Elizabeth I Essay Research Paper Elizabeth was free essay sample

Elizabeth I Essay, Research Paper Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533 and died on March 24, 1603. She was the sovereign of England from 1558 to her decease. In her life-time she made herself a powerful image of female authorization, imperial impressiveness and national pride. This image has endured down to the present twenty-four hours. Elizabeth both created her image through embroidery and through the concrete policies that she urged her state to follow. The latter half of the sixteenth century in England is called the Elizabethan Age, and possibly this is justified, because Elizabeth did give the age a personal cast. Elizabeth had a tough childhood. She was the girl of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Henry had married Anne because his first married woman, Catherine had non borne him a male inheritor after 20 old ages of matrimony. Henry and Catherine had a girl named Mary. Henry had become involved in a serious contention with the Church over his disassociating Catherine, and finally Henry himself became the caput of the Church of England. We will write a custom essay sample on Elizabeth I Essay Research Paper Elizabeth was or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When Elizabeth was 3, her female parent, Anne Boleyn, was beheaded for criminal conversation and lese majesty. He besides had Parliament do his matrimony with Anne Boleyn shut-in from the beginning, which made Elizabeth bastard. What consequence all this had on Elizabeth is difficult to state since she was non reared by her natural parents. It was observed that at the age of 6, she had every bit much gravitation as a individual who was 40. In 1537, Henry # 8217 ; s 3rd married woman gave birth to a boy named Edward. Elizabeth faded even more into the background, but she was non neglected. Henry VIII may hold been hard on his married womans, but he was fond by the criterions of the twenty-four hours with his kids. Elizabeth was present at province ceremonials and was regarded as 3rd in line to the Throne. She spent a great trade of clip with her half-brother Edward. Catherine Parr, Henry # 8217 ; s 6th and concluding married woman, gave Elizabeth loving attending. Elizabeth was given a strict instruction in linguistic communications, history, rhetoric, and moral doctrine. Her outstanding coach, Roger Ascham, said # 8220 ; her head has no womanly failing # 8221 ; . He besides said that her doggedness and memory were equal to that of a adult male. ( The sexism exhibited here is built-in in the sixteenth century, non in the authors of this life. ) She was fluid in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. She studied divinity and became a strong Protestant. These values and beliefs helped determine the future class of England. Her male parent died in 1547 when she was 14. Edward became king as a male child of 10. Catherine Parr married Thomas Seymour. When Catherine died in 1549, Seymour was accused of wishing to get married Elizabeth in order to govern England. Seymour was beheaded for lese majesty. Elizabeth # 8217 ; s life was temporarily in danger as she and her retainers were questioned about the grade to which she had been intimate with Seymour. Elizabeth was discreet and poised throughout this episode. Edward, a Protestant, died in 1553 and was replaced by his older half sister, Mary. Mary was a Catholic, and married to the taking Catholic in Europe -Philip II of Spain. Mary was determined to reconstruct Catholicism to England even if took force. Elizabeth was once more in danger. Elizabeth conformed externally to Catholicism, but she became the focal point and donee of secret plans to subvert the authorities and reconstruct Protestantism. Elizabeth was briefly locked up in the Tower of London and merely hardly missed the destiny that happened to her female parent. Mary # 8217 ; s brief reign from 1553 to 1558 was characterized by the combustion of Protestants and military confrontations. Elizabeth continually had to protest her artlessness, her unswerving trueness, and proclaim her pious antipathy for unorthodoxy. Both Protestants and Catholics thought Elizabeth misrepresented her spiritual positions. ( In truth, Elizabeth died without anyone cognizing her private positions on life in general. ) Mary died on November 17, 1558, and Elizabeth took the throne amid great public rejoicing. There were bells, balefires, loyal presentations and other marks of popular credence. In the first few hebdomads of her reign, the Queen formed her authorities and issued announcements. She reduced the size of the Privy Council from 39 to 19, partially to acquire rid of Catholic councilors, and partially to do the organic structure more efficient. She appointed a figure of gifted advisers, the most adept of which was William Cecil ( Lord Burghley ) . He served Elizabeth for 40 old ages as secretary of province and Godhead financial officer. She reformed the currency by taking the adulterate currency that had been put into circulation by her male parent. She decreed that all able-bodied work forces, non engaged in other types of work should work the land. She did this to increase the agricultural labour force. She negotiated pacts with France and Scotland to stop a province of belligerencies. The temper of the times made it hard for people to accept a female in power. John Knox, the Calvinist sermonizer, had merely written The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. In this book, Knox claimed that # 8220 ; God hath revealed to some in this age that it is more than a monster in nature that a adult female should reign and bear imperium above man. # 8221 ; It was by and large acknowledged that adult females were temperamentally, intellectually, and morally unfit to regulate. Elizabeth # 8217 ; s regulation was rationalized by claiming that when she came to power her # 8220 ; organic structure natural # 8221 ; was cryptically joined ( by God ) to the immortal # 8220 ; organic structure politic # 8221 ; . Mary # 8217 ; s reign had been a spot of a catastrophe and Elizabeth found it necessary to develop a new theoretical account for regulation. The English province was intentionally weak and hapless. It had no standing ground forces, no efficient constabulary force, and a weak and inefficient bureaucratism ; to obtain gross to regulate the Crown had to travel to Parliament, which was frequently loath to impose subsidies and revenue enhancements. Elizabeth and her advisers developed a scheme of cultivating, over the old ages, the image of the Virgin Queen. This was a really complicated construct in the sense that a matrimony ( # 8221 ; the right matrimony # 8221 ; ) would give England a Protestant inheritor and strengthen England # 8217 ; s place in foreign personal businesss. Without a matrimony the Tudor line would come to an terminal and Mary, Queen of Scots could perchance acquire the throne of England. Mary was a Catholic, and hence unacceptable. Elizabeth had many suers: Philip II of Spain, Archduke Charles of Austria, Eric XIV of Sweden, the Duke d # 8217 ; Anjou, the Duke of Alencon, and many others including some Englishmen. Scholars believe that Elizabeth intended to get married none of them. She likely was in love with the controversial Robert Dudley ( Earl of Leicester ) , but she refused to get married him stating on one juncture, # 8220 ; I will hold here but one kept woman and no master. # 8221 ; John Stubbs and William Page one time produced a booklet that denounced her supposed matrimony to the Duke of Alencon. They went so far as to state, # 8220 ; the Duke was the old snake himself, in the signifier of a adult male, come a 2nd clip to score the English Eve and to destroy the English paradise. # 8221 ; Elizabeth had their right custodies chopped off. Unasked advice could sometimes be unsafe. What precisely was Elizabeth # 8217 ; s attitude toward matrimony? On one juncture she said, # 8220 ; At my ain clip I shall turn my head to marriage if it be for the public good. # 8221 ; At another clip she said, # 8220 ; I would instead be a mendicant and individual than a Queen and married. # 8221 ; Elizabeth was a hard-working sovereign. She habitually worked far into the dark on province documents and originate late claiming she was non a forenoon individual. Her tribunal provided a wealth of amusements and recreation. Hunting expeditions, day-to-day gallops on horseback, tennis lucifers, archery, and dancing were among the cardinal activities. Elizabeth was an first-class terpsichorean, and her maestro of revels brought in companies of professional histrions and instrumentalists. The tribunal, nevertheless, was a topographic point of traps and enticements. It was a unsafe topographic point for people who were indiscreet, over-ambitious, or injudicious. Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most talented work forces in the tribunal, was imprisoned for a clip in the Tower of London when it was discovered he had in secret married one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting. For much of her reign, Elizabeth # 8217 ; s topics prospered economically.. Those landholders who already had some wealth, prospered to the greatest extent, but even the lower category benefitted. This prosperity would non last to the terminal of her reign, but for the most portion, economic advancement was made. During most of the reign, tensenesss between Spain and England curtailed the free motion of English ships between the North Sea and the Straits of Gibralter. The merchandisers and seamans of England were looking outward in hunt of new markets. There had been ocean trips of find in the yesteryear. John Cabot had sailed to New Foundland and Nova Scotia. William Hawkins went to Africa and Brazil in 1540. English ships had sailed the northern seashore of Russia. The Muscovy Company established trade with the imperium of Ivan the Terrible. But these were merely impermanent attempts, and under Elizabeth a more comprehensive attempt was made to widen English influence overseas. Her reign saw trading escapades along the seashore of Africa ( break ones backing ) , and new attempts to happen short-cuts due east and due west to the Orient. Other expeditions went in hunt of the legendary southern continent # 8220 ; terra australis incognita # 8221 ; . The Spanish peculiarly resented the English intervention with their slave-trade. An incident that precipitated tensenesss between Spain and England took topographic point when the Spanish slaughtered 200 English crewmans seeking to mend their ships in the Mexican port at San Juan de Ulua. Two hundred subsisters tried to acquire aboard a ship and canvas for England with really small nutrient or H2O. Some of these crewmans asked to be put ashore, instead than to sail to England in this status. The Spanish brought these crewmans to test as misbelievers, burned some of them at the interest, and made the remainder galley slaves. Seventy of the crewmans managed to acquire back to England ; one of whom was Sir Francis Drake. The response to the Spanish menace was that the British built more ships than of all time before. Elizabeth and the English were determined to forestall Spain from ruling the seas. One of the basic jobs of Elizabeth # 8217 ; s reign was the spiritual inquiry. She was harassed by hawkish Protestants who desired a swing toward Calvinism, and residuary Catholics who preferred the position quo. It seems likely that the fairest opinion is that Elizabeth took a in-between land. She supported the Church of England, and did non truly care what her topics believed every bit long as they kept controversial positions to themselves. In 1559, Elizabeth officially restored Protestantism by holding Parliament base on balls the Act of Supremacy which declared the Queen the supreme governor of the Church. Finally spiritual tenseness in the land became a major job. Rumors had been rife that Catholics were traveling to try to assassinate Elizabeth merely as they had assassinated the other major Protestant leader in Europe, William of Orange. Protestants in Parliament, after the Babington Plot of 1586 to slay Elizabeth had been discovered, insisted that Mary Queen of Scots be executed instantly after being implicated in the secret plan. Elizabeth waited 3 months, but eventually signed the decease warrant. Mary was beheaded in 1587. In foreign policy Elizabeth followed a way similar to her domestic policy. At times she sponsored privateering foraies on Spanish transportation and ports. Sir Francis Drake and others relieved the Spanish male monarch of gold and Ag and other valuables at the way of the Queen. At other times she was compromising and initiated peace negotiations. By the mid-1580 # 8217 ; s it became evident that a war between England and Spain was inevitable. It was widely anticipated that a big Spanish fleet ( The alleged Spanish Armada ) would sail to the Netherlands, pick up the big Spanish ground forces combat in the Netherlands, and conveyance that army to England, where Catholicism would be imposed on the English. In one of the most celebrated conflicts in history, the Queen # 8217 ; s ships defeated the Armada. As the Spanish fleet tried to sail back to Spain, it was about wholly destroyed in awful storms. Elizabeth was celebrated for her great addresss, and one of her better-known references was given at the clip of the awaited invasion by the Spanish. Elizabeth was determined to reexamine a organic structure of military personnels deployed to run into the Spanish encroachers if they broke through England # 8217 ; s naval defences. Some of her advisers suggested that she would be in danger looking before a big armed crowd, but Elizabeth would non mistrust her # 8220 ; faithful and loving people # 8221 ; . Dressed in a pure white elegant gown and a Ag aegis, she rode through the cantonment and proceeded to present a famed address. While turn toing the organic structure of military personnels, she said: # 8220 ; I know I have the organic structure of a weak and lame adult female, but I have the bosom and tummy of a male monarch ; and a King of England too. # 8221 ; She went on to state, # 8220 ; In the words of a Prince # 8221 ; that she would amply honor her loyal military perso nnels. As was her usage, she broke her promise. The citations in the above paragraph in many ways exemplify the features of the Queen. She was brave, she knew how to utilize rhetoric, she had a melodramatic bid of public occasions, and she could utilize male soldierly values to her advantage. She was besides capable of doing promises she had no purpose of maintaining, and she was rather ungenerous when it came to passing the Crown # 8217 ; s money. The heathen goddesses had been driven underground by a thousand old ages of Christianity. The English Reformation had done its best to stamp down the cult of the Virgin Mary. In topographic point of these almighty female divinities, England now had its Virgin Queen. She was compared by poets to the Moon Goddess, to a Virgin and Fertility Goddess, the bringer of Justice, and the basis of Empire. Painters portrayed her in impossible impressiveness and with the symbols of peace, virtuousness, stateliness and truth. Quite an impressive public image to keep! Elizabeth # 8217 ; s reign besides saw a blossoming of the humanistic disciplines that would be impossible for about any other period of English history to fit. Edmund Spencer, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, William Shakespeare are great names non merely in English literature, but in World literature. The English Renaissance was a high spot in a sixteenth century that frequently appeared bloody, dark, and drab. Elizabeth # 8217 ; s reign after the licking of the Armada was beset by problems. Her control over her state # 8217 ; s spiritual, political, and economic jobs ; every bit good as her presentation of herself, began to demo terrible strains. Bad crops, rising prices, and unemployment, caused a loss of public morale. Corruptness and greed led to wide-spread popular hatred for Elizabeth # 8217 ; s favorites, to whom she had given moneymaking and much-resented monopolies. By the bend of the century, even her supporters such as Sir Walter Raleigh said she was # 8220 ; a lady surprised by time. # 8221 ; Shortly before she died on March 24, 1603, she designated James VI of Scotland as her replacement. It was non long, nevertheless, before many Englishmans were retrieving with great fancy and nostalgia their # 8220 ; Good Queen Bess # 8221 ; . Possibly the relationship between Elizabeth and her people can be found in comments she made before Parliament when she allowed Parliament to revoke many of the monopolies she had given to her favourites: # 8220 ; Though God hath raised me high, yet this I count the glorification of my Crown, that I have reigned with your loves # 8230 ; I do non so much rejoice that God hath made me a Queen as to be Queen over so grateful a People. # 8221 ; The undeclared war between Spain and England continued until the terminal of Elizabeth # 8217 ; s reign. The great power of Spain was cut down to size and England, based upon the public presentation of English ships and English crewmans, had shown that England was now ready to take its topographic point among Europe # 8217 ; s major powers. Never had England # 8217 ; s assurance been greater, and no symbol of the kingdom # 8217 ; s new glorification was more powerful that Elizabeth herself.