Foreign policy
1585-1603
France
1589 - Henry of Navarre crowned Henry IV - Protestant
- Opposition from the french Catholic league (Phillip II funded)
- He appeals to Elizabeth, she sends 4000 troops and £35,000
1590 - Phillip II orders Spanish troops in the Netherlands to move to the French border
- Elizabeth gives £10,000 to Henry IV
1591 - Elizabeth sends a further 3,000 troops
1592 - further 5,200 troops
1593 - Henry converts to Catholicism
- Elizabeth still supports him as Henry can unify France thus getting rid of the danger
of the Catholic league
1595 - English troops withdraw from France
1596 - English troops return to France when Henry’s war with Spain goes very badly
1598 - France makes peace with Spain, England excluded
Spain
1585 - Elizabeth sends troops to Netherlands under command of Earl of Leicester
1587 - it is a failure
- However… Francis Drake’s attack on Cadiz, v important port for Spain, many
Spanish ships damaged
1588 - Spanish Armada
- July - fleets enter the English Channel
- Battle of Gravelines - Spanish attempt to invade England, are defeated
1589 - Drake and Norris in charge of considerable invasion
- Essex joins mission against Elizabeth’s wishes
- Aim - to encourage revolt in Portugal against Phillip
- Elizabeth contributes £49,000, 19,000 soldiers and 4,000 sailors
- They ignored orders to attack the Spanish fleet and set sail for the Azores, failed to
capture any treasure and 11,000 died
1597 - Second Spanish Armada - fails due to bad weather
Ireland
1593 - rebellion of Hugh O’Neill
1598 - Tyrone defeats 4000 English men at Battle of yellow ford
1599 - Essex sent to Ireland w 16,000 infantry and 1300 cavalry - achieved nothing and
made a truce with Tyrone (not authorised to do this)
Scotland
Battle of succession
1599 - Lord Mountjoy wrote to James and suggested that supported by Essex and Mountjoy
he should raise troops in Scotland and demand to be named heir (this is technically treason)
1603 - made King of England - James VI
, Social and economic conditions:
What were the causes of economic problems?
Population growth
- 2.2 mil in 1524 to 4.1 mil in 1603
- Grew by 35% in Elizabeth’s reign
➔ Growing inequality between rich + poor
➔ Food shortages
➔ Unemployment
➔ Inflation and fall in wages
Bad harvests
- 1594, 95,96 + 97
- 1597 - worst harvest of the century - bad all across Europe therefore could not buy
grain from abroad
Warfare
- £161,000 defending Spanish Armada
- £424,000 on war in France
- £1,420,000 on war in the Netherlands
- £1,924,000 on Oreland
➔ More taxation eg. Kent had to pay higher tax because of coastal regions
How widespread was the problem?
- At Least 16% in poverty in London in mid 90s
- Mid 90s price of grain doubled
- Price rises + fall in wages
What is the evidence that social distress led to political problems?
Riots and risings
- Grain riots eg. Kent, between 1594-1603 there were 8 riots
- London saw many riots eg. March 1595 in Southwark because there was no fish to
buy
➔ Members involved were very small but the common occurrence was v.
alarming
Rising crime rates
- Especially the rate of theft between 1596-98
- Little work so turned to vagrancy, begging + prostitution
➔ Fear that this criminality was destabling and could then escalate into
something more serious
Military mutinies
- Soldiers pay was delayed and v low weekly payments - led to mutinies eg. London
1589+98
➔ There was no standing army to resist mutinies - the government perceived
this as a real threat
Sedition - actions/speeches deemed disruptive
- £200 fine or ears cut off - could sentence to death
- In the 1590s, may examples of people appearing before magistrates for calling the
Queen a ‘bastard’, ‘whore’, or saying she had illegitimate children
