Edexcel GCSE History Elizabethan England - Queen, Government and Religion

What were the 5 main parts of the Elizabethan Government?

• Court

• Privy Council

• Parliament

• Lords Lieutenant

• Justices of the Peace

What were the key features of the court?

• Body of people who lived near the monarch

• Mostly made up of nobility

• Monarch’s key servants, advisers and friends

What was the role of the court?

• Entertain and advise the monarch

• Public display of wealth and power

What was the role of the Privy Council?

• Debate current issues and advise the monarch

• Made sure the Monarch’s decisions were carried out

• Oversaw law and order

• Monitored Justices of the Peace

• Monitored Parliament proceedings

What was the Parliament made up of?

House of Lords and House of Commons

What was the role of the Parliament?

• Grant extraordinary taxation

• Passed laws

• Offered advice to monarch

What was the role of the Lords Lieutenant?

• In charge of training and raising local militia

• Oversaw enforcement of policies

• Part of local government

What was the role of the Justices of the Peace?

• Make sure all social and economic policies carried out

• Heard court cases every 3 months for serious cases

• Part of local government

What could Elizabeth II do as the monarch?

• Declare war and make peace

• Call and dismiss parliament

• Rule in some legal cases

• Grant titles, land, money and jobs

Who was Elizabeth II’s most famous Secretary of State who held the position up until 1573

Sir William Cecil

Why was Elizabeth II considered illegitimate?

• Henry VIII had broken ties with the pope and made the Church of England

• He granted himself a divorce with Catherine of Aragon

• He got married to Anne Boleyn who later gave birth to Elizabeth on 7 Sept 1533

• Catholics see this as not being legitimate

What were the pros to Elizabeth possibly getting married?

• Husband could fulfill a role as a military leader in war

• Having children would ensure England’s security

What were the cons to Elizabeth possibly getting married?

• She would be sidelined by her husband

• Only suitable men would be foreign princes who would their own country’s needs first

What were some of the characteristics of Elizabeth II?

• Highly intelligent and well educated

• Confident and charismatic

What were the financial challenges facing Elizabeth II?

• England had just fought costly wars

• The Crown was £300,000 in debt

How could a Monarch raise money?

• Rents and income from their own lands

• Taxes from trade

• Subsidies (had to be agreed by parliament)

• Profits of justice

• Loans

What were the key features of the French’s threat to Elizabeth?

• Auld alliance - friendship between Scotland and France

• MQS had a claim to English throne

• In the treaty of Calais in 1559, England were forced to give up Calais (important trading)

What were the main religious divisions in England in 1558?

• Clergy - most of England’s bishops were catholic

• Geographical divisions - north west was mainly catholic, south east was mainly protestant

• Puritans - extreme protestants who believed anything outside of the bible was false

When was Elizabeth II’s religious settlement?

1559

What were the main 3 parts of the Religious Settlement?

• Act of Supermacy

• Act of Uniformity

• Royal Injunctions

What was the act of supermacy?

It made Queen Elizabeth the supreme governor of the Church of England - all clergy had to swear on oath of allegiance to Elizabeth

What was the act of Uniformity?

• Introduced set form of church service in the Book of Common Prayer to be used in all churches

• Clergy had to use specific wording of the book

• Wording of the book was in such a way where Catholics and protestants could interpret it

• Everyone had to attend church on Sundays or else be fined one shilling

What issues did the Royal Injunctions cover?

• All clergy were to teach the Royal Supermacy

• Anyone who refused to attend church would be reported to the Privy Council

• Each paris had to have a copy of the Bible in English

• No one could preach without a licence

• Pilgrimages and monuments to ‘fake’ banned

• Clergy wear special vestements

What the impact of the religious settlement on the clergy?

• Clergy had to swear an oath

• 8,000 priests swore the oath

• Elizabeth was forced to appoint 27 new bishops as only 1 of them had sworn the oath

What was the impact of the religious settlement on the people?

• Majority of people accepted it

• In places like lancashire Catholics were slow to change, but Elizabeth didn’t enforce it too strongly

• Some Protestants accepted it with too much enthusiasm and destroyed church ornaments

What was the role of the Church of England?

• Church Courts - Dealt with moral issues including: marriage, sexual offences, slander and wills/inheritance

• Enforcing the Settlement - Carried out visitations (inspections) of churches

What was the crucifix controversy?

Elizabeth enjoyed crucifixes and wanted them in her churches, however the puritans bishops threatened to resign so she was unable to enforce this rule

What was the vestment controversy?

• Catholics wanted priests to wear special clothing since they were special

• Puritans, however, did not believe in priests being apart from ordinary people.

• Elizabeth wanted special vestments to be worn by the Priests but some clergy did not listen

• In 1665, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued further guidelines in his ‘Book of Advertisements’

• By the end most priests agreed to her demands

What was the papacy’s challenge to Elizabeth’s religious settlement?

• Did not offer much leadership to English Catholics

• In 1566, the Pope issued an instruction that they should not attend C of E services

• Elizabeth I did not punish these recusants because she didn’t want to create martyrs

• Overall Catholics stayed politically loyal

What was the extent of England’s nobility and the catholic threat as a challenge to the religious settlement?

• Nobility like the Earl of Northumberland had found his influence greatly reduced

• This led to the Revolt of the Northern Earls in 1569

• Catholic religion brought many others to their support

• Resulted in hundreds of rebels being executed

What was France’s challenge to the religious settlement?

• Religious war had broken out in 1562

• Elizabeth agreed to help French Protestants to hopefully get Calais back

• However, her policy failed as protestants made peace with catholics

• 1564 she signed Treaty of Troyes

How did Spain challenge the religious settlement?

• Phillip II was a strict Roman Catholic

• In 1563, he banned import of cloth in Netherlands from England

• Trade embargo affected both countries economically and so only lasted 1 year

• England was worried Spain and France would form an alliance

What why was the Dutch Revolt and why was it a problem?

• Phillip had reorganised the government by bringing the Spanish inquisition to it

• In 1566, both Catholics and Protestants went against Spain and Alba went to take it out with 10,000 men

• Alba’s large army in the Netherlands was worrying for Elizabeth

• Worry that protestantism would be destroyed by Phillip II

What was MQS’ claim to the throne?

She was Henry VII’s great granddaughter

Why was MQS important?

She was a legitimate Catholic descendant of the throne who could be used as figure piece for future plots

When did MQS arrive in England?

1568

Why did MQS’ arrival in England cause such a problem?

There was no clear option for what Elizabeth should do:

• Help mary regain her throne

• Hand Mary over to Scottish lords

• Allow Mary to go abroad

• Keep Mary in England