How Successful Was Queen Elizabeth the First Level 7 Paper

How Successful Was Queen Elizabeth I?
Who was Queen Elizabeth I? Queen Elizabeth I was the fifth and final Tudor monarch and the youngest daughter of King Henry VIII. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, was the second of Henry’s six wives and was executed before Elizabeth was even three years of age. She was the successor of her older sister Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary, and Elizabeth’s successor was James I of the Stuart Era.

Whilst her sister, Mary, was Queen Elizabeth was imprisoned in London Tower by her as Mary felt threatened by her protestant younger sister; she was thought of as “the saviour” of the persecuted Protestants under Mary’s reign. After Mary fell ‘pregnant’ Elizabeth was seen as no longer a threat so she was returned to her residence at Hatfield under semi-house arrest.

When news of her sister’s death and that she was queen reached Elizabeth she quoted the 118th Psalms twenty-third line in Latin:
“A dominium factum est illud, et est miarable in oculis notris”
Translated means: “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.”

Elizabeth had survived and was finally Queen of England.

Elizabeth and Marriage Queen Elizabeth faced many problems during her forty-five year long reign and one of the large ones was marriage. Elizabeth was very popular and had over twenty proposals but after much consideration and speculation she narrowed it down to five possible candidates: * Philip of Spain * Robert Dudley * Duke of Alenҫon * Eric of Sweden * William of Orange
All of the suitors had their pros and cons like Philip of Spain was a strong alliance and very wealthy but he was married to Mary and he was very opposed to Elizabeth’s Religion (Protestant) and as he was catholic it would mean another change in religion. Also Duke of Alenҫon owned lots of French land however; he was also catholic and much younger than Elizabeth. Philip of Spain and the Duke of Alenҫon had similar reason whereas Eric of Sweden was a protestant and very popular yet he was extremely poor and not a strong alliance. Robert Dudley was definitely the queen’s favourite, he was an Englishman, a protestant, and they knew each other very well and to put the icing on the cake he was very rich too. Finally William of Orange was the last of her choices and was most probably the suitor with the most promising aspects, he was a strong protestant, his mother was the Queen of Holland and fabulously wealthy his only let down was also a positive; he was fighting with Spain but if the Dutch and English joined forces in theory they could overthrow Spain and she could kill two birds with one stone consequently to her marrying William of Orange. If she were to marry anyone he probably would have been the best choice for the benefit of her country.
After much thought she gave a speech to her subjects as to her decision on the subject of marriage. In her speech she said she wasn’t going to get married because she was already married – to her country.
I think she was very successful in making the decision not to get married because if she had done it would have led to a heap of problems such as: * Marrying an Englishman would have led to jealousy amongst others * Marrying a foreigner might have led to meddling in the running of the country * A man might try to take over England
The only problem that she caused by not getting married was there now was a very bear chance there would be a protestant heir to the throne.

Elizabeth and Religion When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558 she had three possible choices to make about religion. The first possible choice was to keep England catholic. This would be a good idea because Spain would remain friendly. It would be a bad idea, however, because Elizabeth would lose control of the money from the English church. Her next potential alternative was to make England completely protestant. This would have been a decent notion because it would please many of her subjects, who hated Mary; still it would have been a corrupt notion because Spain, France and the Pope would be her enemies. The last conceivable option was to find the middle between the two which would be a worthy conception because this would please a growing number of her people yet it would be an unfit conception because extreme Protestants (puritans) and extreme Catholics would be angry and might cause an uprising. In the end she chose to find the middle between the two and introduced the Elizabethan Religious Settlement.

I think her solution to the problem of religion was just as successful as it was unsuccessful because the only major problem it caused was the Spanish Armada and that was dealt with (not easily – but dealt with).

Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots The person with the best claim to the English throne if Elizabeth was to die would have been Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary, however, was a devout Catholic and with her having a lot of support from fellow Catholics in England and Spain and that put a lot of pressure on Elizabeth. In 1568 Mary was chased out of Scotland after her people believed she had a hand in the planning in the death of her second husband, Lord Darnley. With her in England and a strong catholic she threatened the English Church. Elizabeth imprisoned her in the Tower of London for nineteen years during which she was accused of plotting against Elizabeth and several plots of Mary’s own were allegedly found. One of the plots discovered in 1586 was called the Babington Plot this consisted of Mary writing to a man called Lord Babington in code to stop any outsiders knowing of their scheme. So then there was a tough decision for Elizabeth - whether or not to execute her cousin Mary. * As long as Mary was alive, plots against Elizabeth would continue however Elizabeth didn’t really believe the 1586 evidence – it may have been forged or Mary may have been tricked. * Parliament wanted Mary Queen of Scots to be put to death but Mary was Scottish so couldn’t be tried by an English court. * Mary was a Catholic queen who threatened the English church still, Mary was a Queen – chosen by god.

In the end Elizabeth decided to execute Mary and I think she was very successful in her decision as it would have really changed the path our monarchy took next as, if Elizabeth hadn’t chosen to execute Mary she probably would of tried to overthrow her and the execution of Mary was only a small factor in Spain’s decision to invade England.

Elizabeth and the Spanish Armada There were five key reasons why the Spanish launched an attack on the English: * Elizabeth refused to marry King Philip II * English sailors had attacked Spanish ships carrying treasure from Spain to America. * The English had helped the Dutch rebel against their Spanish rulers * And Elizabeth had executed Mary Queen of Scots.
The plan was to sail a huge armada of 130 ships up to Calais and pick up a huge Spanish army from the Netherlands. The commander of the army was the Duke of Parma. The ships would then transport the army across to England and invade it. Unfortunately, the Spanish met some problems along the way. The first problem they encountered was their admiral, Santa Cruz, died and was replaced by the Duke of Medina Sidonia who wasn’t a good sailor. Second of all Drake sailed into Cadiz harbour and burnt some Spanish ships also, the armada was delayed by some untimely weather, dreadful summer storms hit their coordinates and they had to wait in Corunna until the weather got better. And finally to top it all off, The Duke of Parma and his army were not at the meeting point – the soldiers were all ill. The Armada’s famous and apparently unbreakable was broken by English fire ships and this caused a great deal of panic. So the Spanish scattered in all directions to evade the English. However, they attacked the Spanish outside the harbour. As the English ships could move faster than the huge Spanish galleons a running battle fought all the way up the English coast as they chased the Spanish away. I think Elizabeth’s noble soldiers did her proud during that most vital and greatest of battles and the victory of the English was mostly based on good English skill and fortunate weather. Elizabeth was very successful in her battle plan to defeat the Spanish.

Conclusion I think Queen Elizabeth I was a very successful queen because no matter how big or drastic a problem was like the Spanish armada or how low key and calm a situation was like marriage she handled it calmly and efficiently like a admirable queen. Her legendary reign will be remembered forever and ever and her reign will always be known as the golden age.