Elizabeth I (1533–1603)

Queen of England from 1558; the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Through her Religious Settlement of 1559 she enforced the Protestant religion by law. She had Mary Queen of Scots executed in 1587. Her conflict with Roman Catholic Spain led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Elizabethan age was expansionist in commerce and geographical exploration, and arts and literature flourished. The rulers of many European states made unsuccessful bids to marry Elizabeth, and she manipulated her suitors to strengthen England's position in Europe. She was succeeded by James I.

Elizabeth was born at Greenwich, London on 7 September 1533. She was well educated in several languages. During her Roman Catholic half‐sister Mary I's reign, Elizabeth's Protestant sympathies brought her under suspicion, and in 1554 she was imprisoned for eight weeks in the Tower of London. For most of Mary's reign she lived in seclusion at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, until on Mary's death she became queen.

Her reign, 1558–1603
During her reign Elizabeth faced a number of challenges, notably a crisis in religion, the issue of succession (‘the marriage problem’), the problem of what to do with Mary Queen of Scots, danger from Spain, and problems with beggars, Ireland, and Parliament.

Religion
After the disastrous reign of her half‐sister Mary I, Elizabeth faced opposition from both Catholics and Puritans. The Elizabethan religious settlement tried to provide the Church of England with a via media (middle way), a compromise of doctrine that would reconcile Catholic and Protestant. This was generally successful, although compromise proved impossible after Pope Pius V issued the papal bull that excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570, and throughout her reign she faced problems from Catholic recusants (who refused to attend Anglican services) and Jesuit priests such as Edmund Campion. Elizabeth also faced increasing Puritan discontent, and several Puritans were imprisoned or executed.

The marriage problem
Many unsuccessful attempts were made by Parliament to persuade Elizabeth to marry or settle the succession. She found courtship a useful political weapon. She used the possibility of marriage as a strategy of foreign policy, and at various times considered marriage proposals from Philip II of Spain, Archduke Charles of Austria, and the French princes Henri, Duke of Anjou, and François, Duke of Alençon. At home she maintained friendships with, among others, the courtiers Leicester, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Essex. However, she announced from the start of her reign that she had no intention of marrying, and declared that she would be satisfied ‘if a marble stone should hereafter declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin’. She was known as the Virgin Queen.

Mary Queen of Scots
The arrival in England in 1568 of Mary Queen of Scots and her imprisonment by Elizabeth caused a political crisis, and a rebellion of the feudal nobility of the north followed in 1569. Mary became a focus of Catholic plots and in 1587 – with great reluctance – Elizabeth had her executed for treason after the Babington plot.

Danger from Spain
Friction between English and Spanish sailors hastened the breach with Spain. A strong Spanish presence in the Low Countries was perceived as a danger to England; in 1563 the Spanish closed Antwerp to English traders. When the Dutch rebelled against Spanish tyranny Elizabeth secretly encouraged them; Philip II retaliated by aiding Catholic conspiracies against her. Spanish support lay behind the Northern rebellion of 1569 and the Irish rebellion of 1579. Philip sent Jesuit priests secretly into England to undermine Elizabeth's position, and both the Ridolfi Plot (1571) and Throckmorton Plot (1583) – intended to place Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne – had Spanish support. In 1585 Philip seized English shipping in a number of Atlantic ports. This undeclared war continued for many years, until the landing of an English army in the Netherlands in 1585 and Mary's execution in 1587, brought it into the open. The Spanish Armada (the fleet sent by Philip to invade England in 1588) met with total disaster. The war with Spain continued with varying fortunes to the end of her reign.

End of the reign
Towards the end of her reign, Elizabeth faced economic problems, which saw an increase in the number of poor people and beggars, and led to the Poor Law of 1601. There were rebellions in Ireland (see Ireland: history 1485 to 1603, Elizabeth's policy in Ireland). Parliament showed a new independence, and in 1601 forced Elizabeth to retreat on the question of the crown granting manufacturing and trading monopolies. Yet she was still highly regarded, as shown by the failure of Essex's rebellion in 1601.