history - elizabeth = queen, governemnt and religion

Elizabethan society ?

• no police force or permanent army

• Relied on social hierarchy

• 90% lived in countryside

Elizabethan hierarchy?

• monarch

• Nobles

• Gentry (significant land owners)

• Merchants, lawyers + clergy ct

• Yeoman (own some property ),tenant farmers (rented land, still wealthy ish), skilled craftsmen

• Peasants (countryside) + unskilled people (city )

Key people in Elizabethan England?

• William Cecil / lord burghley

  • Secretary of State (v important)

  • Elizabeth’s main adviser

  • Mild Protesten (like eliz)

• Sir Francis Walsingham

  • privy council

  • Eliz spy master

  • Strong Protestant / v anti catholic

• Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester

  • in privy council

  • Eliz close friend

  • Unpopular- arrogant

The court?

• people who lives, or worked in same place or house as monarch

• Mostly nobility

• Monarchs key servant, advisors and friends

• Required monarchs permission

• Entertain + advise monarch

• Public display of wealth and power

• Had influence over monarch rather than official power

Privy council?

• Leading courtiers and advisers + noble.ps, and very senior government officials such as William Cecil

• 19 ish members chose by monarch

• Met at least 3x week, often attended by monarch

• Debate current issues and advise monarch

• Make sure monarchs decisions happens

• Oversaw law + order

• Monitored parliament

Parliament

• made up of House of Lords (including bishops ) and House of Commons

• Only called + dismissed by ministers

• Elections held before each new parliament but only few could vote

• Eliz called parliament 10 times

• Grant extraordinary tax

• Pass laws

• Offered advice to monarch

Justice of the peace ? (JP)

• large landowners who kept law and order in local area

• Unpaid + reported to privy council

• Position of status so popular job

• Make sure all policies carried out

• Heard county court cases every 3 months for serious offenses

• Part of local government

Problems of legitimacy?

• crucial element to being monarch

• Anne Boleyn wAs Henry’s second wife and catholic believed he hadn’t divorced first wife , Catherine, as they didn’t believe in divorce

• Therefore they believed she was a bastard baby and so didn’t accept her as heir

Problems of gender?

• believe it was unnatural for women to be monarch , seen as against god + church

• Women were views to be physically, emotionally and mentally weaker

• Concerned as whether women could lead people into battle

• Women expected to be governed by fathers or husband

• Not helped by Mary I reign before her

Problems with marriage

• eliz was relecutant to marry

• She received multiple proposals, eg King Philip II of Spain but after being dragged into Spain war with France from Mary he was very unpopular

• She did like Robert Dudley but he was not royal enough and already married, though she died under suspicion circumstances

• Privy council wanted her to marry quickly to secure an heir but she never did

Financial problem ?

• crown was £ 300,000 in debt in 1558

• Eliz had limited sources of income

• Poor harvest, rising food prices + poverty in England

War with France ?

• England at war with France due to Mary’s marriage to king of Spain

• Spain and England decamped war together

• War going badly, cost loads and England lost Calais (piece of English land in France)

• French could use Calais to watch + invade England

• Auld alliance - between Scotland and France

• France sent troops to Scottish border so they could invade together

• Eliz signed treaty of Cateau - Canbresis 8pin 1559, peace treaty between England and France - however aloud France to keep Calais

Catholic beliefs ?

• pope head of church

• Church can forgive sins

• Priests are special and should we’re vestamnats

• Underneath pope is cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests

• Churches should be highly decorates to honour and glory god

• During mass a miracle occurs when bread and wine become body and blood of Christ

• Seven sacremants

• Priest forbidden to marry

Protastent beliefs ?

• sind only forgiven by god

• No pope

• Not necessary to have cardinals, bishops etc

• Bible and church service should be in own language

• Priest can marry

• Bread and wine simply represent last supper no miracle

• People have won direct relatuinhsuo with god through prayer and bible

• Churches should b explain and simple

• Only two sacremants - baptism and holy communion

• Priest not special nd should not wear special clothes

Religious division - the clergy

• work in church and serve for life

• Mostly catholic bishops

• Needed an act from parliament to change religion of country

• House of Commons mostly agree with Eliz

• House of Lords had lots of catholics

• Many changed religion to keep role but some didn’t

religious division - geographic

• north and west were much more catholic

• More remote = more likely to be catholic

• London + east were more protatsent as closer to Germany and Netherlands

• religious books often from east

Religious division - puritans

• radical Protestants

• Many fled to Europe under Mary 1

• Wanted to remove anything not in bible

• Wanted to manage churched themselves

• No role for monarch in Churhc

• Churches were very basic, no alters or special clothes

• Quite a few in parliament however minor threat

Religious settlement ?

• Act of Supremacy (1559)

  • eliz becomes ‘supreme governor’ of Church of England

• Act of Uniformity ((1559)

  • all churches look the same

  • Allow church decor

  • Everyone must attend

• Royal Injunction (1559)

  • priest can marry

  • Wear vestments

  • All bible in English

The crucifix controversy ?

• crucifix is image of Jesus on cross- puritans believed it to be an idol didn’t want anyone praying to anyone but god

• Eliz kept crucifix to please catholics + she liked them

• Demanded every church had one

• Puritan bishops threatened to resign and she couldn’t afford to ignore concerns so she backed down as not enough protastnt clergy to replace them

• She removed them from other churches but kept them in her personal ones

Vestament controversy?

• Clothes worn by priest, protastnts thought they shouldn’t have them as just normal people

• In 1565 not all priests wearing vestments set out by eliz and not conducting service how she said

• Mathew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1566 issued guidelines for priests in his ‘boook of advertisment’ - held exhibition to show how to wear vestments set

• Of 110 invited 37 refused so lost posts

• Majority agreed in end

Catholic threats: nobles

• 1558 - large number of ordinary people and 1/3 of nobles still followed Catholicism quietly , particularly in north

• 1558 - Eliz appointed new Protatstens and Puritans to privy council (e.g. Robert Dudley and Sir William Cecil) angered northern nobles such as in Northumberland who were Catholic

Catholic threat: resentment to religious settlement

• 1559 - catholics disliked Protestant elements like marriage of priests, books in English and Pope Not head of church

Catholic threat : the Netherlands

• 1563: Philip II of Spain banned import of English cloth to Spanish Netherlands , he was devout Catholic

• Made Eliz scared that Spain and France would form alliance against her

Catholic threat : excommunication

• 1570 - Eliz excommunicated by Pope Pius V, meaning she was kicked out of Catholic Church for heresy, encouraged opposition as killing her would not be treasonous but for glory

What were the casket letters?

• letters captured in Scotland in the possession of Mary I 3rd husband , Earl of Bothwell in 1567

• One letter appeared to show Mary and Bothwells plot to kill her second husband Darnley

• Elizabeth ordered an investigation into the murder of Lord Darnley and the letters were used as evidence

• Cecil argued the letters proved Mary had been legitimately removed from the throne

• The letters caused much damage to Mary’s reputation in English court

Why was Mary I in England ?

She had fled due to her noblility forcing her to abdicate and give the throne to her son, she had escaped imprisonment only to be imprisoned again in England

The York Conference

• 1569

• Mary wanted to meet Eliz but Eliz wanted proof she did not kill her husband first

• A conference was held in York from October 1568 to February 1569 to decide

• They looked at evidence but failed to find her guilty

• However it also ruled that Mary was removed from the throne by the lords for good reason

• Mary now sent to prison in England

Why was Mary I a threat : legitimacy ?

• due to Elizabeth’s mother being the second wife of Henry 8 some people questioned her legitimacy, however Mary had a strong fully legitimate claim through her Grandmother Margarete who was Henry 8 sister

• She was therefore a Tudor and close relative and so some people wanted her on the throne instead of Eliz

Why was Mary I a threat: religion?

• Mary was a devout Catholic and this was a problem in mostly Protestant Scotland

• However catholics in England thought that she was the perfect person to re-establish Catholicism in England

• Therefore, many catholics wanted her on the throne instead so that more Catholic practices would be re instated

Why was Mary I a threat: heir?

• Mary had a legitimate child with Lord Darnley called James born in 1566

• Eliz had remained single and so had no children

• People thought this lead England to be unstable as there was no heir which often lead to fighting after monarchs death

• Mary I seemed like a more secure option as she has a child