Summary
GCSE Early Elizabethan England summary
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- GCSE History
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- GCSE History
Summary of the Early Elizabethan England part of Edexcel GCSE history paper 2 exam.
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Elizabeth’s challenges when she first became Queen1. Religious Division
- C → Henry VIII → Edward VI (P) → Mary I (C) → Elizabeth I (P)
i.e. confusion between catholicism (C) and protestantism (P) → unstable
- Many people including powerful nobles remained Catholic
→ possibly leading to religious civil wars, or invasion from Catholic Spain and
France, as English Catholics attempt to remove her from the throne
2. Financial weakness
- Elizabeth inherited £300 000 debt, partly due to war with France
- Continuous bad harvests -> rising food prices and lowering wages
People were going to blame Elizabeth and it was going to drain the monarch
but luckily, harvests became good the year she became queen in 1558
- Asking the parliament for money would have asked for more power in return
3. Choice of councillors
- The privy council consisted of powerful nobles who would advise her on both
domestic and foreign policies, she had to choose loyal and supportive men
- but also not make enemies by not choosing certain people in the process.
4. Legitimacy
- Her parents’ (Henry VIII and Anne Boelyn) marriage was not recognised by the
catholics. Elizabeth had never been blessed by the Pope and was declared
illegitimate by Henry when he beheaded her mother.
- Catholics considered her to be illegitimate and would prefer Mary Queen of Scots
to be queen of England, Elizabeth’s catholic cousin
- Protestants recognised the fact that Henry declared her legitimate again
5. Gender
- Women were considered inferior to men physically, intellectually and emotionally,
therefore too weak to be a monarch, who would need to keep powerful nobles
under control, make hard decisions, declare war and lead armies into battle
- This idea was affirmed by the disastrous reign of Mary I
6. Marriage and succession
- Some wanted her to marry quickly and hand off power to her husband, which she
didn’t want to do, and she never did, hence her title, the Virgin Queen
- It was also expected of her to give birth to an heir to continue the Tudor reign
7. Challenges from abroad
- Elizabeth feared a religious crusade led by Spain and France against England to
restore Catholicism, and Mary Queen of Scots, who married the heir to the French
throne (Scotland, with French soldiers stationed in it, shared a border with
England), would replace her as queen, with support from the English catholics
- Peace was signed with France in January 1559, giving up Calais, but England was
only fighting because of Mary’s marriage to the king of Spain and by 1558,
England could no longer afford to send aid to Spain
Yellow = problem
_____ = possible consequences to avoid
, The Religious Settlement of 1559
Act of Supremacy
● Aimed to achieve religious stability and give Elizabeth control over the church
● Gave her the title Supreme Governor, without explicitly calling herself the head of the
English Church to satisfy Catholics who view the Pope as the Head of Church
● Required churchmen and people holding public office to swear the Oath of Supremacy,
to recognise the Queen as Supreme Governor and promise their loyalty
Act of Uniformity
● Reforms were made to make churches more protestant
○ Compulsory attendance to church, not attending can result in being fined
○ Preachers needed a licence to preach and must preach at least once a
month
○ A Protestant Prayer Book (Book of Common Prayer) was issued, and had to
be used in all churches
○ Church services must be in English
○ Every parish must have a Bible in English (instead of Latin)
● Concessions were made to win the support of Catholics
○ Churches were allowed to keep ornaments and decoration
○ Singing of hymns was also allowed to be continued
○ Bread and wine continued to be offered during Holy Communion, with the
reasons for it left deliberately vague
○ Priests had to wear a surplice, although Puritans preferred plain black
gowns
○ Secret Catholic services not interfered as long as they kept up appearances
Puritan challenge against the Religious Settlement
Why did Puritans dislike Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement?
- Bishops ran the Church, as that implied hierarchy in the Church
- The Queen as Supreme Governor, they didn’t believe one should be above another
- Catholic appearance of the new Church
- Catholic vetements, seen as showing off with fancy clothes, therefore vain and
sinful
- Catholic wording in the Book of Common Prayer
The Crucifix controversy
● To Puritans, crucifixes represented idols, worshipping idols was forbidden
● Elizabeth wanted each Church to display a crucifix, Puritan bishops therefore
threatened to resign, the queen backed down because there weren’t yet enough
Protestant clergymen to replace bishops who would resign
The Vestment controversy
● Elaborate vestments suggested that priests were set apart from ordinary people,
that was the Catholic belief, Puritans believed priests’ clothing should be plain and
simple
● The majority of priests consented to wearing special vestments despite opposition
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