The Reign of Elizabeth 1

The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high point, theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

The image of Elizabeth's reign is one of triumph and success. Investing in expensive clothes and jewellery to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns , she cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as 'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth made at least 25 progresses during her reign. However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from France through Scotland.

Much of northern England was in rebellion in A papal bull of specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after plots against her life were discovered. One such plot involved Mary, Queen of Scots, who had fled to England in after her second husband, Henry, Lord Darnley's, murder and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his murder, James, Earl of Bothwell.. As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of Mary was also a temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II.

In a letter of to Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned I never proceeded so harshly against you. In , aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of around ships - the 'Armada'.

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During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts to her successor.

Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged war after , Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16 sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the period Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define Parliament's constitutional position and rights.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages as in her sister Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain ; marrying a fellow countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic policies. However, the 'Virgin Queen' was presented as a selfless woman who sacrificed personal happiness for the good of the nation, to which she was, in essence, 'married'.

Late in her reign, she addressed Parliament in the so-called 'Golden Speech' of when she told MPs: Overall, Elizabeth's always shrewd and, when necessary, decisive leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home and abroad. When no invasion came, the nation rejoiced. Elizabeth's procession to a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral rivalled that of her coronation as a spectacle. The English took their delivery as a symbol of God's favour and of the nation's inviolability under a virgin queen.

If the late queen would have believed her men of war as she did her scribes, we had in her time beaten that great empire in pieces and made their kings of figs and oranges as in old times. But her Majesty did all by halves, and by petty invasions taught the Spaniard how to defend himself, and to see his own weakness. Though some historians have criticised Elizabeth on similar grounds, [] Raleigh's verdict has more often been judged unfair.

Elizabeth had good reason not to place too much trust in her commanders, who once in action tended, as she put it herself, "to be transported with an haviour of vainglory". The English fleet suffered a catastrophic defeat with 11,—15, killed, wounded or died of disease [] [] [] and 40 ships sunk or captured. It was her first venture into France since the retreat from Le Havre in Henry's succession was strongly contested by the Catholic League and by Philip II, and Elizabeth feared a Spanish takeover of the channel ports.

The subsequent English campaigns in France, however, were disorganised and ineffective. He withdrew in disarray in December , having lost half his troops. In , the campaign of John Norreys , who led 3, men to Brittany , was even more of a disaster. As for all such expeditions, Elizabeth was unwilling to invest in the supplies and reinforcements requested by the commanders.

Norreys left for London to plead in person for more support. In his absence, a Catholic League army almost destroyed the remains of his army at Craon, north-west France, in May The result was just as dismal. Essex accomplished nothing and returned home in January Henry abandoned the siege in April.

Although Ireland was one of her two kingdoms, Elizabeth faced a hostile, and in places virtually autonomous, [] Irish population that adhered to Catholicism and was willing to defy her authority and plot with her enemies. Her policy there was to grant land to her courtiers and prevent the rebels from giving Spain a base from which to attack England. During a revolt in Munster led by Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond , in , an estimated 30, Irish people starved to death.

The poet and colonist Edmund Spenser wrote that the victims "were brought to such wretchedness as that any stony heart would have rued the same". Between and , Elizabeth faced her most severe test in Ireland during the Nine Years' War , a revolt that took place at the height of hostilities with Spain , who backed the rebel leader, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. To her frustration, [] he made little progress and returned to England in defiance of her orders.

He was replaced by Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy , who took three years to defeat the rebels. O'Neill finally surrendered in , a few days after Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth continued to maintain the diplomatic relations with the Tsardom of Russia originally established by her half-brother.

She often wrote to Ivan the Terrible on amicable terms, though the Tsar was often annoyed by her focus on commerce rather than on the possibility of a military alliance. The Tsar even proposed to her once, and during his later reign, asked for a guarantee to be granted asylum in England should his rule be jeopardised.

Upon Ivan's death, he was succeeded by his simple-minded son Feodor. Unlike his father, Feodor had no enthusiasm in maintaining exclusive trading rights with England. Feodor declared his kingdom open to all foreigners, and dismissed the English ambassador Sir Jerome Bowes , whose pomposity had been tolerated by Ivan. Elizabeth sent a new ambassador, Dr. Giles Fletcher, to demand from the regent Boris Godunov that he convince the Tsar to reconsider. The negotiations failed, due to Fletcher addressing Feodor with two of his many titles omitted. Elizabeth continued to appeal to Feodor in half appealing, half reproachful letters.

She proposed an alliance, something which she had refused to do when offered one by Feodor's father, but was turned down. Trade and diplomatic relations developed between England and the Barbary states during the rule of Elizabeth.

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Diplomatic relations were also established with the Ottoman Empire with the chartering of the Levant Company and the dispatch of the first English ambassador to the Porte , William Harborne , in The period after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in brought new difficulties for Elizabeth that lasted until the end of her reign. Prices rose and the standard of living fell. One of the causes for this "second reign" of Elizabeth, as it is sometimes called, [] was the changed character of Elizabeth's governing body, the privy council in the s.

A new generation was in power. With the exception of Lord Burghley, the most important politicians had died around Lopez, her trusted physician. When he was wrongly accused by the Earl of Essex of treason out of personal pique, she could not prevent his execution, although she had been angry about his arrest and seems not to have believed in his guilt. During the last years of her reign, Elizabeth came to rely on the granting of monopolies as a cost-free system of patronage, rather than asking Parliament for more subsidies in a time of war.

Who keeps their sovereign from the lapse of error, in which, by ignorance and not by intent they might have fallen, what thank they deserve, we know, though you may guess. And as nothing is more dear to us than the loving conservation of our subjects' hearts, what an undeserved doubt might we have incurred if the abusers of our liberality, the thrallers of our people, the wringers of the poor, had not been told us! This same period of economic and political uncertainty, however, produced an unsurpassed literary flowering in England.

During the s, some of the great names of English literature entered their maturity, including William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. During this period and into the Jacobean era that followed, the English theatre reached its highest peaks. They owed little directly to the queen, who was never a major patron of the arts. As Elizabeth aged her image gradually changed. Her painted portraits became less realistic and more a set of enigmatic icons that made her look much younger than she was. In fact, her skin had been scarred by smallpox in , leaving her half bald and dependent on wigs and cosmetics.

Many of them are missing, so that one cannot understand her easily when she speaks quickly. The more Elizabeth's beauty faded, the more her courtiers praised it. She became fond and indulgent of the charming but petulant young Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who was Leicester's stepson and took liberties with her for which she forgave him.

After Essex's desertion of his command in Ireland in , Elizabeth had him placed under house arrest and the following year deprived him of his monopolies. He intended to seize the queen but few rallied to his support, and he was beheaded on 25 February. Elizabeth knew that her own misjudgements were partly to blame for this turn of events. An observer wrote in His political mantle passed to his son, Robert Cecil , who soon became the leader of the government. Since Elizabeth would never name her successor, Cecil was obliged to proceed in secret.

James's tone delighted Elizabeth, who responded: Neale's view, Elizabeth may not have declared her wishes openly to James, but she made them known with "unmistakable if veiled phrases". The Queen's health remained fair until the autumn of , when a series of deaths among her friends plunged her into a severe depression. In February , the death of Catherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham , the niece of her cousin and close friend Lady Knollys , came as a particular blow.

In March, Elizabeth fell sick and remained in a "settled and unremovable melancholy", and sat motionless on a cushion for hours on end. A few hours later, Cecil and the council set their plans in motion and proclaimed James King of England. While it has become normative to record the death of the Queen as occurring in , following English calendar reform in the s, at the time England observed New Year's Day on 25 March, commonly known as Lady Day.

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Thus Elizabeth died on the last day of the year in the old calendar. The modern convention is to use the old calendar for the date and month while using the new for the year. Elizabeth's coffin was carried downriver at night to Whitehall , on a barge lit with torches. At her funeral on 28 April, the coffin was taken to Westminster Abbey on a hearse drawn by four horses hung with black velvet. In the words of the chronicler John Stow:. Westminster was surcharged with multitudes of all sorts of people in their streets, houses, windows, leads and gutters, that came out to see the obsequy , and when they beheld her statue lying upon the coffin, there was such a general sighing, groaning and weeping as the like hath not been seen or known in the memory of man.

Elizabeth was interred in Westminster Abbey, in a tomb shared with her half-sister, Mary I. Elizabeth was lamented by many of her subjects, but others were relieved at her death. James was depicted as a Catholic sympathiser, presiding over a corrupt court. Godfrey Goodman , Bishop of Gloucester, recalled: Then was her memory much magnified. The picture of Elizabeth painted by her Protestant admirers of the early 17th century has proved lasting and influential. Neale and A.

Rowse , interpreted Elizabeth's reign as a golden age of progress. Recent historians, however, have taken a more complicated view of Elizabeth. She offered very limited aid to foreign Protestants and failed to provide her commanders with the funds to make a difference abroad. Elizabeth established an English church that helped shape a national identity and remains in place today. Though Elizabeth followed a largely defensive foreign policy, her reign raised England's status abroad. Some historians have called her lucky; [] she believed that God was protecting her. The love of my people hath appeared firm, and the devices of my enemies frustrate.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November until For other uses, see Elizabeth I disambiguation , Elizabeth of England disambiguation , and Elizabeth Tudor disambiguation. The "Darnley Portrait" of Elizabeth I c. Tudor conquest of Ireland. Cultural depictions of Elizabeth I of England. Elizabeth I of England portal. Preserved in a Ms. Retrieved 22 March Robert Poole 6 September Science, Religion and Empire". Institute of Historical Research. Archived from the original on 30 September Retrieved 26 October The Pelican Portrait', called Nicholas Hilliard c.

Archived from the original on 16 April Retrieved 29 July This Sceptred Isle — Most modern historians have considered murder unlikely; breast cancer and suicide being the most widely accepted explanations Doran Monarchy , The coroner 's report, hitherto believed lost, came to light in The National Archives in the late s and is compatible with a downstairs fall as well as other violence Skidmore, — King, "Queen Elizabeth I: Wilson castigates Elizabeth for half-heartedness in the war against Spain. Bucholz, Newton Key Early modern England — Elliott La Europa dividida — Editorial Critica, Performing Blackness on English Stages, — Shakespeare Survey With Index 1— For a better experience on your device, try our mobile site.

She was nicknamed 'Gloriana' and the 'Virgin Queen' and overcame many challenges at home as well as threats from abroad.

Elizabeth, the last Tudor monarch, was born in Greenwich on 7 September When Elizabeth was just two years old, her mother was beheaded for adultery on the orders of her father and she was exiled from court. In later years Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth wife, took a keen interest in the young Elizabeth and made sure that she was educated to the highest standards. In , Elizabeth's older half-sister Mary became queen. Mary was determined to re-establish Catholicism in England and viewed the Protestant Elizabeth as a direct threat. Elizabeth was briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London in following a failed rebellion, of which she claimed no knowledge.

In November , after the death of Mary I, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne.