Elizabeth I, Queen of England

Now that Elizabeth was queen of England, she had a lot of hard challenges in front of her. England in 1559 was weak and unstable. The treasury did not have much money. Powerful countries like Spain and France were a threat. And then a lot of people had been killed because of religion.

Remember, Henry VIII, Elizabeth's father had broken away from the Catholic church and made his own church in which he was in charge. He called it the Church of England. Now that she was Queen Elizabeth, she was also the head of the Church of England. She had to make sure that everyone was a member of the Church of England so that they would be loyal to her. But, unlike her sister Mary, she said she did not want to make “windows into men's souls”. As long as the people were loyal to her, she would not force anyone to do anything.

Queen Elizabeth had a bad temper and a strong will. But she was very careful and not willing to make quick, sudden decisions on big things.

But the big question was marriage. Queen Elizabeth was a woman so naturally she had to get married. Who would it be? Monarchs did not marry for love, but for power. The match had to be right for England so that it could be strengthened and not weakened. Elizabeth was very clever. She had many offers of marriage and she stalled for years and years, waiting to make a decision. Everyone wanted her to get married so that she could have children and secure a successor for the future of England. But Elizabeth only pretended to be interested in marriage.

By pretending, Elizabeth was able to protect her country from powerful European nations that could harm a weakened England. There was no way she would ever marry someone who had invaded her country! It was a smart strategy...and it worked.

To the north of England was Scotland. Unlike today, back in Elizabethan times, Scotland was an independent country and England was always trying to invade it and take it over. The Scottish wanted help to keep the English out, so they looked to France for aid. Soon after Elizabeth was crowned queen, Scotland got a new queen as well, Mary Stuart. She was known as Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary and Elizabeth were related. They were cousins!

Mary was related to Henry VIII and had a claim to the English throne. And Mary Stuart was a Catholic. Many Catholics wanted Mary to be the queen for that very reason. She thought she should be queen of England as well. But Mary was not very popular in Scotland. She angered the people by marrying someone they did not like. The Scottish rebelled and Mary fled Scotland on horseback in the middle of the night. She ended up in England and asked Queen Elizabeth for protection.

Elizabeth didn't like Mary, but she agreed to help another queen-a queen who was her cousin. Mary lived in England for the next 19 years. But Elizabeth kept guards on her so that she wouldn't start a rebellion against Elizabeth. And boy, was she right. Mary was trying to stir up a rebellion so that she could take the throne from Elizabeth. Spies were able to find proof because Mary had been sneaking letters out of her castle in beer barrels.

Elizabeth was furious! The rebels' leader was put to death. But what would Elizabeth do about Mary? Mary was put on trial and found guilty of treason. Elizabeth only had to sign the death warrant, but she hesitated for days. She didn't particularly like Mary Stuart, but she didn't want to kill a queen.

In the end, Elizabeth signed the warrant, and Mary, Queen of Scots was executed. This did not go over well in Spain. They already didn't like the English because they had broken away from the Catholic church and were big rivals with Spain. King Philip (the guy who was married to Bloody Mary and then wanted to marry Elizabeth) needed some kind of excuse to invade England, and with the execution of a fellow Catholic, Mary Stuart, it was the excuse he needed. He sent a huge fleet of ships, called an Armada, to invade England in 1588.

 

The Spanish had a powerful navy because of their many successes in exploration, thanks to men like Christopher Columbus, De Soto, and such. It did not look good for England. They did not have nearly as many ships. The sea battle lasted for days. But luck was with the English. First, they burned some of the enemy ships. Then a great storm came through the English Channel. Spanish ships crashed against the rocks and were destroyed.

 

It was a great moment for England. The storm was seen as a blessing from God. Elizabeth had shown that she, a woman, could fight a war as well as any king. The English navy had proven itself by defeating the powerful Armada. In the coming years, England would rule the seas with its great navy.

It was a turning point in the history of the world.