Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen"

Elizabeth I reigned from 1558 to 1603. She was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and a Protestant queen ruling a country still deeply divided over religion.

• She never married, becoming known as the "Virgin Queen" — which created a serious succession problem (no direct heir).
• She was clever, well-educated and skilled at managing powerful men and Parliament.
• Our study begins in c1568, by which point her reign faced growing threats at home and abroad.

Why not marry? Marriage risked handing power to a husband (especially a foreign or Catholic one) and taking sides in Europe. Staying single kept Elizabeth in control — but left England without a clear heir.

How Elizabeth ruled

Elizabeth governed through her Court and her advisers. Power flowed from the queen's favour (patronage), and she balanced ambitious rivals against each other.

William Cecil (Lord Burghley) was her most trusted adviser for decades; Sir Francis Walsingham ran a network of spies that would later trap Mary Queen of Scots.

Who was the spymaster?

The Religious Settlement, 1559

When Elizabeth came to the throne, England was split between Catholics and Protestants. Her Religious Settlement of 1559 aimed to unite the country with a compromise — a "middle way" (via media).

• Act of Supremacy — made Elizabeth "Supreme Governor" of the Church of England (a careful title, softer than "Head").
• Act of Uniformity — set out how church services should run, including one Book of Common Prayer in English.
• Fines for people who did not attend church (recusants) — but at first these were light.

Middle way: the settlement kept some traditional features to please moderate Catholics, while being firmly Protestant in doctrine — hoping most people could go along with it.

Squeezed from both sides

The middle way was attacked from both directions — by Catholics who wanted the old faith back, and by Puritans who wanted a "purer", more fully Protestant church.

• Catholic threat: in 1570 the Pope issued a Papal Bull excommunicating Elizabeth and freeing Catholics from obedience to her. Catholic missionaries and Jesuits came to England; harsher laws followed.
• Puritan challenge: Puritans thought the settlement was still too Catholic — too much ceremony, bishops and decoration. They pushed for further reform.

Misconception alert: the Papal Bull of 1570 made loyalty look like a choice between queen and Pope — it turned English Catholics from a tolerated minority into a suspected threat.

Elizabeth's church title

Mary flees to England

In 1568 Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic, was forced out of Scotland and fled to England seeking Elizabeth's help. This created a huge problem.

• Mary had a strong claim to the English throne and was a natural figurehead for Catholics who wanted to overthrow Elizabeth.
• Rather than help or free her, Elizabeth kept Mary in captivity in England for about 19 years.

Mary was both a danger and a dilemma: executing an anointed fellow queen was shocking, but leaving her alive gave every Catholic plot a ready-made replacement for Elizabeth.

Why was Mary a threat?

Plots to make Mary queen

While Mary lived, a series of Catholic plots tried to overthrow Elizabeth and put Mary on the throne. Walsingham's spies uncovered them one by one:

The Babington Plot (1586) was the fatal one: Walsingham intercepted coded letters proving Mary approved a plan to murder Elizabeth. There was finally enough evidence to put Mary on trial.

The execution of Mary

The Babington Plot sealed Mary's fate. After a trial, Parliament and advisers pressed Elizabeth to act, though she hesitated to kill a fellow anointed queen.

• Mary was executed on 8 February 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle.
• Her death removed the Catholic figurehead in England — but it enraged Catholic Europe.
• It gave Philip II of Spain another reason to attack England, feeding into the Armada of 1588.

Consequence: executing Mary solved one problem (the plots) but helped trigger another (the Spanish Armada). Elizabeth even claimed she had not truly meant the order to be carried out.

When was Mary executed?

Why Philip II attacked, 1588

In 1588 Philip II of Spain sent a great fleet — the Spanish Armada — to invade England and overthrow Elizabeth. He had several reasons:

• Religion — Philip, a devout Catholic, wanted to end Protestant rule in England.
• Piracy — English "sea dogs" like Drake had been raiding Spanish ships and treasure.
• The Netherlands — Elizabeth was helping Dutch Protestant rebels against Spanish rule.
• The execution of Mary (1587) was the final provocation.

How the Armada failed

Despite its size, the Armada was defeated. A mix of English tactics, poor Spanish planning and the weather saved England.

• English fireships at Calais scattered the anchored Spanish fleet.
• At the Battle of Gravelines, faster English ships and better guns did damage.
• Storms — the "Protestant Wind" — wrecked many ships as they fled home around Scotland and Ireland.

Defeating the Armada

Sailors, voyages and the New World

The Elizabethan age is often called a "golden age" of exploration. English sailors sailed further than ever, seeking trade, treasure and new lands.

• Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe (sailed all the way around the world) between 1577 and 1580 — the first Englishman to do so.
• Sir Walter Raleigh promoted the attempted Roanoke / Virginia colony in North America from 1585 (it failed).
• John Hawkins and others grew rich from trade and privateering (state-approved raiding of Spanish ships).

Why it mattered: voyages brought wealth and prestige, but also worsened rivalry with Spain — Drake's raids were exactly the kind of piracy that pushed Philip II towards the Armada.

Theatre and the Renaissance

The golden age was cultural as well as maritime. The English Renaissance brought new art, learning and, above all, theatre.

• Playwrights like William Shakespeare wrote for a growing London audience.
• Purpose-built playhouses appeared — the famous Globe theatre opened in 1599.
• The theatre was hugely popular with rich and poor alike — though some Puritans disapproved of it.

Grand houses, fashion and portraits (including of Elizabeth herself) all helped project the image of a confident, successful reign.

First round the world

Why poverty grew

Behind the "golden age" glamour lay real hardship. Poverty rose sharply during Elizabeth's reign for several reasons:

• Population growth — more people meant more mouths and lower wages.
• Enclosure — landowners fenced off common land for sheep, pushing farmers off the land.
• Bad harvests and rising prices (inflation) made food dearer.
• The earlier closure of the monasteries had removed a source of charity for the poor.

Poverty frightened the authorities: crowds of jobless, wandering poor were seen as a threat to order — and a possible source of rebellion.

Deserving, undeserving and the Poor Law

Elizabethans divided the poor into two groups, and this shaped how they were treated:

The government slowly built a national system. The famous 1601 Poor Law (the "Elizabethan Poor Law") made each parish responsible for its own poor, funded by a local tax — a landmark that lasted for centuries.

Person / event ↔ significance

Tap a person or event on the left, then tap its role or significance on the right.

The Poor Law of 1601

Name the wandering poor

The fall of the Earl of Essex

Elizabeth's later years brought fresh difficulties at court. Her one-time favourite, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, fell out of favour after failing in Ireland.

• In 1601 Essex led a rebellion in London, trying to seize power and influence the queen.
• The rising quickly collapsed; Essex was arrested, tried and executed.

The Essex rebellion showed the strains of Elizabeth's ageing rule — an ambitious noble challenging royal authority — but also that her government remained firmly in control.

Who rebelled in 1601?

Elizabeth's balancing act

Across the whole period, Elizabeth had to balance danger at home and abroad while holding her "middle way":

Selling the "Virgin Queen"

Elizabeth carefully managed her image to project strength and unity. Portraits and pageantry were a form of propaganda.

• Portraits showed her covered in jewels, pearls (symbols of purity) and rich robes — a powerful, almost untouchable ruler.
• She toured the country on "progresses", showing herself to her people and staying with wealthy subjects.
• The cult of the "Virgin Queen" turned her unmarried status into a strength — married to her kingdom.

Misconception alert: Elizabeth's glittering image was carefully constructed. Behind it lay real dangers — plots, poverty and the threat of Spain — that she had to manage constantly.

The middle way

Timeline: 1568 → 1603

Put the events in order

Tap the events in the correct time order, from earliest to latest.

Sources and interpretations

In the AQA exam you interpret sources and follow a historic environment study. Two quick habits win marks:

• Ask who made it and why (provenance). A royal portrait was made to flatter Elizabeth; a Catholic account of Mary's death will read very differently from a Protestant one.
• Use your own knowledge to judge it. Support or challenge a source with facts you know (dates, events, motives).

Interpretations differ: some see Elizabeth's reign as a "golden age" of success; others stress the poverty, plots and religious fear beneath the surface. Knowing why interpretations vary is exactly what the exam rewards.

Why was the Armada defeated?

No single cause — but a chain of English strengths and Spanish problems, finished off by the weather:

Contemporaries saw the victory as God favouring Protestant England — but it also rested on real English skill and Spanish mistakes, not the weather alone.

Thinking like a historian

The essentials to remember

You've covered the whole AQA Elizabethan England, c1568–1603 depth study. Press Finish to see your score.