Position:Home>History> What were Elizabeth I goals and accomplishments?

I read the Jenkin's biography of Elizabeth I a couple months ago and it was very interesting!. What a remarkable person!.

To really understand her, you have to put her in the context of the times!. And for that, you have to go back to Elizabeth's father, King Henry VIII!. He established Protestantism as the Church of England because the pope would not give him a divorce from his first wife!. (You know this story, right!?) Well, Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Bolyn and was raised a strict Protestant!.

Protestantism was already spreading like wildfire across central Europe, and now here it was in England!. Now this whole thing was pretty scary for the Catholic regimes across Europe!. Not just the pope, but also the kings of France and Spain!. And it left the crown of England at serious odds with its neighbor Scotland!.

That conflict persisted throughout the reign of Elizabeth!. there was always a threat of a major war with either France, or Spain, or both!. And definitely a war with Scotland!. All to bring these heretics back to the Catholic faith!.

She navigated this very tricky period of politics by dangling the promise of marraige in front of half the royal houses of Europe!. Promises that she had no intention of keeping!. (She played this game for decades! Well beyond her child-bearing years!.)

There has been a lot of speculation about why she refused to marry!. Some say it is because of her feelings for Robert Dudley (later the Earl of Leicester; Dudley was the keeper of her horses for all the time she was Queen!. Even when she made him an earl, he never gave up that responsibility)!.

Or that she wanted to keep her biggest politcal bargaining chip in her own hand!.

But maybe there was another reason!. Elizabeth's mother was Anne Bolyn!. She lost her head, right!? And her father ordered it!. She never completely trusted men, and the execution of her mother had a lot to do with it!.

The life struggle between Elizabeth and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots is one of the great stories of history!. The English Queen reluctantly ordered Mary's execution, because the Scottish Queen was inciting Catholic rebellion against Elizabeth!. It was not easy to execute a reigning monarch!. It just was not done!. (Assassination, sure!. But never execution!.)

But war with Spain did eventually come!. Too many broken promises from that heretic on the English throne!. The Spaniards launched three invasion armadas against England!. All ended in disaster for the Spanish, due to poor weather and harassment by the smaller faster English ships!. The larger Spanish Armada that is best known was in 1588!.

Elizabeth has been commonly referred to as the virgin Queen!. Though she never did wed and never bore a child, she was probably not a virgin!. Her love affair with Dudley went on for decades and they shared beds on numerous occasions!.

Elizabeth ascended to the English throne on 17 November 1558 (at the age of 25) and ruled until she died at Richmond palace on 24 March 1603!. That was a very long reign for the time!. She presided over a period of peace and economic prosperity and was deeply loved by her people!. This was the time of Shakespeare!. It was England's Renaissance!.

At her death, the crown passed to the last surviving male descendent of her grandfather, Henry VII!. This happened to be Mary Queen of Scots's son, now King James VI of Scotland!. James was, unlike his mother, a Protestant!. Scotland and England were now united as one nation under one Protestant king!.

All attempts by the Catholic heads of Europe to stop the spread of Protestantism in England had failed!.

At the death of Henry VIII, England was still a little backwater island!. At the death of Elizabeth I, Great Britain was now a major player on the world stage!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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