Western History 95: What were the key features of the Reign of Elizabeth I of England?

Together with her father Henry VIII, Elizabeth I was probably the most influential monarch in English history. Elizabeth was born in Greenwich Palace in 1533. She was the daughter of Henry’s second wife Ann Boelyn (who was executed at the Tower of London).  During the reign of Elizabeth’s half-sister Mary (Bloody Mary), Elizabeth was herself imprisoned in the Tower of London. After a year she was freed and then took the throne herself in 1558.

Mary’s reign had witnessed a bloody conflict between Catholic and Protestant elements in England. In 1559 the Elizabethan Religious Settlement re-established Independence of the Church of England from Rome, placed the Monarch as the head of the church and set up a common prayer book. She would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1570.

The reign of Elizabeth would last until her death in 1603 and was personified by the emergence of England as a military, strategic, cultural and economic power coining the phrase – the Elizabethan Era.

Both playwrights William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe would emerge during this time period with Richard Burbage opening the first theatre in England in 1574.

In 1567 Elizabeth faced the challenge from Mary Queen of Scots who was subsequently imprisoned. Mary would be executed at Fotheringay Castle in 1587 after being implicated in the Babbington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth I.

The Northern Rebellion against Elizabeth failed in 1569 and did the Ridolfi (1571) and Babbington (1586) Plots.  

It was during Elizabeth’s reign that Francis Drake would set sail around the world  as English pirates continued to wreak havoc on Spanish shipping going back and forth from the Americas.

England’s survival as a power was put to the test by the Spanish monarch Philip II but his illustrious Armada was defeated in 1588 at a battle that gave birth to the formidable power of the Royal Navy. A Second Armada was beaten in 1597.

Elizabeth passed away in 1603 leaving England in a far stronger position than that which she inherited. She would be succeeded by James I (James VI of Scotland) the son of her arch rival Mary Queen of Scots.