led to an early death. Had he lived into manhood, he potentially could have
become one of England's greatest kings. Jane Austen wrote, "This Man was on
the whole of a very amiable character...", to which Beckett added, " as
docile as a lamb, if indeed his gentleness did not amount to absolute
sheepishness."
LADY JANE GREY (10-19 July 1553)
The Accession of Lady Jane Grey was engineered by the powerful Duke of
Northumberland, President of the King's Council, in the interests of
promoting his own dynastic line. Northumberland persuaded the sickly Edward
VI to name Lady Jane Grey as his heir. As one of Henry VIII's great-nieces,
the young girl was a genuine claimant to the throne. Northumberland then
married his own son, Lord Guilford Dudley, to Lady Jane. On the death of
Edward, Jane assumed the throne and her claim was recognised by the
Council. Despite this, the country rallied to Mary, Catherine of Aragon's
daughter and a devout Roman Catholic. Jane reigned for only nine days and
was later executed with her husband in 1554.
MARY I (1553-1558)
Mary I was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own
right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and
stubborn, her character was moulded by her earlier years: an Act of
Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the
succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother
Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death),
whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English
Protestant Church.
Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme
Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow
reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary also revived the old heresy laws to
secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a
religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different
religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty). As a
result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart
from eminent Protestant clergy such as Cranmer (a former archbishop and
author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics
were mostly poor and self-taught people. Apart from making Mary deeply
unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for
the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of
Mary's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests
of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off
after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these
possessions voluntarily as Mary invited them to do.
Aged 37 at her accession, Mary wished to marry and have children, thus
leaving a Catholic heir to consolidate her religious reforms, and removing
her half-sister Elizabeth (a focus for Protestant opposition) from direct
succession. Mary's decision to marry Philip, King of Spain from 1556, in
1554 was very unpopular; the protest from the Commons prompted Mary's reply
that Parliament was 'not accustomed to use such language to the Kings of
England' and that in her marriage 'she would choose as God inspired her'.
The marriage was childless, Philip spent most of it on the continent,
England obtained no share in the Spanish monopolies in New World trade and
the alliance with Spain dragged England into a war with France. Popular
discontent grew when Calais, the last vestige of England's possessions in
France dating from William the Conqueror's time, was captured by the French
in 1558. Dogged by ill health, Mary died later that year, possibly from
cancer, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH I (1558-1603)
Elizabeth I - the last Tudor monarch - was born at Greenwich on 7
September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne
Boleyn. Her early life was full of uncertainties, and her chances of
succeeding to the throne seemed very slight once her half-brother Edward
was born in 1537. She was then third in line behind her Roman Catholic half-
sister, Princess Mary. Roman Catholics, indeed, always considered her
illegitimate and she only narrowly escaped execution in the wake of a
failed rebellion against Queen Mary in 1554.
Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on her half-sister's death in November
1558. She was very well-educated (fluent in six languages), and had
inherited intelligence, determination and shrewdness from both parents. Her
45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English
history. During it a secure Church of England was established. Its
doctrines were laid down in the 39 Articles of 1563, a compromise between
Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Elizabeth herself refused to 'make
windows into men's souls ... there is only one Jesus Christ and all the
rest is a dispute over trifles'; she asked for outward uniformity. Most of
her subjects accepted the compromise as the basis of their faith, and her
church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those
which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century.
Although autocratic and capricious, Elizabeth had astute political
judgement and chose her ministers well; these included Burghley (Secretary
of State), Hatton (Lord Chancellor) and Walsingham (in charge of
intelligence and also a Secretary of State). Overall, Elizabeth's
administration consisted of some 600 officials administering the great
offices of state, and a similar number dealing with the Crown lands (which
funded the administrative costs). Social and economic regulation and law
and order remained in the hands of the sheriffs at local level, supported
by unpaid justices of the peace.
Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, including
those of Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert, particularly
to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of
colonisation and trade expansion, which Elizabeth herself recognised by
establishing the East India Company in 1600.
The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign. Country houses such as
Longleat and Hardwick Hall were built, miniature painting reached its high
point, theatres thrived - the Queen attended the first performance of
Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The image of Elizabeth's reign is
one of triumph and success. The Queen herself was often called 'Gloriana',
'Good Queen Bess' and 'The Virgin Queen'. Investing in expensive clothes
and jewellery (to look the part, like all contemporary sovereigns), she
cultivated this image by touring the country in regional visits known as
'progresses', often riding on horseback rather than by carriage. Elizabeth
made at least 25 progresses during her reign.
However, Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger and difficulty
for many, with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from
France through Scotland. Much of northern England was in rebellion in 1569-
70. A papal bull of 1570 specifically released Elizabeth's subjects from
their allegiance, and she passed harsh laws against Roman Catholics after
plots against her life were discovered. One such plot involved Mary, Queen
of Scots, who had fled to England in 1568 after her second husband's murder
and her subsequent marriage to a man believed to have been involved in his
murder. As a likely successor to Elizabeth, Mary spent 19 years as
Elizabeth's prisoner because Mary was the focus for rebellion and possible
assassination plots, such as the Babington Plot of 1586. Mary was also a
temptation for potential invaders such as Philip II. In a letter of 1586 to
Mary, Elizabeth wrote, 'You have planned ... to take my life and ruin my
kingdom ... I never proceeded so harshly against you.' Despite Elizabeth's
reluctance to take drastic action, on the insistence of Parliament and her
advisers, Mary was tried, found guilty and executed in 1587.
In 1588, aided by bad weather, the English navy scored a great victory
over the Spanish invasion fleet of around 130 ships - the 'Armada'. The
Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman
Catholicism by conquest, as Philip II believed he had a claim to the
English throne through his marriage to Mary.
During Elizabeth's long reign, the nation also suffered from high prices
and severe economic depression, especially in the countryside, during the
1590s. The war against Spain was not very successful after the Armada had
been beaten and, together with other campaigns, it was very costly. Though
she kept a tight rein on government expenditure, Elizabeth left large debts
to her successor. Wars during Elizabeth's reign are estimated to have cost
over Ј5 million (at the prices of the time) which Crown revenues could not
match - in 1588, for example, Elizabeth's total annual revenue amounted to
some Ј392,000. Despite the combination of financial strains and prolonged
war after 1588, Parliament was not summoned more often. There were only 16
sittings of the Commons during Elizabeth's reign, five of which were in the
period 1588-1601. Although Elizabeth freely used her power to veto
legislation, she avoided confrontation and did not attempt to define
Parliament's constitutional position and rights.
Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he
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