elizabeth trouble at home and abroad Flashcards
aims of religious settlement
Elizabeth’s contradictory personal views perhaps help to explain the compromise
religion she came up with. Elizabeth’s aims were, however, more political than
religious. One aim was to heal divisions between Catholics and Protestants before
they led to unrest and civil war. This had happened in both Germany and France.
The country was very divided. Protestantism was quite strong in the south east of
England, but Catholicism was still very strong in the North and the West Country.
Another aim was to maximise her personal power and wealth by taking as much
control over the Church as she could. Obviously, this did not fit in with remaining
loyal to the Pope in Rome.
act of supremacy
In May 1559, the Act of Supremacy was passed. This dealt with Elizabeth’s
political aims regarding the Church. It re-established the break from Rome and an
independent Church of England. However, as a compromise, Elizabeth chose the
less controversial title of Supreme Governor rather than Supreme Head, which had
been used by her father and brother. She hoped this would pacify the Catholics who
still regarded the Pope as the ‘head’ of the Church. Elizabeth did, however, require
all members of the CLERGY to swear an oath of loyalty to her. The Act also stated that
the Church would keep its existing, pre-Reformation EPISCOPAL structure, with two
archbishops (at Canterbury and York) and various bishops below them helping
Elizabeth to govern the Church. This was a concession to the Catholics, as all the
European Protestant churches had got rid of this sort of hierarchy. The Court of High
Commission monitored people, and prosecuted those who seemed to be disloyal.
the act of uniformity
A second law was also passed in May 1559, the Act of Uniformity. This aimed to
end quarrels between Catholics and Protestants by making clear what the Anglican
Church believed in. It was followed by Royal Injunctions two months later, which
outlined 57 rules to be followed, and then the Thirty-Nine Articles in 1563.
The Church created was Protestant. A new Book of Common Prayer was issued,
which was moderately worded but contained radical Protestant ideas. Crucially, the
traditional Catholic Mass was abandoned. Also, the Bible was written in English,
services were held in English and the clergy were allowed to marry. Old Catholic
practices such as pilgrimages and saints’ images were banned.
However, the law did try to pacify English Catholics. For instance, although the
law declared that the altar should be replaced with a communion table, to please
the Catholics the law also stated that ornaments such as crosses and candles could
be placed on the table. Priests also had to wear traditional Catholic-style VESTMENTS
rather than the plain black ones worn by Protestants.
catholic opposition and elizabeth’s response
There were still plenty of Catholics in England. William Shakespeare, for example,
belonged to a Catholic family. Those Catholics unwilling to accept Elizabeth
as the Head of the Church who held public office (as MPs, IPs, judges, etc.) had
their positions taken away from them. Attendance at the Anglican Church was
made compulsory, but the Pope ordered English Catholics to not attend Anglican
services. RECUSANTS who followed the Pope’s orders were fined a shilling a week.
Attendance at Mass was also punished through fines, and anybody found guilty of
performing the ceremony of the Mass itself could face the death penalty.
In 1568, a school for training SEMINARY priests was founded by William Allen in
Douai in the Netherlands. The aim was to train English Catholics as missionaries
to go back to England and keep Catholicism alive. A year later, some leading
Catholic nobles, including the Dukes of Northumberland and Norfolk, led a
rebellion in the North, aiming to depose Elizabeth. The following year,
Pope Pius V EXCOMMUNICATED Elizabeth (see Source 4). This was very important, as
it said that Catholics no longer had to be loyal to the Queen and directly ordered
them to disobey her laws or be excommunicated themselves.
treason act
- As a result, Elizabeth was increasingly threatened by Catholic plots and
assassination attempts. In response, a new Treason Act was introduced in 1571.
This stated that denying Elizabeth’s supremacy and bringing the Pope’s BULL of
excommunication into England could both be punished by death. Also, anyone
who left the country for more than six months had their land confiscated. This was
an attempt to prevent English Catholics from going abroad to train as missionaries.
the jesuits
In 1572, the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France occurred. Thousands of
French Protestants were killed in mob violence that, it was believed, was brought
about by the Catholic government. Bloodshed in France and worsening relations
with Spain led to greater hatred and fear of Catholicism in England. From the
1580s, a new Catholic threat emerged that added to these feelings: the JEsUITS. This
was a religious group dedicated to serving the Pope. Jesuit priests had rigorous
training and were sent to England as educators. The idea was to gain influence
over rich and powerful families and to turn them against the Queen and the
Anglican Church. Once in England, they also helped to smuggle other priests into
the country. One of the first and most famous English Jesuit priests was Edmund
Campion. He was a brave and charismatic leader. When he arrived in 1580, he first
went to Lancashire, where Catholicism was strongest. Later he moved to London,
holding church services in the homes of important Catholic families.
All this had to be done secretly, with Campion wearing disguises and using ‘safe
houses’ to avoid arrest. The wealthy Anne Vaux and her sister Eleanor Brooksby
were both involved in renting houses across the country for the priests to use. Some
houses had so-called priest holes. These were cleverly concealed rooms and spaces
where priests could hide and where the illegal Mass could be celebrated. Nicholas
Owen, a Catholic carpenter, was particularly important in creating a network of
‘safe houses for priests to use.
repression of catholics
Increasingly worried by Catholic activity, the authorities introduced further
measures. In 1581 new laws were passed. The fine for recusancy was raised to £20
and any attempt to convert people to the Catholic faith was made a treasonable
offence. In 1585 Parliament passed another harsh law called the Act Against Jesuits
and Seminary Priests. This made becoming a priest TREASON, and all priests were
ordered to leave England within 40 days on pain of death.
The officials who raided the ‘safe houses’ were called PURSUIVANTS, and their
searches could last for up to a week and result in the houses being ripped apart.
The Jesuit Edmund Campion was caught within a year of his arrival. He was
successfully located by Walsingham’s spy network and taken to the Tower of
London. Campion was offered his freedom if he converted to Protestantism,
but he refused. Even when tortured on the rack, he denied any plotting against
Elizabeth, but was still executed for treason in 1581. Some were luckier. The priest-
hole builder Nicholas Owen helped to mastermind the escape of a Jesuit, John
Gerard, from the Tower of London in 1597.
Further force was used to control the Catholics in the 1590s. Large gatherings of
Catholics were made illegal in 1593 and Catholics’ freedom of movement was
restricted. They were allowed to travel no further than 5 miles from their homes.
the threat of catholics subside
By 1603, the government campaign against the Catholics had been largely
successful at wiping them out as a serious force. It is estimated that perhaps 10 per
cent of the population were Catholic sympathisers by the end of Elizabeth’s reign,
but only 2 per cent were actual recusants.
Not all of the credit for this, though, should be given to Elizabeth and her
government. The Pope, himself, was partially to blame for the collapse of English
Catholicism. He had forbidden Catholics to attend Church services, but few
people were rich enough to become recusants because of the fines imposed by
the government. Years later, the Pope annoyed English Catholics by appointing
a Jesuit, George Blackwell, as the ‘Archpriest’ of England, even though he was an
unpopular choice. The Pope and Spain had also encouraged plots and rebellions
against Elizabeth. Although most English Catholics did not involve themselves
in such activities, a few English Catholics did commit treason by plotting with
England’s enemies. This helped to reinforce the idea that Catholicism was
dangerous, unpatriotic and ‘foreign’.
puritan opposition and elizabeth’s response
It was not only Catholics who were unhappy with Elizabeth’s religious settlement.
Puritans were also dissatisfied with the compromise. For them, the old Roman
Catholic Church was corrupt and too many of its traditions were based on
superstition, not the Bible. They found the Catholic parts of Elizabeth’s ‘Middle
Way offensive. In particular, they were angry about the continued existence of
bishops and about the vestments worn by the Anglican clergy.
Like the Catholics, they became a particular problem for Elizabeth from the 1570s
onwards. There were many senior people at Court, in the Church and in Parliament
who were sympathetic to the Puritans. Even Elizabeth’s favourite, Robert Dudley,
was a Puritan. Influenced by CALVINIST ideas, which were becoming popular in
Scotland, Thomas Cartwright delivered a series of lectures at the University of
Cambridge in 1570. He called for the abolition of bishops. He also made no
mention of Elizabeth as ‘Supreme Governor. She was horrified at the suggestion
that the Church hierarchy should be removed, seeing the idea as being a dangerous
and revolutionary threat to her own authority.
rival for the throne- mary queen of scott’s
England had always had a difficult relationship with Scotland, but the situation
was further complicated because of Elizabeth’s refusal to marry. Elizabeth’s
childlessness meant that Mary was a potential heir to the English throne (see
Figure 11 on page 29 to understand Mary’s claim to the throne). Mary was keen
to assert her claim and therefore Elizabeth was deeply suspicious of her cousin.
Elizabeth had suggested that Mary marry her own favourite, Robert Dudley,
as a way of controlling the Scottish Queen. Mary instead took her own cousin
Lord Darnley as her second husband. Like Mary and Elizabeth, Darnley was also
descended from King Henry VI, and this marriage was designed to strengthen
Mary’s claims to the English throne. It infuriated Elizabeth.
Mary’s marriage to the violent and drunken Darnley was not a success. When he
was murdered, after less than two years, there was gossip that Mary had had a hand
in the crime. The rumours were strengthened still further when she promptly took
a third husband, Earl Bothwell. Bothwell was widely suspected of having arranged
Darnley’s murder. Civil war broke out in Scotland. Mary was forced to ABDICATE in
favour of her infant son.
mary queen of scot’s comes to england
She quickly escaped captivity at Loch Leven in Scotland and fled to England,
arriving, disguised, in a fishing boat at Workington in Cumberland in May 1568.
Mary might have been Elizabeth’s cousin, but her arrival on English soil was
unwelcome news to Elizabeth. Mary was pro-French, a Catholic and a potential
heir. Those who questioned Elizabeth’s legitimacy even considered Mary to be the
rightful Queen of England. Elizabeth certainly did not want such a threat at her
Court. She was afraid that Mary could act as a focus for Catholic resistance. She was
quickly moved, firstly to Carlisle Castle and then Bolton Castle. Elizabeth chose to
keep Mary under HOUSE ARREST far away in the North and the Midlands, in isolated
locations far from the coast, and from London and Scotland. In this way she hoped
to limit any threat that Mary might pose.
the northern rebellion
- Mary, Queen of Scots’ arrival in England triggered a Catholic rebellion. This plot
started as a Court CONSPIRACY. The Duke of Norfolk played a central role. He was the
most senior English noble, the wealthiest landowner in the country, and a cousin
of the Queen. He resented William Cecil’s power as Elizabeth’s chief minister
and was frustrated, feeling that his political talents were under-rated by Elizabeth
and her regime. He was also a Catholic sympathiser and disapproved of Cecil’s
unfriendly policies towards Spain. Norfolk planned to marry Mary and set her up
as Elizabeth’s heir as a way of gaining greater influence himself and weakening
Cecil’s position. At this stage, there was no plan to actually remove Elizabeth as
Queen. He enlisted the help of a number of courtiers, including two of Elizabeth’s
councillors. One of these was Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. Surprisingly, the other was Elizabeth’s favourite, the Puritan Robert Dudley (the
Earl of Leicester). Dudley was also keen to reduce Cecil’s power. However, the guilt-
stricken Dudley soon confessed all to the Queen and Cecil. Once Dudley had ‘let
the cat out of the bag, Norfolk fled Court. When he was captured and imprisoned,
Norfolk begged for Elizabeth’s forgiveness.
northern rebellion- rebel success
Although Norfolk had ordered his fellow conspirators not to carry out a rebellion
once the plot was uncovered, there were still rumours that an uprising was
planned. Elizabeth therefore decided to summon the Earl of Northumberland and
the Earl of Westmorland to Court. They were both Catholics and she suspected
them of disloyalty. Elizabeth’s action was miscalculated, actually pushing the earls
into rebellion. On 9 November 1569, the two earls joined forces at Brancepeth
Castle and church bells rang out to call people to rebel. The rising involved nearly
5000 rebels who moved through the north of England. They illegally heard Mass
in Durham Cathedral on 14 November. They then headed further south, and soon
most of the land east of the Pennines was in rebel hands. The Earl of Sussex, the
President of the Council of the North, struggled to raise an army on Elizabeth’s
behalf to deal with the rebellion. By December, the rebels had captured Barnard
Castle. They also captured the port of Hartlepool on the east coast, where they
were expecting help to arrive from Spain as promised by the Spanish AMBASSADOR,
de Spes. The situation seemed very serious indeed.
the northern rebellion collapses
However, such international help never appeared. The Spanish were fellow
Catholics but were not too keen on the pro-French Mary Stuart. In fact, the whole
affair was poorly planned by the earls, who never reached the South. They had
not properly mobilised their forces and they had no coherent strategy. The vast
majority of English Catholics and most of the nobility remained loyal to Elizabeth.
Crucially, the Pope had not yet issued the BULL excommunicating Elizabeth. Had
this already happened, English Catholics might have been more willing to get
involved in the Rebellion. Key northern towns - Berwick, Pontefract and York
- were held by the government. As the royal army moved north, rumours of its
strength encouraged the rebels to retreat. After a short battle, the earls crossed the
border into Scotland on 19 December.
the ridolfi plot
- Roberto di Ridolfi was a Catholic Italian banker from Florence who lived in
London. This plot was again an attempt to restore Catholicism in England. It
involved the Queen of Scots, the Pope, Philip Il of Spain and the Duke of Norfolk.
This time, the plan was far more dangerous. Elizabeth had been excommunicated
by the Pope in 1570, so the English Catholics were now free to rebel against their
Queen. The plan was simple: for Elizabeth to be assassinated and replaced as
monarch by Mary, Queen of Scots. The idea was for around 6000 Spanish troops to
land at Harwich in Essex, led by the Duke of Alba. Their arrival, it was hoped, would prompt a rebellion. Ridolfi optimistically
calculated that about half of the English nobles were Catholic and that when they
rebelled they would be able to assemble nearly 40,000 men. Once Elizabeth had
been murdered, the plan was for Mary to marry the Duke of Norfolk. In prison,
Mary was desperate for her freedom, and had lost all hope of Elizabeth helping her
to return to either France or Scotland. Norfolk, recently released from prison, was
keen to regain power after his disgrace. Both Mary and Norfolk therefore agreed to
the plot.
