History - Elizabethan Era

Elizabeth was 25, she became queen after Mary and Edwards deaths.

Elizabeths coronation - London, 15th January 1559

Elizabeth needed support from the public, therefore she used her coronation as an advantage.
Attended by Nobles and foreigners.
Already in £250,000 debt, the coronation was £16,000 showing dedication.
Act of propaganda, made portraits.
Popular for being young, single and English.
Uneasy religion in UK, Mary killed those who didn’t follow religion.
Took place in westminister abby.

The Royal Court

Due to high power Elizabeth had, she chose those who advised her.
This consisted of privy councillers, judges and Lord leutants (represent queen).
The royal court lived with Elizabeth in Whitehall palace.
The royal court has many duties, including domestic jobs.
Elizabeth made people be loyal to her by giving them jobs (pontronage).
Took them to royal progresses.
Rivalry between cecil and dudley, cecil was protestant and cautious of gov spending. dudley was puritan who wanted to join wars.

The Privy Council

Consisted of 19 men.
These men assisted her, kept the government in touch with the nation, political decisions and met at Queen requests.
She chose people with many views leading to multiple disagreements.
chosen by nobles and gentry.
met two or three times a week. then meg everyday during the end of her reign.

Elizabeth’s main advisors

William Cecil, most importanat. Guided Elizabeth for 40+ years. Protestant.
Sir Francis Wallsingham, Puritan, secret service, uncovered Mary (Elizabeth cousins) plan to kill Elizabeth.
Robert Dudley, very close to Elizabeth, rumours between them being in love? Puritan.

Role of Parliment

only met 13 times in her reign.
only met when elizabeth called it.
only when she needed more money from taxes, pass an act of parliment, etc.
were not allowed to speak about marriage, war, or religion.

Local government in Wales

Local gov was made to ensure laws.
led by sir henry sydney and sir henry herbert.

The Welsh Gentry -

Katherine of Bernain. ‘Mam Cymru’ Had 4 marriages and the third was Morus Wynn, most powerful family in Wales. Had John Wynn.
John Wynn. sheriff, then MP then deputy leitannt.

Situation in Wales

Little different to England.
Council of Wales was responsible of running Wales.
Lord President was the main leader.
The most prominent Lord Presidents was Sir Hnery Sydeny and Sir Hnery Herbert

Lifestyles of the rich/nobles -

Lived in Elizabethan mansions.
Symmetrical houses, H or E.
Large glass windows, multiple chimneys, wood panelled walls.
Long gallery on side with large windows.
St Fagans Castles, lawyer Dr john Gibbon owned it.
Wore latest fashion, make out of best materials like silk, linen, etc.
Home tutored.
Household was supervised by wife.

Lifestyle of gentry -

Houses of stone, had fireplaces, built brick chimneys and large windows.
Stylish clothing.
Went to grammar schools then oxford.

Lifestyles of lower classes -

smaller homes, cottages or huts.
minimal furniture, bed, table and stool.
practical clothing only.
little to no education.
worked from 5am to 5pm.

Issue of unemployment and vagrancy -

Doxy - female that stole and hid things in bag.
Abraham man - pretended to be angry to gain sympathy.
Drumerer - pretended to be dumb to beg for charity.

Goverment acts -

Vagrancy act - punishing vagrants.
Act of relief to poor - houses of correction.
Poor Law - help people in need, reduce rebellion threat, stayed for 200yrs.

Popular entertainment -

cruel sports, bear/bull baiting, cock fighting, etc.
The rich enjoyed ball games like football or tennis, hunting, hawking, archery, dancing.

Development of Elizabethan theatre -

Bands of strolling players caused large crowds, people performed in centres.
Formation of theatre companies, 1572.

Buildings of the first theatres -

The Theatre.
The Rose.
The Curtain.
The Swan.
The Globe.
round in shape, open centre.
plays during the day.
only men were acting, even women roles.
women expected to do domestic roles, so not doing any jobs.
prices were low causing class divide to decrease.

Opposition of theatre -

authorities said the large auidences attracts pick pocketers, beggars, and criminals in one place.
puritans are against it as it promotes sinful acts,
in wales, the bad language created issues.

Attitudes towards Elizabeth -

Catholic; illegitamet because her father married her mum after divorce and they dont believe in divorce.
puritans; wanted to remove all catholic traces.

Elizabeth upbringing -

protestant upbringing.
house arrest when mary was queen cuz mary was catholic.

Middle way -

fined catholics for not attending church, not persecute like mary.
bible in english.
new prayer book.
via media (middle way)

Act of supremacy and Act of uniformity -

AOS - showed that the monarch has authority of church.
AOU - the service that had to be followed.

Royal Injunctions - 1559

set of instructions to ensure worship and behaviour was correct.
people who didnt do would be reported to JPs.
people were fined for being recusant (not attending church).
english bible + wear good clothes

Visitations -

125 commissioners toured the country side to make sure rules were followed.
make sure priests took oath of supremacy.
thirty nine articles was the beliefs of the Church of England.

Reactions at home -

most had accepted it at the start, but near the end people begun to rebel.
250 out of 7000 priests refused to take the oath of supremacy.
fines for recusancy were not strict.
Reactions at abroad -
france was drifting towards civil war therefore had no reaction.
king phillip ii of spain hoped it wouldnt be permanent.
pope hoped changes would change overtime.

Translation into Welsh -

Dr Richard Davies , William Salesbury and William Morgan
1563, Act of Parliament took place allowing scriptures to be wELSH.
Took 25 years to translate.
Salesbury translated the new testemate and book of common prayer, wasnt easy to understand therefore people still fopund it difficult.
morgan translated the old testament, published 1588 and a copy was placed in every welsh church.
this helped keep the welsh language alive.

Recusancy -

elizabeth rised the fine to £20.
it was treason to try convert people to catholicism.
when people were trained as catholics, they would come to England to try bring catholicism back.
438 priests were sent, parliment ordered them to go otherwise they would be killed.
98 priests were killed.

Jesuits - aimed to destory protestancy .

Arrival of Mary Queen of Scots.

at 6 years old, she was educated in Catholic France
she married the eldest son of henry ii france.
he became king for a year and died.
mary then returned to scotland, she married Lord Darnley.
she gave birth.
Darley believed mary’s italian secretary was too close to mary therefore he stabbed him to death.
mary then became close to Hepburn.
Drley was sick with small pox, mary brought him to a large house.
on that night, mary was ‘at a wedding’ and that house was blown up. Dudley was found strangled.
Bothwell was accused but was found not guilty, therefore Mary married him.
protestant lords rebelled aginst mary and she was in prison.
then had to leave her position for her son.

Mary arrives in England -

Liz kept mary captive.
many rebellions since catholics wanted mary to become queen due to her catholic faith.

Rebellion of Northern Earls, 1569 -

First Catholic plot to replace Elizabeth as queen with Mary.
Caused by the arrival of Mary in 1568 giving hope to Catholic English as they wanted a Catholic monarch.
Two powerful Catholic lords, Charles Nevill and Thomas Percy planned to depose Elizabeth and marry Mary to Duke of Norfolk.
Elizabeth spies found out about the marriage and Norfolk was sent to the tower and the two others avoided being captured.
This failed due to poor planning, lack of support and Elizabeths popularity.
they were then captured and beheaded, over 800 rebels, mostly commoners living in the north were executed.

Excommunication of Elizabeth, 1570 -

pope excommunicated elizabeth as she was heritic. (religious
no longer part of catholic church.

Catholic Plots -

Ridolfi plot, 1571 -

Orginised by Robert Ridolfi.
Involved Mary, Duke of Norfolk, Phillip II of Spain, the Spanish ambassador and the Pope.
The plan was for a Spanish army to land, help English Catholics and put Mary on the throne.
The plot was discovered by William Cecil and Francis Walsingham, they organised the arrests.
Norfolk was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death, Ridolfi was explled from the country but Elizabeth refused to execute mary.

Throckmorton Plot, 1583-84 -

Francis Throckmorton, an English Catholic, organised a plot to overthrow Elizabeth.
Plan was for French Catholic backed up with Spanish and Papal money to invade England and free mary from being held captive.
When the plot was discovered, throckmorton was arrested, tortured then executed.
Mary was moved to a different castle and her letters were all checked and her visitors were banned.

Increasing Catholic Threat, 1584-85 -

1583, John Summerville, an English Catholic attempted to kill Elizabeth with a pistol.
he was sentenced to death, but committed suicide in his cell beforehand.
1854, a protestant leader was shot dead by a catholic assassin.

The Babington Plot, 1586 -

Babington, a young nobleman plan was to kill elizabeth and put mary on throne.
letters between him and mary in code and found by walsinghams spy network.
babington sent mary a plan, mary accepted this plan.
1856, babington confessed and was executed.
there now was proof of mary involved in the plot.

Trail of Mary, 1586 -

Elizabeth agreed to put mary on trail for treason.
mary was found guilty and sentenced to death.
elizabeth kept refusing to sign her death but eventually did.
no further catholic plots.

Catholic Recusancy (not attending church services) in Wales -

they were fined if not attending, e.g. morgan got fined £7760.
some went into exile abroad.
Some did some Catholic works secretly, e.g. a secret printing press.
three welsh men refused to renounce their catholic faith, all executed.

The Spanish Armada -

Marys execution made Phillip more determined to do the armada.
phillip was married to mary tudor, both catholics.
became ruler of spain, netherlands and spanish lands in italy and america, most popwerful empire in world.
used his power to attack protestant growth.
became co ruler of england due to mary but when she died he was no loner co ruler and had no english power.
the protestant church in england alarmed phillip.
planned a holy crusade to reestablish the roman catholic faith in england, this was taken in the form of the armada.

Actions of English privateers in Spanish Main -

during the 1570s and 1580s, elizabeth encouraged english privateers or sea dogs, this was to attack spanish ships at the spanish main.
most successful sea dog was francis drake.
drake sailed around the world with gold and silver worth £140,000.
king phillip ordered for drake to be executed, elizabeth knighted him.

Phillips plan -

phillip ordered the construction of an armada.
sail north from lisbon, and destroy english fleet.
the army march to ldn and overthrow elizabeth making england catholic.

Drakes attack on Cadiz -

20th april, drake led a group of english warships and attacked the spansih fleet.
drake destroyed all needed supplies.,
this delayed the armada for a year.

changes to plan -

the person in charge of spanish armada died and was replaced with duke of medina sidonia, he was hesitant of this task as he was inexperienced.
there was a storm when they set out and had to seek refuge.
threat by the armada -
english land forces were weak and not knowing where the spanish will land was even harder.
english soldiers were untrained compared to the armada.
spanish fleet was huge with 130 gallons , 30,000 train ed soldiers and well trained troops compared to englands 54.
elizabeth gave speech to win.

reasons for failure -

change in wind direction prevented armada going back to spain, only 67 ships out of 130 made it back to spain.
english strengths = smaller, faster, heavier firepower.

spanish weaknesses = spanish cannons ineffective, commander was inexperienced, tactics was bad, weather.

	Spain	England
Commanders	The Duke of Medina Sidonia - little experience of sailing and openly warned of his tendency for seasickness.	Lord Howard of Effingham – little experience of fighting at sea, but Drake and Hawkins were both very experienced.
Fleet	130 ships - 64 battleships, 22 huge galleons and 45 converted merchant ships.	200 ships - 54 strong, light and fast battleships, and 140 converted merchant ships.
Sailors and soldiers	30,000 men on board the fleet and 20,000 soldiers on land.	14,000 men on board the fleet and 20,000 soldiers on land.
Food supplies	Not fresh – six months’ worth of supplies were stored on the ships.	Fresh food supplied daily.
Weapons	2,000 large cannon – could fire heavy cannon balls, but only over a short distance and were slow to load.	200 smaller cannon – could fire over long distance and were quick to load.
Tactics for fighting at sea	Get close so men could board and capture the enemy ships.	Destroy enemy ships by firing cannon at them from a distance.
Annual income	£3 million.	£300,000. Parliament did grant Elizabeth taxes to top this up.

the puritan threat -

strong protestants.
wanted to get rid of anything to do with catholicism, bring a ‘purer’ form of worship.
during mary reign, puritans moved away from the country to escape persecution.
when elizabeth became queen, many returned back to the country calling for the settlement to be more puritan.

puritan beliefs -

puritans were against practises not in Bible.
decor in church was sinful.
playing music in church srrvices.
sunday was Lords day, wore plaihn cdlothes.
against gambling, swearing, drunkenness, etc.

Moderate puritans - accepeted the RS but hoped for a change.

Presbyterians - wanted reform and called for abolition of bishops, each church to be run by elders or teachers.

Seperatists - wanted to break away from the national church and each church to be indepentent and self controlling.

Proposals by Thomas Cartwright , 1570

wanted to abolish the posts of archbishop and bishop called for churches to be run locally by congregations.
opposed by government and was forced to flee to geneva.

pamphlet of john stubbs 1579 -

wrote a pamphlet which criticised elizabeth for entering marriage talks with Duke who was Roman catholic.
arrested, put on trial and was in prison with his right hand cut off.

Puritan opposition in parliament and privy council -

common prayers book was trying to be changed but elizabeth banned this.

Measures taken to deal with puritan challenge -

prophesyings (secret meetings between puritans) took place more often.
Archbishop Gribdal and prophesying. the meetings became a threat so elizabeth told him to ban it, he was sympathetic and didn’t ban it so she suspended him and elizabeth did it herself.
john whitgifts attack on presbyterianism, he had little sympathy for puritans so he issued his three articles. these demanded uniformity. 300-400 ministers refused to swear acceptance and were removed from the office.
development of separatists movement. whitgifts efforts made puritans operate underground, separatists decided to leave the established church and create their own.
act against seditious spectators 1593, government propaganda linked puritism to separatistism to treason. gave authorised the power to execute those suspected of being separatists.

John Penry - Welsh puritan

published a pamphlet attacking religion in wales
complained about poor church services by non welsh speaking priests
involved in printing marprelage which resulted in flying came to scotland
secretly returning from Scotland, he was arrested in London and executed