Elizabeth I of England

AMERICAN MILITARY UNIVERSITY

Elizabeth I of England
The Virgin Queen

Mario A. Millett (Date: 19 June 2011) (HIST 121 Western Civilization before the Thirty Years War Wladimir Miszczenko : Instructor)

Elizabeth I of England

Queen Elizabeth I of England was a central player, some say THE central player, in guiding the small, isolated island nation of England into becoming a force to be reckoned with after she became queen in 1558 until her death in 1603. This paper shall consider her impact on history, as many historians consider Elizabeth I of England as being a singular monarch, a ruler of great intelligence, piety, and thoughtfulness. She led Protestant England during the religious struggles with the Catholic faith, deflecting the imposition of excessive Puritan dogma, and defending England from the depredations of Spain, Europes strongest power.1,2 Elizabeth I defended the Protestant faith and England from all who would have worked mischief on either, and she also decided on how to support the Protestants who lived in France and the Netherlands.3,4,5 As the head of state, she directed the skilled English sea-captains to defeat the fearsome Spanish Armada by using their wits, which they had in plenty, vs military might, which was in lacking in many areas.6 Elizabeth Is relationships with her half-sister, Mary, Queen of Scots, whom she had, for fear of dynastic revolt, kept imprisoned for over 20 years, and her ultimate decision to have Queen Mary beheaded as a result of a discovered plot against her shall be considered in this paper as well.7 The fact that she never married and produced an heir to the throne of England in her own right, led to the reigns of power slipping away from the Tudor family to the Stuart family and ultimately, to her successor, formally James VI, King of Scots of the Scottish Stuarts but titled as King James I when he assumed the crown of England. 8

1 2

(Singman 1995, p. 24-25) (Ronald 2007, p. 205) 3 (Skidmore 2010, p. 120-124, 320) 4 (Axlrod 2000, p. 219) 5 (Levin 2002, p. 58-59) 6 (Mattingly 1959, p. 350) 7 (Weir 1998, p. 371-379) 8 (Jenkins 1958, p. 324)

Elizabeth I of England

Protector of the Faith Vs the Roman Catholics Queen Elizabeth was known to be a committed Protestant Christian, so committed that Pope Pius V excommunicated her in 1570, so to strip away the support of the English Catholics who, largely, liked her as queen and who were willing to support her reign. in February 1570, Pope Pius V issued his Bull of Excommunication The Sentence Declaratory of the Holy Father against Elizabeth the Pretended Queen of England and those heretics adhering to her against Elizabeth, the wording of which explains why it was impossible for the government to separate the religious from the political aspect of the Catholic Faith.9 With this papal bull, Pope Pius V put the English Catholics on the horns of a dilemma. According to Jenkins (1958), if they obeyed the pope, they were committing treason against the queen, an act punishable by arrest, trial (and likely torture), and gruesome, painful death; conversely, if they were obedient to the queen, they were then disobedient to the ex cathedra instructions of the Vicar of Christ on Earth, Pope Pius V this would damn their souls to an eternity in hell. 10 Queen Elizabeth had tried to be reasonable and allow for her Catholic subjects to covertly practice their own brand of Christianity privately, without seeking to needlessly persecute them. Her laws on religion insisted on outward conformity and obedience but did not meddle too much in peoples actual beliefs.11 However, over time, after the publication of this inflammatory papal bull by Pope Pius V and other geo-political events, she was lead by her

(Jenkins 1958, p. 157) (Jenkins 1958, p. 157) 11 (Singman 1995, p. 24)

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Elizabeth I of England

counselors to be less lenient. The situation got so inflamed that by 1582 ..., strict penal laws allowed Catholics to be executed as traitors.12 Vs the Puritan Radicals Queen Elizabeth not only had trouble with the Roman Catholics, but she also had to deal with radicals inside of the Protestant faith as well. A large number of English Protestants did not feel that the reformation of the manner of religious practice in England was moving far enough away from the practice of Catholicism as Queen Elizabeth was willing to go. Many English Protestants felt that the Church of England had not gone far enough along the lines of reform; they wanted a more fully Protestant church like those in Scotland, the Netherlands, and Genevea. They objected to even the minor degree of ritual retained in the church.13 These rather radical Protestants were extreme in viewpoint and some of them wanted to establish a church government for the individual churches that were operated by the clergymen and a select group of faithfully adherent to GOD members of the congregation instead of a church hierarchy of priest, bishops, archbishops, etc. The continuing existence of bishops was a matter of especially heated controversy: many people wanted a presbyterian church government , run by assemblies of clergy and godly laymen,14 This idea was not well received by Queen Elizabeth, as she viewed such a concept as a significant threat to herself as the head of the English church and her rule as queen. This was

12 13

(Levin 2002, p. 29) (Singman 1995, p. 25) 14 (Singman 1995, p. 25)

Elizabeth I of England

an idea that Elizabeth considered a threat to her royal authority.15 Elizabeth I wanted uniformity of religious practice, she felt she had to compel all Christens in England to comply with a uniform outward observance of faith. In 1576, when her archbishop, Edmond Grindal failed to stop the radical Protestants, by then known as Puritans, through his refusal to act, from engaging in non-uniform practices of worship, Queen Elizabeth removed his power to perform his duties as Archbishop of England. In the matter of uniformity, there could be no compromise. The concept of uniform worship was, of course, fundamentally incompatible with the essence of compromise.16 In support of the Protestants vs Catholics Early in her reign she deployed land forces across the channel into France to support the Protestant Huguenots there (in return for control of the important French, but formerly English controlled port of Calais) who were attempting to achieve religious autonomy from the Catholic French. It was a disaster. The tangled politics of the era came into play and when the Regent and Queen Mother of France, Catherine de Medici (in charge of France until her son, Charles IX became of age) arranged a truce between the Huguenots and France, when the truce was completed, the French Protestant Huguenots and the Catholic French jointly attacked the Protestant English forces to oust them from French soil. Elizabeth alienated her Protestant allies by attempting to negotiate the return of Calais as the price for her aid, and when in March 1563 the Regent and Queen Mother Catherine de Medici agreed to a truce with the Huguenots, they turned on the English because of the demand for Calais.17 The English forces were compelled to

15 16

(Singman 1995, p. 25) (Axlrod 2000, p. 100) 17 (Levin 2002, p. 43)

Elizabeth I of England

withdraw. According to Levin (2002) as a result of this she became very reluctant to go abroad adventuring militarily in support of other Protestant causes.18 Queen Elizabeths efforts to further the Protestant faith carried over across the English Channel later in her reign as well. Her efforts to support the Dutch Protestants from the depredations off the Spanish Army encamped in the Netherlands was done upon the realization that full blown war with Spain was coming, and coming fast. By 1582, the Spanish Army had control of two important Dutch seaports, which an astute observer of threats to England, such as Queen Elizabeth could see, would position the Spanish perfectly for an invasion. To Elizabeths mind, the best thing to do was to prevent the Spanish general Parmas army of Spaniards in the Low Countries from being able to capture or destroy the critically important port of Antwerp. The top priority was to try to save Antwerp from extermination at the hands of Parma.19 Defender of the Realm Vs the Scottish Rebels Queen Elizabeth was challenged early in her reign by the actions of Scottish rebels when two of the earls of Scotland rebelled against her reign in an attempt to do three basic things; the first being to rescue the Queen of Scots, Mary Stuart from her being kept in restraint in England indefinitely 20. According to Levin (2002) the second and third things would occur almost simultaneously, being to replace Queen Elizabeth as the sovereign ruler of England with

18 19

(Levin 2002, p. 43) (Ronald 2007, p. 264) 20 (Levin 2002, p. 87)

Elizabeth I of England

Mary, Queen of Scots and at the same time, restore the Catholic faith to England; both of these were feared outcomes of Elizabeth Is counselor, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury.21 The rebels hope for rising of the Catholics who lived in the north to act in support of their insurrection was unfulfilled. Those throngs of Catholics waiting only for a word to rise and overthrow the government, whom Mary and de Spes had expected to appear, were inactive and silent.22 Queen Elizebeths forces sallied forth against the two rebel earls and the rebellion failed by the first month of the next year. By the beginning of January the two earls and their wives had been driven over the Scottish border and the rebellion was extinct.23 Vs the Spanish The story of Queen Elizabeth the First could not be complete without a discussion of how she resisted King Phillip II of Spain. Her resistance combined not only military efforts to weaken and defeat his forces in the various areas of conflict, but economic warfare in the form of state sanctioned privateers operating under letters of Marque and Reprisal. In actuality the actions of Englands bold sea captain who could not resist the opportunity, if found to attack Spanish shipping, operating as an officially sanctioned privateer (with letter of reprisal in hand), occurred first before open conflict broke out. It evidently did not matter much to the bold privateers (perhaps better to be called pirates, oftentimes) what nationality the ship belonged to before it was attacked, boarded, and seized as a prize of battlebut most of them wound up being Spanish ships. Since the most numerous and richest ships in the Channel were those belonging to Spain and the Netherlands (a neutral) they became the ripest targets for the holder of the letters of reprisal to attack. English sea captains would do anything they think of to
21 22

(Levin 2002, p. 88) (Jenkins 1958, p. 154) 23 (Jenkins 1958, p. 154)

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capture their desired prize vessels, and how they went about it was not at all pretty. The English used whatever means they could to obtain their prizes, and we should not doubt their brutality in the execution of their duties.24 The amount of money lost to both the Spanish and the Dutch was immense by the attacks of these fierce privateers. It is little wonder with such sea dogs unleashed in the Channel that the Spaniards and the Netherlanders put their losses at over 2 million ducats ($11.6 billion or 6.27 billion today) by the end of 1563.25 (Accounting for the inflation of these figures from the date of the source material (2007), this works out to $$12.52/ 6.77 billion as of 2011.) It was no wonder both the Spanish and the Dutch were mad at England. ...but only Spain had the ability to effectively contest the issue. A combination of factors caused King Phillip II of Spain to lose his ability to deal peacefully with England, one of which was the constant depredations of the English privateers upon his nations ships. One of the other major factors was Queen Elizabeth Is refusal to marry him. Elizabeth was beginning to take a religious course which ensured that Phillips suit was doomed to failure from the start.26 Another factor for Phillip to consider was the fact that Queen Elizabeth was sending aid to the insurgent Dutch Protestants who were rebelling against Spanish authority for the second time in less than 25 years. It seems that Elizabeth I, smart like a fox, declined to accept the sovereignty of important areas of the Low Countries, offered to her by William of Orange and thus, according to Jenkins, (1958) prevent an immediate immersion into conflict with Phillip II, but she instead sent a small body of soldiers over to assist them in holding certain ports from capture by the Spanish army.27

24 25

(Ronald 2007, p. 61) (Ronald 2007, p. 62) 26 (Skidmore 2010, p. 120) 27 (Jenkins 1958, p. 265)

Elizabeth I of England

She understood that a certain amount of resistance to the action of Phillip II was needed to ensure Englands safety, but she did not want to risk reprisals or open warfare. The necessity of helping out the Netherlanders to hold the Spaniards in check so that they might be kept out of England was obvious, 28 By the time of the battle between the English fleet and the Spanish Armada, Queen Elizabeth had command of the strongest navy ever built in Europe. by 1588, Elizabeth was the mistress of the most powerful navy Europe had ever seen. Its backbone was eighteen powerful galleons, the smallest three hundred tons, built and armed in a new fashion and capable of outsailing and outfighting any possible enemies afloat.29 This fleet, with a combined number of about 200 mainly light ships, was still was significantly inferior in numbers of large galleons than the fleet fielded by King Phillip II of Spain. Queen Elizabeth I commanded the brave men of her navy to go into harms way to defend England from King Phillip II of Spains great armada of more than six times a score of ships. Queen Elizabeths sea dogs faced, according to Mattingly (1959), an enemy fleet of over 28(what we would now term) capital ships, including four large Italian galleasses (a hybrid vessel with both oars and sails), with 40 smaller, but still fairly good sized armed merchant ships in the second line, 34 small craft tasked with reconnaissance work and the carrying of dispatches or to function as a screening force, a awkward gaggle of 23 freighters and supply ships functioning as the fleet train, and finally, four oar-powered galleys from Portugal.30 According to Mattingly (1958) Queen Elizabeth was well served by the likes of seamen such as Sir Francis Drake (in charge of a stout squadron of 50 ships and a vice-Lord Admiral
28 29

(Jenkins 1958, p. 265) (Mattingly 1959, p. 195) 30 (Mattingly 1959, p. 247)

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during the battle with the Armada), Sir John Hawkins (Queen Elizabeths naval administrator, naval architect, and vice admiral during the battle with the Armada), Lord Thomas Howard (the Lord Admiral in charge of the combined fleet facing the Armada), and Captain Martin Frobisher (in charge of a stout squadron of 50 ships, as well as the largest ship in the English fleet).31 The defeat of the Spanish fleet at the hands of Queen Elizabeths sea dogs and Spanish misfortune decided the leading religious matter of the day. the defeat of the Spanish Armada really was decisive. It decided that religious unity was not to be imposed by force on the heirs of medieval Christendom, 32 Queen Elizabeth, by her forces achieving victory over the Spaniards, gave impetus to the rise of English power, and ultimately, the creation of the world spanning British Empire. The Virgin Queen Queen Elizabeth was noted as the Virgin Queen, for her claimed purity of body and her steadfast unwillingness to marry any of the many suitors she had while she was still of marriageable (childbearing) age. This unwillingness to marry not only led to rebellion and insurrection on several occasions and contributed to the difficulties Queen Elizabeth had with her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots but had significant dynastic implication as well. Elizabeth before her coronation Even before Elizabeth became queen, she was the object of several royal or noble suitors. In 1556, negotiations were being undertaken whereby the 23 year old Elizabeth would be induced to marry a member of the Spanish royal family. The king of Spain, Phillip had exactly

31 32

(Mattingly 1959, p. 82-92, 195, ) (Mattingly 1959, p. 401)

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Elizabeth I of England

the candidate in mind: he was determined that, as a part of a foreign alliance that he wished to enter into, the princess should marry his cousin Emmanuel Philibert, Prince of Piedmont and Duke of Savoy.33 This marriage did not come to pass, as the young Elizabeth had no inclination to marry Prince Emmanuel; even so, other royal and noble suitors came forward. The suit failed to materialize, however, as Elizabeth refused; but this did not prevent further interest in her hand in marriage among the courts of Europe and beyond.34 Her half sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of England and Queen Consort of Spain, still wanted her married off, and out of the running for creating succession and national religious affiliation troubles, should Mary and Phillip remain childless. Elizabeth Is first half of her reign Elizabeth Tudor became queen of England when her half sister died on 17 November 1558 and was crowned in a coronation ceremony on 15 January 1589 at Westminster Abby in London, England.35,36 Her coronation was the official beginning both her reign and her troubles. As an unmarried queen of England, she was a great prize to be captured by the right suitor. Many royal or noble men attempted to win the hand of the Virgin Queen over a course of about 13 years. The following partial list of her main suitors is compiled from a variety of sources. This list shows the initial year of proposal/consideration and the identity and title of the suitor: 1559 King Philip II of Spain37 1559 Sir William Pickering38
33 34

(Skidmore 2010, p. 49) (Skidmore 2010, p. 49) 35 (Skidmore 2010, p. 71) 36 (Jenkins 1958, p. 70) 37 (Weir 1998, P. 60) 38 (Skidmore 2010, p. 136)

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1559 James Hamilton, Earl of Arran39 1559 Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel40 1559 Lord Robert Dudley41 1560 King Eric XVI of Sweden42 1560 King Charles IX of France43 1560 Henry de Valois, Duke of Anjou44 1568 Archduke Charles of Austria45 1570 Henry Duke of Anjou46 1572 Francois, Duke of Alencon later Anjou However, Elizabeth I succeeded in playing at the game of dynastic marriage negotiations with great success, keeping her friends and enemies both off balance and wondering if she would indeed select a royal mate. No one really knew if she was serious or not, as the negotiations continuedonly she did, and when all was said and done, she already had a husbandEngland. Elizabeth Is second half of her reign It was in the second half of her rule, that England and its queen were faced with their two greatest challenges. The first was the need to support its Protestant brother and sisters on the mainland of Europe from the forces of Roman Catholicism as imparted by the military might of France and later, Spain. The second was to guard against, fight if need be, and hopefully defeat the forces of Spain as they attempted to reclaim England to Roman Catholicism. Queen
39 40

(Weir 1998, p. 75) (Weir 1998, p. 67) 41 (Skidmore 2010, p. 2) 42 (Jenkins 1958, p. 60) 43 (Jenkins 1958, p. 122) 44 (Jenkins 1958, p. 173) 45 (Jenkins 1958, p. 121) 46 (Jenkins 1958, p. 173)

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Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth was able to successfully do the second, but her ability to stand her ground on the mainland of Europe against the strong armies of France or Spain were limitedand when attempted, unsuccessful. We remember Queen Elizabeth for her towering ability to rally the people of England to gather against a common foe the Spanish, and in our western heritage we hold her dear. She was a Queen who hath so long and with so great wisdom governed her kingdoms, as (to use the words of her Successor who in sincerity confessed as much) the like hath not been read or heard of, either in our own time or since the days of the Roman Emperor Augustus.47 Conclusion Queen Elizabeth I was the end of the Tudor line, her failure to produce an heir of her bloodline led to that branch of royalty dying off the time of the Stuarts had started with the ascendance her closest heir, James I of England, formerly James VI, King of Scotland. But her legacy of brave, foresightful leadership was a gift she gave to the future rulers of England. Some used that gift well, others did not. We remember her as a true daughter of England, always more concerned about her country than herself.

Bibliography
Axlrod, Alan. Elizabeth I, CEO. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.
47

(Jenkins 1958, p. 324)

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Elizabeth I of England Jenkins, Elizabeth. Elzabeth the Great. New York, NY: Cowar, McCanaren, & Geoghegan, 1958. Levin, Carole. The Reign of Elizabeth I. New York, NY: PALGRAVE, 2002. Mattingly. The Armada. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1959. Ronald, Susan. The Pirate Queen. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2007. Singman, Jeffrey L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. Westport, CT: Greenwod Publishing Group, 1995. Skidmore, Chris. Death and the Virgin Queen. New York, NY: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2010. Weir, Ailison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York, NY: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1998.

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