Elizabeth placed herself as the head of the Church and became Supreme Governor under the 1559 Act of Supremacy. This entitled her to all the church land and money and was aimed to placate the male chauvinism which would have arisen had she been made Supreme Head. Some believed that this role would be shared between the Queen and Parliament but Elizabeth believed that she alone was in control, using Parliament as a way of enforcing the changes she wanted to make. The Act of Uniformity dealt with religious beliefs, making attendance at church on Sundays and holy day compulsory with a fine if you didn’t comply. This money would be used to aid the poor. The controversial part of the act was the translation of the Common Book of prayer from Latin into English, and also the change of wording to be used during a communion service. The formula of words, however, were very carefully chosen and were made to compromise between Catholic and Protestant interpretation of the communion. This act also laid down regulations for the type of clothed worn by clergymen.
The Royal Injunctions, which were drawn up by William Cecil, the secretary of state, filled in much of the detail about the day-to-day organisation of the church, which had not been included in the other two acts. The aim was to create a consistency of religious practice, throughout the country. These injunctions clearly represented Elizabeth’s own religious beliefs and so made sure that her authority and power were very present in the every day lives of the ordinary people. In 1559, with the introduction of the Act of exchange, Elizabeth was able to take over property, which had been owned by Bishops. She was also able to put pressure on Bishops to do what she wanted by threatening to take away their land, and allowed her to make a lot of money from the Church.
These three acts laid down the foundations of the Church of England, and enforced Elizabeth and her beliefs on the population, thus making her power seem much greater by affecting her people every day. Elizabeth, on her accession to the throne was in a financial crisis and so, like her father, used religious settlements to supply the crown with the revenue it needed so desperately. In addition to these acts were the 1563 Thirty-nine articles, which produced the Royal Injunctions and became law in 1571. These simply enforced the regulations of the other acts. Although these acts were made law, throughout Elizabeth’s reign she encountered more radical Protestant, who were disappointed in her compromise and tried to make her introduce more “protestant” reforms.
Elizabeth also encountered pressure from other Catholic countries, like Spain, who tried to convert her to Catholicism through peaceful means and then through other more violent means. Throughout her reign there was a fear of foreign Catholic intervention, the most serious coming from Mary Stuart, whose claim to the throne was strongest in the event of Elizabeth’s death. France, which had a strong influence in Scotland, was keen to take Elizabeth off the throne and replace her with Mary, who would return the country to the Catholic religion. Elizabeth was aware of this and took the opportunity to end the costly war with France, thus signing the 1559 Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, but the French influence in Scotland was still very high.
Cecil, who was responsible for England’s policy towards Scotland, feared a “Catholic Crusade”, led by France and so convinced the Queen and the Privy Council to send financial aid to the Scottish Protestants, followed in 1560 by the Treaty of Berwick. This treaty gave the Protestants a promise of protection under Elizabeth, and was followed by the intervention of 8,000 troops into Scotland. This all resulted in a victory for Cecil, with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh, establishing Elizabeth as the power in Britain and ridding England of the high pressure of an attack from France through Scotland. Relations with France did improve, after the signing of the Treaty of Troyes in 1564, although in 1560 there was still tension between the two countries.
Relations with Scotland, however, meant that Scotland was an important factor in English national security. England laid claim to Scotland, although her authority there had yet to be established. Elizabeth’s accession to the throne coincided with the beginning of the Scottish reformation, the rise of Protestant opposition to the rule of Mary of Guise. English intervention and the Treaty of Edinburgh had given them the impetus to establish Scottish Protestantism and the freedom of religious worship. Although the threat of Scottish intervention was diminished, Mary Queen of Scots proved to be a threat to Elizabeth, because of plots to de-throne her, until she was executed in 1587.
Elizabeth wanted to make long-term amendments to the economy, which was in a bad state when she came to power, although MacCaffrey assured that “the throne which Elizabeth inherited was supported by a firm administration and legal foundations”. The Privy Council she had set up at the beginning of her reign, made up of nineteen members, was characterised by the “informal cooperation and good will of the great men of the localities”. The Council advised the Queen on issues and urged her to take action or not, but the Queen held absolute power over them. The Council was made up of many different kinds of people, whose views were diverse, although the majority were Protestant. They helped her to make decisions, which were then given to the JP’s and the Lord Lieutenants to put in place. This was a difficult task as the Queen lacked a civil service, paid local officials and an army, to implement her ideas, thus dependant on two features to secure her authority, propaganda and the ability of the crown to reward the governing classes by the distribution of offices and wealth. She was able to secure her rule with the people and the nobility from an early stage and also create a government that was reasonably effective.
With this government, Elizabeth was able to solve the problem of inflation. A discourse published in 1549 claimed that the cause of inflation was the debasement of the coinage, which led to a rise in prices. In December 1560 the government ordered that all debased money be returned and replaced with new coins containing real silver and so returning the quality of coinage to how it was before the debasement. Although this process was not completed before 1561, it laid the foundations of a stronger economy and re-established public confidence in the coinage. Inflation did, however, reappear in the 1590’s.
Public confidence and approval was very valued by Elizabeth. She had been subjected to scandal from a young age, when her stepmother’s husband, Thomas Seymour would flirt and “romp” with her, in his bid to get power. She had vowed from then to not become the topic of gossip, although she came very close when she became infatuated with Robert Dudley, whose wife died of unknown circumstances. Elizabeth wanted to become known as the “Virgin Queen”, who was strong and unbeatable. She had paintings done of her all through her life from a template so that she did not age, and she wore clothes made of black and white material, which were said to contain magic properties. She changed traditional Catholic celebrations so that the people were celebrating her rule. She secured her position as the Queen from early on in her reign and, thus found it easier to pass legislation, with the backing of the general public, although at that time W.T.MacCaffrey suggested that only 2,500 men took a serious interest in political matters. He also stated, “Without any effort of her own, she became the subject of an ever growing genre of poetry and prose”, although her rule has been described by Haigh as “30 years of illusion followed by 15 years of disillusion”.
When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558,she had already been subjected to many uncertainties about her right to be Queen, and she was adamant not to lose her power now that she had finally acquired it. She immediately, therefore, tried to make changes, which would establish and secure her rule. The renovation of the Privy Council, one of the first things she did gave her diversity and opinions and advice on topics so that she could make the best decisions. She was an intelligent monarch, but the help of the Council meant that many changes were made early on in her reign, which laid important foundations for greater change once her rule was established and secure.
Elizabeth also changed the religion of the country, but did it in such a way that Catholic countries were not angered by her alterations and neither were the people of her country. The on going war with one such country, France, was wasting resources and so was quickly ended by Elizabeth and a treaty was signed to gain a better relationship. This also decreased the influence France had in Scotland, which worried Elizabeth and the Privy Council a lot, but this too was quickly reduced with the Treaty of Berwick and then the Treaty of Edinburgh. It was, however only in 1587, with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots that Elizabeth felt more secure in her role as ruler of the country after numerous plots and rebellions were made to put Mary on the throne. The Catholics who had been unhappy about a Protestant ruler coming to power were relieved of the Queen’s compromise in her three Acts, which too laid down the foundations of what was to become the Church of England. Throughout her reign, the religion of the majority changed to Protestantism.
Elizabeth also managed to make the economy become stable again with her decision to get rid of any debased money and replace it with new silver coins, so ending inflation. Initially this worked and the standard of living rose as the prices of goods went down, but the country experienced a rise in inflation in 1590, so that Elizabeth and her government had to find another solution.
In her first two years as Queen of England Elizabeth managed to lay down almost all the foundations for what she and many monarchs and governments would try and solve many years after she died. Her rule was never established and secured throughout her entire reign, she refused to travel too far North during he bi-annual summer processions, for fear of a plot to take her off the throne, but she became know by the public as a strong, brave and intelligent ruler, untainted by scandals, whose government was more effective in sorting out problems than any other Tudor monarch’s had been. It is therefore to a low extent that Elizabeth had established and secured her rule by 1560, although what she had done was extremely important in ensuring that following these years her reign would be successful.
