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AQA A Level History Tudors (Elizabethan government) historian's interpretation essay
A* level essay (historian's interpretation) on Elizabethan government.
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Extract 1Elizabeth’s reign was a period of order and good government, such as had not been seen in
England since the 1520s. The Privy Council met twice a week, usually with up to ten of the
courtiers and bureaucrats in attendance. The formal business was dispatched briskly and
only foreign policy issues and the treatment of Mary, Queen of Scots required lengthy
discussion. There were some disagreements amongst councillors, but no struggles for
power. The key members were related, and shared the same ambitions and assumptions.
The queen rarely saw her Council as a whole, and dealt privately with Burghley, Leicester,
Walsingham, Sussex and, later, Hatton, so their leadership was assured. The wider royal
court was dominated by the same individuals and families, and the factionalisation of the
1560s had passed. The parliaments of 1571, 1572, 1576 and 1581 were carefully managed
by the councillors and their agents. It was a narrow, but coherent and effective regime.
Haigh, ‘Politics in an Age of Peace and War, 1570-1630’, 1996
Extract 3
Most accounts of the court have tended to emphasise factional strife and a vicious
atmosphere of place-seeking, enmity and competition surrounding an alternately
goddess-like or hag-like queen. Yet much of the evidence for factional strife has been drawn
from the 1590s and by no means reflects the reality of the previous decades. The court was
never completely free from conflict. But such conflict was less the product of faction among
courtiers than of disputes between an able, charming, yet imperious and idiosyncratic queen,
and councillors and intimates who in general shared a high degree of social, political and
cultural homogeneity. It is not surprising to find some of the strongest criticisms of court life
from men at the centre. Yet compared to that of Henry VIII Elizabeth’s governance was mild
and merciful. Elizabeth may have been imperious, vain and sharp of temper, but she was
unwilling to go to extremes.
Adams, ‘Eliza enthroned? The Court and its politics', 1984
Extract 4
Elizabeth I carefully managed her own policy. As Sir Robert Naunton later explained,
‘Though very capable of counsel, she was absolute enough in her own resolution, which was
apparent, even to her last’. She knew her mind; her instinct to power was infallible. When her
privy councillors tried to manipulate her, they were rarely successful; she would lose her
temper and the matter would rest in abeyance. Yet she repeatedly postponed important
decisions; unless panicked, she could procrastinate for years. Her successive dithering
drove Sir William Cecil to distraction. Francis Bacon put his finger on the essence of
Elizabethan politics: first, that to succeed at court politicians had to pretend to be in love with
the queen; secondly, that the conduct of the ‘game’ of courtship was Elizabeth’s most
effective tool of policy.
Guy, ‘Tudor monarchy and political culture’, 1996
Using your understanding of the historical context, assess how convincing the
arguments in Extracts 1, 3 and 4 are in relation to Elizabethan government.
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