(Drivebycuriosity) - Queen Elizabeth I belongs to the best known persons in history. How did she become so famous? The biography "Elizabeth I" by Anne Somerset (674 pages amazon) gives an impression.
Elizabeth suffered a traumatic childhood. She was 3 years old when her mother, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, got divorced and executed, what turned Elizabeth into a bastard, an illegitimate child. As she reached adulthood her life became endangered by her half-sister Queen Mary. The fundamentalist Catholic, known as "Bloody Mary", who had for a short time been been married with a Spanish prince, imported the Spanish inquisition to England and tried to burn all heretics, all people who weren´t fanatic Catholics like her. Elizabeth, who was a member of the Protestant Church, founded by her father, was for some days thrown into the tower, which functioned as a prison, but Mary´s early death saved her finally.
In the year 1958 Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister and became Queen of England in the age of 25. She inherited a messed up country caused by her half-sister`s religious fanaticism and an expensive war against France. Elizabeth struggled during her whole reign with military conflicts in or with Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, France & Spain.
Elizabeth was immense popular and she returned the love of her subjects. Maybe her popularity was based on a pleasant personality. The Queen enjoyed the "bath in the crowd" and liked to tease and to flirt. She indulged into elegant word plays, dancing, fashion & music and she promoted theater (including William Shakespeare). But the Queen also had her dark sides. She enjoyed bear-baiting (the animals got torn apart by packs of dogs) and other kinds of animal cruelty.
The Queen responded extremely harsh to a rebellion in the year 1569. After the rebels' defeat, over 750 of them were executed on her orders. She executed even more people than Henry VIII or her half-sister Mary did after similar rebellions. Many rebels who escaped the execution were only pardoned after paying heavy fines. As a result of forfeitures, or the execution of breadwinners, many families have been rendered destute, and to wander about the countryside begging.
Elizabeth wasn`t a great politician. She often was irresolute & driven by emotions. She seemed to be obsessed with some of her favorites who got away with almost anything, including the Earl of Essex, who later in his career led a rebellion against her (for which he got eventually executed). The Queen frustrated her secretaries, advisers & councillors like William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, and Walsingham, by ignoring their advises or procrastinating her decisions sheer endlessly and often she changed her mind and canceled decisions. It seemed that she felt more enmity towards her councillors than she did against her arch enemy Philip of Spain.
Walsingham noted that her displeasure with her leading advisers "hindered the necessary consiltation that were to be desired for the preventing of the manifest perils that hang over this realm". Elizabeth´s indecision was partly caused by her frugality. She aimed to avoid high expenses - for example for military actions - which would have caused higher taxes (which in turn might have supported her popularity).
Her indecision influenced also her treatments of the sheer endless row of suitors and Elizabeth played games of invitation & refusal with a long list of princes, dukes & kings (including King Phillip King of Spain), almost like a teenage girl. But over the years she groomed more and more her reputation of being a virgin.
Elizabeth also was irresolute treating her cousin Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, who was a thorn in her flesh for many years by claiming to be the righteous Queen of England. The ambitious person had inherited genes of the Guises, a predatory and hyper-catholic French family, who was responsible for the bloodbath on the Huguenots ( a French group of Protestants). Mary had been for a short time also Queen of France by marriage with a French king, who died early. Later she was accused to be involved in a conspiracy to murder her second husband. She married an alleged accomplice in this murder case who has abducted and allegedly raped her. The mess she had created in Scotland forced her to flee to England where she stayed years in custody of Elizabeth. Mary continued there to conspire against Elizabeth, using her connections to the kings of France & Spain. For a long time Elizabeth hesitated and treated her cousin as an equal monarch but because of the growing dangers - caused by Maria´s continuous conspiracies - she reluctantly ordered her execution.
Elizabeth`s regency - and England - benefited of course form many others. Sir Francis Drake, who turned from being a pirate into an admiral, was most remarkable. He weakened the arch enemy Spain with his frequent raids on Spanish colonies like Panama and later on the Spanish coast. Drake sank many Spanish ships and extracted a lot Spanish possessions of gold, silver and other valuable which filled the war chests of England and her queen. Drake `s exploits helped boost the nation´s morale, and promoted a spirits of national self-confidence and pride in the skill and daring of English seaman that would do much to sustain the country in the coming struggle with Spain.
England was well prepared for the attack of the Spanish Armada. Over years King Phillip had been bragging about conquering England and bringing the "heretic bastard" out of business. The formation of the huge fleet was not unnoticed and caused a lot preparations in England. The British developed ships which could move more flexible than the Spanish boats and the English canons had a longer reach so they could damage the Spanish fleet without being hit themselves. Thanks to these technological innovations the English fleet could harm the Armada considerably and just a small part of ships & soldiers could return to Spain.
It is an open question of Elizabeth was either a lover of peace & harmony or weak & incompetent. She possessed certainly intelligence, charm and willpower and she had a lot luck by having a long life, strong health, support of competent people and being able to avoid to be assassinated or executed.
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