The Reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth Tudor was born in September 1533, the second daughter of King Henry VIII of England, and the only child to survive from his marriage to his second wife, Anne Boleyn. When she was only two years old, Elizabeth's father had her mother beheaded; the young princess was brought up by governesses and tutors at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire.

Elizabeth inherited the throne upon the death of her older half-sister, Mary I, in November 1558. England was at war, epidemics raged, trade was at a standstill and the country was heavily in debt. The enthusiasm that greeted 25-year-old Elizabeth's accession to the throne was more the result of a legitimate and peaceful succession than of any knowledge of her intentions. Mary I, like both her parents, was a Catholic, and she had spent much of her reign undoing the Protestant reforms of her half-brother Edward VI. Elizabeth was a Protestant, although not as fervent as Edward had been.

Elizabeth inherited a Catholic nation (the Church had been reconciled with Rome) and had to start all over again to restore the Protestant national church. She began by passing the Act of Supremacy in 1559, which made her the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and caused another break with Rome. The Act of Uniformity was brought in at the same time, making it law once again to use the Protestant service and enforcing the use of the third English Book of Common Prayer, which is still in use today. The Catholics among her subjects (and indeed the Catholic monarchies of Europe) regarded Elizabeth as illegitimate and therefore not the rightful queen, so she was particularly vulnerable to plots to overthrow her.

The Privy Council governed the country. At the start of Elizabeth's reign they met only three times per week, but by the end of it, they were meeting daily. Elizabeth was not overly fond of parliament, which was becoming more powerful during the 16th Century, and only called one when it was absolutely necessary, usually to raise taxes. Actual records of parliament and the enacted legislation show that the Queen and parliament mostly agreed. Much of parliament's work was concerned with local matters; Elizabeth would not allow matters of state to be discussed without her permission. It was the Queen and the Privy Council who put forward most of the legislation and Elizabeth's ministers managed parliament by having agents or men of business within the House of Commons to steer laws through. Most of Elizabeth's ministers were long serving, which gave the advantage of continuity of government.

Royal income did actually increase under Elizabeth, mainly as a result of increases in import and export tax and an increase in income from the Church. The Church took a tenth of everyone's income and then paid a tenth of its own income to the crown, together with the first year's income of any newly-appointed clerics. Under Mary I, this money was given back to the Church, but Elizabeth retained it. She also took some land from the Church by an act of exchange; sometimes, when a bishop died, Elizabeth did not appoint a replacement so that she could keep the income from the vacant bishopric. Some additional income was gained from the profits of merchant adventurers and from the privatisation of exploration and wars.