Elizabeth I - Foreign Affairs

Question 1

Who were Elizabeth’s suitors at the beginning of her reign?

Answer 1

Robert Dudley - this horrified Cecil + mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his first wife, Amy.
Philip of Spain - this was a polite gesture and lacked serious intent
Archdukes Ferdinando and Charles - they were both Catholic
Prince Erik of Sweden - a protestant suitor to whom Elizabeth gave little encouragement.

Question 2

Who was expelled from the presence chamber?

Answer 2

Leicester and the Earl of Pembroke after they pressed her to marry in 1566

Question 3

Who was Elizabeth’s successor?

Answer 3

She never formally named a successor but Mary’s son James I had the best claim. He was protestant anby 1600 already had two sons. Elizabeth’s councillors began wooing James even before her death in 1603.

Question 4

What was the Ridolfi plot?

Answer 4

1571 - involved a conspiracy for Mary to marry the Duke of Norfolk and overthrow Elizabeth. This allowed Burghley to ensure the execution of Norfolk for treason.

Question 5

What was the Throckmorton plot?

Answer 5

1583 - foreign landing in Sussex followed by overthrow of Elizabeth and her replacement by Mary. Foiled by the efficiency of Walsingham ‘s espionage network.
Led to the creation of the Bond of Association. Worsened Anglo-Spanish relation.
Tightened conditions of Mary’s captivity.

Question 6

What was the Parry plot?

Answer 6

1585 - plot to assassinate the queen. Led to the acceleration of parliamentary proceedings on a bill to ensure the queen’s safety.

Question 7

What was the Babington plot?

Answer 7

1586 - Mary complicit in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth but exposed by Walsingham’s codebreaker, Thomas Phelippes.
Enabled Burghley to secure Mary’s execution.

Question 8

When did Elizabeth sign Mary’s death warrant?

Answer 8

1 February 1587

Question 9

What was the effect of the trading activity by John Hawkins?

Answer 9

Hawkins attempted to break the Spanish trading monopoly in the Caribbean. In September 1568 his fleet was blockade in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua and only two of his ships were able to escape. He lost four ships and 100 men.

Question 10

How did the situation in the Netherlands harm relations in the 1560s with the Spanish?

Answer 10

Philip II wanted a tighter form of political organisation in the Netherlands under more direct Spanish control, which would help to route out heresy. Elizabeth came under pressure to aid Dutch protestants. She was reluctant to take action and had qualms about aiding rebels who were fighting against sovereign authority.

Question 11

How did England find ways to harass the Spanish in the 1560s?

Answer 11

November 1568 - a storm forced several Spanish vessels, carrying 400,000 florins which was intended to pay the army of the Duke of Alba, to seek shelter in English ports. Elizabeth impounded the money which led Alba to seize English ships and property in the Netherlands
Alva placed an embargo in all English property in the Netherlands and trade between England and Spain stops

Question 12

When did Elizabeth expel the sea beggars?

Answer 12

1572 - they were forced to land in the Dutch port of Brielle and their occupation of the port, unchecked by the Spanish garrison there, sparked off a fule scale revolt against the rule of Spain.

Question 13

When did all the provinces in the Netherlands rise up against Spain?

Answer 13

1576 - collectively they produced the Pacific action of Ghent, which called for the expulsion of all foreign troops and the restoration of the provinces authority, a situation favoured by Elizabeth

Question 14

How did the situation in the Netherlands get worse?

Answer 14

Provinces quarrelled amongst themselves and the French were prepared to invade the Netherlands. This was not what Elizabeth had hoped for and she even contemplated marriage to a French Duke of Anjou to retain English influence in the Netherlands.

Question 15

What divisions were there in the Netherlands in the 1570s?

Answer 15

The Union of Utrecht (largely northern and protestant) and the Union of Arras (largely southern and Catholic). The Spanish made their peace with the Union of Arras, creating the basis by which the new governor-general, the Duke of Parma, could begin his reconquest of the northern provinces. In 1580, Spanish power was strengthened by the annexation of Portugal.

Question 16

What overtly anti-Spanish position did Elizabeth develop?

Answer 16

Supporting the Portuguese pretender, Don Antonio
Knighting Francis Drake on circumnavigating the globe irritating the Spanish hugely in the process
Treating the spanish ambassador contemptuously

Question 17

How did the situation in the Netherlands deteriorate in the 1580s?

Answer 17

Parma’s reconquest of the north gained momentum, leaving only the provinces of Holland and Zeeland in Protestant hands. To make matters worse, the rebel leader, William of Orange, was assassinated in 1584

Question 18

What was the Spanish treaty with the Catholic Holy League in France?

Answer 18

Treaty of Joinville at the end of 1584. This alarmed Elizabeth because the Guise family led the Catholic league and with the Guises as his allies, Philip no longer had a political motive to stop him from supporting Mary Queen of Scots

Question 19

What alliance did Elizabeth make with the Dutch Protestant rebels after the treaty of Joinville?

Answer 19

Treaty of Nonsuch in 1585 - sent troops to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester.

Question 20

What were the limitations of the treaty of Nonsuch?

Answer 20

The troops, badly and irregularly paid, were so ill disciplined that they alienated the Dutch
The Dutch felt betrayed when two officers, William Stanley and Rowland Yorke, deserted and joined Parma.
The English commanders quarrelled among themselves
Leicester quarrelled with the Dutch - the Dutch thought Elizabeth was trying to do a deal behind their backs with Parma

Question 21

When did Leicester resign his command of the troops in the Netherlands?

Answer 21

January 1588. The fiasco encouraged Philip to think that he could exploit the divisions between the English and the Dutch

Question 22

Spanish Armada set up?

Answer 22

Philip had convinced himself that he was engaged in a Catholic crusade. The fleet was huge and many of the vessels were commandeered by the Portuguese. The sailing of the Armada was delayed as a result of the successful English attack on Spanish ships at the harbour of Cadiz in April 1587.

Question 23

What happened in the Spanish Armada?

Answer 23

Set sail from La Coruna on 22 July 1588. Its objective was to reach the port of Gravelines in the Spanish Netherlands, where it was intended that the Spanish army, commanded by the Duke of Parma, would board the ships. It was sighted off the coast of Cornwall on 29th July and was engaged in an indecisive battle in the English channel from 30 July to 6 August. In the end the Armada was forced because of unfavourable winds to try to return to Spain by the hazardous route of sailing north towards Scotland then back south to the west of Ireland. This cost them many more ships that were lost in storms.

Question 24

Why was the Armada defeated?

Answer 24

The strategy which required the fleet to land in the Spanish Netherlands so that Parma’s army could be taken on board was flawed
The Armada’s leadership by the Duke of Medina Sidonia might be questioned
The English were quick to exploit the opportunities offered by the vagaries of the weather by sending fireships to destroy some of the Armada while at anchor
The English also benefited from superior gunnery and manoeuvrability, and the ‘Protestant wind’

Question 25

What fronts was the war fought on from 1588 to 1604?

Answer 25

At sea off western Europe
In the Caribbean
On land in France, the Netherlands and Ireland

Question 26

What successes were there in the 1580s?

Answer 26

England has enjoyed success with small-scale naval attacks in the Caribbean and on mainland Spain in 1585 and 1587

Question 27

What were the English attacks on mainland Spain?

Answer 27

From 1595 there were three attacks. Spectacular and short-lived victory in the capture and occupation of Cadiz and the sinking of four galleons, however there was no strategic follow up. Hawkins and Drake advocated for an attack on Panama but the attack failed and they both died at sea.

Question 28

How did Philip II respond to the capture of Cadiz?

Answer 28

1596 he ordered a fleet to invade England. However by the time it set sail it was Autumn and was defeated by storms

Question 29

How did the Spanish try to exploit the rebellion in Ireland?

Answer 29

To prevent a possible Spanish attack on Ireland, a fleet under the Earl of Essex was dispatched to attack the Spanish fleet in harbour in north west Spain in 1597. Essex’s fleet was driven back to Plymouth by adverse winds. It was eventually used to set sail to the Azores, suggesting that the need for booty had once again superseded the wider strategic considerations. The Spanish fleet succeeded in setting sail for Ireland, but if it weren’t for the wind, they would have landed unopposed there.

Question 30

Was there further invasions from spain at the end of the reign?

Answer 30

Further fear of invasion in 1599, prompted entirely by false intelligence, created a huge panic in England. Naval activity was directed entirely by the need to prevent Spanish landings in Ireland. In the end, little had been achieved at a great cost.

Question 31

What was England’s relationship with Spain like in the early 1560s?

Answer 31

1562 - it was based off the cloth trade in the Netherlands and mutual fear of France, but this begins to decline over Philip’s tendency to govern the Netherland’s as a province of Spain and bypassing its council of state.

Question 32

When was the trade embargo between England and the Netherlands?

Answer 32

1563

Question 33

Treaty between England and France in the 1570s?

Answer 33

1572 - mutual defence treaty, the Treaty of Blois

Question 34

When was the restoration of trade between England and the Netherlands?

Answer 34

1573 after negotiations with Alva

Question 35

When was the treaty of Blois renewed?

Answer 35

1574

Question 36

When was the Catholic league formed?

Answer 36

Formed by Henry, Duke of Guise to prevent the Protestant Henry of Navarre becoming king of France, and signs a secret treaty with Spain in which the two agree to drive protestantism out of France and the Netherlands

Question 37

Defence treaty between England and Scotland?

Answer 37

Treaty of Berwick in 1586, which guarantees James an English pension of £4000 per annum

Question 38

What happened with the Holy League?

Answer 38

Henry of Navarre became king of France in 1589 as Henry IV. This leads to the renewal of the civil war as the Catholic turns against him. Elizabeth sends a small party to support Henry under Willoughby.
Henry IV defeats the Catholic league at the battle of Ivry and advances on Paris in 1590
1593 - Henry IV converts to Catholicism and makes his peace with the Catholic league.

Question 39

How did the relationship between the English and the Dutch improve after 1588?

Answer 39

1589 - Sir Francis Vere was made the commander of the English forces and proved highly capable. He forged a positive relationship with the Dutch leader, Maurice of Nassau. Combined with the troubles faced by the Spanish whose troops mutinied on a regular basis, this ensured that the territories that had been lost to the Duke of Parma were restored

Question 40

What was the outcome of the war in the Netherlands?

Answer 40

By 1594 the Spanish had been expelled from all lands of the northern Netherlands. The Dutch revolt had proved successful and some of the credit was due to the English crown. The northern Netherlands became an independent state. The southern Netherlands, while remaining under Spanish sovereignty, also achieved a degree of autonomy.