Elizabeth I: character and aims Flashcards
Elizabeth’s early life…
Elizabeth ascended to the throne at age 25 and was well-educated. Her brief (and likely abusive) relationship with Thomas Seymour has been considered a factor in why she never married.
Elizabeth’s political skills…
Elizabeth showed the development of her political skills as a result of each of these developments. Her succinct dismissal of the executed Thomas Seymour as a man of much wit but little judgement showed that she had learnt from the temporary disgrace of their relationship. Her clear-headedness under interrogation and marking a letter to her half-sister Queen Mary with diagonal lines so that it couldn’t be doctored were remarkable for someone aged only 20.
Elizabeth clearly believed that she was entitled to rule the kingdom directly, and from the start of her reign it was clear who was in charge. In December 1558, the Spanish ambassador, the Count of Feria, noted that Elizabeth was more feared than her sister had been and gave orders ‘as absolutely as her father did’. Moreover, she readily invoked her father’s memory, telling Parliament in 1559 that ‘we hope to rule, govern and keep this our realm in good justice, peace and rest, in like wise as the king my father held you in’.
Elizabeth insisted on taking the most important decisions…
Elizabeth had no desire to involve herself in the details of government in the manner of her grandfather, Henry VII. However, she took an informed interest in the decision-making process. Most importantly, she was determined to preserve the prerogative powers of the Crown, which meant that she insisted on taking the most important decisions.
Elizabeth’s key short-term aims…
> to consolidate her position
> to settle religious issues
> to pursue a peaceful settlement with the French
Elizabeth I’s consolidation of power…
Within a few hours of Mary I’s death in November 1558, Sir William Cecil had ridden the 16 miles north to Hatfield to tell Elizabeth that her long-awaited accession had arrived.
Mary I’s councillors were only too well aware that Elizabeth did not share their religious views; many of them guessed that their political careers were over. However, they made no attempt to interfere with the lawful succession as defined by Henry VIII. In any case, Mary had recognised her as her successor and her husband Philip had signified his recognition of Elizabeth’s right of succession when he sent his envoy, the Count of Feria, to see Elizabeth a month before Mary’s death.
Elizabeth’s difficult succession…
England had suffered a series of bad harvests, hence food was scarce and expensive. Moreover, the country had suffered grievously from the ravages of a flu epidemic. The political and religious situations were delicate. England had fought a disastrous war against France (resulting in the loss of Calais). The question of the queen’s marriage had become the subject of endless speculation. Finally, it was evident that there would be changes to the Catholic faith, as re-established by Queen Mary.
Key features to Elizabeth’s consolidation of power…
> Her path to power was eased by the acceptance of her succession by Mary’s key councillors. On the morning of 17-11-1558, Nicholas Heath, Mary’s Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York, announced Mary’s death to Parliament and proclaimed Elizabeth’s succession. Legally, he had no right to do so; Mary’s death should, in law, have brought about the immediate dissolution of Parliament. Politically, however, it was a significant move because it showed that the political elite of the nation collectively assented to Elizabeth’s accession. Within a couple of days, nine of Mary’s councillors rode to Hatfield to assure Elizabeth of their loyalty. There would therefore be no attempt to deny Elizabeth’s succession by devout Catholics who had never accepted the validity of her father’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.
> William Cecil was appointed principal secretary. Their political partnership would last for almost 40 years. Elizabeth also made some household appointments. At this stage, however, she did not announce any further appointments. It certainly made political sense for her to keep Mary’s councillors guessing about her intentions and speculating about their chances of retaining some measure of royal favour.
> Elizabeth showed herself familiar with the customs associated with monarchs who had newly acceded to the throne by taking herself to the Tower, from which she emerged on several occasions to show herself to her new subjects and to benefit from pageants which were organised on her behalf by the City of London.
> Elizabeth also proceeded quickly (within 2 months) to her coronation. On the basis of astrological advice, the chosen date was January 15.
> Elizabeth gained some measure of international confirmation. The Spanish ambassador, the Count of Feria, had already visited Elizabeth several days before Mary’s death and after her accession tried to broker a marriage alliance between Elizabeth and Philip II. Nothing came of that, but it did demonstrate that Philip was unwilling to do anything to disrupt the smoothness of Elizabeth’s succession.
The Elizabethan religious settlement…
Order of the major priorities of the new Elizabethan regime was to decide on the form of religion the country would experience. There were two key aspects to this: > the legal status of the Church; > the liturgical books to be used in church services.
The legal status of the Church had not been altered with the death of Mary. Until the law could be changed, the English Church remained part of the Catholic Church of Rome. There was never any doubt that this relationship would be severed and that the Church of England would be reinstated as as an established Church with the monarch as its head.
What would the nature of the established Church be?…
> Essentially an ‘Anglo-Catholic’ Church, in other words a Church whose doctrines and practices remained essentially Catholic even though it had rejected papal supremacy?
> An apparently moderate Protestant Church similar to that implied by the Act of Uniformity of 1549?
> A more tactically evangelical Church as implied by the Act of Uniformity of 1552?
Middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism…
The Elizabethan settlement of 1559 created, in practice, a middle way between Catholicism and Protestantism. It was established through two Acts of Parliament (the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity), the issue of a set of royal injunctions to enforce the Acts, and to meet liturgical needs, the publication of a new Book of Common Prayer. In addition, although not part of the original settlement of 1559, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were introduced in 1563.
Act of Supremacy 1559
This Act restored in law the royal supremacy in the Church, which had been established under Henry VIII and then removed under Mary I.
> The papal supremacy, which had been restored by statute law under Mary, was rejected.
> The Reformation legislation of Henry VIII’s reign was restored.
> The heresy law revived under Mary was repealed.
> The powers of royal visitation of the Church, as enjoyed by Henry VIII, were revived. This allowed the Crown to appoint commissioners to ‘visit, reform, order, correct and amend all such errors, heresies and abuses’. (This gave huge amounts of potential power to the commissioners, not least because it did not define the ‘heresies’ against which they might take action.)
> The Act described the queen as ‘supreme governor’ rather than as ‘supreme head’ of the Church of England as her father had been.
> An oath of supremacy was to be taken by clergymen and church officials; there were penalties for refusing to do so. (Most of the Marian bishops felt unable to take the oath of supremacy and were deprived of their posts.)
The Act therefore restored the legal position of the Crown in relation to the Church which had been first established in the reign of Henry VIII. It gave legislative authority for the Crown to act in matters relating to the Church.
Act of Uniformity 1559
The Act specified the use of a single Book of Common Prayer, which was a modified version of the second and strongly Protestant book that Cranmer had introduced in 1552. The two modifications were that:
> Variations in Eucharistic belief were possible in that both the 1549 wording, which even the conservative Bishop Gardiner felt able to accept at the time, and the 1552 wording derived from the beliefs of the Swiss reformer Zwingli were permitted.
> The ‘Black Rubric’, which had been included in the 1552 Prayer Book to explain away the practice of kneeling at the administration of the Eucharist, was omitted.
The Act specified that ‘such ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof’ should be those that were in place during the 2nd year of Edward IV’s reign, in other words, before the passing of the 1549 Act of Uniformity, which was passed during the 3rd year of the reign. This would subsequently become an issue of contention.
Many returning Protestant exiles, including some of the new bishops appointed by Elizabeth, simply assumed that this dating was an error and did not expect the clause to be enforced, particularly in relation to the dress of clergymen. This would cause problems because many Calvinist clergy saw the ‘ornaments’ as ‘Popish’ and therefore objected strongly to them.
Royal Injunctions 1559
These were a set of injunctions about the conduct of church services and government of the Church issued in the queen’s name as supreme governor. On three previous occasions (1536, 1538 and 1547), royal injunctions had been used by the Crown as a mechanism for imposing its will in relation to church pracitces.
First injunction…
The first injunction made clear their Protestant character. It emphasised ‘the suppression of superstition’ (i.e. Catholic practices) and the need ‘to plant true religion to the extirpation of all hypocrisy, enormities, and abuses’.
The Eucharist…
These injunctions emphasised that the Eucharist be administered at a simple Communion table rather than at the altar, which was a clear signal that religious practice should move in the direction of reform.
They called for the removal from the churches of ‘things superstitious’. Such traditional Catholic practices as pilgrimages and the use of candles were described as ‘works devised by man’s fantasies’. In other words, the injunctions, like those of 1547, were drafted in a way which intended that they were to be an attack on traditional Catholic practices.
