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Elizabeth I: problems, plots and the Armada

Elizabeth ruled England from 1558 to 1603. GCSE questions keep coming back to one idea: she faced huge problems, so how well did she deal with them?

This guide fits AQA's Elizabethan England, c1568-1603 and Edexcel's Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88. OCR and Eduqas have Elizabethan options too, so check which years your course covers.

Key dates

The problems Elizabeth faced in 1558

• Legitimacy. Many Catholics never accepted Henry VIII's marriage to her mother, Anne Boleyn, so to them Elizabeth had no right to the throne.
• Gender. Most people expected a woman to marry and let her husband guide her. Her sister Mary I's marriage to Philip of Spain had been unpopular.
• Religion. Mary I had made England Catholic again. Elizabeth was Protestant, and the country was split.
• Money. The Crown was in debt after war with France, and England had just lost Calais, its last land in France.
• Foreign threats. France and Scotland were allies, and Mary, Queen of Scots had a strong claim to the English throne.
• Marriage and succession. If Elizabeth died without a child, there could be a civil war over who came next.

The Religious Settlement, 1559

Elizabeth wanted a church that most people could accept. The Act of Supremacy made her Supreme Governor of the Church of England (not "Head", which pleased those who thought a woman couldn't lead the Church). The Act of Uniformity set out a Protestant prayer book but kept some Catholic-looking features, like vestments, and fined people who didn't go to church. Royal Injunctions told the clergy how to run their churches.

Historians often call it a "middle way". It worked well at first, but over time it was challenged from both sides: by Catholics, especially after the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570, and by Puritans who thought it was still too Catholic.

Government: court, Privy Council and Parliament

Elizabeth ruled through a small group of advisers on the Privy Council. Key names to know:

• William Cecil (Lord Burghley): her chief minister for 40 years, careful and in charge of money.
• Francis Walsingham: Secretary of State and spymaster, who uncovered the Catholic plots.
• Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: her favourite, who led the English army in the Netherlands.
• Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex: a later favourite whose failed rebellion in 1601 ended in his execution.

Parliament met only when the queen called it, mostly to raise taxes. MPs pushed her to marry and to deal with Mary, Queen of Scots, which she disliked.

Mary, Queen of Scots and the plots

Mary fled to England in 1568 after being forced to give up the Scottish throne. Elizabeth kept her under house arrest for 19 years, because Mary was dangerous free and dangerous dead. Catholics plotted to put Mary on the throne:

• 1569, Revolt of the Northern Earls: a Catholic rising in the north, crushed by royal troops.
• 1571, Ridolfi Plot: a plan for a Spanish invasion and for Mary to marry the Duke of Norfolk. Norfolk was executed.
• 1583, Throckmorton Plot: a French-led invasion plan, uncovered by Walsingham's spies.
• 1586, Babington Plot: Walsingham read Mary's coded letters approving a plan to kill Elizabeth. This gave him the proof he needed.

Mary was tried and executed at Fotheringhay Castle in February 1587. It removed the main Catholic alternative to Elizabeth, but made war with Spain more likely.

War with Spain and the Armada, 1588

Relations with Philip II of Spain got steadily worse because of religion, English raids on Spanish treasure ships, and English help for the Dutch Protestants rebelling against Spain. In 1587 Drake attacked the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour, delaying the invasion by a year.

In summer 1588 the Armada of about 130 ships sailed up the Channel to collect the Duke of Parma's army from the Netherlands. The plan failed for several reasons:

• The Spanish had no deep-water port to meet Parma's army.
• English fireships broke up the Spanish crescent formation off Calais.
• Faster English ships with better guns did serious damage at the Battle of Gravelines.
• Storms wrecked many ships as they sailed home around Scotland and Ireland.

Elizabeth's speech to her troops at Tilbury, with its famous line about having "the heart and stomach of a king", became part of her legend. Royal Museums Greenwich has good material on the Armada.

Poverty and the Poor Laws

The number of poor people rose because the population grew, prices rose faster than wages, some landowners enclosed land for sheep, and there were bad harvests in the 1590s. People feared vagabonds as a threat to order. Laws in 1563, 1572 and 1576 built up a system, and the 1601 Poor Law made every parish collect a poor rate and give help to the "deserving" poor, while the "idle" could be punished. It lasted, in some form, for over 200 years.

Exploration and culture

• Drake's voyage, 1577-80: the first English voyage around the world, which came home with a huge haul of Spanish treasure.
• Roanoke: Walter Raleigh's attempts at a colony in North America in 1585 and 1587 failed, and the second group of settlers disappeared.
• Theatre: purpose-built playhouses appeared in London, starting with The Theatre in 1576, then the Globe in 1599. Puritans and city authorities saw them as sinful and a cause of disorder.

Was Elizabeth's reign a "Golden Age"?

This is a classic essay question. To argue yes, use the Armada, the survival of the Church of England, Drake and exploration, the theatre and her skill at managing her ministers. To argue no, use the 1590s: poor harvests and hunger, an expensive war, rebellion in Ireland, Essex's rising and the unsolved question of who would follow her. A strong answer says the early and middle years were more successful than the last decade.

Updated 18 October 2026