Elizabeth I

• Elizabeth I's reign lasted from 1558 to 1603.

Pre-Monarch Life and Accession

• Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, was executed when Elizabeth was only two years old.
• Elizabeth was named in the third succession act of 1544.
• In 1554, Elizabeth was suspected of involvement in the Wyatt rebellion, which led to her imprisonment in the Tower of London.
• Upon Mary I's death on November 17, 1558, William Cecil informed Elizabeth about her succession at Hatfield.
• Nicholas Heath proclaimed Elizabeth’s succession to Parliament November 17 1558.
• Nine of Mary’s councillors pledged loyalty to Elizabeth.
• William Cecil was then appointed as principal secretary.
• Elizabeth was officially crowned Queen on January 15, 1559.
• Owen Oglethorpe, a Catholic Bishop, crowned Elizabeth Queen.
• Elizabeth's coronation gown was made from 23 yards of Gold and Silver as a sign of royalty and legitimacy.

Religious Settlement, and Early Religious Policy 1558-1566

• Political stability, not personal belief, drove the religious settlement.
• Catholic bishops, appointed under Mary I, and nobles formed a Catholic voting bloc of roughly 40 members, who opposed reinstating the 1552 Book of Common Prayer.
• The 1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ended English military action in France.

Act of Supremacy, May 1559

• Papal supremacy was rejected.
• Elizabeth declared herself 'Supreme Governor' of the Church of England, not 'Supreme Head.'
• An oath of loyalty was imposed for all clergy; most of Mary’s bishops refused and were removed, and around 4% of lower clergy refused.
• A Court of High Commission was established to prosecute those whose loyalty was suspect.
• Heresy laws from Mary's reign were repealed, which ended persecutions.
• Communion in both kinds was permitted.

Act of Uniformity, May 1559

• The 1552 Prayer Book, with some modifications, was imposed.
• The communion wording mixed the 1549 and 1552 Prayer Books.
• Those not attending Church of England services were deemed recusants and fined 12d, a lenient penalty.
• Ornaments and vestments were to be worn as stated in 1549, which led to the Vestarian controversy of 1566.
• The Black Rubric was removed, angering many Protestants.
• The act passed by only 3 votes in the House of Lords, after the imprisonment and exclusion of Bishops White and Watson.
• The 1559 Prayer Book was an amalgamation of the 1549 and 1552 Prayer Books from Edward's reign.

Act of Exchange, 1559

• Elizabeth gained the right to take over property owned by bishops.
• This was used more as a threat to control bishops who criticized the settlement.

39 Articles, 1563

• These laid down the doctrine of the Church and were passed in 1563 but made law in 1571.
• They were based on the 42 Articles of Edward's reign.

Royal Injunctions, July 1559

• 57 instructions set further guidelines for the reformed faith.
• An English Bible was placed in every Church.
• Clergy were required to wear the 1549 vestments.
• Wafers, rather than bread, were to be used at communion, which was a Catholic concession.
• Pilgrimages were outlawed, and altars would no longer be destroyed.

Governance under Elizabeth I

• Elizabeth's image was important, and she went on at least 25 royal progressions.
• Court extravagance was toned down; Parliament voted an allowance for court spending of £40,000 in 1563, which was supplemented by Elizabeth's own income.
• Thirteen poor men at the palace gates were given a small donation (5p) each day.
• In 1563, all paintings of her were to be modelled on portraits supplied by the ‘Sergeant Painter’, and unauthorized images were prohibited.
• The court incorporated the Privy Council, Chamber, and Royal Household.
• The Royal household employed nearly 1,500 people.

Patronage

• Patronage was most valued when not given out freely, and there were fewer nobles in 1603 than in 1558.
• Only 18 peerages were granted during Elizabeth’s reign.
• William Cecil was appointed Secretary of State and became Lord Burghley in 1571.
• Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was pardoned by Mary, after being sentenced to death for being involved in Lady Jane Grey’s attempt to usurp the throne.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester Career

• 1557: Distinguished himself at the Battle of Saint-Quentin against France.
• 1559: Appointed Master of the Horse and made a Knight of the Garter.
• 1560: His wife, Amy Robsart, died, leading to suspicions of an affair with Elizabeth and his ordering of the murder.
• 1562: Joined the Privy Council.
• 1564: Made Earl of Leicester.
• 1585: Made Lord Lieutenant of the expeditionary force in the Netherlands.
• 1586: Accepted the title of Governor of the Netherlands, angering Elizabeth, who brought him back.
• He was appointed to lead the Royal Army against the Armada but died before it arrived.
• Patronage was used to dissuade nobles from rebelling, which was key to the 1569 Rebellion of the Northern Earls.
• Cecil’s 1579 advice to Elizabeth was that patronage should be used so ‘you shall have all means of value in your realm to depend only upon yourself’.

Factional Rivalry

• Cecil had the most influence at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign.
• Rivals arose in the mid-1560s, like Dudley, who was made Earl of Leicester in 1564.
• The Earl of Sussex returned from Ireland in 1565 and was made a Privy Councillor, supported by the Duke of Norfolk.
• The Rebellion of the Northern Earls in 1569 was an attempt to marry Norfolk to Mary, Queen of Scots; Norfolk was executed in 1572.
• Sir Francis Walsingham, one of the Queen’s principal secretaries from 1573-1590, supported further Protestant reforms, and developed an intricate spy network used to trap Mary Queen of Scots.
• In 1567, Leicester convinced Elizabeth to reject the marriage proposal from Archduke Charles of Austria, which Cecil favoured.
• A debate occurred from 1578-85 on whether to send English troops to the Netherlands, with Leicester and Walsingham in favor, and Burghley urging a more cautious approach; troops were sent in 1585.
• In 1579, fighting over the Anjou marriage led to Cecil arguing in favor, while Leicester and Walsingham opposed, resulting in their banishment from court for weeks.
• Court rivalry never reached the levels of Henry VIII or the crisis of 1549.
• The 1590s saw rivalry between Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex.
• In 1598, Robert Cecil argued for an end to the war with Spain, while Essex wanted the war to continue.
• In 1596, Essex attempted to secure the appointment of Sir Robert Sidney as Lord Chamberlain but failed; he also attempted to appoint Sir Francis Bacon as Attorney General, but Elizabeth refused.
• Essex's rebellion in 1601 occurred after being under house arrest after returning from Ireland and owing £16,000; he planned an armed attack on the council to remove Robert Cecil, writing to James VI of Scotland for help, but was tried and executed.

Privy Council

• Mary I's reign had 40-50 members, but Elizabeth reduced it to 19 at the start of her reign and 11 by 1597, mainly Protestants.
• Elizabeth kept some of Mary’s councillors, like Lord Treasurer Winchester.
• New councillors included Marquis of Northampton (Catherine Parr’s brother, Protestant).
• Main Privy Councillors were William Cecil (Burghley), Dudley (Leicester), and Sir Francis Knollys.
• By the 1590s, the main councillors were Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex.
• William Cecil was appointed Secretary of State and was influential until his death in 1598.

Local Government Enforcement

• JPs were increasingly used and administered the Poor Laws, averaging 50 in each county by 1600.
• Lords Lieutenants were also used more, supervising JPs; by 1585, there was at least one Lords Lieutenant in every shire, with Deputy Lieutenants established in the 1560s to share the workload.

Parliament

• Parliamentary Sessions: January-May 1559 saw the Religious Settlement pushed through by Protestant councillors.
• January-April 1563 and September-January 1567: in 1563, the Privy council openly pressed Elizabeth to marry.
• April-May 1571: Parliament granted a subsidy to pay for the suppression of the 1569 rebellion; William Strickland proposed a bill to reform the Book of Common Prayer, angering Elizabeth.
• May-June 1572: Parliament debated the execution of Norfolk and Mary after the Ridolfi Plot, but Elizabeth refused to back calls for Mary’s execution.
• February-March 1576: Parliament imprisoned Peter Wentworth for infringement of the Royal Prerogative.
• January-March 1581: Anti-Catholic Laws were tightened.
• November 1584-March 1585: Parliament passed the Act for the Surety of the Queen’s Person, which gave a statutory basis to the Bond of Association.
• October 1586-March 1587: Aftermath of the Babington Plot, Elizabeth consulted Parliament for advice on the execution of Mary.
• February-March 1589: Assembled in the aftermath of the Armada, a double subsidy was raised for the war with Spain.
• February-April 1593: Wentworth was imprisoned for a second time.
• October 1597-February 1598: Elizabeth, short of money during economic and social crisis, introduced a comprehensive Poor Law and raised a triple subsidy.
• October-December 1601: the 1598 Poor Law was revised, the ‘Golden Speech’ was delivered, and a quadruple subsidy was granted.
• The House of Commons was dominated by Protestants.
• The House of Lords was largely Conservative.
• 438 Acts were passed by Parliament from 1558-1603.
• John Neale’s theory of an influential Protestant movement inside Parliament is called the Puritan Choir.
• There were 10 Parliaments and 13 Parliamentary sessions.

Conflict in Parliament

• A growing tendency toward conflict emerged.
• In 1566, MPs angered Elizabeth by discussing the succession.
• From 1563-66, a Puritan Party of around 40 MPs organized to press for further reforms away from Catholicism.
• In 1576, Peter Wentworth was imprisoned after demanding greater freedom of speech.
• In 1584, Archbishop Whitgift’s attack on preachers who wanted to ‘purify’ the Church led to a furious reaction from Puritan members of Parliament.
• In 1586, the House of Commons asserted its right to settle a dispute over the Norfolk re-election case, a role traditionally fulfilled by the Lord Chancellor.
• In 1596, Robert Cecil was appointed Secretary of State, replacing his father, which angered Essex due to hereditary titles being given out.
• In 1601, Parliament clashed with Elizabeth over monopolies.
• Essex was executed in 1601, and attitudes toward him reflected a larger discontent related to the Queen’s diminishing authority.
• Evidence against conflict includes the average of 10 weeks per Parliamentary session, with Elizabeth mainly ruling through the Privy Council without needing Parliamentary legislation.
• The Commons conceded its right to settle the 1586 Norfolk election.

Foreign Relations

• Early Foreign Policy 1558-64:
• Scotland: In July 1559, Henry II of France died, succeeded by 15-year-old Francis II.
• Power lay in the regency of Francis, Duke of Guise, brother of Mary of Guise, Scottish regent for Mary, Queen of Scots.
• In July 1559, a Protestant revolt began in Scotland, and a French force of 9,500 troops prepared to enter Scotland in defense; Cecil persuaded the Privy Council to send aid, and £5,000 was sent to aid the Scottish Protestants.
• On February 27, 1560, the Treaty of Berwick sent 8,000 English troops to Scotland.
• July 1560 witnessed the Treaty of Edinburgh.
• All English and French troops were removed from Scotland.
• Mary Queen of Scots recognized Elizabeth as Queen of England.
• Freedom of worship was permitted in Scotland, which was a success for Cecil, who masterminded the intervention.
• In 1560, Francis II died and was replaced by 10-year-old Charles IX; his mother, Catherine de Medici, became regent and sent Mary Queen of Scots back to Scotland, accepted by the Protestant Lords.
• France: In April 1559, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ended the Habsburg-Valois wars that began in 1515.
• France would keep Calais for 8 years, until 1567, and refusal to return it would incur 500,000 crowns in compensation.
• The regency of Catherine de Medici sparked the beginning of French factional rivalry.
• In 1562, the French Wars of Religion began between the Huguenots and Catholics, and Elizabeth reluctantly agreed to help the Huguenots.
• In Sept 1562, the Treaty of Richmond loaned 140,000 crowns to Huguenot leader Louis I de Bourbon, and 3,000 troops were sent to garrison Le Havre under the command of the Earl of Warwick, Dudley’s brother; in return, England would regain Calais.

Conflicts

• In 1563, the Huguenots believed Elizabeth’s intervention was selfish, and Catholics and Huguenots united to expel English troops from Le Havre.
• In April 1564, the Treaty of Troyes ended all English involvement in the Wars of Religion, and England gave up all right to Calais for a payment of 120,000 crowns.

Mary, Queen of Scots

• In 1561, Mary assumed the role of Queen of Scotland, with the Treaty of Edinburgh leaving Scotland influenced by Protestantism.
• Mary was unable to exert power or influence.
• In 1565, Mary married Lord Darnley (great grandson of H7) and became pregnant; it was rumoured that David Rizzio was the man responsible.
• Rizzio was executed in 1566 under orders from Darnley.
• Mary gave birth to James VI (James I of England) on June 19, 1566.
• In 1567, Darnley was strangled, and Mary found another lover, Earl of Bothwell.
• Implicated in Darnley’s murder, she was forced to abdicate on July 24, 1567, and baby James VI ascended, with Protestant Lord Earl of Murray becoming regent.
• In 1568, Mary fled to England; ‘Casket’ letters implicated her in Darnley’s death.
• Mary was kept in prison, which caused issues with rebellion.

Northern Rebellion (1569-1570)

• This took place in Durham and North Yorkshire.
• The Spanish ambassador, De Spes, encouraged Mary Stuart to rebel.
• The Duke of Norfolk garnered support from disgruntled nobles.
• The Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland were heavily involved.
• There was an attempt to declare Mary heir to the throne.
• There were 4,600 rebels and 7,000 of Elizabeth’s forces under the Earl of Suffolk.
• Durham was taken, but the rebels dispersed when faced with Elizabeth’s forces, and around 800 were executed.

Ridolfi Plot (1571)

• This was a conspiracy to marry Mary to the Duke of Norfolk.
• The conspiracy was led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland.
• Cecil masterminded a campaign to gather intelligence against Norfolk.
• Cecil was able to secure the execution of Norfolk through the 1572 Parliament.
• The Spanish ambassador, De Spes, was expelled from England.
• Mary was kept in prison but not executed.
• Northumberland was executed in 1572, and Westmorland spent the rest of his life at court in the Spanish Netherlands.

Throckmorton Plot (1583-84)

• Francis Throckmorton, an English Catholic, acted as an intermediary between Mary and the Spanish ambassador, Mendoza.
• The plot planned a foreign landing in Sussex to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary.
• Sir Francis Walsingham’s espionage network helped to foil the plan.
• Mendoza was expelled, which led to the creation of the Bond of Association, demanding all signatories execute anyone who attempted to usurp the throne, successfully or unsuccessfully.

Babington Plot (1586)

• On July 17, 1586, Anthony Babington sent a letter to Mary outlining the assassination of Elizabeth.
• Walsingham’s codebreaker, Thomas Phelippes, exposed the plot.
• In September 1586, conspirators, including Babington, were executed.
• In October 1586, Mary was arrested and found guilty but not executed due to the threat of Spanish invasion.
• In February 1587, Elizabeth signed the execution warrant for Mary but did not allow it to be put into action.
• Elizabeth’s second Secretary of State, William Davidson, released the warrant.
• On February 8, 1587, Mary was executed at Fotheringay Castle.
• Davidson was fined and placed in the Tower of London but was later released, and the fine was remitted.

Spanish Relations 1560s

• In 1555, Charles V abdicated, and control of Habsburg possessions was divided.
• Phillip II was to rule Spain and the Netherlands, and Ferdinand was to control the German and Austrian lands.
• In 1559, Phillip II offered to marry Elizabeth as a sign of goodwill.
• Charles V insisted in 1555 that the Netherlands, a collection of 17 provinces, were to be passed to Phillip II.
• Phillip attempted to gain tighter control of the provinces.
• In 1562, Phillip protested Elizabeth’s support towards the Huguenots, but Elizabeth chose to keep her troops away from the Huguenot army in France.
• In 1563, Phillip’s Government in the Netherlands banned imports of English cloth, and Elizabeth retaliated by banning all imports from the Netherlands; both sides backed down in 1564.
• The Dutch civil war arose by 1566, and Phillip sent in 10,000 troops under the Duke of Alba to restore order.
• In November 1568, payment of 400,000 florins to the Duke of Alba’s army was apprehended and impounded by Elizabeth, and Alba responded by confiscating all English ships in the Netherlands.
• Elizabeth banned all trade with the Netherlands and Spain, and trade was not fully restored until 1573.
• John Hawkins disrupted Spain’s trading monopoly in the Caribbean, and in 1568, Hawkins’ fleet was blockaded in a Mexican Port on San Juan de Ulua, with only 2 ships escaping.
• In 1568, Phillip expelled the English ambassador from Madrid and replaced the Spanish ambassador in England with De Spes, a hard-line Catholic who immediately made contact with Mary, Queen of Scots.

Spanish Relations 1570-1585

• In 1570, Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.
• Philip encouraged the Northern Earls Rebellion in 1569 and the Ridolfi Plot in 1571.
• In 1570, Elizabeth began to consider marriage to the Duke of Anjou, King Charles IX of France’s brother.
• In 1571, the Ridolfi Plot implicated Phillip and De Spes, and De Spes was expelled.
• In 1572, the Sea Beggars, Dutch Pirates licensed by William of Orange, were expelled.
• Also in 1572, the Treaty of Blois replaced the idea of marriage with a formal Anglo-French defensive alliance against Spain, important after the 1572 St. Bartholomew’s day massacre.
• Also in 1572, Rebels in the Netherlands seized the Port of Brill.
• On November 8, 1576, the Pacification of Ghent saw all Dutch provinces form an alliance to help expel Spanish mercenaries.
• In January 1579, two separate entities in the Netherlands emerged: the Union of Utrecht (largely Northern and Protestant) and the Union of Arras (largely Southern and Catholic).
• The Union of Arras expressed loyalty to Phillip II and supported the Duke of Parma.
• In 1579, the Duke of Parma began to regain lands lost in the Netherlands for Spain, increasing the danger of a Spanish invasion.
• In 1580, Phillip II inherited the Portuguese crown, and Elizabeth supported the Portuguese claimant Don Antonio.
• In 1581, Elizabeth funded Dutch rebels in resisting Parma.
• Rebel leader William of Orange was assassinated in 1584.
• In 1584, Spanish ambassador Mendoza was expelled after implication in the Throckmorton plot.
• In 1584, the Treaty of Joinville saw Huguenot Henry of Navarre next in line to the French throne, and the French Catholic League signed a treaty with Spain.
• In 1585, Elizabeth signed the Treaty of Nonsuch with Dutch Rebels, agreeing to send 7,000 troops under the Earl of Leicester to help rebels resist Parma (unofficial start of Anglo-Spanish war).

England at War, 1588-1604

• In April 1587, a successful English attack on Spanish ships occurred at harbor in Cadiz.
• On July 22, 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from La Coruna, intended to reach Gravelines.
• On July 29, they were sighted off the coast of Cornwall, and the Battle of Gravelines occurred off the coast of Flanders.
• July 30-August 6 saw an indecisive battle in the Channel.
• The leader of the Armada, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, took the Armada on a route through the West Coast of Ireland and North Coast of Scotland.
• In 1489, Drake led 15,000 men and 130 ships to counter attack in Portugal but failed due to no Portuguese support, failure to capture Lisbon, and many men lost to disease.
• In 1589, Huguenot Henry IV ascended to the French throne, seen by Elizabeth as a potentially valuable ally.
• In 1590, the Duke of Parma invaded France.
• In 1591, Sir Richard Grenville was surrounded by a Spanish fleet, and Grenville and most of his men were killed.
• English raids on Spanish bullion decreased in effectiveness.
• In 1592, Elizabeth sent a force led by the Earl of Essex to help the French, but it failed, and the French returned in 1593; Henry IV declared himself a Catholic to end the war.
• By 1594, the Spanish were expelled from all areas of Northern Netherlands.
• In 1595, John Hawkins died at sea, and Drake died in the Caribbean. From 1595, England led three attacks on mainland Spain and its colonies.
• In 1596, Lord Howard of Effingham, Walter Raleigh, and Essex led 80,000 men in a raid of Spain, capturing Cadiz and destroying over 50 ships; however, there was no strategic follow-up, and they eventually failed to establish a permanent base.
• In October 1596, a Second Armada was battered by storms on the way to Ireland, and Phillip II was officially bankrupt.
• In 1597, Essex and Raleigh attempted to raid Spain again but completely failed.
• On May 2, 1598, the Treaty of Vervins saw peace between France and Spain.
• Philip II died in September 1598.
• It was estimated that Elizabeth had been spending double her normal revenue, financed by the sale of Crown Lands and Monopolies (caused opposition in 1601 Parliament).
• Financial Impact of Elizabethan Wars:
• The war in the Netherlands from 1585-98 cost around £2 million.
• The Armada campaign in 1588 cost £161,000.
• The campaign in France from 1589-93 cost £580,000.
• The campaign to crush Tyrone’s rebellion in Ireland from 1599-1603 cost £1 million.

Securing the Succession:

• Marriage Alliances:
• In December 1558, the Spanish ambassador, Count of Feria, met with Elizabeth, attempting to negotiate a marriage alliance.
• In 1559, Phillip II offered his hand in marriage as a gesture.
• Prince Eric of Sweden was Protestant, but Elizabeth was dissuaded by documented mental instability.
• In 1559, Robert Dudley began to monopolize Elizabeth’s attention, but after the death of Amy Robsart in Sept 1560, marriage would have had too many implications.
• In October 1562, Elizabeth contracted smallpox, increasing the importance of marriage and raising the threat of civil war if there was no heir.
• In 1566, Parliament discussed the marriage, and Elizabeth banished Leicester and Earl of Pembroke from the Presence Chamber.
• January 1571 saw marriage negotiations begin with the Duke of Anjou.
• In 1579, Burghley and Sussex suggested marriage to the Duke of Anjou.
• In 1600, James VI had two sons with Anne of Denmark.
• James VI attempted to use William Cecil, Essex, and Robert Cecil to name him successor, succeeded with Robert Cecil.
• Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603.

Society and Economy

• Society and Economy in Mid-Tudor England:
• Population Growth:
• The population was 1.5 million in 1470.
• Mid-1520s: 2.3 million.
• Mid-century: 3 million.
• End of Elizabeth’s reign: 4 million.
• The fastest growth was during the mid-1540s, with good harvests from 1537-42 and 1546-48.
• The population dipped in the 1550s due to bad harvests from 1549-51 and 1554-56.
• Over 50% of the rural and urban poor lived at or below subsistence level.

Inflation

• Over the 1500s, inflation was around 400%.
• Prices doubled from 1500-1550.
• The fastest increase was from 1520-1540.
• Elizabeth announced a scheme to withdraw debased currency in the early years of her reign.

Poor Relief

• Tudor Poor Law legislation:
• 1531: Impotent beggars were allowed to beg with a license, or they were fined.
• 1536: Money was raised through donations to help impotent poor.
• 1547: Funds collected through Churches were used to assist impotent beggars, while idle unemployed were considered vagrants on the 1st offence and were branded and sold into slavery; the 2nd offence led to lifelong slavery, and the 3rd offence led to the death penalty.
• 1552: A compulsory census was conducted to reduce unauthorized begging, and the Vagrancy Act was repealed.
• 1563: The Statute of Artificers aimed to enforce potential workers to take on seven-year apprenticeships, enforce a minimum period on one year for any worker’s job, and fix wages and prices; enforced by JP’s but quickly became redundant.
• 1572: The Poor Relief Act saw donations to impotent poor become compulsory and better distinguished between genuinely unemployed and ‘idle poor’.
• 1576: Houses of Correction were established to punish those who refused to work; JP’s were ordered to buy raw materials to provide work for able-bodied workers.
• Food riots occurred in London and the South East in 1595 and East Anglia in 1596-97 due to inflation, poor harvests, high taxation, and the effects of the war with Spain.
• 1597: The Act for the Relief of the Poor confirmed a compulsory poor rate, required each county to have at least one House of Correction, provided for the impotent poor, and treated vagrants harshly.
• 1601: The Elizabethan Poor Law was an amended version of the 1597 Act, clearly distinguishing between the genuine poor and the idle poor and remaining substantially intact until 1834.

Regional Issues

• Ireland: In 1560, Elizabeth proclaimed herself Supreme Governor of the Church of Ireland.
• Frequent use of martial law led to bad relations with the Gaelic Irish.
• Rebellions occurred in the South from 1569-73 and 1579-82.
• Ulster clan chief Hugh O’Neill, created Earl of Tyrone in 1585 by Elizabeth, rebelled in 1595, looking to exploit the Spanish situation by including an Irish contingent in the Armada of 1596.
• In August 1598, the Battle of Yellow Ford was won by the 6,000 Ulster rebels.
• In 1599, the Earl of Essex was sent to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, but he disobeyed the Queen’s orders, made a truce with Tyrone, and returned to Court.
• New Lieutenant Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew made significant progress.
• In September 1601, 3,000-3,500 Spanish troops landed in Kinsdale, Ireland.
• On December 24, 1601, the English triumphed with 7,000 troops led by Mountjoy.
• In 1602, a Spanish relief force was defeated at Kinsdale, which was the final turning point.
• Peace was negotiated in March 1603, after Elizabeth’s death.
• It cost £2 million to repress the Irish and £1.25 million from 1599-1603.
• Scottish Border Administration: Elizabeth had to resort to wardens from the second rank of northern landowners to administer the border, such as Sir John Forster, who exploited his office for financial gain instead of maintaining border security.
• During the 1569 Northern Rebellion, some of the rebel leaders escaped into Scotland.
• From 1578-85, the grip on Protestant Scottish Lords was tenuous.
• The 1585 murder of Francis Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, caused diplomatic issues.
• James VI accepted an annual pension of £4,000 in return.

Rebellions

• Essex Rebellion (1601): Essex resented Robert Cecil and planned an armed coup to remove him and his supporters.
• It was primarily court-based, with little support among the commoners.
• A disproportionate number of Welshmen were implicated.
• Essex was quickly discovered by Cecil, tried, and executed in Feb 1601.

Economic Developments

• Attempts to Improve Financial Administration:
• Marquis of Winchester was inherited as her first Lord Treasurer from Mary I.
• Both Winchester and Cecil (who became Lord Treasurer in 1572) rigorously pursued solvency; by 1585, the £300,000 of debt left by Mary I had been cleared, and Elizabeth had built up a reserve of another £300,000.
• Parliamentary taxation increased in importance, with 11 of the 13 Parliamentary sessions in Elizabeth’s reign used to grant subsidies, including a quadruple subsidy in 1601.
• The Crown invested in foreign voyages and secret privateering, with mixed success; the capture of the Madre de Dios in 1592 brought in a profit of £77,000, although there was some reluctance to hand over the profits to the crown.

Enclosure

• From 1500-1600, the amount of land enclosed increased by only 2%.
• By the end of Elizabeth’s reign, the total land enclosed, even in the worst-affected areas, was still below 9%.
• After 1550, enclosure was used to increase the efficiency of arable farming, as corn became more profitable than wool.
• An increasing number of vagrants were due to those who relied on common land.
• Issues with Ordinary Revenue:
• The sale of Crown lands brought in £600,000 across her reign but reduced the general financial basis of the monarchy.
• While rents on existing land rose slightly to £100,000 per annum, the rise was below the level of inflation, therefore in reality, money was being lost.
• Some revenue never reached Elizabeth; for example, Winchester and Leicester owed the crown £70,000 in debt.
• Feudal dues suffered due to the conservative policies of William Cecil, who was reluctant to reform.
• After Robert Cecil took over the Court of Wards in 1599, the selling price of Wardships was raised to four times the annual value of the land.

Other Methods of Raising Revenue

• Joint Stock Companies attempted to break the Spanish monopoly of trade in the New World and the Caribbean.
• A rise occurred in Purveyance and monopolies, which were known as ‘bastard revenues’.
• Feudal dues remained static at their 1541 level.
• Revenue from crown lands barely increased.

Foreign Trade by 1558

• Trade was dominated by the London-Antwerp cloth trade, which accounted for 75% of all English exports and brought in £35,000 to £50,000 per annum via custom duties.
• The danger of reliance on a single market was highlighted with the collapse of the Antwerp cloth market in 1551 due to Charles V.
• The Muscovy company had already been established during Mary’s reign by Willoughby and Chancellor, although it had limited success in breaking the trade monopoly of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic.
• Trade was estimated at a value of £25,000 per year.

North-West Passage

• From 1576-78, Frobisher sailed north of Canada, attempting to find a route to China but failed.
• In 1578 and 1583, Humphrey Gilbert attempted to establish colonies in North-West America but was unsuccessful.
• Half-brother Walter Raleigh gained a patent to found Virginia but was was unsuccessful in 1585 and 1587.
• From 1585-87, John Davis on three voyages made valuable contributions to the map of the Arctic, e.g. establishing Greenland as separate from America, which preluded the Hudson Bay establishment during the Stuart period.

Africa and the Slave Trade with the West Indies

• In 1562, John Hawkins landed in Guinea, captured slaves, and sold them to the West Indies.
• A second expedition in 1564 agitated Phillip II, who gave a warning to the English about profiteering.
• A 3rd expedition in 1567 was a near total failure, with Hawkins’ fleet blockaded in the Mexican Port of San Juan de Ulúa.
• Elizabeth was willing to provoke Spain for the sake of profit.