ELIZABETH 1 1558 - 1603 (L1) Life 1533

ELIZABETH 1 1558 - 1603 (L1) Lived 1533 - 1603

1558

The French poet Joachim Du Bellay, a founder member of the Pléiade, returns from Rome and publishes two of his finest works, the Roman Antiquities and Regrets.

1560

The Confession of Faith for the establishment of Protestantism, largely the work of the Calvinist reformer John Knox, is adopted by the Scottish Parliament and made law.

1561

Following the death of her husband, Francis II of France, Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland. Here she is involved in murder and intrigue until her flight to England in 1568.

1562

In France, fighting breaks out between the Catholics and the Protestants ("Huguenots"). These French Wars of Religion last for over thirty-five years and cause many deaths.

The privateer John Hawkins becomes the first English slave trader. He buys slaves in West Africa and transports them to work in the plantations of the Spanish West Indies. He also introduces potatoes and tobacco into England.

In Ireland, Shane O’Neil, Earl of Tyrone, seeking help from France and Scotland, leads the first of three major rebellions against the English. See 1598 below.

1563

The architect Bautista de Toledo begins work on the building of the Escorial near Madrid, a vast palace-monastery for the Spanish King, Philip II. The work is completed in 1584.

1565

Ivan the Terrible of Russia begins a reign of terror against the boyars. During his rule an advance is made into Siberia, but Russian forces fail to gain an outlet to the Baltic Sea.

The Ottoman Turks, under their leader Suleyman I, lay siege to the island of Malta, but the Knights of St. John (Knights Hospitaller) valiantly hold out until reinforcements arrive, and the Turks are routed.

1566

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the outstanding member of a Flemish family of artists, paints The Wedding Feast, one of his many works depicting the life of the peasantry at this time.

1567

Philip II of Spain sends the Duke of Alva to govern the Spanish Netherlands. His ruthless treatment of Protestants triggers off a revolt against Spanish rule which lasts for 80 years.

1568

Following her abdication in favour of her son, James VI, Mary Queen of Scots flees to England. She is put in prison by her cousin Elizabeth until her execution 19 years later.

1569

The Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator produces the first nautical chart to use the system of projection which bears his name. This method made it much easier for navigators to plot their course.

1570

The Italian architect Andrea Palladio writes his treatise The Four Books of Architecture, a work which has a profound influence upon the revival of classical design.

1571

A large Ottoman fleet is virtually destroyed at the Battle of Lepanto by the "Holy League", a combined naval force of Christian states under the command of Don John of Austria.

1572

During the French Wars of Religion, thousands of Huguenots are killed in Paris and throughout France in what comes to be known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

The English composer of church music, Thomas Tallis, becomes joint organist with William Byrd at the Chapel Royal, Windsor, and they begin work on their famous Cantiones Sacrae.

Tupac Amaru, the last Lord Inca, is executed, and the Inca Empire finally comes to an end. Within ten years the Spanish own all of South America save for Venezuela and Brazil.

Luís de Camoens, one of Portugal's most talented poets, writes his masterpiece, the epic poem The Lusiads, based on the historic voyage of Vasco da Gama to India.

1576

ThexEnglish explorer Martin Frobisher reaches Baffin Island in search of a north-west passage to the Far East. He fails, but makes two more unsuccessful attempts.

ThexDanish astronomer Tycho Brahe builds his “Castle of the Heavens”, an observatory, on the island of Hven. His observations, carried out over many years, prove of enormous value.

TheXMughal Emperor Akbar, an outstanding soldier and administrator, conquers Bengal. By the end of his reign (1605) the whole of northern India is under his organised control.

1579

The Italian painters Veronese and Tintoretto work on the interior decoration of the Doge's Palace, Venice, following the fire of 1577, when much of their earlier work was destroyed.

1580

The English seaman Francis Drake returns to England after sailing around the world in his ship the Golden Hind. He was later to gain fame in the fight against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Following the death of King Henry of Portugal, Philip II of Spain invades his neighbour, and winning the Battle of Alcantara, declares himself king of Portugal and its empire.

1581

The seven northern provinces of the Spanish Netherlands, all members of the Union of Utrecht, declare their independence from Spain and resume their struggle for freedom.

1582

Roman Catholic countries adopt the new Gregorian Calendar and "lose" ten days in October. But many other states do not change until the eighteenth century or later.

1583

The Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci begins missionary work in China. By the time of his death in 1610 many Christian communities had been established and a church built in Peking.

The Italian botanist and physician Andrea Cesalpino improves the classification of plants in his De plantis libri XVI. He also carries out research into the circulation of blood in humans.

1585

The English adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh establishes a colony in North America, naming it Virginia in honour of the Queen. Both this and a second attempt in 1587 end in failure.

1586

1588

The Babington Plot, one of many Catholic conspiracies to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, is uncovered. Mary Queen of Scots is implicated, tried for treason, and executed in 1587.

El Greco, the Cretan artist who worked in Toledo, Spain, paints one of his masterpieces, The Burial of Count Orgaz. His unique style makes him one of Spain's greatest painters.

The Spanish Armada, sent to invade England, is badly damaged by an English fleet at Calais and Gravelines and, making for home, is hit by a violent storm in the North Sea.

The French writer and humanist Michel de Montaigne, publishes more of his Essais, a new literary form invented by him to express his thoughts on a large number of subjects.

About this time, Christopher Marlowe, the English dramatist, writes his masterpiece,

Doctor Faustus. He is the first to make effective use of blank verse when producing plays.

1591

1592

AXMoroccan army, equipped with firearms, crosses the Sahara and overthrows the Songhai Empire. It easily wins the Battle of Tondibi and goes on to capture Timbuktu and Gao.

Thexruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum near Naples, buried twenty feet deep since a massive eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, are at last discovered, but excavation in earnest does not begin until 1748 (G2).

1596

The English poet Edmund Spenser completes his allegorical poem The Faerie Queene. A friend of the poet Sir Philip Sidney, his work greatly influenced the style of English poetry.

1598

The Edict of Nantes ends the long civil war in France by granting the Huguenots a large measure of religious and political freedom, but the settlement is not destined to last long.

A third rebellion having broken out in Ireland, Hugh O'Neil, the Earl of Tyrone, defeats the English at the Battle of Yellow Ford. The Earl of Essex is despatched to crush the uprising.

Spanish settlers found the colony of New Mexico and, later, make Santa Fe the capital. The Pueblo People are subdued, and Franciscans attempt to convert them to Christianity.

1599

The brilliant English dramatist and poet, William Shakespeare, writes Julius Caesar, one of his best known plays. His comedies and tragedies in blank verse are destined to become known throughout the world.

The Globe Theatre, where many of Shakespeare's play are performed, is built on the south bank of the Thames in the London district of Southwark. It is destroyed by fire in 1613, but rebuilt the following year.

The rebel Italian artist Michelangelo Caravaggio begins work on three paintings of the life of St. Matthew. Although highly unconventional, these bring him fame and fortune.

1600

William Gilbert, the first English scientist to accept the Copernican theory of the universe, pioneers work into the nature of magnetism and electricity. He coins the word "electric".

The English East India Company is founded and plays a major part in Indian history over the next 250 years. The Dutch company, formed 2 years later, dominates the spice trade.

1603

Elizabeth I dies of old age at Richmond House after a reign of 44 years.

On her deathbed she nods her assent to the succession of the

King of Scotland, James VI, as James I.

Acknowledgements

Elizabeth I: c1600, artist unknown – National Portrait Gallery, London. Duke of Anjou: by the English miniaturist painter Nicholas Hilliard (C1547-1619), c1577 – Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Lord Burleigh: detail, c1585, possibly by the court painter Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c1561-1636) – National Portrait Gallery, London. Elizabeth I: by the court painter Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (c1561-1636), 1595 – Folgers Shakespeare Library, Washington, but privately owned. Coat of Arms: licensed under Creative Commons. Author: Sodacan – https://commons.wikimedia.org.

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xxxxxThe Elizabethan Age is seen as one of triumph for England. The defeat of the Spanish Armada, the daring exploits of seafarers like Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh, the growing prosperity, and the bursting into flower of English literature via the quills of brilliant writers like Marlowe, Shakespeare and Spenser, provide just cause for national pride. But, in truth, Elizabeth's reign was beset with troubles. The religious divide meant that her throne was constantly under attack by Catholics, and this danger spilled over into foreign affairs. For many years the country lived in constant fear of a Spanish invasion, actively encouraged by the pope, and this fear continued into the 1590s despite the victory of 1588. And her later years were marred by lack of money, disputes with parliament, and the rebellion led by her one-time favourite the Earl of Essex. She concurred in his execution, but she never got over his death.

xxxxxElizabeth was born at Greenwich. She was an intelligent child, and received a good education, notably at the hands of her tutor Robert Ascham. During the reign of her half sister Mary, a staunch Roman Catholic, she was constantly under suspicion of supporting the Protestant cause. On one occasion she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, having thought to be implicated in the Wyatt Rebellion. She came near to execution, but without substantial evidence against her, Mary feared that her death would bring a popular uprising. For the most part, however, she lived in seclusion at Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

xxxxxWhen Elizabeth came to the throne, she was determined to return the country to the Protestant faith. She did this in 1559 by a series of measures within a Religious Settlement. This included the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, the Articles of Faith (reduced from 52 to 39), and the introduction of the Elizabethan prayer book. Her reforms, in general, were moderate, but nonetheless, she was caught between a rock and a hard place. If her measures against the Catholics were too stringent, she faced the danger of rebellion and plots against her. Ifxthey were too lenient she attracted the wrath of the extreme Protestants, the Puritans. They were growing in number, strengthened by Calvinist refugees from Flanders, and quite prepared to attack the established Church in their Marprelate Tracts of 1588 and 1599. ThexPolitie of 1593, a reasoned defence of the Church of England by the outstanding theologian of this time, Richard Hooker (1554-1600), was aimed not only at Roman Catholicism, but also at the growing threat of Puritanism.

xxxxxThis delicate balancing act was made the more difficult by the presence of Mary Queen of Scots, grandniece of Henry VIII. As a Roman Catholic, she was seen by Catholics at home and those in exile abroad as the rightful Queen of England. Indeed, the marriage between Elizabeth's parents, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, had been declared illegal by Henry VIII himself! And matters became even worse when Mary took refuge in England in 1568 and became a virtual prisoner of the Queen she aimed to replace. A series of plots against the throne followed, the most serious ones being a Catholic uprising in the North in 1569, the Ridolfi Plot of 1571, and the Throgmorton Plot of twelve years later. By the early 1580s Jesuits were being smuggled into England to lead a countrywide rebellion. Two such missionaries, Edmund Campion and Robert Southwell were caught and executed, their martyrdom only serving to fan the flames of Catholic opposition. In 1587 the government - in the person of the Queen's secretary Sir Francis Walsingham - was determined to bring about Mary's downfall. In that year he engineered the Babington Plot and, intercepting letters sent by her to the conspirators, confirmed her complicity. Elizabeth hesitated, but had no real alternative but to execute her cousin and rid the country of this persistent danger.

xxxxxFor the Catholics, the death of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 meant that armed intervention was the only way to bring England back to the Catholic fold. The Spanish armada, under preparation for some years, was prepared for sail. That Elizabeth had managed to keep at peace with her European neighbours for so long is a credit to her subtle diplomacy. She had made peace with France in 1559, and by holding out the prospect of marriage to the rulers of hostile states, she kept them ever hopeful and ever at bay. She did at one time come close to marrying the Duke of Anjou, but she changed her mind overnight, putting country before herself. In any case, she had no desire to share her power. But the peace she secured was really war on her terms. She gave a nod and a wink to sea adventurers who raided Spanish colonies and looted Spanish ships, she assisted the Protestant cause in France, and she did not hesitate to give secret support to the Dutch in their fight against their Spanish overlords. It was not until 1585, in fact, following the assassination of William of Orange, that she came out in the open, sending an army to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of Leicester to take on the Spaniards.

xxxxxThe defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 put an end to external danger on a large scale - though this was not realised at the time - but at home troubles continued to mount. Elizabeth had made peace with the Scots early on by the Treaty of Edinburgh, but there was bitter opposition to Protestantism in Ireland. Having already had difficulty in suppressing revolts in 1562 and 1569, the rebellion of 1594 was not overcome before the English suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Catholics in 1598. Atrocities on both sides left a legacy of hate and suspicion. And as Elizabeth grew older, the power of parliament grew stronger, anticipating the struggle to come between parliament and the Stuarts. The final blow came with the weak attempt of the Earl of Essex to overthrow the Queen he had served with so little success and with such a high hand. Despite his failings, the nation admired him and Elizabeth clearly adored him.

xxxxxDuringxher reign, the Queen clearly had favourites among her courtiers - young men like Leicester, Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh whom she admired for their dash and daring - but she had in her principal secretary Sir Francis Walsingham (1573-1590) and in her chief advisor, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (1558-1598) (here illustrated), two loyal and exceptionally able servants who contributed greatly to the success of her reign. But she more than played her part. Vain and capricious she might well have been, but she was a most remarkable woman, intelligent, astute, brave and literally wedded to her country. Her impassioned speech to her troops at Tilbury, given, in fact, after the failure of the Spanish Armada of 1588 (there were two others), could be taken straight out of one of Shakespeare's historical plays: I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too. Little wonder that she inspired a national spirit. Likewise in her so-called Golden Speech to parliament in November 1601, a resumé of the history of her reign, she herself voiced the nation's tribute to her:

Though God has raised me high, yet this I account the glory

of my Crown, that I have reigned with your loves ... And though

you have had, and may have, many mightier and wiser princes ...

yet you never had, nor shall have, any that will love you better.

xxxxxBut, fine speeches aside, the last decade of this reign was a troubled one. The Queen herself was failing in health, there were rumours of corruption amongst her senior ministers, and the country was beset with a series of bad harvests and a rising level of inflation. The unemployment and hardship this caused proved too widespread for the Church to handle, and the Poor Law of 1601, which instructed parishes to levy taxes for poor relief and provide work for the able-bodied, only went part of the way to meet the problem.

xxxxxAnd then, of course, there was anxiety over the succession. Although James VI of Scotland was likely to succeed, Elizabeth had always refused to appoint her successor, and it was left to her Secretary of State, Sir Robert Cecil, to enter into secret correspondence with him. It was not until the Queen was on her deathbed that his name was mentioned and she nodded her approval. She died at Richmond House in the early hours of the 14th of March, 1603.