Queen Elizabeth Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement: Elizabeth used her gender and expectations of what it meant to be a woman in the early modern period. She became Queen and successfully reigned through her years of being Queen. She justified her style but believing in what she beloved in and proved she did not have to change her ways.
In the 16th century a king was required to preserve order within his kingdom by giving justice to his people and to ride into battle to defend its borders against external threat. This job was roughly not created for women.
The word Queen was derived from the Anglo-Saxons means the wife of a king.
It was evidence that was specifically Elizabeth’s ability as a woman to exercise power successfully in a man’s world that carried her, the votes and commanded the respect of todays viewers.
Elizabeth built an expectation of femininity of gender to help justify her style of ruling. In modern period Elizabeth was born and queen in a time where women really did not have a say so. The roles of women in England were limited. Men were considered breadwinners. They were beneath men and expected to have kids and be housewives.
• Births would not have last long
• Kids

would come out sick
It was asked of Elizabeth to be married to help her have some type of success with her marriage. Elizabeth felt as though because of her belief in the almighty God he would be the only one to help her be the greatest Queen ever. She also states that if God wanted her to be married he would have put her in the position to marry and she would not be Queen.
“I am so thoroughly acquainted that I trust God, who hath hitherto therein preserved and led me by the hand, will not now of his goodness suffer me to go alone.”
Elizabeth believes that her God has bought her this far to succeed without a husband in place. As queen she felt as though her reign and the life she lives she will remain and die a virgin.
*talks about troops*
Elizabeth gave a speech to the Troops at Tilbury in 1588
Elizabeth gave her country the stability it needed to prosper
Who was she?
• She was the Queen of England and Ireland
• November 17,1588 – March 26,1603
• Greatest monarch in history
• Became queen at 25years old
• She ruled alone for over half a century
What about Elizabeth
• She dazzled her greatest enemies
• Her sense of duty was admirable
• She was very committed to preserving English peace and stability
• Her love for her country was pure and genuine
• She used her intelligence and political skills
• She refused to marry but led foreign royalty on as if she would marry them
• She kept other countries from being overtly hostile to England
• She allowed everything to stay realm and peaceful
• She stayed in power for so long as a women
Women were not allowed to go to school or to a university but be educated by private tutors. For Elizabeth she was taught by a professor
She wrote a speech to the Parliament :
“I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your love”
Accomplishments as Queen:
• Elizabeth survived and successfully succeeded in a male dominated world she proved that a woman could rule as well as any man.

Her late half sister was ruler before Elizabeth who did not do a great job in ruling so Elizabeth had to come in and fix that. She succeeded in uniting her people in a world that was divided by religious conflict. She believed in the Almighty God. Elizabeth managed to make her religious settlement work, despite the conflicting religious interests in her country. She managed to restrain Catholic opposition and hold back the Puritan threat to her church. When she became Queen, the majority of her people were probably Catholic. When she died, the majority of her people were Protestant and content with the church as she established it. The fabric of her church is still in existence

today.
• By careful manipulation of her public image, she gained the popularity and affection of her people, and managed to retain this even when she was in her declining years. She presented herself, in Walter Raleigh's words, as a "queen of the poor aswell as the rich", and while she was always graceful in public, she was never aloof and had a common touch that won her the hearts of the common people.
• She was careful and cautious in her approach to politics. She never acted hastily or embarked on a course of action unpopular with her people. She was a determined politician, but a practical one, and would yield on unpopular issues. She backed down on the granting of monopolies in 1601 after public opposition to them, and may well have held back from marrying Francis, Duke of Alencon, because of hostile public opinion.
• While Elizabeth knew when to back down politically, she never abandoned any of her ministers or favourites because of hostile public opinion or because of internal court pressure. She continued to favour Robert Dudley, despite hostile public opinion, and supported William Cecil when almost the entire Privy Council demanded his resignation. Elizabeth chose her advisors well and gave posts only to those she considered able to do the job.
• Elizabeth encouraged the arts and patronised scholars, enouraging her courtiers to do so too. She enouraged the theatre, despite the moral objections of the Puritans, and this allowed for the flourishing of the arts and drama and the work of great men like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
• Elizabeth managed to successfully lead her people in war. She defeated the most powerful man in the world, King Philip II of Spain, when he sent his Armada against the country in the summer of 1588. Elizabeth had been careful to nurture the navy, and her efforts had paid off well. The defeat of the Armada was her finest hour, and has gone down in history as one of the greatest English victories at sea.
• Elizabeth encouraged overseas exploration.
• Elizabeth believed in the merits of peace rather than the glories of war, and the years of peace she gave England, meant that the country prospered while other countries fell apart due to their internal conflicts. As soon as she became Queen, Elizabeth reversed the debasing of the coinage. She encouraged trade in London, the Foreign Exchange, and the learning of skills from foreign refugees.
• When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558, her country was poor, torn apart by religious squabbles, and a second rate power in the world. When she died in 1603, England was one of the most affluent and powerful countries in the world.