Elizabeth I (1533–1603)

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Elizabeth I (1533–1603)

Last of the Tudor monarchs, who ruled England for 45 years, establishing that island nation as a first-rate power in Europe. Name variations: Elizabeth Tudor, Good Queen Bess, the Virgin Queen, Gloriana. Born on September 7, 1533, at Greenwich, England; died on March 24, 1603, at Richmond upon Thames, Surrey; buried in Westminster Abbey; daughter of Henry VIII, king of England (r. 1509–1547) and his second wife, Anne Boleyn (1507–1536); half-sister of Mary I (1516–1558), queen of England; never married.

Inherited throne (1558); appointed William Cecil as principal secretary (1558); had coronation at Westminster Abbey (January 15, 1559); with Parliament, devised Elizabethan Settlement of Religion through Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity (1559); signed Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis ending war with France (1559); supported Scottish Reformation and signed Treaty of Edinburgh with Protestant lords (1560); kept her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart—who had assumed Scottish throne (1561) but was deposed and exiled to England—prisoner (1568–87); suppressed Northern Rebellion of English Catholic nobles (1569) and Ridolfi Plot (1571); branded a heretic and a bastard by Pope Pius V whose bull of excommunication (1570) invited English Catholics and European princes to depose her; reluctantly had Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for high treason (1587) after discovering her involvement in several plots; openly aided Dutch Revolt against Spain and licensed English privateers to prey on Spanish ships returning from the Americas (1580s); survived the major crisis of her reign when English naval forces led by Drake, Hawkins, and Howard defeated the Spanish Armada and prevented a Spanish invasion of England (1588); had latter years as queen marred by protracted and expensive war in Ireland (1595–1603), increased tension with Parliament, and betrayal by her last royal favorite, the earl of Essex, whom she had beheaded for leading a rebellion against the Crown (1601); at her death, the English throne passed peacefully to Mary Stuart's son, King James VI of Scotland.

Late in July of 1588, 130 well-armed galleons carrying 30,000 of King Philip II's seasoned veterans—the mighty Spanish Armada—was sighted off the southern coast of England. Across the Channel, a fleet of transport ships waited, ready to convey Alessandro Farnese, duke of Parma, and his army from Holland as the spearhead of a full-scale Spanish invasion of England. Two hundred smaller but highly mobile English ships sailed forth from Plymouth to meet the Spanish onslaught.

On land, Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, assembled at Tilbury in Essex an army of largely inexperienced English soldiers, hoping to bar Parma's route to London and Spain's prime target: Queen Elizabeth I. As yet, no one knew the outcome of the great sea battle when suddenly, on August 9, there appeared in camp a woman on horseback, wearing a silver breast plate over a white velvet dress. She carried a truncheon in her hand and addressed the troops:

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm.… I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general.

When she finished, Elizabeth's audience "all at once a mighty shout or cry did give." According to Leicester, her words "so inflamed the hearts of her good subjects [that] the weakest among them is able to match the proudest Spaniard that dares land in England."

Sixtus V">
She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island, and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all.
—Pope Sixtus V

They did not have to. The English navy, and tricky winds in the North Atlantic, wreaked havoc on the Armada Catholica; remnants of Philip's "great enterprise" straggled home to Spain that autumn, leaving Parma's army stranded on the Dutch coast.

Born in 1533, Elizabeth Tudor grew to maturity in a dangerous and turbulent era. Her father King Henry VIII had defied the pope, divorced his first wife Catherine of Aragon , and married the Lutheran-leaning Anne Boleyn in hopes of siring a male heir to the English throne. Instead, Anne Boleyn sired Elizabeth. Before Elizabeth reached age three, her mother was executed; her father married his third wife, Jane Seymour ; and Elizabeth and her older half-sister Mary (1516–1558), the future Mary I , were declared illegitimate. Seymour produced the much-sought-after son, Edward (the future Edward VI), but died in the process. Henry married three more times. His last wife, Catherine Parr , provided young Elizabeth with the only motherly guidance she experienced during childhood. Parr took an active interest in the education of her stepchildren, especially Elizabeth and Edward, both of whom proved to be highly intelligent, apt pupils. Tutored by some of the finest English Renaissance scholars of the age, Elizabeth acquired an exceptional grounding in Latin, Greek, French, and Italian as well as the traditional womanly arts of music, dance, and fine stitchery.

Upon the death of Henry VIII in 1547, nine-year-old Edward VI came to the throne. As usually happens when a minor inherits the crown, powerful magnates vied for control of the realm, and Elizabeth's affectionate relationship with her sickly brother did not shield her from danger.

The young king's Protestant uncle and Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, dominated the first half of the reign. Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Somerset's brother, Admiral Thomas Seymour, who then promptly (and secretly) married the widow Parr with whom Elizabeth continued to live. There is evidence that the affable but vulgar Seymour may have molested Elizabeth during his brief marriage to her stepmother. Parr died in childbirth in 1548, whereupon Seymour immediately renewed his pursuit of 15-year-old Elizabeth. The Council arrested him, and Elizabeth had difficulty extricating herself from complicity in the affair. When Seymour went to the block for treason a few months later, Elizabeth remarked coldly: "This day died a man of much wit and very little judgment."

In 1550, Lord Protector Somerset lost his power struggle with the Duke of Northumberland, and in 1552 was likewise beheaded for treason. Radical Protestantism and naked ambition characterized Northumberland's government; none of Henry VIII's three children was free from danger while this greedy duke controlled the Council. In 1553, King Edward died of consumption. In an effort to exclude both Catholic Mary and Protestant Elizabeth from the throne, Northumberland proclaimed Lady Jane Grey , their cousin and his daughter-inlaw, as queen. The plot failed and Mary was crowned, leaving Elizabeth at the mercy of a bitter half-sister who despised and distrusted her.

Mary Tudor, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, was a fervent Catholic, determined to return England to the papal fold. Elizabeth conformed, attended mass, and tried to reassure the queen of her steadfast loyalty. But throughout "Bloody Mary's" tragic reign, Elizabeth faced constant peril. Most of England's Protestant leaders either escaped to the Continent or were burned at the stake for heresy. When Mary's unpopular marriage to King Philip II of Spain sparked Wyatt's Rebellion in 1555, Elizabeth found herself imprisoned in the Tower of London. Always under suspicion for both heresy and sedition, she kept a low profile and bided her time. Mary died childless in November of 1558, and 25-year-old Elizabeth Tudor became queen of England.

The kingdom Elizabeth inherited needed all her considerable talents—plus those of others—to establish external security and internal tranquillity. Thanks to her brother-in-law, Philip, England was in a losing war with his rival, France; trouble brewed on the Scottish border; the exchequer (treasury) was bankrupt; and religious divisions threatened to split the nation apart. In her first official act, she appointed Cambridge-educated Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley) as principal secretary of state. "This judgement I have of you," she told him, "that you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift and that you will be faithful to the state; and that without respect of my private gain will you give me that counsel which you think best." Thus began a 40-year political partnership—perhaps the most successful one in English history. Other Privy Council members also reflected Elizabeth's uncanny instinct for, in the words of Francis Bacon, "reading men as well as books"; like Cecil, they were intelligent, hard-working men, devoted to their new queen. The brilliance of her advisors has led some historians to underestimate the queen's role in creating policy. Most modern authorities now concede, however, that throughout her reign, Elizabeth I made most of the important policy decisions herself.

Unlike other female monarchs of the age, Elizabeth frequently acted as her own foreign minister. Her facility with languages, her astute grasp of European politics, and her insistence upon controlling her own government, all enabled her to deal directly with foreign princes and their ambassadors. Three countries—France, Spain, and Scotland—needed to be watched carefully, as each represented a danger to England's security as well as Elizabeth's hold on her throne.

In March of 1559, she signed the Treaty of Câteau-Cambrésis, ending a costly war with France. She preserved a nominal friendship with Spain, temporarily, via sisterly correspondence with Philip II, who even proposed marriage to her. But the real key lay in Scotland, whose absent queen, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542–1587), was married to Francis II, heir to the French throne. As Elizabeth's cousin, Mary Stuart stood first in line to the English throne; as a Catholic, she already claimed to be England's rightful queen. When Protestant Scottish lords revolted against an unpopular French Catholic regency

in 1560, Elizabeth prevented French reinforcements from landing in Scotland and signed the Treaty of Edinburgh recognizing the new Protestant government. In so doing, she secured England's northern border and broke up the longstanding alliance between Scotland and France.

In solving England's most urgent internal problem—that of religion—Elizabeth sought Parliament's help but designed a settlement suited to her own principles. Parliament moved quickly to restore the Henrician Act of Supremacy, ending papal authority and naming the queen as "supreme governor" of the Church of England in 1559. At the same time, the Act of Uniformity established a somewhat ambiguous English liturgy based on the 1552 Book of Common Prayer. Elizabeth then appointed the moderate and conciliatory Matthew Parker as archbishop of Canterbury. The Elizabethan Compromise combined Catholic ritual and episcopal governance with Protestant theology; it produced Anglicanism as the basis of a national church. Hardcore Papists and Puritans resisted throughout her reign, but the majority of English subjects—weary of both extreme Protestantism and Catholic persecutions—accepted the settlement. England was thus spared the divisive religious warfare that racked many other European countries in the late 16th century.

Elizabeth's heir until 1587 was her cousin, Mary Stuart. Widowed in 1560, Mary returned from France to Scotland where, as a Catholic, she quarreled bitterly with the Presbyterian Council of Lords. Marriage to her foppish Stuart cousin, Lord Darnley, provided Scotland with a male heir but ended disastrously when Mary, implicated in her husband's murder, was deposed in 1568. She fled to England where, though kept virtually prisoner for 20 years, she became the focus of numerous plots to depose Elizabeth and take the throne as queen of England. Elizabeth and Cecil quickly suppressed two early conspiracies, the Northern Rebellion in 1569 and the Ridolfi Plot of 1571. Meanwhile, Pope Pius V belatedly issued a Bull of Excommunication (1570) branding Elizabeth a heretic and a bastard, absolving English Catholics of their allegiance to her, and inviting European princes to invade England. Until Mary Stuart's trial and inevitable execution in February of 1587, Elizabeth had good reason to fear her Scottish rival.

For Parliament, the Privy Council, and the average English subject, the most perplexing question regarding their queen was her marriage. After Elizabeth contracted smallpox and nearly died in 1562, Parliament regularly petitioned her to marry and provide a Protestant heir to the throne. Instead, she used her eligibility as a tool in foreign policy, dangling marriage prospects before a dozen princely suitors for over 20 years. The Duke of Parma likened her marriage diplomacy to "the weaving of Penelope, undoing every night what was done before and then reweaving anew." Most biographers agree that she loved, and in 1559–60, really wanted to marry her court favorite, Robert Dudley (later earl of Leicester). Marriage to any Englishman, however, might sow the seeds of civil war; marriage to a foreigner risked having England dominated by another nation's interests, something the queen was determined to avoid. In the end, she rejected all proposals—the last one in 1581 from a much younger duke of Anjou—preferring to remain the Virgin Queen.

During the late 1560s and 1570s, Elizabeth used religious conflicts on the Continent to weaken England's two principal enemies, France and Spain. Both countries had Protestant rebel factions: the Huguenots in France and the Dutch Calvinists in Spanish-held Netherlands. She gave these Protestant causes just enough covert assistance to keep them viable, but not enough to drag England into war. Pressured by her Council to intervene directly, Elizabeth refused. War would interrupt England's thriving trade, force the queen to rely on Parliament for subsidies, and ultimately burden her subjects with unpopular taxes. Elizabeth's goal was the safety and prosperity of England, not the salvation of Continental Protestantism. By the 1580s, however, England's expanding sea ventures and Spain's emergence as Europe's Catholic superpower forced her into open conflict with Philip II.

For several years Francis Drake, John Hawkins, and other English privateers had been preying on Spanish treasure ships returning from the New World. As a prime investor in these acts of piracy, Elizabeth realized a handsome profit—as much as 4,700% on one voyage alone—a fact that infuriated King Philip. When she sent to the Netherlands an English army commanded by Leicester to prop up the failing Dutch revolt in 1585, all pretext of peace with Spain evaporated. Philip began in earnest to plan an all-out assault on England.

The long-dreaded Spanish Armada set sail in July of 1588 with orders to rendezvous with Spanish troops in Holland and support their invasion of England. Elizabeth now faced the supreme crisis of her reign—the 16th-century equivalent of the Battle of Britain. On the eve of the anticipated invasion, Elizabeth delivered to Leicester's troops at Tilbury one of the finest speeches in the English language.

My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes for fear of treachery. Let tyrants fear. I have always behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you … not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the
midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people my honour and my blood.… I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and a King of England too.

Her performance at the Tilbury encampment was a public-relations triumph. Meanwhile, English ships built by Hawkins and led by Drake and Lord Howard out-sailed and out-gunned the Armada in a nine-day running battle up the English Channel. Those English mariners left unscathed encountered a "Protestant wind" off the Scottish coast; barely half the Spanish Armada survived to limp home in defeat. The English navy had come of age.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 represented the zenith of Elizabeth's power and fame. The remainder of her reign was fraught with internal struggles with Parliament and the Puritans, and costly external warfare in Holland, France, and Ireland. Elizabeth quarreled regularly with Puritans whose demands for revisions in her 1559 religious settlement she angrily rejected; several Puritan MP's—including the outspoken free speech advocate, Peter Went-worth—ended up in the Tower in 1593 for their "insolence" to the Crown. In 1601, she gave in to rancorous parliamentary demands to end monopolies, but rising food prices, high taxes, and declining trade all combined to erode the aging queen's popularity.

Nothing drained royal coffers and disrupted Elizabeth's domestic tranquillity more than the Irish Rebellion of 1595 to 1603. Only nominally under English rule since Norman times, Ireland became fertile ground for Jesuit missionaries and Spanish intrigues late in the 16th century. In 1599, Elizabeth sent Robert Devereaux, earl of Essex, to crush the uprising. Instead, Essex negotiated a deal with rebel leader, the Earl of Tyrone, which he then haughtily demanded his queen accept. Banished from court for his disobedience, in 1601 Essex tried to raise a revolt against Elizabeth in London. Despite deep personal affection for her last royal favorite, Elizabeth did not hesitate to "teach him better manners" by way of the headsman's axe. Meanwhile, under new leadership—and at great cost—an English army finally harried and starved the Irish into submission.

As Elizabeth lay dying in March of 1603, Robert Cecil—Lord Burghley's son and successor as her principal secretary—quietly arranged for James VI of Scotland to become king of England. Following her death on March 24, Elizabeth I was interred in Westminster Abbey, in the crypt beside her grandfather, Henry VII.

Elizabeth Tudor ruled England by force of her own personality and by the tradition of absolute monarchy she inherited from her father. It is true that she was vain, fond of opulent displays of royal splendor, and possessed of a fiery and sometimes violent temper. It is equally true, however, that she put duty and patriotism ahead of private wants and desires. Her superb diplomacy, wily political sense, and regal bearing earned Elizabeth the respect of her enemies and the love of her subjects. She inspired poets, playwrights, composers and explorers and succeeded in identifying herself so completely with her times that historians still call the second half of the 16th century the "Elizabethan Age."

sources:

Neale, J.E. Queen Elizabeth. London: Jonathan Cape, 1934.

Read, Conyers. Mr. Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth. NY: Alfred Knopf, 1960.

Ridley, Jasper. Elizabeth I: The Shrewdness of Virtue. NY: Viking Press, 1987.

Routh, C.R. Who's Who in Tudor England. London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1990.

Somerset, Ann. Elizabeth I. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

collections:

Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series) of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, Elizabeth (1547–1603) (ed. R. Lemon, Mary Everett Green, et al.). London, 1856–70; Calendar of State Papers (Foreign Series) of the Reign of Elizabeth (1558–1589) (ed. J. Stevenson, R. B. Wernham, et al.). London, 1863–1950.

related media:

"Elizabeth R" (540 min.), historically faithful six-part mini-series starring Glenda Jackson , BBC-TV and Time-Life Multimedia, 1976.

"The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (VHS; 1 hr. 46 min.), fictionalized account starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, Warner Bros., 1939.

"The Virgin Queen" (VHS; 1 hr. 32 min.), fictionalized account starring Bette Davis, Richard Todd, and Joan Collins , Twentieth Century-Fox, 1955.

Constance B. Rynder , Professor of History, University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida

Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia