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Introduction

Elizabeth I How important were Mary Queen of Scot's own actions in bringing about her execution? I think that some of Mary Stuart's actions were extremely important in bringing about her execution. For example Mary Queen of Scot's would have faced no threat of execution from Elizabeth if she had never landed in England. Mary Stuart would have also been perceived as being less of a threat to Elizabeth in the respect of her claim to the throne if she had desisted in writing to Elizabeth instructing her to name Mary as her heir, which Elizabeth would have found impossible to do because of the pressure placed upon her by the English Protestants, as they would have found their Queen naming a Catholic as her heir to the throne completely unacceptable. It was not just Mary Queen of Scot's fault that she was such an imminent threat to Elizabeth's supremacy. There were still many Catholics in England that did not believe Elizabeth to be the rightful ruler of England, and that Mary Stuart had a superior claim to the throne in comparison to the so called "bastard queen". Also, when the Pope ex-communicated Elizabeth, the English Catholics were implored to do all they could to either remove her from the throne, or make her reign as difficult as possible. This, combined with increasing support for a catholic monarch from England's closest enemies, particularly Spain, may have forced Elizabeth to begin to think more about have Mary executed, though she found thinking of this difficult, Mary being her cousin. ...read more.

Middle

This was mainly due to the encouragement they received from people like Price Henry of Portugal. He believed that the people of Portugal should make use of the new navigational instruments and new, faster ships to discover new lands, which could bring wealth to the country. After the collapse of the cloth trade England was forced to look for new means of wealth. This resulted in merchants having to find new markets for their goods and this inevitably involved them travelling to new parts of the world. There were a number of recognised English explorers, the best known of these were; John Hawkins, Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. John Hawkins was known for slave trading. On a number of his voyages, he would capture people from West Africa, store them on board his ships, sail to Spanish settlements in South America and sell them as slaves. This was just the start of Hawkins encroachment on Spanish trading, which finally resulted in hostilities from Spanish traders and the Spanish Navy. Even though Hawkins did not make huge sums of money, for the crown, from his exploits his activities were still encouraged by Queen Elizabeth as his trading with the new Spanish colonies was taking some of the wealth from the Spanish empire which would have been important to the English as it would be killing two birds with one stone, getting money from trading and parting the Spanish with their wealth, the thing that made the Spanish empire so powerful at this time. ...read more.

Conclusion

This is an age celebrated for its theater, music, literature, and natural sciences. It was also a time of expanded sea power, rising prosperity, religious tolerance, and rapid industrial growth. Elizabeth came to the throne at a time of crisis in leadership for England. She "inherited a tattered realm: dissention between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne". Continental pressures added to the complex England that Elizabeth needed to salvage. France had a substantial amount of power already in Scotland and Spain posed an incredible threat to the security of England. How was Elizabeth to change the role of England in the world and lead the nation through this time of turmoil into a new age of progress and innovation? Luckily, Elizabeth came to the throne as an already intelligent, well educated, and determined woman. She was fluent in six languages and inherited the intelligence, determination, and shrewdness of her parents. Elizabeth used her wisdom and strong will to overcome the challenges that stood in her way of uniting England under strong rule of the British monarchy. Her first issue at hand was the elimination of religious unrest. During her reign Elizabeth achieved a compromise between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Her constituents accepted this compromise as the basis of their faith. The settlement between the two dominant religions saved England from religious wars like those in France during the second half of the 16th century. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our AS and A Level British History: Monarchy & Politics section.