel from the Netherlands. Elizabeth set out to join her troops wearing little armour over her dress and no guards to accompany her, only pages. Despite the complaints on her safety, Elizabeth addressed her troops with a notable speech, known as the
Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, in which she famously declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too! And I think it foul scorn that Spain or Parma or any prince of Europe should dare invade the borders of my realm". She was 55 years old at the time.
The Spanish attempt was defeated by the English fleet under Lord High Admiral
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, aided by inclement weather. The Armada was forced to return to Spain, with appalling losses on the North and West coasts of Ireland. The victory tremendously increased Elizabeth's popularity, but it proved far from decisive, and an ambitious strike against Spain in the following year (the English Armada) ended in complete failure. The war continued in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Estates were seeking independence from Spain. The English government also involved itself in the conflict in France, where the throne was claimed by a Protestant heir, Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France). Elizabeth sent 20,000 troops and subsidies of over £300,000 to Henry, and 8,000 troops and subsidies of over £1,000,000 to the Dutch.
English
privateers continued to attack Spanish treasure ships from the Americas. The most famous privateers included John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher. In 1595 and 1596, a disastrous expedition on the Spanish Main led to the death of the aging Hawkins. Also in 1595, Spanish troops under the command of Don Carlos de Amesquita landed in Cornwall, where they routed a large English
militia and burned some villages, before celebrating a
mass (liturgy) and retiring in the face of a naval force led by Sir
Walter Raleigh.
In 1596, England finally withdrew from France, with Henry IV firmly in control. He had assumed the throne (by agreeing to convert to Roman Catholic Church), commenting that "Paris is worth a mass." The Catholic League (French), which opposed him, had been demolished, and Elizabeth's diplomacy was beset with a new set of problems. At the same time, the Spanish had landed a considerable force of
tercios in
Brittany, which expelled the English forces that were present and presented a new front in the war, with an added threat of invasion across the channel. Elizabeth sent a further 2,000 troops to France after the Spanish took
Calais. Then she authorised an attack on the
Azores in 1597, but the attempt was a disastrous failure. Further battles continued until 1598, when France and Spain finally made peace. The Anglo-Spanish War (1585) reached a stalemate after Philip II died later in the year. In part because of the war, Raleigh and Gilbert's overseas colonisation attempts came to nothing, and the English settlement of North America was stalled, until
James I of England negotiated peace in the
Treaty of London, 1604.
Later years
" of Elizabeth I. Tired Elizabeth has Old Father Time sitting on her right while The Grim Reaper looks over her left shoulder. Two youthful Cherubs are removing her crown from her tired head indicating the passing of the crown to King James VI of Scotland. The English School c. 1610.
In 1598, Elizabeth's chief advisor, Lord Burghley, died. His political mantle was inherited by his son, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who had previously become Secretary of State in 1590. Elizabeth became somewhat unpopular because of her practice of granting royal
monopoly, the abolition of which Parliament continued to demand. In her famous
Golden Speech to Parliament in November, 1601, the 68-year old monarch promised reforms and reflected on her long reign, saying,
Shortly afterwards, twelve royal monopolies were ended by royal proclamation; further sanctions could be sought in the courts of
common law. These reforms, however, were only superficial; the practice of deriving funds from the grants of monopolies continued.
At the same time as England was fighting Spain, it also faced a rebellion in Ireland, known as the
Nine Years War (Ireland). The chief executor of Crown authority in the North of Ireland,
Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, was declared a traitor in 1595. Seeking to avoid further war, Elizabeth made a series of truces with the earl; but during this period, Spain attempted two further armada expeditions against Northern Europe, although both failed owing to adverse weather conditions. In 1598, O'Neill offered a truce, while benefiting from Spanish aid in the form of arms and training; upon expiry of the truce, the English suffered their worst defeat in Ireland at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.
In 1599, one of the leading members of the navy, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and given command of the largest army ever sent to Ireland, in an attempt to defeat the rebels.
Essex in Ireland was soon dissipated, and after a private parley with O'Neill — in which the latter sat on horseback in the middle of a river — it became clear that victory was out of reach. In 1600, Essex returned to England without the Queen's permission, where he was punished by the loss of all political offices and of the trade monopolies, which were his principal income.
The succession to the throne had been the ultimate political concern in England since Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland in the 1560s, and by the end of the century there was only one question in the minds of Elizabeth's advisors: who next? It is in this context that the behaviour of Essex is best explained. In 1601, he led a revolt against the Queen, but popular support was curiously lacking, and the former darling of the masses was executed.
Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devon, a bookish man who liked to wrap himself up in scarves, was sent to Ireland to replace Essex. With ruthless intent, Mountjoy attempted to blockade O'Neill's troops and starve his people into submission; the campaign effectively cast the English strategy of the earlier Desmond Rebellion (1580–83) into a larger theatre, with proportionately greater casualties. In 1601, the Spanish sent over 3,000 troops to aid the Irish, with the justification that their intervention countered Elizabeth's previous aid to the Dutch rebels in the campaign against Spanish rule. After a devastating winter siege, Mountjoy defeated both the Spanish and the Irish forces at the
Battle of Kinsale; O'Neill surrendered a few days after Elizabeth's death in 1603, although the fact of her death was concealed from the supplicant rebel with great skill and irony on Mountjoy's part.
During her last ailment, the Queen is reported to have declared that she had sent "
wolves, not shepherds, to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing to govern over but ashes and carcasses" (
The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1925)). Elizabeth's successor promoted Mountjoy to the office of
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office in which he showed skill and moderation, until his early death in 1605.
Death
Although the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign were darkened by political misfortunes, they were also backlit by the artistic glories of the age of Philip Sidney,
Spenser,
Marlowe and Shakespeare, by the navigational achievements of Drake and Hawkins, and by the establishment of the first colony in Virginia, named after her. This period had begun with the repulsion of the Spanish Armada, which secured Elizabeth's authority as a Protestant monarch; it ended with the melancholy of old age and the increasing cynicism of a Court that had grown stale. Yet Elizabeth contrived some of her greatest speeches in the autumn of her reign and continued to survive, as she had all her life, the continual challenges of those who had a claim to the throne.
The Queen's health remained good until the autumn of 1602, when a series of losses among her remaining friends appeared to throw her into a melancholy. In her depression, she was lethargic and silent, quite unlike her usual brisk manner. Her courtiers anxiously tried to cheer her, but as she admonished her godson,
John Harington, "When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less." She withdrew to Richmond Palace and to her bedchamber, lying on cushions on the floor and taking no nourishment. To Robert Cecil, insisting she
must go to bed, she flared, "Little man, little man, the word 'must' is not to be used to Princes." Elizabeth became silent, crestfallen and lethargic. She stood upright staring out of her bedchamber window, without relief, for two days, silent, with her finger held in her mouth like a tired child. It was as if she knew that, lying down, she would not rise again.
and VI of England and Scotland, successor to Elizabeth I
On
March 21,
1603, the Lord Admiral finally persuaded the Queen to go to bed. They had to saw the Coronation Ring off her finger where it had grown into the flesh. Queen Elizabeth - by Jacob AbbottCited at Headline History: 1603-1604 - Tudors were very superstitious,
"When Elizabeth I's coronation ring had to be cut off because it had become too tight for her finger, many saw it as a sign of bad news ahead for her." She could no longer speak. Robert Cecil later alleged that she wordlessly signed to him that James VI of Scotland, son of Mary of Scotland, would be her heir. On March 24, with the Archbishop of Canterbury on his knees by her bed, praying with her women for her soul, she died, between two and three o'clock in the morning.Strickland, Agnes,
Lives of the Queens of England, Vol. 8, Philadelph1a, 1902, p. 377–78 One of the royal chaplains later said it was like watching the falling of "a ripe apple from the tree."Cited at "History in Focus: Elizabeth I and James VI and I", Institute of Historical Research (IHR), University of London, retrieved 19 August 2007Attributed to the royal chaplain, Dr Henry Parry, at "Elizabeth's Final Years", National Maritime Museum, retrieved 19 August 2007Elizabeth had ruled England for more than 44 years, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. A horseman was already travelling north to Scotland, and James VI, carrying her ring.
The will of Henry VIII had declared that Elizabeth was to be succeeded by the descendants of his younger sister, Mary Tudor (queen consort of France), rather than by the Scottish descendants of his elder sister, Margaret Tudor. If the will were upheld, then Elizabeth would have been succeeded by Lady Anne Stanley. If, however, the rules of
primogeniture were upheld, the successor would be James VI, King of Scotland. Still other claimants were possible; they included
Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache (the quasi-legitimate son of the Lady Catherine Grey) and
William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (Lady Anne Stanley's uncle).
It is sometimes claimed that Elizabeth named James her heir on her deathbed. According to one story, when asked whom she would name her heir, she replied, "Who could that be but my cousin Scotland?" According to another, she said, "Who but a King could succeed a Queen?" Finally, a third legend suggests that she remained silent until her death. There is no evidence to prove any of these tales. At any rate, none of the alternative heirs pressed their claims to the throne. James VI was proclaimed King of England as
James I of England a few hours after Elizabeth's death on
March 24,
1603; heralding the end of the
Tudor Dynasty and the start of the reign of the
House of Stuart in the Kingdom of England. James I's proclamation broke precedent because it was issued not by the new sovereign himself but by a Council of Accession, as James was in Scotland at the time.
Accession Councils, rather than new sovereigns, continue to issue proclamations in modern practice.
Ancestors
{| class="wikitable"|+
Elizabeth I's ancestors in three generations|-|-| rowspan="8" align="center"|
Elizabeth I Queen of England and Ireland| rowspan="4" align="center"|
Father:[Henry VIII| align="center"|
Paternal Great-grandfather:[Edmund Tudor|-| rowspan="2" align="center"|
Paternal Grandmother:[Elizabeth of York|-| align="center"|
Paternal Great-grandmother:[Elizabeth Woodville, Marchioness of Pembroke| rowspan="2" align="center"|
Maternal Grandfather:[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|-| align="center"|
Maternal Great-grandmother:[Margaret Butler| align="center"|
Maternal Great-grandfather:[Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk|}
Style and arms
Elizabeth I used the official style 'Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of monarchs of England|Quee
Elizabeth I of England - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, The ...
Elizabeth I of England - Wikimedia Commons
Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to her death.
Elizabeth I::
Her legal heir was James VI of Scotland. He, a Stuart, became James I of England. Elizabeth's father was Henry VIII and her mother was Anne Boleyn.
Queen Elizabeth I of England
The heritage of britain- history and accommodation guide, including castles, hotels, inns, manor houses, bed and breakfast and cottages as well as a history magazine
History of the Monarchy > The Tudors > Elizabeth I
These expeditions prepared England for an age of colonisation and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by establishing the East India Company in 1600.
Elizabeth I of England Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland
Elizabeth I of England Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide. ... Queen Elizabeth I of England lived from 7 September 1533 to 24 March 1603.
Category:Elizabeth I of England - Wikimedia Commons
English: Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to her death.
Elizabeth I of England - Simple English Wikipedia, the free ...
Elizabeth I of England (September 7, 1533 - March 24, 1603) was the Queen of England from November 17, 1558 until she died in 1603. She has also been called The Virgin Queen or ...
BBC - History - Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603)
Tudor queen of England and Ireland, nicknamed 'Gloriana' and 'the Virgin Queen' who overcame many challenges and threats at home and from abroad to preside over a Golden Age in ...
Elizabeth I of England definition of Elizabeth I of England in the ...
Elizabeth I, queen of England Elizabeth I, 1533–1603, queen of England (1558–1603). Early Life. The daughter of Henry VIII Henry VIII, 1491–1547, king of England (1509–47 ...
