Elizabeth GCSE

who was at the top of the social hierarchy?

nobility

who was at the top of the town hierarchy?

merchants

who was at the bottom of the social hierarchy?

vagrants

who was at the bottom of the town hierarchy?

unskilled labourers/ unemployed

court

body of 500ish people who lived near the monarch’s place of residence, to entertain, advise elizabeth and display her wealth. they acted as her servants and friends

privy council

made up of courtiers, advisors, nobles, senior government officials. 19 members chosen by the monarch, they debated relevant issues and advised the monarch, responsible for law, order and security

parliament

made up of the house of lords and house of commons. passed laws and was called and dismissed by the monarch.

lords lieutenant

nobility members chosen by the monarch, responsible for a county. they were in charge of training the militia, enforcing policies

justices of the peace

large landowners that kept law and order in their local areas. unpaid, reported to privy council members

elizabeth’s abilities as queen

declare war and peace, agree to or reject laws, grant patronage (lands, titles, lands, money), call and dismiss parliament

succession

a civil war could occur if elizabeth did not have an heir

marriage

many people thought that women were too weak to run a country, especially the nobility

invasion

france and spain were both very powerful catholic enemies. france was allied to scotland, which gave them a close base to launch an invasion.

mary had allied with spain to fight france, in a war she lost, forcing elizabeth to sign a treaty losing calais in 1559

legitimacy

some catholics viewed the marriage of henry viii and anne boleyn as illegitimate. mary queen of scots had declared herself the cathloic claimant to the throne after mary i died.

economic

bad harvests, poverty, hardship and unemployment could all lead to massive unpopularity and rebellions against the monarch

when elizabeth took the throne, the crown was £300,000 in debt, more than the crown’s total annual income. increasing taxes would give parliament the power to make demands of elizabeth, and would be unpopular amongst the people

religion

elizabeth had to choose whether to keep catholicism after mary i or change to protestantism. she would have to decide what to do with those people who didn’t follow her choice

many catholics supported mary queen of scots’ claim to the throne. there were still alot of catholics, mostly in the north, unhappy with the religious change. many of elizabeth’s advisors expected her to return to protestantism.

act of uniformity

established the appearance of churches and how services were to be held, required everyone to attend church

act of supremacy

elizabeth became the supreme governor of the church of england, all clergy and royal officials had to swear an oath of allegiance to her

book of common prayer

introduced a set church service to be used in all churches, had to be followed by the clergy.

royal injuctions

set of instructions to the clergy that reinforced the acts of supremacy and uniformity

ecclesiastical high commission

established to keep discipline within the church and enforce the settlement

impact of the religious settlement on the clergy

8,000 of 10,000 priests and clergy took the oath of supremacy, only one bishop agreed to take the oath, there was a shortage of qualified protestant clergy in england, so elizabeth had to keep these new bishops loyal.

impact of the religious settlement on the people

majority of the ordinary people accepted the religious settlement, the wording of the book of common prayer could be interpreted in both protestant and catholic ways, elizabeth made it clear that the settlement was not to be enforced too strongly, not even on recusants, some protestants welcomed the new rs with violent enthusiasm, destroying church ornaments and statues of saints

the papacy

another name for the government of the roman catholic church

the spanish inquisition

the system set up by spain to keep its territories catholic. any heretic was executed in public.

crucifix controversy

elizabeth insisted on keeping crucifixes in churches, so as to not stray too far from the look and feel of churches before, and she personally liked them. some purtian bishops threatened to resign and she backed down as she couldnt afford to lose these bishops

vestment controversy

some purtians thought that priests should not wear vestments, but they were special to catholics. elizabeth wanted clergymen to wear vestments, and majority consented despite some opposition.

the challenge of foreign catholic to the religious settlement

the catholic church was actively fighting to strengthen catholicism by supporting catholic communities, persecuting heretics and encouraging war against protestants, called the counter-reformation. the pope ordered english catholics in 1566 not to attend c of e services and excommunicated eliz in 1570, encouraging powerful countries eg france and spain to overthrow her

challenge of english catholics to the religious settlement

an estimated 1/3 of the nobility were catholic recusants. they were mostly members of old, aristocratic families with long histories of catholicism, who disliked their loss of power in the north. also revolt of the northern earls

french challenge to the religious settlement

religious civil war broke out in france in 1562, elizabeth was worried that it would encourage the same in england.

spanish challenge to the religious settlement

philip ii was a devout roman catholic. he placed a trade embargo on the anglo-dutch wool trade in 1563, as he believed that english merchants were spreading protestantism, which lasted a year

dutch challenge to the religious settlement

the dutch were unhappy with the spanish colonisation, religious changes and revolted in 1566. spain sent armies to retaliate and a worried elizabeth openly disagreed with the rebels so she was not seen as a leader of protestant europe and invaded by spain

why was mary queen of scots a threat?

she was a catholic, and next in line to succeed elizabeth.

why did mary queen of scots flee to england in 1568

powerful nobles in scotland had forced her to abdicate her throne in favour of her infant son after she had married earl bothwell, the main suspect in teh murder of her previous husband, henry darnley.