Elizabeth I’s Achievements

Elizabeth’s refusal to marry was the cause of great national and international discussion. It was generally believed at that time that only men were suited to rule and that the proper role for a woman was that of a wife. Beyond this notion, however, the dynastic and diplomatic stakes of a possible royal marriage were very high. If Elizabeth died childless, the Tudor line would come to an end, and her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, would assume the throne in England. Protestants viewed the possibility of a Catholic monarch as a nightmarish threat that could best be averted if Elizabeth produced a Protestant heir. The queen’s marriage decision was critical not only for the question of succession but also for the tangled web of international diplomacy. England, isolated and militarily weak when Elizabeth first came to the throne, sorely needed the major alliances that a marriage could create. Yet Elizabeth found that remaining unmarried gave her a most useful diplomatic weapon, particularly when playing the rivals France and Spain against each other. With suitors from these and other countries, Elizabeth skillfully kept marriage negotiations going for months, even years—as long as it was to her advantage.

In religious matters, Elizabeth steered a middle course between the extreme Protestants (Puritans) and the Catholics. She reestablished the independent Church of England but retained many features of Catholicism, including bishops and archbishops. By doing so she hoped to produce unity in the state. Many Catholics, however, were not reconciled. Some wanted to put Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne in place of Elizabeth. In 1568, after having been forced to abdicate the Scottish throne, Mary sought refuge in England. Elizabeth rejected calls for her immediate execution but kept Mary in captivity for some 19 years. The Babington Plot of 1586, led by Anthony Babington, was the last in a series of events that at length induced Elizabeth to bring Mary to trial. Found guilty of complicity in the plot to assassinate Elizabeth, Mary was sentenced to death and beheaded in 1587. Elizabeth also came under pressure to become more involved in the struggle between Catholics and Protestants in continental Europe. In particular, her advisers urged her to aid Protestant rebels fighting the Spanish armies in the Netherlands. Despite her reluctance to become involved, she agreed in 1585 to send a small military force to the Netherlands

After years of preparation, Philip II of Spain assembled a great fleet of his best and largest warships, called by the Spanish the Armada. In 1588 the Armada sailed into the English Channel, intent on an invasion and conquest of England. The English were waiting for them. Elizabeth had authorized sufficient funds during her reign to maintain a fleet of maneuverable, well-armed fighting ships. When the Armada reached English waters, the queen’s ships, in one of the most famous naval encounters of history, defeated the enemy fleet, which then in an attempt to return to Spain was all but destroyed by terrible storms. At the moment when the Spanish invasion was imminently expected, Elizabeth resolved to review in person a detachment of soldiers assembled at Tilbury. Dressed in a white gown and a silver breastplate, she rode through the camp and proceeded to deliver a celebrated speech. Some of her subordinates were wary of her appearing before such a large assembly of soldiers, but she was undeterred: she was their leader, and she resolved to be there with them in their most critical hour before battle. “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman,” Elizabeth declared, “but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.” She then promised to richly reward her loyal troops. The scene exemplified many of Elizabeth’s qualities: her courage, her command of grand public occasions, and her strategic identification with martial virtues considered male.

The body of works written during the reign of Elizabeth I is one of the most splendid in the history of English literature. Edmund Spenser wrote the long poem The Faerie Queene, considered his masterpiece, in her honor. William Shakespeare acted before her (though at the time of Elizabeth’s death in 1603, he had not yet written most of his great tragedies). Other noted writers of the era included Sir Philip Sidney, Roger Ascham, Richard Hooker, and Christopher Marlowe. Elizabeth admired and supported the arts. What came to be known as the Elizabethan Age saw not only the flowering of poetry and drama but also inspired a wide variety of distinguished prose works as well. Aside from the great flourishing of literature, there are other reasons the period of Elizabeth’s reign is regarded as a golden age. Important were hundreds of laws on shipping, commerce, industry, currency reform, roads, relief for the poor, and agriculture. These laws shaped the policy of England for more than two centuries after Elizabeth’s reign had ended.