key profiles

Question 1

Sir Robert Cecil
1563-1612

Answer 1

• Only son of Lord Burghley (William Cecil)
• Groomed for high office by his father
• Became member of the Privy Council in 1593
• Appointed secretary of state in 1596

Question 2

Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex
1566-1601

Answer 2

• Stepson of the Earl of Leicester (Robert Dudley)
• Active in military service of the Crown
• Lost favour following failure of mission in Ireland, responding to situation with a ‘rebellion’ in 1601
• Executed for treason

Question 3

Lady Catherine Grey
1540-68

Answer 3

• Sister of Jane Grey and therefore granddaughter of Henry VIII’s sister Mary
• According to terms of Henry VIII’s will she was Elizabeth’s heir presumptive, conveniently a Protestant
• Disgraced herself through secret marriage to the Earl of Hertford, couple imprisoned in the Tower by Elizabeth
• Marriage was annulled in 1562

Question 4

Francois, Duke of Alencon and Anjou
1555-84

Answer 4

• Younger brother and heir presumptive of Henry III of France

Question 5

James VI
1566-1625

Answer 5

• Baby when he succeeded the Scottish throne
• Mother, Mary Queen of Scots, fled to England leaving him to be King
• Brought up as a Protestant, a vital factor in his candidature for succession of England by Elizabeth’s councillors

Question 6

Sir Francis Walsingham
c1532-90

Answer 6

• Cambridge educated lawyer who began his royal career as a diplomat
• Promoted to secretary in 1573 when he joined the Council
• Concerned principally with diplomacy and espionage
• Fervent Protestant who enjoyed close connections with those who shared his views

Question 7

Sir John Hawkins
1532-95

Answer 7

• Merchant and ship owner from Plymouth
• Career benefitted from marriage to daughter of naval treasurer, Benjamin Gonson, whom he succeeded in office
• A privateer and slave trader
• Served with distinction against the Armada

Question 8

Walter Raleigh
1552-1618

Answer 8

• Ambitious though unpopular + ineffective courtier
• Attempt to establish a colony on the North American mainland failed, as did his attempts to find treasure in South America
• Reputed to have introduced both the potato and tobacco to Europe
• Completely lost favour under James and was imprisoned and executed

Question 9

Thomas Cartwright
c1535-1603

Answer 9

• Professor of Divinity at Cambridge
• Forced out of post by John Whitgift
• Spiritual leader of the Presbyterian movement

Question 10

John Dowland
1563-1626

Answer 10

• Specialty was the solo voice accompanied by the lute
• Emphasis in songs on the fashionable late 16th century theme of melancholia
• Popular in elite circles because of the link made in the Renaissance between melancholia and artistic or literary pretensions