Elizabeth I,

Heart Of A
King
By #PRIVATE, 8JB

#PRIVATE, 8JB i
 Contents

1. Introduction
3. Religion And The Act Of Supremacy
6. Marriage
8. Mary Stuart
11. The Spanish Armada

#PRIVATE, 8JB i
 Introduction

Elizabeth the first, Queen of England. Daughter of Henry

VIII, Sister of Mary I and Edward VI, and one of the most
influential queens in the history of England. Who was she?
What did she do? Why is she so important? These questions
will all be answered. But first a little background.
Elizabeth was the
daughter of Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn. Her father
had already been married
to Catherine of Aragon but
divorced her after she
gave birth to her older
sister, Mary, in favor of
a different wife. He
thought the reason his
wife had not had a son was
because she had been
married to his now dead
brother, Arthur.
Henry needed an heir because he knew the War Of The
Roses was caused simply because the king at the time
(William II) did not have a son to take the throne after
him, so a major dispute followed his death over who should
be king, resulting in civil war. Henry VIII did not want to
repeat history! So when his wife gave birth to a girl,
naturally he was disappointed. He was convinced God was
punishing him for marrying his brother’s wife, so he asked
the Pope for a divorce. This is where religion comes in.
The woman Henry wanted to marry, Anne Boleyn, was
Protestant. The Pope is always Catholic, more about
Catholics and Protestants later. All you need to know now is
that Catholics and Protestants are two different branches of
Christianity. The problem is, divorce is not allowed in the
Catholic Church. This could have been the reason why the
Pope said no, but another reason could have been that since

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Anne Boleyn was Protestant, the Pope knew that if he let the
king marry a Protestant, he might end up with less power in
England. Either way he refused to give Henry a divorce.
Furious, Henry started thinking about why the pope gets
to tell him what he can and cannot do. After all, we WAS
the king! So, he started a church. Henry started The
Church Of England, a Protestant church with the monarch at
the head instead of the Pope. This not only allowed him to
give himself a divorce, but he got all the land that
formerly belonged to the Catholic church. This land he sold
to various lords and dukes to fund his wars in Spain. This
left the king with less land than the nobles, a big problem.
Now back to the story. Henry divorced Catherine and married
Anne, who promptly gave birth to a girl. That girl was
Elizabeth I. Henry married six times, and only had one boy,
but that was enough. He could rest knowing he had not caused
a war. Or did he?
After Henry died, his only son, Edward VI, took the
throne. Unlike his father, who changed religion for
political reasons, and wasn’t truly Protestant, Edward was a
true Protestant. He believed the religion; he didn’t exploit
it for personal gain. He died however, aged 17. His sister
Mary then donned the crown. Mary was Catholic, and believed
that Protestants were heretics. She burned as many at the
stake as she could. Even though she ruled for the shortest
time (5 years), she executed nearly twice as many people as
all the other Tudors put together! She tried to destroy two
generations work, and bring Catholicism back to England.
Poor Elizabeth had all these problems to deal with!
She had to return the country back to being Protestant; the
nobles had more land than her, therefore more power. In
addition, being a woman, many people saw her as weak, and
the common people may not treat her with respect because she
is not a man. To this she said: “I know I have the body of
a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of
a king, and I king of England too.”

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 This is the position that Elizabeth is left in when she
becomes queen, and it is not the best position to be in,
especially if you are a woman.

Religion and the Act Of Supremacy

Elizabeth’s predecessors left her a large and hard to solve

problem: Religion. Before we start, a little background:
Catholicism was originally the only Christian church.
The head of the Catholic Church was the Pope who was
considered Gods holy messenger sent to earth. He lived in
Vatican City, from where he conducted his the duties as
leader of all Catholics. For a long time, nobody cared much,
but then a German monk named Martin Luther said that the
church was too corrupt! Here are some of the things he said:
➡ The church had too much money
‣ The church required that you pay a “tithe”, or one
tenth of your money, or else you wouldn’t go to heaven.
Where did this money go? To the Pope’s luxury!
‣ Normal people could buy a “pardon” for their sins. If
you buy one, all your sins are forgiven. Where did the
money go? To more luxury for the Pope.
‣ All Catholic Churches were full of riches and luxury.
Beautiful, expensive stained glass windows, gold leafed
candle holders, silk robes, mahogany beams, all very
expensive and made to awe the common people.
➡ The church encouraged superstition
‣ For a fee (which goes to the Pope) you could see relics
of things like:
 The knucklebone of Saint Peter
 The breath of Jesus
 An angel’s feather
➡ The church was immoral and disobeyed the bible
‣ Paintings have been found of monks (who pledged not to
marry, called the Vow of Chastity) engaging in
intercourse with nuns (who also pledged no to marry)!

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 This goes against the 10 Commandments (“Thou shalt not
commit adultery”).
‣ Monks also used church money to buy drinks at bars, and
getting very drunk as a result.
‣ Statues of saints were kept in the Churches. Luther
said that this went against the 10 commandments as well
(“thou shalt not worship idols”)
‣ The church told the common people only what they wanted
them to hear
‣ Martin Luther thought that this was one of the biggest
problems with the
church. Before A modern Protestant church: very
Martin Luther, the simple.
medieval Bible had
always been in
Latin. The vast
majority of people
couldn’t read
English, let alone
Latin. This stopped

them from reading the

Bible for themselves, and
the only way they could
hear it was from a bishop
or priest reading it to
them (all clergy were
fluent in Latin). This
allowed the church to
A Catholic Church: Notice control the common
the stained glass windows, people’s views of life,
and rich decorations.
God, heaven, and what is
right or wrong by reading
them only certain parts of the Bible. People’s
interpretation of God was only what the Pope wanted it
to be, they couldn’t choose.

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 ‣ Martin Luther felt that everyone should be able to hear
God’s word for themselves, and that people they should
decide, not the Pope, if and how they believe in God.

Martin wrote these complaints and many more (95 to be

exact) on a piece of paper, and nailed the paper to the door
of the All Saints Castle Church in Whittenberg. These were
called Martin Luther’s 95 theses.
Martin was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for
heresy (preaching things other than what the Pope preaches)
but his ideas were the start of a new sect of Christianity:
Protestantism.
Protestantism (derived from protesting i.e. protesting
against the Catholic religion), is based on all the
complaints against the Catholics by Martin Luther.
Protestant Churches are simple and have no riches, no
stained glass windows, no statues of saints, and are the
opposite of Catholic churches. Sermons and bible readings
are given in English, tithe paying is voluntary and
Protestants believe that to get into heaven, all you need is
faith in Jesus.
As said before, Elizabeth’s father, Henry, was
Protestant. But he was using it as a way to divorce. Her
brother, Edward, was Protestant because he truly believed in
it. Her sister, Mary, was Catholic and burned hundreds of
Protestants at the stake. Poor Elizabeth had all this
trouble to clean up! She had to return the country to
Protestantism, because according to the Pope, her father
never divorced, which means she is illegitimate in the
Catholic Church. Therefore, if she keeps England catholic,
she will have to give up the throne immediately, because she
would be born outside of marriage. But Elizabeth found an
answer to this problem in the form of THE ACT OF SUPREMACY.
The Act of Supremacy was instituted in 1559, and was
Elizabeth’s way of solving religious differences with
minimal burning-at-the-stakes and making (nearly) everyone
happy. When combined with the Act Of Uniformity, it forms
the Elizabethan Religious Settlement. This stated that all

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religions were tolerated. You didn’t HAVE to be Protestant,
or HAVE to be Catholic, but you still had to go to
Protestant church. If you wanted to have a Catholic service,
you could, but in your home. You wouldn’t be burned at the
stake for not being Protestant, as long as you don’t go
burning Protestants yourself. Even though this settled a
lot of differences, not everyone was happy.
Extreme Protestants, known as the Puritans, didn’t just
want a settlement; they wanted all the Catholics out, out,
out! Elizabeth kept a close watch on these Puritans, in case
they tried something big. Meanwhile, in Rome, the Pope was
furious! The queen of England, a Protestant! He sent out a
decree to all the Catholic churches saying that whomever
killed Elizabeth would not only not go to hell, but also
would go straight to heaven! Catholic missionaries known as
Jesuits traveled to England and attempted to assassinate
Elizabeth, According to her, this was stepping over the
line. But Elizabeth had learned from her sister, and knew if
she called them heretics, she would be seen as another Mary.
So she called them traitors instead. They were executed for
attempting to kill the monarch.
So Elizabeth was able to settle the religious problems
in England, and make the majority of people happy, with
minimal stake burning.

Marriage

During the time of her reign, Elizabeth was under a lot of

pressure to marry. Her advisors all wanted her to find a
husband to help her rule, and to have an heir. Yet again,
nobody wanted to repeat history and start another Rose War.
Another reason for the pressure is that then, women were
seen as weak. They had very few rights. They were expected
to grow up, marry, take care of the house, have kids, and
support their husband. They were NOT expected to don a crown
and run a country all by themselves! Without a husband, all
the other countries would think Elizabeth was weak, and

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 therefore England was weak as well, and they would attack,
or at least not do business with her. But with a man on the
throne, England would have more respect. And maybe, if
Elizabeth married a foreign king, like Francis, duke of
Alençon, from France, his country and England might form an
alliance! Finding a man to marry is no problem. Elizabeth
had over 20 suitors!
Of course, there are cons to marriage as well. Whoever
she married, she would immediately make
King Philip of Spain,
enemies of all the 19+ men who also had their
one of many suitors. eyes on her. The man she chooses may be too
powerful, and take over, leaving her
powerless. A foreign husband may try to make
England a colony of his own country, whereas
an English one would cause quarreling and
jealousy. And the man has to be Protestant as
well, if he was Catholic, like Philip of
Spain, a very anti-Protestant, that may stir
up some religious conflicts. He also had to be
rich, and own a lot of land, not like Eric,
king of Sweden who was poor, despite being a king. The list
for the right husband was long, specific and contradictory.
And do any of these requirements have anything to do with
Elizabeth’s personal preference? Whether or not she thinks
he is handsome? No. In fact, the only man that she may have
actually loved was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. They
were once childhood lovers, and Elizabeth herself gave him
his title. But since he was English, and all his wealth
originally came from her, marrying him would give no
alliance or extra wealth. And Robert’s family was known
traitors; they had tried to put the Lady Jane Grey on the
throne in 1553. One evening, Robert's wife, Amy Robsart, was
found dead, at the bottom of the stairs. Conveniently
enough, this allowed him to court Elizabeth. Did she fall?
Or was she pushed?
What Elizabeth finally decided to do surprised
everybody. She proclaimed that she was married to England.

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This metaphor meant that, like a wife, she would support her
country and care for it.
I think that this choice was a profitable one short
term, but the long term results were bad. Short term, she
was allowed her full control, and she wouldn’t have to share
her power. She could make
decisions herself. And no
enemies would be made of other
suitors. But in the long term,
the lack of an heir made her
first cousin, once removed,
James I of England (a
Catholic) the next in line. It
looks as if Mary won after
all!

Mary Stuart

A very important thing to

remember throughout this King James I of England,
Elizabeth’s first cousin,
chapter is that there were 2
once removed.
Marys: Mary Tudor and Mary
Stuart. They were 2 very
different people. Do not get
them confused. Mary Stuart was
Elizabeth’s second cousin, and
a Catholic, and was also known
as Mary Queen Of Scots (because she was the queen of the
Scots). For the rest of this section, she will be referred
to as Mary. Mary was the only living legitimate child of
King James V of Scotland. She was only 6 days old when her
father died. This left her as the heir to the scottish
throne. This ends up a little awkward when you’ve only been
around 6 days. Luckily, her mother, Mary Of Guise assumed
regency and took care of things for her until she was old
enough. Then she became a problem.

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 Mary had the best claim to the throne after Elizabeth,
and because she was Catholic, this was not good. When
Elizabeth died, Mary Queen Of Scots would become Mary Queen
Of Scots And Englishes. This was good for the Pope, because
England would be Catholic, But bad for Elizabeth, not only
because when she died, England would be Catholic, but also
because while Mary was alive, Jesuits would constantly be
trying to assasinate her to put Mary on the throne earlier.
When it came to marriage, Mary
wasn’t much better than Henry
VIII. She married 3 times! The
first was Francis, Dauphin Of
France, in 1558. A year into their
marriage, Francis became king of
France. Mary was now the queen of
2 countries! But this didn’t last
for long. Francis died in 1560.
Mary returned to Scotland
Mary with her husband, Lord Darnley.
shortly afterwards and, after 4
years, married her own cousin! His name was Henry Stuart,
also known as Lord Darnley. Darnley was a Catholic. However,
this marriage wasn’t her decision: Darnley forced her to
marry him in a way I will not describe. This outraged Mary,
but she married him anyways. She never would have if he had
just asked her, though. Darnley was violent, immature, and a
drunkard as well. He was 3 years Mary’s younger, and highly
demanding. Despite all this, Mary ended up getting pregnant.
9 months, her son was born, James VI Of Scotland.
In 1567, Darnley’s house blew up. Darnley escaped but
was strangled in his own garden. Mary married the Earl of
Bothwell, who many suspect planned Darnley’s assassination.
Mary’s marriage with Darnley was a major problem for
Elizabeth. This is because she had a son, James VI of
Scotland. Not only that, but her son was Catholic! James had
the best claim to the throne after she died, and if James
ever did become king, England would be Catholic again.
Back to Mary. The barons and lords in scotland rebelled
against Mary and Bothwell and raised an army. The rebel

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army, headed by the nobles, and the royal army, headed by
Mary met on Carberry hill. The moment Mary saw the massive
rebel army, she surrendered. There was no fight. Mary was
taken captive and imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. About a
year later, she escaped, raised an army again, was beaten
again, and fled to England, thinking her second cousin
Elizabeth would offer her some shelter. Instead, Elizabeth
placed her under house arrest!
Mary was a threat to Elizabeth’s rule, but Elizabeth
didn’t know what to do with her! Should she execute her, or
let her live and send her back to Scotland? As long as Mary,
the next in line to the throne, and a Catholic, was alive,
the Pope and his Jesuits would be attempting to assassinate
Elizabeth and make Mary Queen. Because Mary was a Catholic,
if she was on the throne, the pope would have more power
over England. But if Elizabeth killed her, who knows who she
might anger? Spain was a great supporter of Mary, so killing
her might make an excuse for a war. Basically, Elizabeth
didn’t know which choice would cause the most trouble,
because both would. What to do?
In October 1586 in Fotheringhay Castle, Mary was tried
in a court of 40 nobles for involvement in a plot to
assassinate Elizabeth. She denied that she ever was part of
this plot, but she was found guilty and was required to be
executed. However, Elizabeth didn’t want to kill her! After
all, Mary was her second cousin. In fact she asked for Mary
to simply be murdered, so
she wouldn’t be blamed
for it. That didn’t work
out, so Mary had to be
beheaded. Elizabeth
successfully ran
screaming after the
scribe after signing the
death warrant and ripping
it into small bits 3
times! The third time, Mary Stuart’s execution
she felt horrible and

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dressed in black and mourned for many days. She had no idea
what the consequences of her actions were. Would God
Almighty strike her down with fire from heaven for killing a
queen? Would the Catholic rise up in fury and rebel? Would
the people of England hate her, or would they love her?
When Mary was brought up to the execution block, they
took off her dress to show a blood red chemise. Red was the
color that Catholic martyrs wore!
It took three tries to decapitate Mary, the first time
the axe it her in the back of the head, and the second time
cut through almost the whole neck, except for one small
sinew, which the executioner cut through using the axe as a
saw. Then the executioner picked up the head by the hair to
show to the crowd, but he was left holding a wig, as the
bald head rolled across the platform! It is said that her
lips moved for 15 minutes after being decapitated.
The outcome of Elizabeth’s decision in a nutshell is
this: Mary Queen Of Scots, who was next in line for the
throne, is now dead. While she was alive, Catholic Jesuits
were trying to kill Elizabeth to make Mary queen. Now Mary’s
son, James VI, is the next in line for the throne. Killing
Mary may make Catholic countries, such as Spain, angry.

I think that Elizabeth made a good choice in killing

Mary, because if she hadn’t, the Catholics may have
succeeded in killing her and making England Catholic.
In fact, Elizabeth did anger Spain by killing Mary, but
that will be discussed in the next section.

The Spanish Armada

When Elizabeth killed Mary Stuart, she had been afraid

of angering Catholics around the world, because Mary had
been a Catholic and the next in line for the English throne.
If Mary had not been killed, when she became queen England
would turn to Catholicism again. Elizabeth was right to
worry! In killing Mary, King Philip II of Spain (a Catholic)

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found the final straw.
Philip already had a
grudge against Elizabeth
for refusing marriage (he
had been a suitor), and
now he had another, better
reason. On top of that,
the reward the Pope would
give to anybody who killed
Elizabeth was still
unclaimed.
These reasons added
up to: WAR. Philip sent
out the Spanish fleet to
attack england! The fleet
was called the Spanish
Armada. When the Armada
set out for England in
1588, it was 130 galleons
(large ships) strong.
Galleons were not made for
battle, they were used for
crossing oceans and for
storage of foot soldiers.
They had armored sterns to
protect the men inside. As
the ships came closer,
they were spotted, and
signal beacons were used
to spread the news. When
the English naval
commander, Lord Howard, heard about it in Plymouth, he sent
out the English Navy to fight! The 2 fleets met in the English
channel, and fought for an entire week! The English ships
were lighter and more maneuverable, but the Spanish formed
themselves into a crescent shape that was very hard to
attack. Despite that, the English eventually pushed the
Armada out of the channel. After they left, the Armada

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dropped anchor in a port in the Netherlands to recuperate
and to pick up more troops. And then, during the Spanish’s
weakest moment, the English attacked! They sent burning
ships adrift towards the anchored Spanish galleons, full of
gunpowder and tar. When the Spanish saw these floating bombs,
they were so scared they abandoned their anchors and fled.
This broke their easily defended crescent shape, causing
them to be more easily attacked. The English took advantage
of this and started to ravage the Armada. At the end of the
battle, it was quite apparent who the victor was.
Nearly all the Spanish ships were battered and ruined.
They knew they were beat, so they headed home, back to
Spain. The problem with that was that the English navy was
blocking the short route through the English channel, so the
only option was to go all the way around Britain. They did
so, and many of the Galleons ended up wrecked on the coast
of Ireland. Out of the 130 Ships that made up the Armada, 67
returned to Spain.
I believe that the major reason that the Armada lost
was lack of planning. The Galleons they used were not built
for ocean battles. They were troop carriers, and used for
long sea voyages. When the smaller, lighter English ships
came along, the Spanish were no match. The second reason was
the English’s tactic of the burning ships. That was
definitely what won the battle. It caused the Armada to lose
their anchors, making it harder to maintain their crescent
formation because they couldn’t stay in one place.
In conclusion, I think that the English won because of
superior tactics, and the Spanish’s unpreparedness.

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