Early modern Britain 1509–1745, Year 11: Elizabeth I, her court and Parliament (Elizabethan England option)

Anne Boleyn

HintHenry VIII's second wife.

The whyAfter the execution Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Under her Catholic half-sister Mary I she was held for a time in the Tower of London on suspicion of plotting. She came to the throne in 1558, aged 25, cautious and well educated.

Patronage

HintFrom the Latin for a protector or father figure.

The whyNobles and gentlemen came to court to compete for the queen's favour. By giving and withholding rewards she kept rival groups balanced, so that none grew too strong.

William Cecil

HintHis son Robert followed him into the queen's service.

The whyHe was her Secretary of State from 1558 and later Lord Treasurer, serving her for forty years until he died in 1598. He was careful with money and wary of foreign wars.

Sir Francis Walsingham

HintHe uncovered the Babington Plot.

The whyHe was Secretary of State from 1573 until his death in 1590. A committed Protestant, he used agents, intercepted letters and code-breakers to watch for Catholic plots at home and abroad.

Progresses

HintThey let her subjects see her, and they saved her money.

The whyHer hosts paid for feeding and entertaining the whole court, which could cost them a fortune. In return they had the queen's attention, and the chance of her favour.

The Privy Council

HintIts name suggests something private.

The whyElizabeth cut it to about nineteen members, and to fewer still by the end of the reign. It handled the daily business of government: finance, defence, religion and order. The queen was free to ignore its advice.

John Knox

HintA leader of the Reformation in Scotland.

The whyHis pamphlet, 'The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women', was aimed at Catholic queens, but it angered Elizabeth. Most people at the time believed that a woman was unfit to rule or to lead an army.

To grant her taxes

HintShe could not raise this without its consent.

The whyParliament met only when she summoned it, and she could close it when she chose. In a reign of forty-four years she called it only thirteen times.

He was sent to the Tower of London

HintThe Commons itself ordered his imprisonment.

The whyElizabeth forbade Parliament to discuss her marriage, the succession or religion unless she invited it to. Wentworth challenged that, and was imprisoned more than once. He died in the Tower in 1597, held there for raising the question of the succession.

Her 'frog'

HintAn affectionate name taken from a small animal.

The whyHe visited England in 1579 and 1581, when Elizabeth was in her late forties. He was a Catholic and heir to the French throne, and the proposal was unpopular in England. She never married.

Smallpox, which nearly killed her

HintA dangerous disease showed how suddenly the throne could fall empty.

The whyWith no agreed heir, her death could have meant civil war or a Catholic ruler. She refused to name a successor, fearing that an heir would become a focus for plots against her.

James VI of Scotland

HintThe son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

The whyHe became James I of England. Robert Cecil had quietly prepared the way, and the crown passed peacefully. The Tudor line ended, and England and Scotland shared a monarch for the first time.

1601

HintTwo years before the queen died.

The whyRobert Devereux, Earl of Essex, had been the ageing queen's favourite. The 1590s were hard years, with bad harvests, high prices, war and quarrels at court as the older ministers died.

A truce with the rebel Earl of Tyrone

HintHe had been sent to win a war, not to bargain.

The whyHe then deserted his post and returned to England, where he was placed under house arrest.

His monopoly on sweet wines

HintIt gave him the tax on a popular imported drink.

The whyIt had been his main income, and he was deep in debt. It shows patronage at work: the queen could break a nobleman by withholding favour as surely as she could make one by granting it.

Robert Cecil

HintThe leader of the opposing faction at court.

The whyEssex claimed that he meant to free the queen from evil advisers, not to harm her. Court politics in the 1590s were dominated by the rivalry between the two men and their followers.

It collapsed within a day, and he was executed

HintFew Londoners joined his march.

The whyHe marched into the City of London with a band of nobles and gentlemen, but no one rose to support him. He surrendered that evening and was beheaded on 25 February. The speed of his failure suggests the queen's authority was still strong.