1

The Elizabethan Settlement and Its

Challenges, 1558-1585
The New Queen
 No English figure has inspired more myths: Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Good Queen Bess
o Also; bastard, heretic daughter, whore
o Scores artists, poets promote image @ time
o Since then, explain mystique – she knew it & used it
 Accession 11/17/58: rejoicing, but England in bad shape
o “The Queen poor. The realm exhausted. The nobility poor and decayed. Want of good captains
and soldiers. The people out of order. Justice not executed. All things dear. The French king
bestriding the realm.”
o 58: SCOT Presbyterian John Knox: The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous
Regiment of Women
 Larger than life: 25-year old, good looking; intelligent, witty, hardworking, intelligent; wrote poetry
o Scholar, translated Boethius for amusement
o Music & athletics
o Vain and imperious
 Bad traits: temper (counteracts weak as woman), indecisive (dangerous to commit too early or
definitively)
o Kept PARL waiting (marriage, Mary SCOT)  prudence?
o Master at playing sides off each other – can’t turn against her as English

Cecil vs. Dudley

 2 broad groups @ court & PC
 1) William Cecil (Lord Burghley, 1571) – lawyer, commonwealthman, & secretary to SOM
o Admin, diplo; made Secr. State in 58
o Lord treasurer, 1572 – advocated intervention for PROT, later more cautious
o Grew, age, experience, responsibility - after 70 favored diplo as less dangerous & $$$
o Work w/ or don’t offend SP, FR
 Attracts cautious men & bureaucrats: Nicholas Bacon (keeper of Great Seal); Francis
Knollys (vice-chamberlain, then treasurer of household), Thomas Radcliff (earl of Sussex
& lord president of North)
 2) Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (1564)
o Younger son of Dudley – courtier & soldier
o Master of the Horse: paid well, attend Eliz whenever on horseback
o Handsome, charming vs. sober, careful Cecil
o Surround self w/ soldiers & poets incl. Christopher Hatton (lord chancellor & PARL mouthpiece),
Francis Walsingham (secr. state after 73, spies & espionage) – aggressive
 Nat’l networks of patronage b/c circles had Lords Lieutenant and JPs
o Married, temperament, passed to sons
o Generally agreed, until crises (head vs. heart)
 2

Marital Diplomacy I
 Society uncomfortable w/ woman w/ no man
o Succession issue
o England needs friends
 Lots of potential grooms; foreign, domestic; RC or PROT
o Habsburg Archduke Charles of Styria, King Charles 9 FR, King Erik 14 Sweden
o Earl of Arundel, Sir William Pickering
o P2 proposed after decent interval – wanted alliance & no EN friendship w/ FR
 Eliz didn’t like Mary’s loveless, unpopular marriage
 Eliz attracted to someone else – Dudley
 “Sweet Robin” – already married to Amy nee Robsart, d. 1560 @ bottom stairs
o Rejected, breast cancer, probably accident or suicide (foul play?)
o Cecil opposed  66 repudiated “I will have but one mistress, and no master!”
o Remained favorite until d. 1588
 PARL, PC, people urge marriage
o Eliz wants to use as diplo trump card or bait for peaceful, inexpensive alliance
o Thru 1st ½ reign, entertained stream FR, GERM suitors
 Knew she could only play hand once
 Freedom to maneuver for self & country gone w/ marriage –
 Preferred to play the game
o Never married: virtue of singleness by 80s: embrace “Virgin Queen”
 Wed to country
 Referred to subjects 99: “all my husbands, my good people”
 Affection for her people – common touch
 Cross-country progresses & open chair in chaise lounges
 Celebtrated in art as people’s bride & goddess
o Virgin Queen replaces Virgin Mary
o Softer, gentler female face of power
o Gloriana above faction, impartial lover – available for veneration

The Religious Settlement

 Walk tightrope – RC associated w/ cruel Mary; PROT invites European & conservative hostility
o Good at balancing – not publicly committed
 PROT theology – loved hierarchy & ritual like RC
o Practical, tolerant, somewhat secular (esp. for times)
o Fewer churchmen on PC – “not liking to make windows into men’s hearths and secret
thoughts”
o Not concerned every EN fully accept all doctrines & faith
 Wants obedience & loyalty
 Settlement most could accept – compromise
 Spring 59: Act of Supremacy
o Undoes M1s work – no churchmen voted for it
 Almost defeated, church peers had to be imprisoned in Tower
o Concessions: Supreme Governor (not Head)
 Clergy and gov’t swear oath, but not laity
 Nothing force people to choose b/w Queen & rel
 2nd Act of Uniformity: all must attend church Sundays & holidays or 12p fine
o Revised 2nd BCP
 3

o Ambiguous sentence from 49 BCP (transubstantiation?) – “The Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
 63: new Treason Act – capital crime to support pope or twice refuse Oath of Allegiance
o 63: 39 Articles adopted by Convocation, law statute in 71
o Protestant (even Calvinist), predestination, denounced Purgatory & sacrifice mass
o Enforced by Episcopal hierarchy w/ colorful vestments
o Most seem to accept compromise
 Vast majority by 80s, except for 2 groups

The Puritan Challenge

 Committed PROT – Marian exiles – lost everything
o Cherished martyrs; felt Eliz settlement ½ measures
o Need to continue purifying Church – labeled Puritans in 1570s
 Purify Church from within, not create new Church
o Conform to Biblical beliefs & practices
 Abandon non-Biblical practices
 No distinction b/w Church & State
 Adultery, Sabbath-breaking capital crimes in 1563
 Disagree over vestments: distance b/w clergy & laity (plain black dress)
o 1563: Convocation considers petition abolish compulsory surplice, organ, sign cross, holidays
o 1565: Eliz issues defense of vestments and orders bishops to suspend non-compliant
 Anti-hierarchy: want congregation led by local groups of teachers & laypeople
o Presbyteries: no need for bishops if Word clear to all
 Scotland moved in this direction in 1560s
o Locals cannot be allowed to determine beliefs & practices
 Lead to disunity & chaos
 If religious liberty granted, what about political liberty? Attack Great Chain
 1576: Eliz orders Archbishop Canterbury Edmund Grindal to suppress “prophesyings”
o Clergy meeting to hear sermon
o Refuses, suspended until his death in 83
 Anti-Puritan John Whitgift next Archbishop
o Used tribunal of High Commission to eject 300-400 clergy who don’t conform
o Maintain integrity of Church, but drive some out
o 1580: Robert Browne – independent congregation @ Norwich
 1581: fled to Netherlands
o 1593: 3 prominent separatists executed more Puritans flee to Netherlands, some to America
 Most stay in England, in Church
 Some sit in PARL for church reform and complained about RC influence

The Catholic Threat

 Settlement to find ways to not offend (if not please) RC
o Avoid rebellion & foreign intervention – decade of success
o 1566: pope declared that RC couldn’t attend PROT church & have private mass
 Must choose
o Most choose Anglican & cease to be RC
 Some keep some practices – wife keeps RC (teach kids)
o About 5% avoid church entirely (higher % of nobility)
 Secret RCs w/ Marian priests
 4

 Naïve desire to be left along

 5

 1559: pope refused to sign Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (peace b/w EN, FR, SP) b/c of recognition of Eliz
o Keep hope of denounce as heretic & dissolve allegiance
o Explains not too PROT & playing w/ RC diplo marriage
 Prevent papal condemnation
 Navy in decay, no army, financial mess

England and Scotland

 EN-SCOT hostility led Mary to FR
o Francis died 1560; Mary returned SCOT in 1561
 SCOT: 700,000 people: 2/3 England’s size, less 1/3 population
o Mostly scattered tenant farmers
o Powerful nobles, weak monarch – little resistance to PROT, adopted by many lairds (large
landowners)
 Nationalist rejection of FR & FR regents under Mary of Guise
 Late 1550s Mary turns against PROT
o 1557: Archibald Campbell, earl of Argyll, led PROT create “Congregation of God”
o Lords of the Congregation – want religious autonomy, religious, church wealth, resent French
 Rebel spring 1559 & take central lowlands
o Establish rudimentary Presbyterian
o French send troops to garrison Edinburgh
 SCOT ask Eliz for help
 Eliz: if support, rebels vs. monarch, signal of PROT, FR might invade
o PROT want PROT ally & FR out of SCOT (reduced tensions); don’t want to strengthen Mary’s
position, since she’s next in line
o Determines to support w/ $, then troops til Guise’s death in June 1560
o July 50: Treaty of Edinburgh – Mary SCOT recognizes Eliz’s right to throne
 Religious tolerance governed by council w/ equal RC & Calvinists
 Gov’t run by James Stewart, earl of Moray, Mary’s illegit PROT ½ brother
 1578: SCOT Presbyterian Church (Kirk)formed, but Highlands still RC
 Mary SCOT: beautiful, courtly, clever
o Also impulsive, resisted people’s urges, kept putting herself under control of men unworthy of
her
 1565: married SCOT noble Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley
o Descended from H7’s daughter Mary
o Vain, self-centered, hot headed
o 1566: accused Mary of affair w/ Italian secretary (David Riccio)
 Anti-RC plot to eliminate him
 March: stormed in & murdered him
o Darnley & Mary pretend to reconcile – she gets pregnant
 James born 6/19/66; Dec – baptized as RC
o 2/10/67: Darnley’s house explodes, killing him?
 Mary? SCOT noble James Hepburn, earl of Bothwell
 Bothwell panicked, kidnapped Mary 4/24/67
o Married 5/15 – Calvinists rebel & declared Mary deposed for James
o Meet rebels at Canberry Hill 6/15 to parley
 Mary’s army deserts
 In July, abdicates for James
6
 7

 May 13, 1568: Mary’s army defeated at Langside – fled to England

o Kinswoman, monarch unjustly deposed by her people
o Accused murderer, RC, heir to England
 Eliz remembered how she’d destabilized Mary’s regime
 “I know the inconstancy of the people of England, how they ever mislike the present
government and have their eyes fixed upon that person that is next to succeed.”
o If rel/diplo situation failed, Mary a good RC candidate
 More impulsive – might act to gain throne

England and Spain

 FR less of a threat: SCOT neutralized
o Boy-kings & powerful Guise/Bourbon factions
o Religious war took FR out & proved RC treachery and cruelty
 SP & EN 16th C partners
o SP relied on England to help Neth, even after 59 as FR decline
 P2 empire in AM, SP, S-IT, Neth – vast wealth & greatest army
o SP trade monopoly
 Many look to break, esp. slaves
 1568: SP vessels attack “peaceful” English slaving fleet
o Only 2 ships survive (John Hawkins, Francis Drake)
o Eliz responds: confiscate all SP ships in English ports
o Tacitly support pirates
 Invested in some privateer voyages
o 1573: El Draque (dragon) Drake raided Panama for £20,000
 1577-80 circles world, raiding throughout & reading Foxe’s book (2nd do so)
o Back home: 1st question if Eliz still lived – Mary would’ve killed
o Knighted on his ship the Golden Hind
o Eliz got her cut of £264,000, but publicly denounced
 P2 stayed quiet, hoping Eliz would die or convert
 Netherlands revolt in 1566 – opposed Inquisition (both RC & CAL)
o 1567: duke of Alva w/ 20,000 men
o 80 year revolt: should Eliz support king, or PROT – violate Chain, end trade
 End 1568: storm & Dutch pirates drive SP fleet w/ £85,000 gold for Alva to England
o SP confiscate & arrest English merchants in Neth - impound
o Eliz retaliates (plus Hawkins), keeps money
 Secretly supplied rebels, openly denounced
 P2 closes Antwerp to England for 5 years
 P2 begins secret support of Mary
 8

Plots and Counter-Plots

 Council of Trent & Jesuits
o English priests dying out, so 1568 Fr. William Allen founded seminary to train English priests at
Douai, FR
o 1579: Jesuits open English seminary in Rome
o Priests filter in
o 1580: first Jesuit mission Frs. Edmund Campion & Robert Persons
 Supposed to support RC, not rebel
 Concentrate in SE among powerful nobles
 Not N & W where RC strong – continues to die out
 1568: Thomas Howard: plot to wed mary, purge Cecil & other PROT in PC, dictate to Eliz
o Thomas Percy, earl of Northumberland & Charles Neville, earl of Westmoreland (disgruntled,
powerless RC) & Leicester (break Cecil) agree
 Late 1569, Norfolk chickens out
o Eliz summons Percy & Neville to explain – launch Northern Rebellion
 Army marches S to Durham Cathedral 11/14
 Rip Bible and perform Latin mass
 Bear banner of PoG w/ 3800 foot/1600 horse, but Yorkshire and Lancashire don’t join &
army deserts
 Norfolk to Tower; Northumberland & Westmoreland flee to Scotland
 Northumberland captured early 1570 & executed w/ 450 followers
 Last popular RC rebellion
 Pius 5 ambiguous, but late 1570 issues Regnans in Excelsio
o Excommunicates Eliz & absolves loyalty
o RC choose loyalty over religion – too late to help Northern Rebellion
o Convince English of internat’l RC conspiracy
 Ridolfi Plot (Roberto di Ridolfi): Florentine banker & RC agent
o Worked w/ Pope, Mary, & Norfolk
o P2 will send troops after rebellion
o English won’t rebel until troops arrive
o Walsingham infiltrates, uncovers, arrests
 Norfolk executed
 Anti-RC legislation: all JPs must swear Oath of Allegiance after 1569
o First Treason Act (over Eliz’s objection): PARL makes capital crime to call Eliz heretic, question
right to throne, promote death or removal in speech or writing
o Act: illegal to distribute, receive, possess papal documents
 1581: Act against Recusancy: after Jesuit arrival
o Church absence can levy £20 fine each month
o Cottagers/artisans may earn £1/month
 Cripple RC elite
o Illegal to convert from Anglicanism or allow conversion
 1585: treason to be RC priest in England
o Tighter laws to secure Eliz’s safety
o Eliz claimed to persecute political, not religious, acts
o 1580s-1600s: execute 120 priests & 60 laypeople for treason
o By 1603: only 35,000 RC in England; same # of Church Papists
9
 10

Marital Diplomacy II
 Cecil party: England not ready financially or military in 1570s for war vs. SP
o Prepare Navy
o Opposed by Leicester
 1) Eliz toned down Dutch & pirate support
 2) 70s, 80s: revive marriage talks – most serious w/ Francois, duke of Alencon & Anjou (H3 bro)
o 1579, 1581-2: Visit England
o Eliz claims in love in 1579 (w/ idea of marriage?)
 “my ape” and “my frog”
 By mid-1580s too unpopular to marry RC
o FR also too weak for much aid
o SP growing – take PORT in 80, William of Orange d. 1584
 Parma offensive 1585
 Eliz’s hand forced – Leicester to Neth w/ 6-7000 troops
 This war was the greatest challenge to the Tudor throne