Research Paper On Queen Elizabeth 1

From 1558 to 1603 Queen Elizabeth I ruled England to great success. Queen Elizabeth’s policies and ideas fixed England’s religious and military conflict using her sharp intellect and powerful ruling style.
Before Elizabeth I, Henry VIII ruled England. His religious reforms included making England primarily Protestant, he also denounced the pope as a figure of authority. After King Henry’s rule was over, his daughter, Mary, became queen. She was a harsh ruler that despised protestants. Mary changed Henry’s Protestant country to Catholic. Mary was so against protestants that she became known as “Bloody Mary” after killing 300 Protestants. These harsh policies promoted the English to request for Elizabeth, Mary’s step sister, to rule. After

Mary died, Elizabeth became queen of England. This unfortunately was not a happy coronation, it was extremely stressful.

Mary had left the country riddled with problems that Elizabeth now had to fix. The biggest of those problems was religion. Some people were Protestant from Henry’s rule, but a lot of people were Catholic because of Mary.
Queen Elizabeth came in to rule during a major and intense religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants. She was able to successfully fix the divide which greatly benefitted England. The tension between the sects were at a breaking point and it caused lots of problem. Elizabeth enacted policies to fix this device. She first initiated the Act of Uniformity which made England have one one prayer book. This prayer book was a protestant one. One of Elizabeth's main goal was to make England Protestant and her reforms reflected that. Elizabeth also issued the Act of Supremacy which made Elizabeth the religious and political absolute ruler. All of these reforms went to the overall stability of England. Even with all of the harsh changes she still was moderate in making religious reforms. She once said “There is one Jesus Christ,” meaning she wants unity. Although Elizabeth tried to be peaceful with the Catholics were will killed and persecuted. Pope Pius V eventually excommunicated her. People

who did not go to church were punished and anyone who kept following catholicism was punished. Her court was all protestant and Her church would use “patronage,pressure, and propaganda, as well as threats,” to make sure and try people converted. There is a primary source which is a speech from Elizabeth (not said by her) when she just took power. The speech took place right after the queen took power and the divide between the Catholics and Protestants. The split caused confusion of the Catholics of what is allowed or forbidden in terms of their religion. The source says that the Catholics have been “unfruitful” when regarding their behavior towards Elizabeth's new reforms. Elizabeth then states a bunch of restrictions that are now in effect regarding Catholics. This source is what makes Elizabeth a great and effective leader. She truly believes that that the people are acting how they should not and actually does something about it. She believes that this is the best way to prevent further damage to England which is a clear display of Elizabeth's go getter attitude and her wit.

Paragraph 2: War Conflicts
Under her rule, Queen Elizabeth turned England, a very small and weak country into the prime military threat of the time.

Her trust in her people in time of war is what made England an incredible country. Religion was not the only thing that Mary caused conflicted in, she caused a war with France. England is a relatively small and weak country compared to France. The war that Mary caused was a huge and unnecessary expense. With the help from her advisor, William Cecil, Elizabeth was able to stop the war. This was a big deal that Elizabeth was highly praised for. For the first time in awhile there was relative peace in England. Unfortunately, there was another threat at the time of Elizabeth, Spain. Spain by far had the best and most powerful army of the time. Throughout most of her rule, Elizabeth, kept out of their way and was on good terms with the Spanish. At the time, Spain was persecuting Protestants living in their territory. Elizabeth did not just stand idly by while her people were being discriminated against, so she did something about it. Elizabeth made the risky decision to fight with Spain. Compared to Spain, England was a speck of dust. Knowing this though, Elizabeth never show fright or nervousness. She trusted her people whole heartedly and they trusted her. Spain’s plan was to ambush England and catch them off guard, England was prepared. The English used a beacon strategy to swifty notify Elizabeth when the enemy armada was approaching. Elizabeth was not

a normal queen in anything she did but this really shown in the battle with the Spanish armada. A typical leader would just sit in their castle awaited the war results, but Elizabeth was not a typical leader. She stood on the battlefield assisting troops and shouting commands. Elizabeth also made one of her most famous speeches on the battlefield sitting atop a white horse. To everyone’s complete shock, in the battle England absolutely crushed Spain. This win turned England into the definitive biggest sea threat in Eastern Europe. This opened trade routes and boosted England’s economy and also helped solve religious conflict. The win was just so unbelievable that people converted because they thought there was no way they could have won without God. This accomplishment was one of the incredible moments of Elizabeth’s rule and “Queen Elizabeth’s finest hour.”
Elizabeth did so much that was so different from any other ruler. Her determination to accomplish what she thought was morally and religiously correct was her strongest quality. She came to rule in absolute chaos, but England came out much stronger than ever before seen. Elizabeth accomplished so much in religious reforms, military conflict, and even brought England to the to golden age of art and culture. Elizabeth went down in history to be one of the most strong and incredible women of all time.