Edexcel GCSE History - Early Elizabethan England KT1

Elizabeth's early life

- Born 1533

- Excluded from the succession in 1536, but this was later revoked

- Imprisoned as a traitor in the Tower of London in 1554 as was suspected of treason against her sister Mary, I

- Aged 25 when she took the throne in January 1558.

Elizabethan Social Hierarchy

- Strictly hierarchical as there was no police force: based on duty of care and obedience.

- Place in hierarchy generally determined by amount of land owned.

- Monarch was top of the pyramid as most important member of the nobility

- Gentry (upper classes) were next.

- Yeomen (lower gentry) were men who held a small amount of land or estate

- Tenant farmers farmed rented land owned by ye-omen/gentry

- Landless and labouring poor

- Vagrants and homeless at bottom

Social hierarchy of towns

- In towns, hierarchy was based on wealth and occupation

- Wealthy merchants at the top

- Then came professionals (e.g. doctors and lawyers)

- Then skilled craftsmen e.g. silversmiths or carpenters who were organised into guilds

- Bottom were unskilled workers and the unemployed

Elizabethan government

- Different organisations had varying roles to keep Elizabethan England running smoothly

- Monarch was head of government

- Power divided amongst court, privy council, parliament, lord lieutenants and JPs

Roles of Elizabethan government

Court - Entertained and advised the monarch + publicly displayed wealth and power (held influence, rather than power)

Privy Council - debated current issues and advised Elizabeth on government policy + oversaw law and order, local gov and the security of England

Parliament - granted extraordinary taxation + passed laws + offered advice to Elizabeth

Lord Lieutenants - Raised and trained the local militia + oversaw the enforcement of policies in their locality

JPs - part of local gov who heard county court cases every three months and enforced social and economic policies.

The Monarch's Role

- War (declare war and make peace)

- Royal Prerogative (had final say on all matters/vetoed discussion of marriage and succession)

- Appoint and dismiss parliament (+ agree to any of their laws)

- Patronage (provide people with important jobs and position in order to encourage loyalty)

God (chosen by)

Secretary of State

Most important Privy Councillor

Advised the monarch on matters closest and most important to the Crown

William Cecil (Lord Burghley) held this position until 1573

Elizabeth's character and strengths

- Highly intelligent and well educated (she spoke Latin, Greek, French and Italian)

- Understood the dangerous world of court politics as she had been imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1554 on suspicion of treason.

- Confident and charismatic (able to make great speeches which won over her subjects, although she also had a temper people feared)

Problems on Elizabeth's accession: Legitimacy

- Legitimacy means being born whilst reigning king and queen were married (in wedlock)

- Catholics viewed Elizabeth as illegitimate because Henry VIII had granted himself a divorce from Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn and Catholics believed only the Pope could do that.

- Henry VIII himself declared Elizabeth as illegitimate and excluded her from the succession in 1536.

Problems on Elizabeth's accession: Gender and Marriage

- Elizabeth was only England's second queen regnant (ruling queen)

- First queen regnant, under Mary I, had been a disaster - persecution of Protestants and consecutive bad harvests.

- Christian religion taught that women should be under the authority of men and it was thought unnatural to rule

- Monarchs were expected to lead their armies into battle

Problems on Elizabeth's accession: Financial Weaknesses

- Elizabeth's government did not have a lot of money due to previous monarchs fighting costly wars and lots of Crown Lands sold off to raise money to fight them

- £300,000 in debt at a time the annual Crown's income was £286,667.

- Defending England was expensive business and taxes were unpopular, with Parliament having to agree to them.

- Problem was made worse by Henry VIII's debasement of the coinage in the 1530s - he had melted down coins made with precious metals and replaced with copper: this meant merchants lost trust in the currency and raised prices (inflation)

Problems on Elizabeth's accession: France

- England's traditional enemy, and allied with England's other enemy Scotland through the Auld Alliance

- Mary, QoS was married to the French dauphin (heir). She became queen of France in 1559 when her husband, Francis II, became King.

- England had held the French port of Calais since 1347 - it was a useful military base and important trading post, but this was lost under the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis, the English feeling humiliated

- Regaining Calais was an important aim of Elizabeth's foreign policy.

- France and Spain no longer at war, but both were Catholic countries who could possibly form an alliance.

Problems on Elizabeth's accession: Scotland

- England's traditional enemy with a remote border which was hard to defend and saw frequent raids.

- Mary, QoS declared herself the legitimate claim to the English throne upon Mary I's death and Catholics accepted this.

- Fact she became Queen of France in 1559 meant French Catholics could help to support put her on the throne and she dreamed of ruling over a vast Catholic Empire.

Importance of religion

- Religion was central to life in the 16th century.

- Most people were Catholic - especially in the North of England, which was less literate.

- Baptism, marriage and death all marked by special ceremonies

- Confession of sins and participation in mass vital to salvation (being saved)

- Religious festivals marked the agricultural year e.g. Plough Sunday in January

The Reformation

- Catholicism dominated until 1517 when Protestant preacher Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses against a church door in Wittenberg, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation (Lutheran Reformation)

- English Reformation began in 1532 when Henry VIII created the Church of England. (Henrician Reformation)

- By 1558, the Reformation was tearing Europe apart, challenging beliefs which had held for centuries.

Roman Catholic beliefs

1) Pope as Head of the Church

2) Bible and services in Latin

3) Clergy wear decorative vestments to demonstrate their special relationship with God and ability to turn bread and wine into body of Jesus (transubstantiation)

4) Clergy are celibate

5) Churches highly decorative to show love of God

Protestant beliefs

1) Monarch is head of the Church

2) Bible and services in English

3) Clergy wear plainer robes and bread and wine simply represent Jesus' body - (no transubstantiation)

4) Clergy can marry

5) Churches are plain - God knows you love him through worship.

Puritan beliefs

Puritan = extreme Protestant

1) No head of Church - elected committees of churchgoers run the Church

2) Bible and services in English

3) Super plain robes

4) Yes to marriage

5) Even plainer Church - moderate Protestants e.g. Elizabeth tolerated certain aspects of decoration

What was the role of the Church of England?

- It controlled what was preached e.g. priests needed a special licence from the government to preach. Elizabeth could ensure that the clergy preached her religious, and political, messages

- It gave guidelines to communities e.g. people turned to their parish churches in times of hardship and uncertainty.

It also... ran church courts, reinforced loyalty to Elizabeth and enforced her religious settlement.

Elizabeth's religious settlement, 1559

Designed to appease as many of her subjects as possible, be they Catholic or Protestant and came in three parts

- Act of Supremacy which made Elizabeth supreme governor of the Church of England - all clergy swore an oath of allegiance to her.

- Act of Uniformity established the appearance of churches and the forms of services they held.

- Royal Injunctions were a set of instructions issued by Sir William Cecil to reinforce the first two acts e.g. instruction for churches to retain stained glass

Evidence the religious settlement was popular/accepted

- 8,000/10,000 priests and less important clergy swore the oath of allegiance to Elizabeth following the Act of Supremacy

- Majority of ordinary people attended the new Church of England services and accepted changes, helped by ambiguous wording of the new Prayer Book.

- Protestants welcomed the new settlement with violent enthusiasm, destroying church ornaments and statues of stains (iconoclasm)

Evidence the religious settlement was unpopular/ not accepted

- Only 1/28 bishops agreed to take the oath, and so Elizabeth had them replaced with Protestants.

- Places like Lancashire, where Catholics were the majority were slow to change to the new services... first visitations in 1559 resulted in 400 clergy being dismissed, suggesting they were not following orders.

Puritan challenge to the settlement

- Main Puritan challenge came from within the Church itself over two issues: crucifixes and vestments

- Crucifix Controversy: Elizabeth wanted to keep crucifixes in the Church because they were familiar. Puritan bishops threatened to resign over the issue and the queen had to back down as she did not have able Protestant clergymen to replace them.

- Vestment Controversy: 1665/66: Elizabeth wanted the clergy to wear special vestments, as specified by the Royal Injunctions but it became clear that some were ignoring these instructions or conducting church services properly. Tackled by the archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker, issuing further guidelines for priests and a special exhibition in London being held. 37/110 invited refused to attend and they lost their posts.

Catholic challenge at home

- People stored away Catholic images and relics , but attended the new Church on Sundays. They did not know how long Elizabeth's reign would last.

- Some recusants, refused to attend the new church services as they regarded Elizabeth as an illegitimate heretic, the 'bastard daughter' of Anne Boleyn, and wanted her replaced by Mary, Queen of Scots.

- Some of Catholic priests became chaplains to Catholic nobles and gentry, celebrating Mass in their houses, while others established secret meeting places where their former parishioners could hear Mass.

Catholic challenge abroad

- People thought the Pope would excommunicate Elizabeth, but there was silence until 1566.

- In 1566, Pius IV issued an instruction to English Catholics not to attend English Church Services, but Elizabeth was not excommunicated until 1570. By this point, 11 years had passed and it was too late to be effective.

- No support for rebellion from either France or Spain, two powerful Catholic nations. King Philip II had no desire to lead a religious crusade against England, as he did not wish to replace Elizabeth with Mary, Queen of Scots, who had strong ties with France - Spain's traditional enemy.

- 1566 he became increasingly occupied in dealing with Protestant rebels in the Spanish Netherlands and had neither the money nor men to spare.

- France was involved in its own religious civil war from 1562, which would occupy it for the next 35 years.

Mary Queen of Scots' claim to the English throne

- Catholic great granddaughter of Henry VII

- Elizabeth's second cousin

- Legitimate, heir presumptive (heir unless Elizabeth has a child)

- Became Queen of Scotland at six days old

- Became Queen of France in 1559 when she married the French dauphin, Francis II

Treaty of Edinburgh 1560

- 1560 Elizabeth helped Scotland's protestants lords defeat Mary of Guise who had been ruling Scotland for her daughter (Mary queen of scots), whilst she was in France with her husbands king Francis II.

- The Scottish protestant lords rebelled because they did not like the French, catholic influences brought to Scotland.

- Elizabeth sent money to help the rebels and later sent troops.

- The rebellion ended with the Treaty of Edinburgh (1560). The treaty said Mary would give up her claim to the English throne.

- Mary never approved the treaty and maintained that she had a claim to the English throne. Elizabeth had no intention of naming any heir and choosing Mary would divide England.

Mary Queen of Scots' travels

- After the unexpected death of her husbands Mary returned to Scotland (December 1560). Although she was queen the protestant lords controlled the Scottish government.

- Mary married her second husband, Lord Darnley in 1567 and gave birth to her son, the future King James I of England in 1566.

- In 1567, Darnley was murdered and Mary was suspected of being involved.

- Married his murderer soon after (Bothwell) which made people think she was definitely guilty

- Scandal led to Protestant lords rebelling again and Mary was forced to abdicate, fleeing to England in 1568 and hoping Elizabeth would help her defeat the Scottish rebels.

Mary's trial

- A court was convened to hear the case against Mary between October 1568 and January 1569

- If found guilty, Elizabeth would have been supporting the deposing of an anointed monarch, who was also her cousin.

- If found innocent, Mary would be free to raise an army, possibly with Catholic foreign support, which would pose a threat to Elizabeth's throne.

- The court did not reach a conclusion and Mary stayed in England in captivity.