Spain was further infuriated by the activities of the Englishman, John Hawkins, who caused trouble by interfering with the Spain’s Caribbean Trading Monopoly. Elizabeth supported Hawkins’s actions and this infuriated Philip that he blockaded the fleet in the San Juan de Ulua port in Mexico in retaliation, and only two ships were able to escape. This showed the less than stable relations between Spain and England, and both Elizabeth and Philip tried to harass each other. Furthermore, Elizabeth’s strong relations and trade links with the Netherlands also posed a problem, as Philip had succeeded the title over the Netherlands, as it belonged to the Duke of Burgundy. This meant that Spain had control over a vital part of Elizabeth’s trading points, which worried her. Philip’s idea of maintaining control meant her established a stricter control of the Netherlands in terms of their policies and politics, which caused uprisings in the Netherlands in retaliation to these changed. This subsequently caused Elizabeth to send out an army to deal with the uprisings, however, she also felt the need to help the Protestant rebels who also joined in with the rebellions, causing her to be torn in her decision – she felt a duty as a Protestant Queen to help these people, but she had already made England suffer enough trying to do the same thing in France earlier, so instead of getting involved too deeply, she let it go. Additionally, in 1568, whilst some Spanish ships carrying money were forced to stop over in the ports of Cornwall and Devon due to stormy weather, Elizabeth took the money on board ship, claiming that she was not technically stealing but because it belonged to no one, she had the right to take over the loan. Historian Charles Wilson described her actions as “risky and an act of Piracy” which obviously infuriated Philip further, which caused him to retaliate. Trade between England and Spain, and England and the Netherlands came to a halt due to Elizabeth’s harassment of Spain – which caused obvious tension. Although there was an unsteady relationship between the two nations, Spain did not attempt a war or an sort of invasion that he could have done, instead both Elizabeth and Spain sat in their own corners sulking and disliking each other – and in terms of Elizabeth’s original aims to avoid war, she was successful in being able to avoid possible conflict with Spain, however, at the expense of her trading links.
England’s relationship with France had always been historically negative, especially due to the strong alliance between Scotland and France – a problem with one meant a problem with the other country, and Elizabeth realised this was a major threat to her, especially due to the fact that both countries were ruled by strongly Catholic monarchs who disliked the change of religion England was currently facing. Unluckily for Elizabeth, Mary had joined with her husband – Philip II of Spain – in conflict with France, and so Elizabeth had to make sure she did not worsen the relationship more than it had already had been, but this was not helped by the confirmation of the loss of Calais in 1559, to which Elizabeth felt she had a strong connection to due to the port being won over by her father Henry VIII in his reign. The loss of this port had dire consequences on England’s finances and Elizabeth had no desire to fund or participate in the war, but luckily for her neither France nor Spain had enough money to fund this war, and so the treaty of Câteau- Cambresis between the three ended the conflict. The matter of Calais was bitterly settled, and Elizabeth was promised it back after eight years. In terms of Elizabeth’s aims, this meant that to a certain extent in1559, Elizabeth had achieved stable relations with France.
Relations with Scotland, however, were unlike the relations with France and Spain. England and Scotland had also, like France and England, been historical enemies and there was always tension, and this increased when Elizabeth was crowned. The Catholic country of Scotland firmly believed Elizabeth was not a legitimate heir – and this was shown by the backing of Mary Stuart’s claim of the throne as the true Catholic monarch of England. However, many historians argue that Mary Stuart was never a real threat to the English throne – although it soured the relations between Scotland and England, who disliked Elizabeth and would have rather seen Mary on the throne. Mary herself had many issues with her own reign in Scotland – a series of ill-made decisions and uprisings against her caused her to flee to England and live under Elizabeth’s protection in 1567, which saw Elizabeth under control. However, Northern rebellions in support for Mary caused problems for Elizabeth, causing her to intervene, causing conflict within her own country. Furthermore, Elizabeth intervened in Scotland no more than four times, and even considered to re-instate Mary to the throne, however, later dropped this decision. The assignation of the pro-English Earl of Moray had Elizabeth’s armies in Scotland again, indicating the shaky and unstable relations between England and Scotland, in order to maintain the peace. Relations with Scotland weren’t stable and even after1571, Elizabeth never really felt secure for her throne or herself for many years after, due to the fundamental differences in religion between the two nations. It can be argued that in terms of Scotland, although she didn’t cause major conflicts, she didn’t make things any worse as relations had traditionally been bad. However, she failed in terms or her aims, because she never achieved stable relations with Scotland at all.
On the whole, it can be argued that Elizabeth’s attempts to achieve foreign relations with foreign powers was overall successful if based on her original aims which were to avoid major conflict and war - which up to 1571 was relatively true to what she had done. Although she didn’t manage to overly improve her situation, especially with Scotland and Spain, she did manage to avoid greater troubles. Some Historians will argue that in terms of her aims, she was overall successful, but it had to be taken into account that Elizabeth didn’t achieve any more stable relations, and was unable to create any stronger alliances with foreign allies, apart from France. Overall in balance, up to 1571, Elizabeth had achieved stability with foreign powers, but it was after 1571 that deeper and greater troubles were to come.
