Was Elizabeth I a good Queen?

Queen Elizabeth I reigned for over 45 years (1585 - 1603). She accomplished this feat by making some very important decisions that would change England forever. Many of these decisions created great uproar from the general public; others would leave her with many supporters.

Elizabeth's predecessor, Mary I, had married Philip II of Spain before she died. Once Elizabeth came into power Philip asked for her hand in marriage. Philip offered to aid England with their war with France (England was losing badly, and it was also costing a lot) if she married him. If she won the war, it would show people she was a good queen, but if she didn't it would be a bad start to her reign. If she married him she could have heirs' to take the throne after her. But Philip was very unpopular in England and Elizabeth didn't want to share any of her power with a Spaniard. If she married him she would have to convert to Catholicism, as well as the whole of England, this was because he was Catholic. Elizabeth didn't want to do this because it would be very unpopular with the Protestants. Elizabeth decided not to marry Philip. So she peacefully ended the war with France and made England protestant again. This was good because she did what she thought was good for England and not for herself. She also didn't try and continue the War with France; this would have saved money and lives.

The Catholics didn't like how England was Protestant, so Elizabeth made a universal Church of England. This suited both Catholics and Protestants. This unified England instead of creating a dispute between the two religions.

If people didn't go to Church, Elizabeth would simply fine them. She would keep track of people who didn't go to Church by anointing a Justice of Peace (JP) in each village, to keep a record of who missed Church. This was good because she pushed her people to go to Church, and also because she only fined them, not anything worse (e.g. Mary I killed 300 Protestants because they didn't go to a Catholic Church).

JP's were chosen by the Privy Council (a sort of left hand to Elizabeth to help her make decisions). They were usually rich landlords. They didn't get paid. JPs' also acted like spies, telling the Privy Council about traitors. This is good because then Elizabeth would be able to know what was happening with her people. But on the other hand the JP's must have become very unpopular with the people for spying on them.

This helped when the Pope ordered young Catholic Priests (Jesuits) to convert England back to Catholicism. The JPs' found them out and tortured them. They hung them, took them down alive, had their bowels taken out and burned in front of their faces, then they were chopped up into little pieces. It's good that the JP's found them out but I think this was very immoral how they dealt with them. They shouldn't have killed them in such a horrid way, or even kill them at all. They could have just imprisoned them for a very long time. How could Elizabeth allowed this?

Mary Queen of Scots (who was second in line of the throne) didn't like how Elizabeth handled the Jesuits, because she was Catholic. Mary had to flee from Scotland where the Protestants wanted to kill her. When she arrived in England, Elizabeth imprisoned her in the tower of London for 19 years. The Privy Council disliked Mary and they were constantly begging for her to be killed. It was rumored that Mary had been working on many plots to kill Elizabeth. Finally the Privy Council found some hard evidence that Mary was trying to kill her. Elizabeth signed her death warrant, but never meant to carry it through. She also knew the Privy Council had tricked Mary into joining the plot. The next day the Privy Council got hold of the warrant and Mary was executed the next morning. In my opinion Elizabeth shouldn't have signed the death warrant in the first place if she knew that Mary was tricked into joining the plot. I also think it was her responsibility to look after important documents, especially death warrants. I also think it was immoral of the Privy Council to try and take the death warrant, it shows how much they wanted her killed.

One of Elizabeth's greatest achievements was the great defeat of the Spanish Armada. King Philip II of Spain was outraged on how Elizabeth treated Mary Queen Of Scots. He had also not forgiven her for refusing to marry him. English sailors like Sir Francis Drake had been looting Spanish treasure ships. Philip decided that the time was right to attack England.

The Spanish had 130 warships armed with 35,000 men. The English had little over 23 working warships, small bands of men (50 - 100) to defend the coast and 5,000 men to defend London. Knowing that they were supremely outnumbered, Elizabeth ordered fishermen and traders to join their fleet. This gave the English Navy a total of 178 ships.

The Spanish Armada was chased around England. They had to leave all of their troops in the Netherlands. They met a horrible storm between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Most of their ships were either destroyed or severely broken. When the Armanda returned to Spain, half of the fleet was destroyed. It was good that she won because it showed that even when they were greatly out numbered she made a clever strategy to beat the Spanish.

The Armada's attack was very costly for England so to cut costs, Elizabeth kept the remaining sailors on guard for another 4 months, thus greatly increasing their chance of catching diseases such as scurvy and starving to death (they had to survive with what was left of their rations). Most of the sailors died, which meant that Elizabeth wouldn't have to pay them. This was a very mean thing to do, intently killing a whole lot of people to just cut costs. I don't know if the public knew about this but I don't think that they would have been very pleased.

After all the things that the Privy Council did, some good and some bad, they only lasted three years in Elizabeth's reign. She abolished them in 1588. I really think this was for the best because all they really wanted to do was to cause trouble and go against Elizabeth. They were also getting too powerful for their own good. In this way she made a wise decision for England.

Weighing up all of these facts I personally think that Elizabeth was a very good Queen. She dealt with all the wars England faced in an orderly manner. She also decided what was best for her country and didn't marry Philip II. She also didn't want Mary Queen of Scots to die. She made many personal sacrifices for the best of the country, and she didn't accumulate a great wealth for her self, but gave some of her money to her country. The English people in general did really like her (although there were always a few people against her). All these facts make me conclude that Elizabeth I was one of the finest monarchs England has ever had.