FREE ESSAY ON QUEEN ELIZABETH I

QUEEN ELIZABETH I

Queen Elizabeth & Her Explorers
(1558-1603) 
Princess Elizabeth, a slender, athletic, extremely 
intelligent young woman, recieved an ideal Rennaissance 
education in Latin, Greek and modern languages, in history 
and Scripture. As Henry VIII's second eldest child, shunted 
back to third in line for the throne by the complex politics 
of the period, she also had a very practical education in 
political intrigue - and the fine art of political survival. 
She came in 1558 to the royal throne shaken by a decade of 
misgovernment, religious fanaticism, and economic problems. 
She proceeded to give England 45 years of strong government, 
moderate religious policies, and unexplained prosperity.
Elizabeth was a prudent ruler. She avoided costly 
wars, however, supported the war with Ireland. "The 
creation of this English colony (Ireland) led to the 
expansion of markets for English goods and the growth in 
imports of desirable commodities." Elizabeth sought for 
religious compromise rather than religious crusades, worked 
through her appointed ministers, and dealt firmly with an 
increasingly vocal Parliament. She was well served by 
lifelong royal counselors such as Lord Treasurer Burghley 
and veteran warriors such as Francis Drake. She was less 
well supported by dashing younger cavaliers such as the 
Earl of Essex.
"Queen Elizabeth supported colonization ventures only 
if they did not detract from what she believed was the 
primary purpose of her government: to defend the nation and 
its territory and to consolidate royal authority within the 
realm. She was much more concerned with with preventing 
invasions of Scotland and Ireland and protecting the 
English Channel against the Armada, the Spanish Fleet that 
threatened English ships on the high seas.
But her government's hesitance ebbed after the English 
gained access to the seas with their seemingly miraculous 
victory over the Spanish in 1588. From that point on, the 
conditions were ripe for colonizing North America." She 
supported Martin Frobisher's expeditions. England was 
still too weak to challenge Spain openly, but Elizabeth 
hoped to break the Spanish overseas monopoly just the same. 
She encouraged her boldest sea dogs to plunder Spanish 
merchant ships on the high seas. When Captain Francis Drake 
was about to set sail on his famous round-the-world voyage 
in 1577, she said to him: "Drake! ... I would gladly be 
revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that I 
have recieved." Drake took her at her word. He sailed 
through the Strait of Magellan and terrorized the west 
coast of South America, capturing the Spanish treasure 
ship, Cacafuego, heavily ladden with Peruvian silver. After 
exploring the coast of California, which he claimed for 
England, Drake crossed the Pacific and went on to 
circumnavigate the globe, returning home in triumph in 1580. 
Although Elizabeth took pains to deny it to the Spanish 
ambassador, Drake's voyage was officially sponsored.
When schemes to place settlers in the New World began 
to mature at about this time, the queen again became 
involved. The first effort was led by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 
an Oxford educated soldier and courtier with a with a 
lifelong interest in far-off places. Gilbert owned a share 
of the Muscovy Company; as early as 1566, he was trying to 
get a royal grant for an expedition in search of the 
northeast passage to the Orient. But soon his interests 
concentrated on the northwest route. He read widely in 
navigational and geographical lore and in 1576 wrote a 
persuasive, Discourse ... to prove a passage by the north 
west to Cathaia. Two years later, Queen Elizabeth 
authorized him to explore and colonize "heathen lands not 
actually possessed by any Christian prince." Nothing was 
recorded about his first attempt in 1578-1579; in 1583 he 
set sail again with five ships and over 200 settlers. He 
landed them on Newfoundland, then evidentally decided to 
seek a more congenial site farther south. However, no 
colony was established, and on his way back to England his 
ship went down in a storm off the Azores.
Gilbert's half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, took up his 
work. Raleigh was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. He sent a 
number of expeditions to explore the east coast of North 
America, a land he named Virginia after his unmarried 
sovereign. In 1585, he settled about a hundred men on 
Roanoke Island, but these settlers returned home the next 
year. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to Roanoke. 
Unfortunately, the supply ships sent to the colony in 1588 
failed to arrive; when help did get there in 1590, not a 
soul could be found.
One reason for the delay in getting aid to the Roanoke 
colonists was the attack of the Spanish Armada on England in 
1588. Angered by English raids on his shipping and by the 
assistance Elizabeth was giving to the rebels in the 
Netherlands, King Philip II had decided to invade England. 
His motives were religious as well as political and 
economical, for England was now seemingly committed to 
Protestantism. His great fleet of some 130 ships bore huge 
crosses on the sails as if on another crusade. The Armada 
carried 30,000 men and 2,400 guns, the largest naval ever 
assembled up to that time. However, the English fleet badly 
mauled this armada, and a series of storms completed this 
destruction. Thereafter, although the war continued and 
Spanish sea pwer remained formidable, Spain could no longer 
block English penetration of the New World.
Elizabeth's long reign were graced by a scintillating 
galaxy of poets and playwrights, of whom Shakespeare was only 
the best known. But these years - the 1580's and 1590's - 
also saw increasing political intrigue at court. Moreover, 
religious extremism, both Protestant and Catholic, emerged 
in the nation. These religious extremists found Elizabeth 
hard to live with, and young men eager for war called her 
timid. But they called her Gloriana to her face. At last, 
England was involved in a war of religion.
Experience had shown that the cost of planting 
settlements in a wilderness 3,000 miles from England was 
more than any individual purse could bear. As early as 
1584, Richard Hakluyt, England's foremost authority on the 
Americas, made a convincing case for royal aid. In his 
Discourse on Western Planting, he stressed the military 
advantages of building " two or three strong fortes" along 
the Atlantic coast of North America. Ships operating from 
such bases would make life uncomfortable for "King Phillipe" 
by intercepting his treasure fleets.Colonies in America 
would also enrich the mother country by expanding the market 
of English woolens, bringing in valuable tax revenues, and 
by providing employment for the swarms of "lustie youths 
that be turned to no provitable use" at home. From the 
great American forests would come the timber and naval 
stores needed to build a bigger navy and merchant marine.
Queen Elizabeth read Hakluyt's essay, but she was too 
cautious and too devious to act boldly on his suggestions. 
Only after her death in 1603 did full-scale efforts to 
found English colonies in America begin, and even then the 
organizing force came from the merchant capitalists, not 
from the Crown. Elizabeth herself perferred guile to 
force. She was a past mistress to public relations, 
alternately charming and terrifying her friends and her 
enemies, her ministers, 
courtiers and subjects.
England was a nation dazzled by Queen Elizabeth I, 
her splendid court and costumes and cowed by the stamp of 
an indignant royal foot. And she has been Good Queen 
Bess ever since - England's greatest and best-loved 
ruler . . . Queen Elizabeth I.