Challenges to Elizabeth, home and abroad (1569-1588)

Question 1

What were the motives of the 1569 Revolt of the Northern Earls?

Answer 1

Religious and Political

Question 2

Who were the main Earls involved in the Revolt?

Answer 2

Earl of Westmorland, Earl of Northumberland

Question 3

What was important aboutthe 1570 Papal Bull of Excommunication?

Answer 3

Seemed to encourage Catholics to plot against Elizabeth

Question 4

What were the main aims of the Catholic plots?

Answer 4

Overthrow Elizabeth, make Mary QofS queen, restore Catholicism

Question 5

What was the 1571 Ridolfi plot?

Answer 5

Ridolfi carried messages from Mary QofS/Duke of Norfolk to the Spanish Duke of Alva and the Pope

Question 6

What was found in 1583, when Throckmorton’s house was raided?

Answer 6

Plans for a French invasion, a list of leading Catholic nobles

Question 7

What were the consequences of these two plots?

Answer 7

Elizabeth’s councillors wanting concrete evidence against Mary QofS

Question 8

What was the 1586 Babington plot?

Answer 8

Letters smuggled in a beer barrel outlining a plot to overthrow Elizabeth

Question 9

Who was Elizabeth’s spymaster, who was crucial in discovering these plots?

Answer 9

Sir Francis Walsingham

Question 10

Name 3 actions used to discover plots against Elizabeth

Answer 10

Torture, intercepting coded messages, informers/double agents, foreigners’ houses searched, capturing Catholic priests

Question 11

Why did Elizabeth delay in signing Mary’s death warrant?

Answer 11

Didn’t want to kill a fellow monarch, worried about consequences from abroad

Question 12

Name 3 long-term causes of war between England and Spain

Answer 12

Religion, politics, trade/commercial rivalry

Question 13

Why was Elizabeth cautious about getting involved in the Dutch Protestants’ rebellion?

Answer 13

Didn’t want the cost or to enrage Spain too much

Question 14

What was the 1585 treaty of Nonsuch?

Answer 14

English protection of the Netherlands

Question 15

Why didn’t Philip II attack Elizabeth earlier?

Answer 15

Concerned about French power - didn’t want Mary QofS to become Queen of England

Question 16

What was the “singeing of the King of Spain’s beard”?

Answer 16

Drake’s attack on Spanish ships at Cadiz

Question 17

What was the Spanish plan and what was wrong with it?

Answer 17

To land in the Netherlands and ferry 20,000 troops across to invade England; relied on good communication and timing

Question 18

Who commanded the Spanish Armada and the English ships against it?

Answer 18

Duke of Medina Sidonia; Lord Howard

Question 19

What was the main tactic used by the English to defeat the Spanish Armada?

Answer 19

Fireships used to break up Spanish formation

Question 20

How did the weather help defeat the Armada?

Answer 20

Wind blew fireships towards Spanish ships; drove wrecjed Spanish ships on Scottish/Irish coasts