Privy Council Flashcards
Function
Decision making and formation of policy
Size
Inner ring of 5
Larger body of 15-20
Consequences of size
When it worked well it was exceptional - efficiency
Any factional conflict was particularly destabilising
Influence on ambassadors; bias and distortion of events for personal views
Cecil, Walshingham
Pushed for intervention in Scotland leading to Treaty of Berwick and favourable Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560
Cecil
Disobedience in the Netherlands
Leicester, 1581
Influence on parliament
Business prepared by Privy Council in advance of session
Acted as pressure group: Succession 1563, 1566-67; Mary, Queen of Scots 1571, 1584-5, 1586-87: Hatton, 1585
‘Men of Business’
Control and influence of commons of Cecil after 1671 (peerage) e.g. Thomas Norton
EI well served?
Obedience or initiative?
Realising aims even if against EI’s wishes for broader national advantage - yes
Conciliar division, 1570s 80s
Hapsburg matrimonial negotiations, Archduke Charles of Austria, 1567: criticised by Protestants, Leicester due to religion; supported by conservatives to retain Burgundian alliance, Cecil
Scotland, 1559: 4/5 opposed intervention – all previously members of MI’s council
The Netherlands, 1578: divided council for 7 years: Leicester, Walsingham for intervention; Burghley urged caution. Some sent, 1585
Conciliar division, 1570s 80s
Traditional
John Neale, Conyers Read: EI “mistress of faction”: encouraged, created and manipulated factions to give a choice of ministers and policies
Conciliar division, 1570s 80s
Revisionist
Simon Adams: factional rivalry not at the centre of the Privy Council – no real factional clashes; more united than divided
Reactive to events: not possible to pre-plan
Power struggle between Burghley and Leicester limited by similar outlook in religion; agreement on most matters of state
Conciliar division/ faction, 1590s
Foreign policy, 1593, 1596: Essex for aggressive foreign policy, Protestant coalition against Catholicism; contested by Cecil for maritime policy
Essex seeks political appointments for friends e.g. office of Attorney General for Sir Francis Bacon; devastated by EI refusal, 1596
The Essex Rebellion, 1601: gains support by raising anti-Cecil feeling
Conciliar division/ faction, 1590s
Traditional
John Neale: 1570s and 80s period of Elizabethan stability
1590s: ageing Elizabeth losing political skill and unable to deal with the ambition of Essex
Essex coup a serious threat; lucky to have remained unharmed by events
Conciliar division/ faction, 1590s
Revisionist
Michael Graves: Idea of a golden period of stability in the 1570s and 80s over exaggerated
Instability of 1590s over exaggerated: gentry not split at large between pro-Cecil and pro-Essex factions
Essex’s following large but not enough for armed rising
