ELIZABETH, Queen of ENGLAND. — Born at Greenwich on 7 Sept. 1533, died at Richmond on 24 March 1603. Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, she succeeded her half-sister Mary at a critical moment in national history (1558).
As the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Catholics could not accept her as the legitimate heir to the throne; therefore they looked to the Catholic Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, as the nearest legitimate kinswoman of Henry VIII. Catholics, however, were displeased by the pro-Spanish policy pursued by the late Queen Mary and would not have been displeased had Elizabeth emancipated herself from it and adopted other directions. Yet upbringing and “reason of state” led Elizabeth to adopt a policy favourable to Protestantism such as had been that of her half-brother Edward VI. Indeed, with
the edicts of 1590 and 1591 against priests and laypeople who might shelter them or attend their Mass were not enough, and finally on 2 Nov. 1602 the edict of absolute exile for all clergy was issued.
Nevertheless, neither did the priests falter nor did the laity yield to these false injunctions. During Elizabeth’s reign some 200 Catholics, both priests and laity, were put to death for their faith, many of whom were beatified by the Church or proposed for beatification; the number of those who, without losing their lives, lost their goods or were forced into exile or languished in dark prisons far exceeds a thousand.
While keeping at bay the princes who sought her hand in marriage, she refused to contract marriage with any of them; pursuing a cautious policy of support for the Protestant cause on the Continent, she did not wish to compromise too openly the security of the country and the crown. She aided the Protestant Netherlands in their revolt against Spain and the French Huguenots against the Catholic League. She invested her private capital in the enterprises of privateers and colonists who, by attacking the fleets carrying precious metals from America to Spain and by opening new territories to English trade, undermined the foundations of Philip II’s power. Yet for decades, against the express advice of her counsellors, she refused to enter into open conflict with him, and only after much hesitation did she adopt that radical policy toward Mary Stuart which led to her condemnation and execution (1587).
The conflict with Spain, rendered inevitable by the maritime and colonial expansion of the nation which threatened the Catholic king’s supremacy in American waters, finally broke out at the initiative of Philip II, who had prepared a mighty Armada, in 1588. Elizabeth’s victory, while marking the beginning of English maritime pre-eminence, finally shattered Philip II’s hopes of establishing Spanish-Catholic predominance in northern Europe. The final years of Elizabeth’s reign saw further progress in the nation’s economic development and internal cohesion. When the Queen died in 1603, the material conditions of the country were among the best that English history records; yet religious intolerance toward Catholics was at its height.