Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I was the queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

History

Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn. Although she was Henry's second daughter overall, she was born heir presumptive because Mary had technically been disinherited when Henry annulled his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. This did not remain true for long; in 1536, when Elizabeth was two, her mother was executed for treason and her father married Jane Seymour. While she did die in the process, within a year Jane gave birth to a son. Edward VI was immediately recognized as crown prince.

Henry repeatedly interfered in succession law, setting up an inevitable crisis. He twice amended the Act of Succession to disqualify the princesses. Through the Final Act of 1544 he reinstated them and stipulated that, should his children have no heirs, the crown should pass to the line of his sister Mary (same name as his daughter; died in 1533).

Henry died in 1547, leaving the nine year old Edward to inherit. Then Edward's own health began to fail in early 1553. John Dudley, duke of Northumberland and leader of the regency council, particularly wanted to bar Mary (Henry's daughter, who was Catholic) from inheriting. He crafted a legal devise to disinherit both Mary and Elizabeth in favor of Jane Grey. When Edward died in July, Dudley rushed to London. He was extremely influential in court and was able to compel practically most nobles and bishops to sign on to his devise. He was however severely detached from the situation on the ground; Mary and Elizabeth successfully fled London for Norfolk and rallied a decisively large army. Dudley left London leading a small force, and almost immediately the privy council organized a coup against Jane. Henry FitzAlan, earl of Arundel, and William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, are credited with this. The force disbanded and John Dudley was arrested in Cambridge.

Too many members of court had technically supported Jane's claim at one time or another; pragmatically, charges could not be brought against all of them. However, Wyatt's Rebellion broke out early the next year with significant involvement from many of those who had been granted reprieve. A stated goal of this rebellion was to depose Mary in favor of Elizabeth, which led to her being imprisoned in the Tower of London. She was interrogated but never tried, and subsequently removed to indefinite house arrest.

Mary died without an heir in 1558, leaving Elizabeth to inherit. She never married, and therefore had no children of her own to inherit after her. The heir presumptive therefore was Mary, queen of Scots and granddaughter of Henry's eldest sister, Margaret.

Elizabeth restored the Anglican Church that Mary I had dissolved. She was notably granted the title supreme governor rather than supreme head.

She inherited a problem of diminishing control over Ireland. Despite royal laws forbidding immigration by Scots, Scottish-Gaelic clans consolidated power and repudiated the crown. Radclyffe, who had served Mary I as lord deputy of Ireland, was largely unable to subjugate these chiefs and lords, though his second-in-command Sidney did have some success. Elizabeth only briefly retained him as lord lieutenant before rearranging command. She returned Sidney to Ireland in 1565, now as lord deputy himself. He had significant success in implementing surrender and regrant policies; chiefs and lords were compelled to surrender lands to the crown, then granted those same lands within the feudal structure of the English crown. He also enacted widespread violence (e.g., the Rathlin Island massacre, suppression of the First and Second Desmond Rebellion, the Massacre of Mullaghmast, etc.) to maintain command over the territory.

A series of conflicts broke out to the north. A rebellion by the Scottish nobility in 1567 turned into the Marian Civil War. Mary was forced to abdicate the throne, although she escaped her imprisonment the next year and fled to Elizabeth's court. Within England, the Rising of the North broke out in 1569, although it was quickly suppressed. Shortly after, Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her deposed, although he did not go so far as to declare Mary the legitimate queen. Elizabeth responded by intervening in the Marian Civil War. An army was dispatched to complete the Lang Siege of Edinburgh, the last holdout for Mary.

Elizabeth's foreign policy was to remain detached from the continent while countering any rising power. Shortly after the death of William I and as the Spanish seemed near to subjugating the Dutch rebels, she declared war against Philip II and dispatched Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, with an army. She however began to sabotage her own forces by depriving them of supplies after Dudley accepted the title of governor-general. When Henry III died in 1589, the French crown went to the Protestant Henry IV. He immediately was challenged by the Catholic League, as Sixtus V excommunicated him and declared him ineligible. Elizabeth dispatched several armies to support Henry's claim. When he made the case for an offensive war against Philip II however, she refused to join. Only a few years later though, after Calais was captured, she now was in support of a Triple Alliance (i.e., including the Netherlands) to counter Spain.

In 1586, Mary was tried and convicted of treason. She was sentenced to death and executed the next year.

Elizabeth died in 1603.

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