elizabeth Flashcards
How did Elizabethan society work?
- Cities and population were growing
- London wool & cloth trade important
- Done on a social structure
1. Nobility
2. Gentry
3. Yeoman
4. Tenant farmers
5. Landless labouring poor
6. Vagrants
What was in the Elizabethan government?
- The court (courtiers)
- Privy Council
- Parliament
- Lords Lieutenants
- Justices of the Peace (JPS)
Who was powerful in Elizabethan England?
- Monarch believed in Divine Right
- Monarch can give patronage
- There is a Secretary of State
- Parliament can raise some taxes for the monarch & pass some laws
- Some things only the queen can decide (Royal Prerogative)
What was Elizabeth’s character?
- Intelligent
- Multilingual
- Understood court politics
- Bad tempered
- Very persuasive
- Indecisive
What problem did Elizabeth face when she came to the throne in 1558?
- Her legitimacy & Mary Queen of Scots
- Her gender and who to marry
- Finances, bad harvests & debt
- Auld Alliance between France and Scotland
- Losing Calais to France
- Religion
What was the English Reformation?
- Changing the Church from Catholic to Protestant
- Started by Henry VIII
- Continued by Elizabeth
What religious divisions were there in England?
- Many people were Catholics
- Most bishops were Catholic
- Catholic bishops in parliament
- North of England largely Catholic
- Puritans wanted extreme Protestantism
What was the Religious Settlement?
- A settlement to try and keep Catholics and Protestants happy
- Act of Supremacy passed
- Act of uniformity passed
- Royal injunction were a list of instructions on how the Act of Uniformity should look
What was the impact and challenges of the Religious Settlement?
- Puritans dislike the Catholic bits in the Church
- Recusants hated it as it was too Protestant
- Catholic bishops quit and had to be replaced by Puritan bishops
- Most ordinary people accepted it
- Elizabeth sent in inspectors to ensure Settlement was carried out
What other challenges were there to the Religious Settlement?
- Puritans got Elizabeth to remove crucifixes from the Church
- Puritans didn’t get Elizabeth to remove priest’s vestments or candles
- Pope ordered Catholics to not attend Elizabeth’s Churches
- Catholic Spain and France angered by settlement
What problem did Mary Queen of Scots pose?
- Catholics saw her as the legitimate heir to the English throne
- Mary wanted the English throne
- Scottish Protestant Lords wanted to execute her for possibly murdering her husband
- Mary showed guilt in the casket letters she wrote
- Elizabeth locked up Mary when she fled to England
- Elizabeth reluctant to execute Mary
Why did the Northern Earls revolt?
- Lost power under Elizabeth.
- Elizabeth used her ‘new men’ instead of them
- Most were Catholic
- Strict protestant telling them what to do
- Wanted to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne
- Elizabeth rejected their plan
What happened during the revolt and why was it significant?
- Elizabeth discovered the plot
- Elizabeth crushed the revolt
- One of the ringleaders was executed
- Elizabeth still wouldn’t execute Mary
- Pope issues Papal Bull leading to the plots
- Elizabeth now harsher to Catholics
What was the Ridolfi Plot? (1571)
- Ridolfi was a spy for the Pope
- Plot was to murder Elizabeth and replace with Mary
- Philip II of Spain was to send 10,000 men in support
- Plot was discovered
- Recusants to now be fined
- Mary still not executed
- Harsher punishments for Catholics
What was the Throckmorton Plot? (1583)
- Plan was to murder Elizabeth and replace with Mary.
- Plan made by the French Duke of Guise
- Plot named after person delivering
messages Francis Throckmorton - Pope supported and Philip II would offer finances
- Plot discovered and Throckmorton executed
- Elizabeth gets tougher on Catholics
- Mary still not executed
What happened during the Babington Plot? (1586)
- Plot was the same as the Throckmorton Plot
- Anthony Babington was the one delivering the messages
- Plot discovered and Babington executed
- Elizabeth now determined to remove Catholicism
- Mary finally executed for involvement in all plots