Elizabeth I

Ascended throne at age 25

AIMS: consolidate position + Crown’s prerogative powers
- Settle religious issues
- End French War → peaceful FP

Pre-existing social factors:

- Bad harvests + rain → food was scarce + expensive
- Influenza epidemic → highest mortality rate since Black Death + population decline
- Disastrous war with France: lost Calais due to Spanish marriage

Society + Economy:
- 1550s: 3M vs 1603: 4M population → London 130-150K population
- 2nd largest: Norwich 15K → 90% lived in villages
- Higher fertility rate (34.5/1000) + lower death rate (25/1000)
- Higher life expectancy - 40yrs
- By 1597 acute food shortage → famine in some parts
- Decline of property owning aristocracy + rise of gentry in wealth (monopoly) + socially
→ 60% of aristocracy were in financial ruin by 1603 (over spent)
- Decline in “mere” gentry → small scale landowners suffered from inflation
- New land from dissolved monasteries + chantries
- Rising population → greater wealth from agriculture
- COPYHOLDERS

Causes of inflation;
- Debasement of coinage (secretly in 1542-44) + publicly 1544-45
- Reduced bullion in coins → greater supply of money
- H8 + Somerset wars: £3.6M cost of 1540s wars → tax £1M + monastic land £1M →
closed £.16M gap by debasing gold + silver in coins
- Population increase → more demand for food than supply
- Poor harvests 1594 → rise in corn prices
- HOWEVER: population pressure affected all of Western Europe
- Potosi Pero: Spanish mines in New World→ increased bullion supply
- Higher govt expenditure: war with Spain + Irish Rebellion → higher demand

DEC 1560: ordered all debased money to be returned + replaced with greater silver content →
returned quality to pre-debasement 1542-44 + finished in 1561
- Limited money supply + re-established public confidence
- 1568 Genoese loans - Elizabeth acquired silver
1563 Statute of Artificiers: govt attempted to limit demand by controlling wages
- Wage limits for skilled workers
- HOWEVER: reappearance of inflation in 1590s after Spanish war = fall in
living standard of skilled workers + higher cost of living
Response to Poverty + Vagrancy:
- Norwich + Ipswich + Cambridge introduced laws for poor
-

Causes of Poverty:
- Population rise 43% between 1550 and 1600 → pressure on scarce food
- 1590s: harvest failure caused famine/ near famine (dearth) conditions
-
-

Final Years of Elizabeth’s reign:

- 1594-7: 4 successive + serious crop failures → higher agricultural prices
- 1590s: approx. ⅓ increase in prices
- Plague outbreaks → exacerbated by food shortages
- 1000s deaths in 1592-3 (1st outbreak) + decimated pop. over 10yrs
- 1598 + 1601 Poor Laws → highlighted Privy Council’s fear of social unrest
- Lack of significant popular rebellions → only small local food riots in London, South East
+ West in 1595 + 1596-7 East Anglia
- Only when rumours that merchants hoarded food → higher prices

Consolidation of power:
- Mary’s councillor’s accepted her accession
- 17 Nov 1558: Nicholas Heath (Mary’s Lord Chancellor + Archbishop
of York) proclaimed her succession
- Within few days: 9 of Mary’s councillors assured loyalty to Liz.
-
- Rapid coronation: 9th Jan 1559

Trade, Exploration and Colonisation:

● Spanish + Portuguese navy: technically advanced ships + state
encouraged investment in navy via loans + charters
● 1600: England developed trade links+challenged Treaty of Tordesillas
1494
○ All newly discovered lands were not automatically Spanish/Port.
○ Spanish defeat in Armada
● North-East Passage: Muscovy Company
○ 1560s Jenkinson explored south from Russia into Persia + new
links
○ Broke monopoly of Hanseatic League in Baltic
● North-West Passage: Frobisher, Drake (FAILED), Davis → Hudson (C17th)
○ 1576-8: Frobisher discovered Frobisher Strait in Canada
→ HOWEVER: tried to find route to China via Canada
○ Francis Drake circumnavigation 1577-80: sailed up west coast of America to find
route to China → FAILED
 ○ 1585-8 John Davis: contributed to mapping of Arctic + sailed into
Baffin’s Bay + established Greenland was separate from America
→ HOWEVER: found nothing of commercial value
○ Early 1600s: Hudson explored Hudson Bay + est. Hudson Bay
Comp
→ TRADE
● Africa + West Indies Slave Trade: break Spanish + Portugese monopolies
○ 1562: Hawkins transported captured locals as slaves to West
Indies
○ Profit → sugar + money → funded by shareholders in 1564
■ William Cecil, Leicester + secretly Queen
○ 2nd voyage: Philip II warned England of privateering
○ 1567: Elizabeth supplied Hawkins’ ship: Jesus of Lubeck
■ TOTAL FAILURE: almost captured by Span. Viceroy of
Mexico
○ 1572-3: Drake captured Spanish silver: Nombre de Dios
■ Oxenham tried to repeat expedition → caught + hung →FAIL
○ 1577-80: Drake captured Cacafuego + silver cargo in raid
■ 4000% PROFIT + leader of 2nd circumnavigation expedition
○ HOWEVER: Elizabeth later focused on defence + less funding
→ pattern of confident English privateers
● Colonisation:
○ 1589: Hakluyt pub. Principal Navigations, Voyages + Discoveries of English
Nation → stirred interest in expansion
○ Humphrey Gilbert: patents from Queen gave him rights over any
land taken + financed by Cathay Company
■ FAILED: 1578 expedition + 1583 Newfoundland trip
○ Raleigh: patent for colony in Virginia → 1585 + 1587 FAILED
○ After 1588 Armada+focus on Europe: 1595 Raleigh Orinoco, Guiana
→ contributed to Jamestown in 1607 + New England 1620
● Attempted to develop trade with India
○ Weakly defended Portugese Empire
→ 1583: Newbery + Fitch to Goa + met Akbar
○ 1591 Lancaster captured 2 Port. ships BUT insufficient supplied to reach England
→ returned in 1594
○ 1600 EIC by merchants + 1603: Lancaster returned after Eliz. death

1553 Muscovy Company established→ Russia + North East

1562 John Hawkins trade: captured locals+enslaved in West Indies→ sugar

1564 Shareholders of Hawkins: William Cecil + Leicester + (Queen secretly)

1576-8 Frobisher’s Canada expeditions …

1577 - Drake’s circumnavigation expedition

80
1589: Hakluyt published Principal Navigations, Voyages + Discoveries of English nation →
stirred interest in English expansion

1591 Lancaster

1595

1600

1603

Threats + Opposition:

Mary Queen of Scots:

1569 Northern Rebellion:
● Spanish Ambassador DeSpes encouraged rebellion
○ Disgruntled nobles + MQOS
●