Elizabethan Government Flashcards
what was Elizabeth’s life like when Mary was queen?
Elizabeth’s life was in danger when Mary was queen beacuse of their religous differences. Elizabeth was accused of being involved in protestant plots but without enought evidence to prosectue her
was Elizabeth popular when she became Queen?
she was more popular than Mary ( mary was very hard on catholics she killed 300 of them) people hoped Elizabeth would be fairer
how did elizabeth gain power when she first became queen
she used portraits of herself at her corinated to be sent around the nation that made her look powerful and show people what she lokked like as a form of propgander
she used progresses and stayed at the houses of important nobel people wich was a great honour for thses people
what was the royal court?
place where Elizabeth stayed and all the important people including her ladies in waiting the privy council advisers and goverment officals
she used the power of patronage to give land and titles to people who impressed her indorder for people to be loyal to her this meant may formed rivalries ( such as william Cecil and Dudley) as everyone wanted to win elizabeth’s favour this meant no-one would every have enough power to challenge her
what was the role of the privy council?
a group of advisers and ministers appointed by the queen they were all part of the nobility or gentry they met two or three times a week at the beginning of her reign but this increased when she got sick towards the end and due to mary queen of scots fleeing to englAND
liz realy went to these meeting and did not have to take thier advice but she made sure she included a range of people in it for example puritains protestants however this meant they spent alot of time disagreeing thier main roles were to give elizabeth advice to help her come up with policies
to watch over the day to day running of the country
to consider ideas from private individuals
who was sir william cecil (burghly)
he was one of liz’s most trusted advisers and a moderate protestant. he was ecutary of state he was the link between elizabeth and parliament and later became in charge governemt fineances
who was robert dudley
one of eilzabeth’s closest friends from childhood and was even considered a sutor for her before his wife dies in suspicous circumstances
he was commander of the army he and cecil competed to try to win the Queen’s favour he was puritan
who was sir francsis walcingham
was well-educated and a purtain. was head of the secret service and had spies all over the country he uncovered the babington plot and and worked towards the excution of Mary Queen of Scots
who was Robert Cecil
william’s son he was trained to take over the secret service and was put incharge of secessuion and organised the take over of james V1
how did local government help Elizabeth rule.
travel and communications very slow and Elizabeth mainly stay in London so needed people she trusts to run the rest of the country .
who was the lord lieutenant
wealthy land owner often a privy councilour there was one for every county and would keep the queen up to date with what was happening in the area they were in charge of the local millitia and the justice’s of the peace
was considered a very important job
who was the sherriff
dealt with legal matters such as taking prisoners to court and collecting taxes their responsibilites decreased towards the end of liz’s reighn as most of their roles were moved to the jusitce’s of the peace
who were the justice’s of the peace?
carried out the day to day work of miantaing the law they were often wealthy and did the job for free beacuse the job made them powerful . they oversaw highways and helped give out relif to the poor and unemployed
what was the role of parliament?
only met when the queen told it to wich was only 14 times during elizabeth’s reign their main role was to collect taxes they allso passed act or parliament or or gave advice on key matters
what were the 2 houses of parliament
the house of lords and the house of commons the lords were not elected but were made up of powerful judges powerful lords bishop sand judges there were about 100 of them the house of commons was amde up of 450 mps who were lected by wealthy landowners and tened to be rich gentelmen the house of commons had very little freedom of speech liz decied she closed parliament if she didn’t like what they were talking about eg when she banned them from speaking about her marrige in 1571
how was parliament funded and the running of the counrty funded
Liz was expected to pay for the running of the country from their own funds wich came from rent from royal estets and from trade . when she needed money she called parliament to raise taxes from the people she did this at important times like during the spanish armada
what were the issues of marrige and succession?
Liz’s was cosntantly under pressure to get married and have a child many people belived that a woman couldn’t rule and needed a husband to rule for her epope worried if she died without a child it would cause civil war the priviy councy were very worried about the issue but liz avoided speaking about it. if she marreid someone from abord they could get too much influence if she married an english nobel person it woul danger thoes not chosen
there were also issues with relgion she had made england protestant so she could not marry a catholic .
she did not to give her power to her husband eilabeth turned down all potential sutors
why was the end of Elizabeth’s reign so differnt to the begining
mainly due to competing groups in court some of her key ministers died so she had to replace her turted ministers with new ones causing a change in the power dynamic in the pricy council some of the neww people were very ambitious and wnated to be close to the queen
outline the causes pf the essex rebellion.
robert cecil and robert devereux were teo new and ambitious members of the priv council who disagreed about many thing such as how to deal witj spain they caused two rival factions in the privy council wich lead to elizabth’s authority being undermind
essex was sent away to crush a rebellion in irland but failed and instead made peace left his post without permission then retruned to england he though cecil had been promoted so rushed into the queens bedchamber before she was robed and gowned so she put him under house arrest stripped off his public offices so his jobs and monoply on sweet wines were taken away meaning he stacked up depts
what were the evnts of the rebellion
he aimed to capture the queen and replace her advisers with his allies it failed in a couple hours due to lack of support from ordinary people he had originally gained 300 supporters ( made of forgeiner and ex-soilders) and he took 4 hostages from the privy council most of his supporters abandoned him when he got to london when he had expected people to join them and when the governemnt said they would ne pardoned so cecil said that they should go to esssex and surround him with her forces
essex was arrested and executed
rebellion lasted 12 hours
what were the results of the essex rebellion
it rpoved that elizabeth was still a popular ruler among the people but also shoed how her control of the nobels weakened at the end of her reign inseated of balancing out her rival groups she let cecil (Jr) get too powerful caused resentment towards him and all the fighted prevented important descions from being made
