About Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I

1533 ~ 1603

Queen Elizabeth I is generally regarded as the most outstanding emperor in English history. During her 45 years in power, Britain's economy was prosperous and its literature was brilliant, making it a leading naval power in the world militarily. In her time, the king of England didn't just play the role of a puppet, so an important part of the achievements of the golden age of England should be attributed to her.

Elizabeth was born in Greenwich, England on 1533. Her father was Henry VIII, who led the Reformation in England. Her mother Anna Brin is Henry's second wife. Anna was beheaded in 1536, and a few months later, the British Parliament declared Elizabeth, then three years old, illegitimate (this has always been the view of most British Catholics, because they think Henry's divorce from his original wife is illegal). Despite the setbacks of the British Parliament, Elizabeth grew up in the royal family and received a good education.

Elizabeth 1547, Henry VIII died. In the following eleven years, the achievements of the British rulers were not particularly outstanding. Elizabeth's half-brother Edward VI of England was in power from 1547 to 1553. Under his rule, the government pursued a policy of resolutely supporting Protestantism in England. During her five years in power, Queen Mary I supported the supreme power of the Pope and restored Roman Catholicism.

During Mary's reign, Anglicans were persecuted and about 300 people were sentenced to death (which gave the Queen the infamous nickname "bloody Mary"). Elizabeth was arrested and detained in the Tower of London. Although she was later released, her life was still in danger for some time. When Mary died and was succeeded by 25-year-old Elizabeth, the whole country rejoiced.

The young queen immediately faced many problems: the war with France; Tensions with Scotland and Spain; What is particularly prominent is the sharp contradiction between British religious factions.

The latter problem was solved first. Shortly after Elizabeth came to power, she passed the Supreme Power and Status Act (1559) and established the Anglican Church as the official religion of Britain. This satisfied moderate Anglicans, but the Puritans wanted a more radical reform. However, during her entire administration, Elizabeth made the 1559 compromise bill resolutely implemented.

The situation of Mary, Queen of Scotland, complicates the religious situation. Mary was forced to leave Scotland and take refuge in England. There, she soon found herself a prisoner of Elizabeth. Elizabeth is not arbitrary. Mary is a Roman Catholic and has every right to inherit the British throne. This means that if the rebellion or assassination is successful, there will be another Catholic queen in Britain. In fact, during Mary's imprisonment 19 years, there were many conspiracies against Elizabeth, and there was a lot of evidence that Mary participated in these conspiracies. Mary was finally guillotined on 1587. Elizabeth reluctantly signed the execution book. Her ministers and most MPs are eager to execute Mary early.

Religious struggle inevitably brought danger to Elizabeth. 1570, Pope Pope Pius V excommunicated her and ordered her throne to be abolished. 1580 Pope Gregory VIII declared that the assassination of Elizabeth was not a crime. But the situation also has a favorable side for Elizabeth. During her reign, the British were always worried about the restoration of the Catholic Church in England, and Elizabeth was on the defensive. This is indeed the main reason why she is welcomed by Christians.

Elizabeth pursues a flexible foreign policy. 1560, she concluded the Edinburgh treaty, which proposed a peaceful settlement of the dispute with Scotland. The war between Britain and France ended and relations between the two countries improved. But the situation forced the conflict between Britain and Spain. Elizabeth tried to avoid war, but because of the militant Catholic forces in Spain in the16th century, the war between Spain and Protestant England was probably inevitable. The Dutch resistance to Spanish rule is a positive factor. Most rebels in Holland are Protestants. Spain tried to quell the rebellion, so Elizabeth helped the Dutch rebels. Elizabeth herself is not very keen on war, but most British people and their ministers and parliaments are more keen on war than she is. Therefore, when the war with Spain finally broke out in the late 1980s in 16, the British people firmly supported Elizabeth.

Elizabeth has been developing the British navy for many years. In order to invade Britain, King Philip II of Spain quickly developed a huge naval fleet-the Armada. The number of ships in the Armada is almost equal to that of the British fleet, but the number of sailors is far less than that of the latter; Moreover, British sailors are well trained, the quality of ships is better, and there are more firepower equipment. 1588 A large-scale naval battle between the two sides ended in the complete failure of the Armada. This victory of Britain has stabilized its position as the world's number one naval power, and has maintained such a maritime hegemony until the 20th century.

Elizabeth has always prospered because of her motherland. In the early days of her reign, the British King's government was in good financial condition. However, due to the huge cost of the war with Spain, the state treasury was in poor condition in the later period of her administration. But because the king's government has kept clean, the whole country is still more prosperous than when she ascended the throne.

The 45 years of Elizabeth's rule (from 1558 to 1603) is considered as the golden age of Britain. Some of the most famous English writers, such as william shakespeare, were born in this era. Of course, this achievement includes her contribution: she supported Shakespeare Theatre despite the opposition of local authorities in London. But music and painting are not as dazzling as literature.

The Elizabethan era was also an era of British exploration. There were expeditions to Russia, Martin Frobisher and john davis's pioneering work in discovering the northwest road to the Far East, Sir Francis Dekles's voyage around the world through California, and Sir Walter Raleigh and others' accidental discovery of British immigrants in North America.

Perhaps Elizabeth's biggest mistake was her unwillingness to nominate an heir to the throne. Not only was she never married, but she always avoided naming an heir. This may be because she is worried that whoever is designated as the heir will soon become her dangerous opponent. Whatever the reason why Elizabeth didn't mention the heir, if she died early (assuming that she really died in Scotland at any time before Mary), Britain might fall into civil war because of the heir problem. But Britain is lucky because Elizabeth lived to be 70 years old. In her will, she designated King James VI of Scotland (son of Mary of Scotland) as her successor. Although this makes England and Scotland under the rule of one king, it is an uncertain choice. James and his son are dictators and unpopular in Britain. As a result, a civil war broke out in the middle of the century.

Elizabeth is a very clever woman and a very astute politician. She is conservative and cautious. She obviously hates war and bloodshed, but she doesn't hesitate when necessary. Like her father, she came to power by cooperating with parliament rather than opposing it. She publicly declared that it was possible to be chaste and not get married, but it was completely wrong to think that she was the enemy of the opposite sex. On the contrary, she likes men and wants to be with them. Elizabeth is quite original in choosing ministers. Of course, part of her achievements are attributed to William Sesso (Lord Beauveria), who served as her chief consultant from 1558 until her death in 1598.

Elizabeth's main achievements can be summarized as follows. First of all, she led Britain through the second stage of religious reform without serious bloodshed. This is in sharp contrast to Germany, where the Thirty Years' War (16 18- 1648) killed as many as 25% of the population. To some extent, she eased the deep hatred between Catholicism and Protestants in England, and she successfully safeguarded national unity. Secondly, her 45 years in power was the golden age of a great country in the world. Third, during her administration, Britain developed into a big country and maintained this place for hundreds of years.

Elizabeth is a very unusual character in this book. The characters contained in this book are basically great inventors and people who create new ideas or change policies. Elizabeth is not an inventor, and her policies are basically cautious and conservative, but the progress made under her rule far exceeds that of most rulers who seriously implemented reforms when they were in power.

Elizabeth has no interest in dealing with the thorny issue of the relative power between parliament and the king. She has never been a tyrant, which may be more conducive to the development of British democracy than her promulgation of a democratic constitution. Elizabeth does not pursue military exploits, nor is she interested in building a huge empire. In fact, under Elizabeth's rule, Britain was not an empire. But she left Britain the most powerful navy in the world. It laid the foundation for the later developed British Empire.

Many British overseas territories were acquired after Elizabeth's death, most of which were acquired long after her death. Many other people played an important role in the establishment of the British Empire, which can be regarded as the inevitable result of the overall expansion of Europe and the geographical location of Britain. It should be noted that other important European countries along the Atlantic coast (France, Spain and even Portugal) have also become huge overseas empires.

Similarly, Elizabeth's role in the struggle against Spanish threats and defending Britain is easily exaggerated. Looking back, Spain never seemed to pose a real serious threat to British independence. We must remember that the battle between the British fleet and the Armada is not over at all (the British did not lose a warship). Moreover, even if the Spanish army landed successfully in England, it would be extremely impossible to conquer this country, and the Spanish army did not achieve remarkable success in other parts of Europe. It seems obvious that if Spain fails to suppress the rebellion in Little Holland, it actually has no chance to conquer Britain. In the16th century, nationalism in England was very strong; Spanish conquest is impossible.

So where should Elizabeth rank? She is basically a regional figure, and it seems reasonable to compare with Peter the Great of Russia. Considering that Peter's creative spirit is far greater than Elizabeth's, and he has led Russia to a new journey, I think it is difficult to convince a just Russian to rank Elizabeth above Peter. However, considering the important role played by Britain and the British people in the hundreds of years since Elizabeth, it is also wrong to rank Elizabeth far behind Peter. It is obvious that only a few emperors in history can match their achievements.

Nevertheless, modern research shows that Elizabeth I's achievements are obviously not as great as people expected. On the one hand, the Spanish-Spanish War failed to really make Britain a maritime hegemon. Although the Spanish Armada suffered heavy losses, it was not really destroyed. Spain easily made up for the financial losses caused by the war by relying on its huge colonial system and rich economy. Spain really withdrew from the historical stage after the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. In addition, Elizabeth is biased in dealing with the contradiction between Protestantism and Catholicism. 1603 Before Elizabeth died, because Protestant England had become the absolute ruler of England, and Queen Elizabeth herself was expelled from the Pope because of her Protestant beliefs, she had to take some extreme measures to persecute Catholics, which caused strong dissatisfaction in Ireland and Scotland. Since then, there have been conflicts between England and Ireland, until 192 1 the British government recognized the independence of southern Ireland, and Northern Ireland was under the control of both sides.

In any case, Queen Elizabeth left a precious legacy for later Britain. 1603, the queen died in Greenwich, and James VI, son of Mary, Queen of Scotland, also led the king of England, and Scotland and England were briefly unified. The beginning of the Stuart dynasty, the first bourgeois dynasty in British history, also declared the end of the feudal era.

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