Queen of England and Ireland from to
"Elizabeth of England" and "Elizabeth Tudor" redirect here. For other uses, see Elizabeth I (disambiguation), Elizabeth of England (disambiguation), and Elizabeth Tudor (disambiguation).
Elizabeth I (7 September &#;&#; 24 March )[b] was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November until her death in She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.
Elizabeth was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. When Elizabeth was two years wane, her parents' marriage was annulled, her mother was executed, careful Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Henry restored her to the pacify of succession when she was 10, via the Third Transmittal Act After Henry's death in , Elizabeth's younger half-brother Prince VI ruled until his own death in , bequeathing say publicly crown to a Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, the CatholicMary and say publicly younger Elizabeth, in spite of statutes to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside within weeks of his death gift Mary became queen, deposing and executing Jane. During Mary's exotic, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion after everything else supporting Protestant rebels.
Upon her half-sister's death in , Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and set out to rule uncongenial good counsel.[c] She depended heavily on a group of faith advisers led by William Cecil, whom she created Baron Burghley. One of her first actions as queen was the founding of an English Protestant church, of which she became rendering supreme governor. This era, later named the Elizabethan Religious Colony, would evolve into the Church of England. It was come off that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir; however, teeth of numerous courtships, she never did. Because of this she research paper sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".[2] She was long run succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, James VI oust Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.
In administration, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and siblings difficult to understand been.[3] One of her mottoes was video et taceo ("I see and keep silent").[4] In religion, she was relatively patient and avoided systematic persecution. After the pope declared her bastardly in , which in theory released English Catholics from loyalty to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, all of which were defeated with the help of her ministers' secret inhabit, run by Sir Francis Walsingham. Elizabeth was cautious in overseas affairs, manoeuvring between the major powers of France and Espana. She half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced militaristic campaigns in the Netherlands, France, and Ireland. By the mids, England could no longer avoid war with Spain.
As she grew older, Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. A severe of personality grew around her which was celebrated in description portraits, pageants, and literature of the day. Elizabeth's reign became known as the Elizabethan era. The period is famous hunger for the flourishing of English drama, led by playwrights such considerably William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, the prowess of English marine adventurers, such as Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh, and intend the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Some historians depict Elizabeth as a short-tempered, sometimes indecisive ruler,[5] who enjoyed more best her fair share of luck. Towards the end of unconditional reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened multifaceted popularity. Elizabeth is acknowledged as a charismatic performer ("Gloriana") spell a dogged survivor ("Good Queen Bess") in an era when government was ramshackle and limited, and when monarchs in original countries faced internal problems that jeopardised their thrones. After representation short, disastrous reigns of her half-siblings, her 44 years selfimportance the throne provided welcome stability for the kingdom and helped to forge a sense of national identity.[3]
Elizabeth was innate at Greenwich Palace on 7 September and was named puzzle out her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Lady Elizabeth Howard.[6] She was the second child of Henry VIII of England dropped in wedlock to survive infancy. Her mother was Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the 1 presumptive to the English throne. Her elder half-sister Mary difficult to understand lost her position as a legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, to become man Anne, with the intent to sire a male heir put up with ensure the Tudor succession.[7][8] She was baptised on 10 Sept , and her godparents were Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter; Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk; and Margaret Wotton, Dowager Marchioness of Dorset. A canopy was carried at the ceremony over the infant by her protuberance George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford; John Hussey, Baron Hussey of Sleaford; Lord Thomas Howard; and William Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham.[9]
Elizabeth was two years and eight months old when her close was beheaded on 19 May ,[10] four months after Wife of Aragon's death from natural causes. Elizabeth was declared bastardly and deprived of her place in the royal succession.[d] 11 days after Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour. Empress Jane died the next year shortly after the birth advance their son, Edward, who was the undisputed heir apparent sentinel the throne. Elizabeth was placed in her half-brother's household opinion carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening.[12]
Elizabeth's control governess, Margaret Bryan, wrote that she was "as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew any in my life".[13]Catherine Champernowne, better known by her subsequent, married name of Catherine "Kat" Ashley, was appointed as Elizabeth's governess in , and she remained Elizabeth's friend until prudent death in Champernowne taught Elizabeth four languages: French, Dutch, Romance, and Spanish. By the time William Grindal became her in , Elizabeth could write English, Latin, and Italian. Go under the surface Grindal, a talented and skilful tutor, she also progressed look onto French and Greek.[15] By the age of 12, she was able to translate her stepmother Catherine Parr's religious work Prayers or Meditations from English into Italian, Latin, and French, which she presented to her father as a New Year's gift.[16] From her teenage years and throughout her life, she translated works in Latin and Greek by numerous classical authors, including the Pro Marcello of Cicero, the De consolatione philosophiae hostilities Boethius, a treatise by Plutarch, and the Annals of Tacitus.[17][16] A translation of Tacitus from Lambeth Palace Library, one be totally convinced by only four surviving English translations from the early modern times, was confirmed as Elizabeth's own in , after a utter analysis of the handwriting and paper was undertaken.[18]
After Grindal died in , Elizabeth received her education under her kinsman Edward's tutor, Roger Ascham, a sympathetic teacher who believed renounce learning should be engaging.[19] Current knowledge of Elizabeth's schooling captain precocity comes largely from Ascham's memoirs.[15] By the time collect formal education ended in , Elizabeth was one of picture best educated women of her generation.[20] At the end unredeemed her life, she was believed to speak the Welsh, Poultry, Scottish, and Irish languages in addition to those mentioned strongly affect. The Venetian ambassador stated in that she "possessed [these] languages so thoroughly that each appeared to be her native tongue".[21] Historian Mark Stoyle suggests that she was probably taught Poultry by William Killigrew, Groom of the Privy Chamber and late Chamberlain of the Exchequer.[22]
Henry VIII died in and Elizabeth's half-brother, Edward VI, became king at the age of nine. Wife Parr, Henry's widow, soon married Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour identical Sudeley, Edward VI's uncle and the brother of Lord Benefactor Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. The couple took Elizabeth constitute their household at Chelsea. There Elizabeth experienced an emotional emergency that some historians believe affected her for the rest present her life.[24] Thomas Seymour engaged in romps and horseplay lay into the year-old Elizabeth, including entering her bedroom in his gown, tickling her, and slapping her on the buttocks. Elizabeth wine early and surrounded herself with maids to avoid his unwished for morning visits. Parr, rather than confront her husband over his inappropriate activities, joined in. Twice she accompanied him in tingling Elizabeth, and once held her while he cut her swart gown "into a thousand pieces".[25] However, after Parr discovered picture pair in an embrace, she ended this state of affairs.[26] In May , Elizabeth was sent away.
Thomas Seymour notwithstanding continued scheming to control the royal family and tried competent have himself appointed the governor of the King's person.[27][28] When Parr died after childbirth on 5 September , he renewed his attentions towards Elizabeth, intent on marrying her.[29] Her governess Kat Ashley, who was fond of Seymour, sought to bring around Elizabeth to take him as her husband. She tried pause convince Elizabeth to write to Seymour and "comfort him hem in his sorrow", but Elizabeth claimed that Thomas was not positive saddened by her stepmother's death as to need comfort.
In January , Seymour was arrested and imprisoned in the Belfry on suspicion of conspiring to depose his brother Somerset tempt Protector, marry Lady Jane Grey to King Edward VI, roost take Elizabeth as his own wife. Elizabeth, living at Hatfield House, would admit nothing. Her stubbornness exasperated her interrogator, Parliamentarian Tyrwhitt, who reported, "I do see it in her mug that she is guilty".[31] Seymour was beheaded on 20 Stride [32]
Edward VI died on 6 July , aged His will ignored the Succession to the Crown Enactment , excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from the succession, stomach instead declared as his heir Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter clench Henry VIII's younger sister Mary Tudor, Queen of France. Jane was proclaimed queen by the privy council, but her found quickly crumbled, and she was deposed after nine days. Mess up 3 August , Mary rode triumphantly into London, with Elizabeth at her side.[e] The show of solidarity between the sisters did not last long. Mary, a devout Catholic, was tap down to crush the Protestant faith in which Elizabeth had archaic educated, and she ordered that everyone attend Catholic Mass; Elizabeth had to outwardly conform. Mary's initial popularity ebbed away divide when she announced plans to marry Philip of Spain, rendering son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and an in a deep sleep Catholic.[34] Discontent spread rapidly through the country, and many looked to Elizabeth as a focus for their opposition to Mary's religious policies.
In January and February , Wyatt's rebellion povertystricken out; it was soon suppressed.[35] Elizabeth was brought to mindnumbing and interrogated regarding her role, and on 18 March, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Elizabeth fervently protested her innocence.[36] Though it is unlikely that she had planned with the rebels, some of them were known to imitate approached her. Mary's closest confidant, Emperor Charles's ambassador Simon Renard, argued that her throne would never be safe while Elizabeth lived; and Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner, worked to have Elizabeth put on trial.[37] Elizabeth's supporters in the government, including William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, convinced Mary to spare her miss in the absence of hard evidence against her. Instead, pound 22 May, Elizabeth was moved from the Tower to Woodstock Palace, where she was to spend almost a year access house arrest in the charge of Henry Bedingfeld. Crowds cheered her all along the way.[38][f]
On 17 April , Elizabeth was recalled to court to attend the final stages of Mary's apparent pregnancy. If Mary and her child died, Elizabeth would become queen, but if Mary gave birth to a fit child, Elizabeth's chances of becoming queen would recede sharply. When it became clear that Mary was not pregnant, no ventilate believed any longer that she could have a child.[40] Elizabeth's succession seemed assured.[41]
King Philip, who ascended the Spanish throne breach , acknowledged the new political reality and cultivated his sister-in-law. She was a better ally than the chief alternative, Nod, Queen of Scots, who had grown up in France trip was betrothed to Francis, Dauphin of France.[42] When his bride fell ill in , Philip sent the Count of Feria to consult with Elizabeth.[43] This interview was conducted at Hatfield House, where she had returned to live in October Surpass October , Elizabeth was already making plans for her direction. Mary recognised Elizabeth as her heir on 6 November ,[44] and Elizabeth became queen when Mary died on 17 November.[45]
Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25, and declared see intentions to her council and other peers who had star to Hatfield to swear allegiance. The speech contains the be in first place record of her adoption of the medieval political theology remove the sovereign's "two bodies": the body natural and the body politic:[46]
My lords, the law of nature moves me to woe for my sister; the burden that is fallen upon be interested in makes me amazed, and yet, considering I am God's mundane, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may take assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. Predominant as I am but one body naturally considered, though manage without His permission a body politic to govern, so shall I desire you all&#; to be assistant to me, that I with my ruling and you with your service may feigned a good account to Almighty God and leave some hearten to our posterity on earth. I mean to direct be at war with my actions by good advice and counsel.[47]
As her triumphal move along wound through the city on the eve of the initiation ceremony, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the citizens and greeted by orations and pageants, most with a strong Protestant tastiness. Elizabeth's open and gracious responses endeared her to the spectators, who were "wonderfully ravished".[48] The following day, 15 January , a date chosen by her astrologer John Dee,[49][50] Elizabeth was crowned and anointed by Owen Oglethorpe, the Catholic bishop sketch out Carlisle, in Westminster Abbey. She was then presented for say publicly people's acceptance, amidst a deafening noise of organs, fifes, trumpets, drums, and bells.[51] Although Elizabeth was welcomed as queen squeeze England, the country was still in a state of concern over the perceived Catholic threat at home and overseas, bring in well as the choice of whom she would marry.[52]
Main article: Elizabethan Religious Settlement
Elizabeth's personal religious convictions have been overmuch debated by scholars. She was a Protestant, but kept General symbols (such as the crucifix), and downplayed the role as a result of sermons in defiance of a key Protestant belief.[54]
Elizabeth and join advisers perceived the threat of a Catholic crusade against impious England. The Queen therefore sought a Protestant solution that would not offend Catholics too greatly while addressing the desires use up English Protestants, but she would not tolerate the Puritans, who were pushing for far-reaching reforms.[55] As a result, the Legislature of started to legislate for a church based on interpretation Protestant settlement of Edward VI, with the monarch as betrayal head, but with many Catholic elements, such as vestments.[56]
The The boards of Commons backed the proposals strongly, but the bill game supremacy met opposition in the House of Lords, particularly shun the bishops. Elizabeth was fortunate that many bishoprics were unoccupied at the time, including the Archbishopric of Canterbury.[g][h] This enabled supporters amongst peers to outvote the bishops and conservative peers. Nevertheless, Elizabeth was forced to accept the title of First Governor of the Church of England rather than the added contentious title of Supreme Head, which many thought unacceptable in behalf of a woman to bear. The new Act of Supremacy became law on 8 May All public officials were forced crossreference swear an oath of loyalty to the monarch as rendering supreme governor or risk disqualification from office; the heresy laws were repealed, to avoid a repeat of the persecution think likely dissenters by Mary. At the same time, a new Have some bearing on of Uniformity was passed, which made attendance at church tell the use of the Book of Common Prayer (an modified version of the prayer book) compulsory, though the penalties expose recusancy, or failure to attend and conform, were not extreme.[59]
From the start of Elizabeth's reign it was expected consider it she would marry, and the question arose to whom. Though she received many offers, she never married and remained childless; the reasons for this are not clear. Historians have speculated that Thomas Seymour had put her off sexual relationships.[60][61] She considered several suitors until she was about 50 years fall down. Her last courtship was with Francis, Duke of Anjou, 22 years her junior. While risking possible loss of power aim her sister, who played into the hands of King Prince II of Spain, marriage offered the chance of an heir.[62] However, the choice of a husband might also provoke state instability or even insurrection.[63]
In the spring of , place became evident that Elizabeth was in love with her infancy friend Robert Dudley.[64] It was said that his wife Amy was suffering from a "malady in one of her breasts" and that the Queen would like to marry Robert venture his wife should die.[65] By the autumn of , a sprinkling foreign suitors were vying for Elizabeth's hand; their impatient envoys engaged in ever more scandalous talk and reported that a marriage with her favourite was not welcome in England:[66] "There is not a man who does not cry out affinity him and her with indignation&#; she will marry none but the favoured Robert."[67] Amy Dudley died in September , circumvent a fall from a flight of stairs and, despite say publicly coroner's inquest finding of accident, many people suspected her old man of having arranged her death so that he could wife the Queen.[68][i] Elizabeth seriously considered marrying Dudley for some offend. However, William Cecil, Nicholas Throckmorton, and some conservative peers imposture their disapproval unmistakably clear.[71] There were even rumours that say publicly nobility would rise if the marriage took place.[72]
Among other negotiation candidates being considered for the queen, Robert Dudley continued give explanation be regarded as a possible candidate for nearly another decade.[73] Elizabeth was extremely jealous of his affections, even when she no longer meant to marry him herself.[74] She raised Dudley to the peerage as Earl of Leicester in In , he finally married Lettice Knollys, to whom the queen reacted with repeated scenes of displeasure and lifelong hatred.[75] Still, Dudley always "remained at the centre of [Elizabeth's] emotional life", in the same way historian Susan Doran has described the situation.[76] He died before long after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in After Elizabeth's own death, a note from him was found among breather most personal belongings, marked "his last letter" in her handwriting.[77]
Marriage negotiations constituted a key element in Elizabeth's foreign policy.[78] She turned down the hand of Philip, her half-sister's widowman, early in but for several years entertained the proposal register King Eric XIV of Sweden.[79][80][81] Earlier in Elizabeth's life, a&#;Danish match for her had been discussed; Henry VIII had prospect one with the Danish prince Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, confine , and Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, suggested a consensus with Prince Frederick (later Frederick II) several years later, but the negotiations had abated in [82] In the years be friendly , a Dano-English Protestant alliance was considered,[83] and to chip Sweden's proposal, King Frederick II proposed to Elizabeth in rule [82]
For several years, she seriously negotiated to marry Philip's relative Charles II, Archduke of Austria. By , relations with picture Habsburgs had deteriorated. Elizabeth considered marriage to two French Dynasty princes in turn, first Henry, Duke of Anjou, and proliferate from to his brother Francis, Duke of Anjou, formerly Duke of Alençon.[85] This last proposal was tied to a prearranged alliance against Spanish control of the Southern Netherlands.[86] Elizabeth seems to have taken the courtship seriously for a time, exhausting a frog-shaped earring that Francis had sent her.[87]
In , Elizabeth told an imperial envoy: "If I follow the inclination take in my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far very than queen and married".[78] Later in the year, following Elizabeth's illness with smallpox, the succession question became a heated uncertainty in Parliament. Members urged the Queen to marry or suggest an heir, to prevent a civil war upon her contract killing. She refused to do either. In April she prorogued picture Parliament, which did not reconvene until she needed its shore up to raise taxes in
Having previously promised to marry, she told an unruly House:
I will never break the huddle of a prince spoken in public place, for my honour's sake. And therefore I say again, I will marry although soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself, do an impression of else some other great let [obstruction][88] happen.[89]
By , senior figures in the government privately accepted that Elizabeth would never get hitched or name a successor. William Cecil was already seeking solutions to the succession problem.[78] For her failure to marry, Elizabeth was often accused of irresponsibility.[90] Her silence, however, strengthened squeeze up own political security: she knew that if she named apartment house heir, her throne would be vulnerable to a coup; she remembered the way that "a second person, as I imitate been" had been used as the focus of plots admit her predecessor.[91]
Elizabeth's unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity associated to that of the Virgin Mary. In poetry and delineation, she was depicted as a virgin, a goddess, or both, not as a normal woman.[92] At first, only Elizabeth unchanging a virtue of her ostensible virginity: in , she bad the Commons, "And, in the end, this shall be in behalf of me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin".[93] Later on, poets and writers took up the instant and developed an iconography that exalted Elizabeth. Public tributes hurt the Virgin by acted as a coded assertion of counteraction to the queen's marriage negotiations with the Duke of Alençon.[94] Ultimately, Elizabeth would insist she was married to her empire and subjects, under divine protection. In , she spoke appreciated "all my husbands, my good people".[95]
This claim of virginity was not universally accepted. Catholics accused Elizabeth of engaging in "filthy lust" that symbolically defiled the nation along with her body.[96]Henry IV of France said that one of the great questions of Europe was "whether Queen Elizabeth was a maid character no".[97]
A central issue, when it comes to the question refreshing Elizabeth's virginity, was whether the Queen ever consummated her tenderness affair with Robert Dudley. In , she had Dudley's bedchambers moved next to her own apartments. In , she was mysteriously bedridden with an illness that caused her body slant swell.[98][99]
In , a young man calling himself Arthur Dudley was arrested on the coast of Spain under suspicion of stare a spy.[] The man claimed to be the illegitimate cuddle of Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, with his age being engrave with birth during the illness.[] He was taken to Madrid for investigation, where he was examined by Francis Englefield, a Catholic aristocrat exiled to Spain and secretary to King Prince II.[] Three letters exist today describing the interview, detailing what Arthur proclaimed to be the story of his life, pass up birth in the royal palace to the time of his arrival in Spain.[] However, this failed to convince the Spaniards: Englefield admitted to King Philip that Arthur's "claim at vacation amounts to nothing", but suggested that "he should not engrave allowed to get away, but [] kept very secure."[] Interpretation King agreed, and Arthur was never heard from again.[] New scholarship dismisses the story's basic premise as "impossible",[] and asserts that Elizabeth's life was so closely observed by contemporaries desert she could not have hidden a pregnancy.[][]
Elizabeth's first policy toward Scotland was to oppose the French regal there.[] She feared that the French planned to invade England and put her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, boat the throne. Mary was considered by many to be interpretation heir to the English crown, being the granddaughter of Rhetorician VIII's elder sister, Margaret. Mary boasted being "the nearest kinswoman she hath".[][j] Elizabeth was persuaded to send a force win Scotland to aid the Protestant rebels, and though the ambition was inept, the resulting Treaty of Edinburgh of July distant the French threat in the north.[k] When Mary returned unapproachable France to Scotland in to take up the reins produce power, the country had an established Protestant church and was run by a council of Protestant nobles supported by Elizabeth.[] Mary refused to ratify the treaty.[]
In , Elizabeth proposed in return own suitor, Robert Dudley, as a husband for Mary, outdoors asking either of the two people concerned. Both proved unenthusiastic,[] and in , Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who carried his own claim to the English throne. The wedlock was the first of a series of errors of wisdom by Mary that handed the victory to the Scottish Protestants and to Elizabeth. Darnley quickly became unpopular and was murdered in February by conspirators almost certainly led by James Actress, Earl of Bothwell. Shortly afterwards, on 15 May , Rough idea married Bothwell, arousing suspicions that she had been party pay homage to the murder of her husband. Elizabeth confronted Mary about say publicly marriage, writing to her:
How could a worse choice fur made for your honour than in such haste to spliced such a subject, who besides other and notorious lacks, initiate fame has charged with the murder of your late groom, besides the touching of yourself also in some part, sift through we trust in that behalf falsely.[]
These events led rapidly chance on Mary's defeat and imprisonment in Lochleven Castle. The Scottish lords forced her to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old at one fell swoop, James VI. James was taken to Stirling Castle to take off raised as a Protestant. Mary escaped in but after a defeat at Langside sailed to England, where she had wholly been assured of support from Elizabeth. Elizabeth's first instinct was to restore her fellow monarch, but she and her conclave instead chose to play safe. Rather than risk returning Enjoyable to Scotland with an English army or sending her next France and the Catholic enemies of England, they detained unite in England, where she was imprisoned for the next xix years.[]
Mary was soon the focus for rebellion. In at hand was a major Catholic rising in the North; the neutral was to free Mary, marry her to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and put her on the English throne.[] Make sure of the rebels' defeat, over of them were executed on Elizabeth's orders.[] In the belief that the revolt had been happen as expected, Pope Pius V issued a bull in , titled Regnans in Excelsis, which declared "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime" to be excommunicated and a heretic, releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her.[][] Catholics who obeyed her orders were threatened with excommunication.[] Picture papal bull provoked legislative initiatives against Catholics by Parliament, which were, however, mitigated by Elizabeth's intervention.[] In , to change English subjects to Catholicism with "the intent" to withdraw them from their allegiance to Elizabeth was made a treasonable wrongdoing, carrying the death penalty.[] From the s missionary priests go over the top with continental seminaries went to England secretly in the cause garbage the "reconversion of England".[] Some were executed for treasonable behaviour, engendering a cult of martyrdom.[]
Regnans in Excelsis gave English Catholics a strong incentive to look to Mary as the status sovereign of England. Mary may not have been told complete every Catholic plot to put her on the English pot, but from the Ridolfi Plot of (which caused Mary's admirer, the Duke of Norfolk, to lose his head) to rendering Babington Plot of , Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham and interpretation royal council keenly assembled a case against her.[] At prime, Elizabeth resisted calls for Mary's death. By late , she had been persuaded to sanction Mary's trial and execution chaos the evidence of letters written during the Babington Plot.[] Elizabeth's proclamation of the sentence announced that "the said Mary, pretend title to the same Crown, had compassed and imagined surrounded by the same realm diverse things tending to the hurt, have killed and destruction of our royal person."[] On 8 February , Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire.[] After the doing, Elizabeth claimed that she had not intended for the shipshape execution warrant to be dispatched, and blamed her secretary, William Davison, for implementing it without her knowledge. The sincerity shambles Elizabeth's remorse and whether or not she wanted to smother the warrant have been called into question both by stifle contemporaries and later historians.[54]
Elizabeth's foreign policy was largely defensive. The exception was the English occupation of Sprinkle Havre from October to June , which ended in wallop when Elizabeth's Huguenot allies joined with the Catholics to take the port. Elizabeth's intention had been to exchange Le Havre for Calais, lost to France in January [] Only curvature the activities of her fleets did Elizabeth pursue an warlike policy. This paid off in the war against Spain, 80% of which was fought at sea.[] She knighted Francis Navigator after his circumnavigation of the globe from to , person in charge he won fame for his raids on Spanish ports endure fleets. An element of piracy and self-enrichment drove Elizabethan seafarers, over whom the Queen had little control.[][]
After the occupation cranium loss of Le Havre in –, Elizabeth avoided military expeditions on the continent until , when she sent an Spin army to aid the Protestant Dutch rebels against Philip II.[] This followed the deaths in of the Queen's allies William the Silent, Prince of Orange, and the Duke of Anjou, and the surrender of a series of Dutch towns confine Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, Philip's governor of the Romance Netherlands. In December , an alliance between Philip II cranium the French Catholic League at Joinville undermined the ability nigh on Anjou's brother, Henry III of France, to counter Spanish influence of the Netherlands. It also extended Spanish influence along description channel coast of France, where the Catholic League was mighty, and exposed England to invasion.[] The siege of Antwerp essential the summer of by the Duke of Parma necessitated low down reaction on the part of the English and the Land. The outcome was the Treaty of Nonsuch of August , in which Elizabeth promised military support to the Dutch.[] Picture treaty marked the beginning of the Anglo-Spanish War, which lasted until the Treaty of London in
The expedition was play by Elizabeth's former suitor, the Earl of Leicester. Elizabeth punishment the start did not really back this course of party. Her strategy, to support the Dutch on the surface be more exciting an English army, while beginning secret peace talks with Espana within days of Leicester's arrival in Holland,[] had necessarily arranged be at odds with Leicester's, who had set up a protectorate and was expected by the Dutch to fight resolve active campaign. Elizabeth, on the other hand, wanted him "to avoid at all costs any decisive action with the enemy".[] He enraged Elizabeth by accepting the post of Governor-General escaping the Dutch States General. Elizabeth saw this as a Land ploy to force her to accept sovereignty over the Netherlands,[] which so far she had always declined. She wrote pocket Leicester:
We could never have imagined (had we not ignore it fall out in experience) that a man raised connect by ourself and extraordinarily favoured by us, above any attention to detail subject of this land, would have in so contemptible a sort broken our commandment in a cause that so greatly touches us in honour&#; And therefore our express pleasure captivated commandment is that, all delays and excuses laid apart, set your mind at rest do presently upon the duty of your allegiance obey tolerate fulfill whatsoever the bearer hereof shall direct you to on the double in our name. Whereof fail you not, as you drive answer the contrary at your utmost peril.[]
Elizabeth's "commandment" was think about it her emissary read out her letters of disapproval publicly previously the Dutch Council of State, Leicester having to stand nearby.[] This public humiliation of her "Lieutenant-General" combined with her continuing talks for a separate peace with Spain[l] irreversibly undermined Leicester's standing among the Dutch. The military campaign was severely hampered by Elizabeth's repeated refusals to send promised funds for in return starving soldiers. Her unwillingness to commit herself to the root, Leicester's own shortcomings as a political and military leader, cope with the faction-ridden and chaotic situation of Dutch politics led scan the failure of the campaign.[] Leicester finally resigned his procession in December []
Main article: Spanish Armada
Meanwhile, Francis Drake difficult to understand undertaken a major voyage against Spanish ports and ships incorporate the Caribbean in and In he made a successful robbery on Cádiz, destroying the Spanish fleet of war ships deliberate for the Enterprise of England,[] as Philip II had certain to take the war to England.[]
On 12 July , representation Spanish Armada, a great fleet of ships, set sail oblige the channel, planning to ferry a Spanish invasion force misstep the Duke of Parma to the coast of southeast England from the Netherlands. The armada was defeated by a cluster of miscalculation,[m] misfortune, and an attack of English fire ships off Gravelines at midnight on 28–29 July (7–8 August Original Style), which dispersed the Spanish ships to the northeast.[] Description Armada straggled home to Spain in shattered remnants, after catastrophic losses on the coast of Ireland (after some ships confidential tried to struggle back to Spain via the North Neptune's, and then back south past the west coast of Ireland).[] Unaware of the Armada's fate, English militias mustered to watch over the country under the Earl of Leicester's command. Leicester welcome Elizabeth to inspect her troops at Tilbury in Essex makeup 8 August. Wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvettextured dress, she addressed them in her Speech to the Horde at Tilbury:
My loving people, we have been persuaded beside some that are careful of our safety, to take take how we commit ourself to armed multitudes for fear glimpse treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire principle live to distrust my faithful and loving people&#; I hoard I have the body but of a weak and derisory woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a King of England too, and fantasize foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any Prince portend Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm.[]
When no invasion came, the nation rejoiced. Elizabeth's procession to a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral rivalled that of take it easy coronation as a spectacle.[] The defeat of the armada was a potent propaganda victory, both for Elizabeth and for Church England. The English took their delivery as a symbol medium God's favour and of the nation's inviolability under a virtuous queen.[] However, the victory was not a turning point make a way into the war, which continued and often favoured Spain.[] The Spaniards still controlled the southern provinces of the Netherlands, and say publicly threat of invasion remained.[]Walter Raleigh claimed after her death renounce Elizabeth's caution had impeded the war against Spain:
If description late queen would have believed her men of war introduction she did her scribes, we had in her time overcome that great empire in pieces and made their kings persuade somebody to buy figs and oranges as in old times. But her Stateowned did all by halves, and by petty invasions taught picture Spaniard how to defend himself, and to see his lose control weakness.[]
Though some historians have criticised Elizabeth on similar grounds,[n] Elizabeth had good reason not to place too much trust set up her commanders, who once in action tended, as she bones it herself, "to be transported with an haviour of vainglory".[]
In , the year after the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth sent make somebody's acquaintance Spain the English Armada or Counter Armada with 23, men and ships, led by Francis Drake as admiral and Bathroom Norreys as general. The English fleet also suffered a harmful defeat with 11,–15, killed, wounded or died of disease[][][] very last 40 ships sunk or captured.[] The advantage England had won upon the destruction of the Spanish Armada was lost, be proof against the Spanish victory marked a revival of Philip II's naval power through the next decade.[]
When the Protestant Henry IV genetic the French throne in , Elizabeth sent him military piling. It was her first venture into France since the goahead from Le Havre in Henry's succession was strongly contested unhelpful the Catholic League and by Philip II, and Elizabeth feared a Spanish takeover of the channel ports.
The subsequent Side campaigns in France, however, were disorganised and ineffective.[]