Significant situation essay = Religion.
Describe the ways in which the Elizabethan Religious Settlement was
challenged between 1559-1603. Evaluate the impact of these challenges
upon English people between 1559-1603.
REMEMBER !!!! 3 KEY PARTS of ESSAY
1. Describe the situation IN CONTEXT
2. Analyse continuity and change (did the situation change over time
period or not?)
3. Evaluate influence of the situation on people (what effect did it have on
people’s lives !!)
Model essay - WHAT’s GOOD and BAD?
Throughout the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and in the first few years of James
I’s reign, England was faced with many religious challenges from the Catholic
population, both internally and externally. There were the plots of the late
1560’s and 1580’s, fuelled by the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots in England;
the arrival of Catholic missionaries in the 1570’s; foreign policy-related
challenges to religious standing, such as the threat posed by the Spanish
Armada of 1588, the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France in 1572 and
the challenges from Ireland between 1598 and 1603; as well as the papal bull
of 1570. In the reign of James I, the Gunpowder plot of 1605 was the only real
Catholic challenge to the established religious order (i.e. the Elizabethan
settlement of 1559) in England.
In 1559 Queen Elizabeth I’s Acts of Uniformity and Supremacy were designed
to take a ‘middle path’ on religion. The monarch hoped that the settlement
would find favour with both the Protestant and the Catholic population of
England. The Protestants were not best pleased with the settlement, but it
was the Catholics, through their actions over the next twenty-eight years, who
would cause Elizabeth the biggest headache in matters of religion.
The first of many plots against Elizabeth, fuelled by Mary Queen of Scots’
arrival in England in 1568, and her popularity, was the revolt of the Northern
Earls in 1569. Headed by the Duke of Norfolk, as well as those of
Northumberland and Westmorland, its purpose was to get Elizabeth to name
Mary as her successor. The Earl of Sussex was sent to deal with the rebellion
and Elizabeth had Northumberland executed as an outcome.
Norfolk met his match two years later when his plot with the Italian banker
Ridolfi was discovered and he was imprisoned and later executed. The Ridolfi
plot of 1571 aimed to put Mary on the throne – which would be made
available with the assassination of Elizabeth. This was also the aim of two
more plots, one involving Francis Throckmorton in 1583 and the other
spearheaded by Francis Babington in 1586. The Throckmorton plot was not
very successful as Throckmorton was found out through his contacts with the
Spanish ambassador at the time. Babington in 1586 sent a score of letters,
written in invisible ink, to Mary, who was in prison, outlining the plans for
rebellion. Both Babington and Mary were found out and were executed in
1586 and 1587 respectively.
Foreign policy in Elizabethan England often narrowly linked with religion.
Elizabeth had made peace with Scotland through the 1560 Treaty of
Edinburgh and had expelled French influence in Scotland. This may have
inspired the French Protestants (Huguenots) to rise up against the Catholic
monarchy in France during the 1560’s.
Catherine de Medici of France blamed the English for the Protestant
movement in France. This view turned both Protestant and Catholic French
against the English and it took months of negotiations in 1568 by Sir Francis
Walsingham to make peace again with France. The St Bartholomew’s Day
massacre of Huguenots by Catholics in 1572, only caused more frustration in
England.
Elizabeth’s decision in 1585 to send official help to the Dutch Protestants in
their struggle against the governing Spanish Catholics in the Netherland
added another chapter to the issue of Catholicism. The Earl of Leicester, who
was Elizabeth’s favourite, gained influence with a number of Protestants in
Parliament (especially Knollys and Walsingham) as well as with Elizabeth,
and so was able to stage a successful campaign against the Spanish Duke of
Parma to restore Protestantism in the Netherlands. This led to Philip II of
Spain attempting to defeat Elizabeth by sending an armada (fleet of ships) in
1588 to conquer England. The Armada failed, and with victory, Elizabeth’s
prestige increased dramatically. Further armadas sent by Philip later in the
century all failed.
Ireland was a growing hotbed of Catholicism that Elizabeth had to subdue
between 1598 and 1603. With the Spanish threat under control, the lack of
English control over the Pale (area around Dublin) caused Elizabeth to send
troops under Essex to subdue the powerful Earl of Tyrone, who was Catholic.
Essex failed miserably in this task and made peace with Tyrone in 1601. This
led to a chain of events culminating in the execution of Essex. The English
eventually gained control of Ireland in 1603.
The Papal Bull Regnans in Excelcis of 1570 is a separate event. It caused
Elizabeth to learn where she stood with Rome. In brief, Pope Pius V issued a
Papal Bull in 1570 declaring Elizabeth a heretic and this forced English
Catholics to choose where their loyalty lay, between their faith and the Queen.
The passing of the Papal Bull led to missionaries being sent to England to
strengthen English Catholics in their faith. The missionaries worked from safe
houses and declared the only true Catholics to be the recusants. This caused
Elizabeth to increase the recusancy fine to twenty pounds a month and the
Bond of Association, set up by patriotic Englishmen to avenge Elizabeth in the
event of her assassination, was given legitimacy by Parliament and resulted in
missionary priests being tortured and executed. Father Edmund Campion was
one missionary who was put to death in 1581.
King James I had a rather tolerant view of Catholics and hated anti-Catholic
extremists. However, he was a staunch Anglican and accepted the Puritan
Millenary Petition of 1604. (Millenary – means 1000 – 1000 Puritan Ministers
signed it – asking for changes in church structure) This upset many Catholics
– one of whom was Guy Fawkes – who plotted to blow up the Parliament
buildings in 1605. He was caught in the basement of Parliament on the night
of 5 November 1605, with barrels of dynamite, and was later executed for his
part in the plot.
Despite his tolerance, James needed the recusancy fines as a source of
finance, so did not let up on that form of punishment of Catholics.
The Catholic challenges from 1559 to 1605 (e.g. the Spanish Armada,
missionaries in the 1570’s) were a danger to the English kingdom as well as
to the monarchy personally, as both Elizabeth and James found out in the
light of various plots against them. From the 1970s on there was a general
view among historians that Catholics in early modern England posed a threat
to more than just the monarchy, and I concur with this view. The efficiency of
the system of the Monarch-in-Parliament helped to subdue such challenges.
Elizabeth did not change her position on Catholics but James I was fairly
tolerant.