 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about Queen Elizabeth I and their Elizabethan era. My name is Barbara and in this video, we'll examine the troubles that Queen Elizabeth faced at home and abroad. Bear in mind that this is the third of our five-part revision series, where we examine Queen Elizabeth's reign, including the structure of her government, her favourites at court, the threats she faced as a monarch, both within England and externally, the important role of explorers as well as key acts and laws that were passed during her tenure. So let's get started. Now, when it came to the threats that she fixed, the first major threat was that of the religious settlement. So by 1558, England had experienced decades of dizzying religious changes. Elizabeth's religious settlement, passed in 1559, aimed to put a stop to these changes and bring religious stability to England. There had been constant religious changes since the 1530s and of course these were inspired by her father, who had started the reformation. Now, when Elizabeth became queen in 1558, England had suffered over 30 years of religious turmoil, with the national religion switching repeatedly between Protestantism and Catholicism. Now, of course, as I've mentioned, until the 1530s, England was a Catholic country and most people were Catholics. However, in the early 1530s, Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. He rejected the Pope's authority and made himself the head of the Church of England. Also, Edward VI was a strong supporter of Protestantism and when he became king, he tried to reform the English Church to make it more Protestant. Now, Mary I was a devout Catholic and as queen, she made England Catholic again. She restored the Pope as the head of the English Church and removed Edward's Protestant reforms and Protestants were harshly prosecuted under Queen Mary. She was known as Bloody Mary because over 280 people executed and many more fled to Protestant countries in Europe. Now, Elizabeth herself had been raised as a Protestant. She was deeply religious and committed to Protestantism and Protestants challenged many Catholic beliefs and practices. So firstly, the question of authority of the Pope and rejected some Catholic beliefs. For instance, the belief that Christians were saved by faith and not by good deeds. Secondly, they encouraged ordinary people to read the Bible by translating it from Latin to English. Thirdly, they also thought that churches should be plain and simple unlike the highly decorated Catholic churches. However, Queen Elizabeth was also determined to end the constant religious changes of the last 30 years by creating a stable and lasting religious settlement. Now, the first important thing to remember is the act of supremacy which gave Queen Elizabeth control over the Church. So Henry VIII and Edward VI had both used the title Supreme Head of the Church of England and in her act of supremacy passed between 1590, Elizabeth essentially altered the title to make herself the supreme governor of the English Church. This gave Elizabeth control over the English Church without actually calling her its head and this compromise satisfied those who believed a woman shouldn't lead the Church. Now, as well as the act of supremacy, Queen Elizabeth herself introduced the act of uniformity and the royal injunctions in 1559. They introduced some Protestant reforms but they didn't go far enough for the Puritans. Now, the act of uniformity made moderate Protestant reforms and the royal injunctions which were passed in 1559 imposed moderate Protestant reforms in the English Church but they also made some concessions to English Catholics in the next slide. Now, of course, the first thing is going to church was made compulsory and there were fines for missing a church service. A new Book of Common Prayer was issued which had to be used in all churches and all parishes had to have a copy of the Bible in English. There were also concessions made so the wording of the communion service which is an important Christian ceremony was kept to liberally vague so that it could be accepted by both Protestants and Catholics. Churches were also allowed to keep some decorations and priests had to wear certain Catholic vestments which are robes. However, Puritans challenged the religious settlements so the Puritans were committed to Protestants and for them Elizabeth's religious settlement was only a first step and they wanted her to make further reforms to remove all traces of Catholicism from the English Church. Now, many Puritans had fled England when Mary I was in power and while in exile in Protestant parts of Europe some had come into contact with the teaching of leading reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Now, the vestment controversy of the 1560s was a serious Puritan challenge to the religious settlement. Puritan priests refused to wear the surplus or white vestment used by the Catholics which the royal injunctions had made compulsory and Queen Elizabeth did tolerate this at first. However, in 1565 she ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to ensure that all priests wore the surplus and those Puritans who still refused lost their jobs or were imprisoned. As a result, the Puritans challenged the religious settlement again later on in her reign. However, in addition to the Puritans, Queen Elizabeth's religious settlement faced many other challenges in the 1560s so many members of the nobility continued to practice Catholicism so a large proportion of the nobility were still Catholic and the compromises on the religious settlement didn't win some of them around however others still refused stubbornly to attend church services and they were known as recusants. The Catholic nobility was influential in areas outside the southeast especially Lancashire. They used the strong local power bases to protect Catholics and maintain traditional religious practices. Now these Catholic nobles posed a potential threat to the religious settlement and there was a risk they might overthrow Queen Elizabeth and restore Catholicism. So to minimize this threat, Queen Elizabeth didn't force the Catholic nobility to attend church services. As long as they didn't make a public show of their beliefs, they were allowed to continue practicing Catholicism. Now, France and Spain were distracted by domestic difficulties which is important to note so there was a risk that the Catholic rulers of France and Spain may try to reverse the religious settlement and replace Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch. However, neither country at this time was in a real position to challenge the religious settlement during the 1560s. There was a threat of a French invasion which was serious during the first years of Elizabeth's reign but this threat faded with the start of the French Wars of Religion in 1562. In the 1560s, Spain was also facing a growing revolt in the Netherlands and to prevent an allegiance forming between England and the Prussia Netherlands, Spain tried to stay on good terms with Elizabeth and avoided challenging her religious settlement. This therefore meant that the papacy also lacked military support so the Pope who had the power to excommunicate Elizabeth in other words expel her from the Catholic Church didn't have that much power to act. Now, this power was important because it could encourage Catholic countries to invade England and it could also encourage rebellion at home about releasing Elizabeth's Catholic subjects from the duty of loyalty towards her. However, neither France nor Spain had the military resources to invade England and to back the papacy and there was no clear support for a revolt against Elizabeth at home. So the Pope didn't take any action against her in the 1560s. Now, Mary Queen of Scots was a really important figure who was in many ways a thorn in the side of Queen Elizabeth. So Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were cousins but Elizabeth wasn't really pleased when Mary arrived in England. She had a strong claim to the English throne and she was only a child of James V of Scotland. She was related to the Tudors through her mother Margaret Tudor and Margaret was Henry VIII's sister and mother of James V. Now, as a granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, Mary had a strong claim to the English throne because Mary was Catholic, her claim was supported by many English Catholics. Now, Mary became Queen of Scotland in 1542 when she was just six days old and her mother acted as regent. In other words, she ruled on her behalf while Mary was raised in France. Now, in 1558, when Mary was 15 years old, she married the heir to the French throne. However, her husband died suddenly in 1560, just two years later, and Mary returned to Scotland. She then fled to England in 1568. This is because in 1565, Mary married the Scottish nobleman Lord Donnelly. The marriage wasn't a happy one and Donnelly hated Mary's personal secretary, David Rizio, and became convinced that they were having an affair. In 1567, he was murdered and many people believed Mary and her close friend, the Earl of Bothwell, were behind the murder. Their suspicions seemed to be confirmed when Mary married Bothwell a few months later. This marriage was a really unpopular one with the Scottish nobles who rebelled against Mary. They imprisoned her and forced her to abdicate, in other words, give up the throne in favour of her one-year-old son James. And in 1568, Mary escaped from prison and raised an army and her forces were defeated so she fled south to England. Now, when she did flee, she still did pose a threat, so she hoped that Elizabeth would help her regain control of Scotland when she did get to England. However, Elizabeth wasn't willing to do this. Mary's claim to the English throne meant that there would be a constant threat of invasion from the North if Mary did regain power in Scotland. Instead, Mary was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth and then an inquiry was set up to investigate whether she had been involved in Donnelly's murder. Queen Elizabeth didn't actually want the inquiry to find Queen Mary guilty. A guilty verdict would lend support to the claims or to the actions of the Scottish nobles who had overthrown Mary the legitimate Queen. However, Queen Elizabeth didn't want a not guilty verdict to either because this would force her to release Queen Mary. And once free, Mary may use her claim to the English throne and try to overthrow Queen Elizabeth herself. In the end, the inquiry didn't reach a verdict and this enabled Elizabeth to keep Mary in captivity. She hoped that imprisoning Mary would prevent her from becoming the centre of Catholic plots, but Mary's presence caused problems for Elizabeth throughout the next 20 years. Now, of course, another important rebellion was the Northern Rebellion. So Northern nobles who had barely been in England, five minutes when she became, she became, her queenship started causing trouble for Elizabeth. Now, these noble nobles, Northern nobles, were unhappy for several reasons. Now, they were still firstly committed Catholics. They wanted to see the restoration of Catholicism in England on the Catholic Monarch. Hence the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots in 1568 gave them a hope that Elizabeth could be replaced with Mary. Elizabeth had also, and most importantly, confiscated large areas of land from the Earl of Northumberland and shared them between Northumberland's main rivals in the North and a Southern Protestant. And Northumberland was so angry that Elizabeth had claimed all the profits from copper mines discovered on his estates. Elizabeth had effectively reduced the power of the Northern nobles and increased her control of the North and in part, she did this through the Council of the North which helped govern the region. And under Elizabeth, the Council was controlled by Southern Protestants and Northern nobles deeply resented this. So they blamed Queen Elizabeth's advisors for these policies and believed that some privy councillors, like William Cecil, had become too powerful. So they wanted to remove these evil councillors and replace them with men who had more sympathy towards their interests. Thus, a Northern rebellion broke out in 1569. So in 1569, the Duke of Norfolk, who was the wealthiest landowner in England, hatched a plan to marry Mary Queen of Scots and have her recognised as Elizabeth's heir. This plan was supported by Catholic nobles, including the Elves of Northumberland and Westmoreland, because it meant that Elizabeth would be succeeded by a Catholic Queen. However, when the plan was uncovered, the Elves feared that they would be executed for their involvement. And in a desperate attempt to escape punishment, they rebelled and tried to overthrow Queen Elizabeth. In a mep of 1569, the Elves captured Durham, where they celebrated Catholic mass in the Cathedral, and then they marched south, probably making for Tartbury in Derbyshire, where Mary was imprisoned. However, before the rebels reached Tartbury, a large royal army forced them to retreat, and many of the troops deserted, and the two others fled to Scotland. Elizabeth did show these rebels very little mercy. Westmoreland fled abroad, and Northumberland was executed, and there were at least 400 rebel troops, and the revolt was seen as a serious threat to her role. Now, this Northern Rebellion posed the biggest threat to her rule at the time, and it showed the danger that Mary Queen of Scots represented as a rallying point for the English Catholics. News of the rebellion spread, creating widespread fear amongst English Protestants about the threat posed by Catholics, and it contributed to a growing anti-Catholic feeling. These views were then fueled by memories of the harsh persecutions of Protestants during the reign of Queen Mary I. There was little support for the revolt among the rest of the Catholic nobility and ordinary people. When given a choice between Elizabeth and the religion, most Catholics chose to support the Queen, and in 5069-1570, this was the last time the English Catholics tried to remove Elizabeth by force. Now, there was a Catholic threat, which also grew worse throughout the 1570s and early 1580s, and as a result, Elizabeth and her government became less and less tolerant of Catholicism. Now, the Pope had expelled Queen Elizabeth from the Catholic Church, and in 1570, this is when this excommunication happened, and this meant Catholics no longer had to obey the Queen, and they were encouraged by the Pope to overthrow her. Now, together with the Northern Rebellion, the excommunication changed Elizabeth's attitudes towards Catholics. They were now seen as potential traitors, so Elizabeth and her government became less torrenty, tolerant of Residency, which is refusal to go to Catholicism. Parliament passed the Treason's Act in 1571, and under this act, anyone who claimed that Elizabeth wasn't England's legitimate ruler could face a death penalty. Now, missionary priests strengthened English Catholicism. So, in 1568, William Allen founded a missionary college at Douaille, which is now France, to train English Catholic priests, and once trained, these missionary priests would return to England and secretly go to the Catholic Church and then return to the Catholic Church. These missionary priests would return to England and secretly minister to English Catholics. The first missionary priests reached England in 1574. In 1580, the missionaries, Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion, who had both trained at a missionary college in Rome, entered the country. Now, Campion was executed for treason in December 1581. In the 1560s, also, Elizabeth had tolerated Residency because she believed that English Catholicism would gradually die out as religious settlement became more firmly established. However, the arrival of these missionary priests from the 1570s changed everything with the support of these highly committed missionaries. It was now more likely that Catholicism in England would just fade away on its own, and this strengthening of Catholicism was thus a major threat to the religious settlement, and thus Parliament passed two important anti-Catholic acts in response to these threats for missionary peace. These acts massively increased the fines for Residency, making them too expensive for most ordinary Catholics. The acts also introduced fines and prison sentences for people who said or attended Catholic Mass. The acts also made it treason, which is punishable by death, to convert to Catholicism or persuade others to convert, and these acts also introduced prison sentences and the death penalty for anyone who encouraged rebellion, and these anti-Catholic acts were introduced in 1581. Now, there were Catholic plots against Elizabeth, and she reacted by passing stricter laws, and so between 1571 to 1585, there were several Catholic plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. This included the Rodolfi plot in 1571, the Thock Morton plot in 1583, and the Babington plot in 1586, and the plots involved Catholic and Spiratures in England and Europe, and they were supported by the Pope and Catholic Rulers, especially King Philip II of Spain. Now, these plots were a real threat to Elizabeth's rule and her religious settlement, and Mary's strong claim to the throne made them seem more credible, and Philip II's involvement meant that there was a risk they would lead to Spanish invasion. However, none of these plots succeeded, and this was partly because there was little public support for Catholic Revolution, as the Northern Rebellion had shown. Now, of course, persecution, as we mentioned before, increased in the 1580s, and in 1584, the Dutch Protestant leader, William the Silent, was assassinated by Catholic. Combined with the arrival of missionary priests and the Catholic plots against Elizabeth, this assassination made the government even more concerned about the Catholic threat in England, and as a result, the persecution of Catholics increased, and the anti-Catholic laws were enforced far more strictly, and in 1585, Parliament passed two new laws. Now, the anti-Catholic laws in 1585 touched on the fact that Mary, Queen of Scots, couldn't be allowed to become Queen if Elizabeth was assassinated, and it was hoped that this would put a stop to the plots involving Mary. Also, this 1585 Catholic laws had missionary priests gave, rather, missionary priests 40 days to leave England, and any priests who didn't leave were to be executed. Also, the anti-Catholic laws of 1585 and 1581 led to the execution of more than 120 Catholic priests, and many more were put to prison. Now, in 1586, Walsingham used a spy network to prove that Mary had supported the Bubbington plot, and his evidence persuaded Elizabeth to put Mary on trial and execute her for treason. Now, in 1586, Francis Walsingham had a spy network to gather evidence against Mary, Queen of Scots, and he intercepted and decoded Mary's letter, including one which approved plans to assassinate the Queen and free her from prison. Mary had also been implicated in Catholic plots before, but Elizabeth had always refused to take action. She was reluctant to execute Mary because she was Queen of Scotland, but she also believed that monarchs ruled by divine right, so she felt she had no right to execute a legitimate monarch, and she also feared that executing Mary would undermine her own claim to rule by divine right and might feel more plots against her. However, the evidence gathered by Walsingham finally persuaded Queen Elizabeth to put Mary on trial. In an October 1586, Mary was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Now, despite the guilty verdict, Elizabeth felt incredibly reluctant, but she still passed this, and Parliament and the Privy Council believed that the execution was vital to weaken the Catholic threat and protect the religious settlement. And so, Elizabeth eventually agreed to have Mary executed on the 8th of February 1587. Now, Mary's execution did reduce the threat from Catholics at home, and this is because it meant that English Catholics had now nobody to rally around, so they lost hope of ever overthrowing Elizabeth and having a successor. However, this execution did increase threats from abroad. So, in 1587, relations with Spain were at a low point, and the two countries were now at war over the Netherlands, and Philip II had been preparing for an attack in England since 1585. Now, Mary's execution thus made the situation worse, and Philip was now more than ever determined to invade. There was also a danger that Mary's son, King James VI of Scotland, might seek revenge for his mother's death and those fears that he would form an alliance with other Catholic powers to invade England. The Puritans, who were dedicated to Protestantism, wanted to also purify the English Church, and they posed an additional threat. Now, as committed Protestants, Puritans were strongly anti-Catholic, and they thought that the English Church should be free from all traces of Catholicism. Puritans also believed that preaching, explaining the Word of God, was really important, and they thought that all priests should be well educated so that they would be able to preach, and at the time, this was unusual as many priests lacked an education and didn't preach. Now, it's interesting that, even if their goals were aligned with Queen Elizabeth, they still posed a threat. Now, the Puritans had encouraged the education of ordinary people so that they would be able to read and understand the Bibles for themselves, and some Puritans were even more radical. They wanted to get rid of the Church hierarchy of archbishops, bishops, and so on, and this fuels the threat to Queen Elizabeth because it called into question her authority as Supreme Governor of the Church and the head of the hierarchy. Now, the prophesies taught priests how to preach, and by the 1570s, the Puritans were concerned about the lack of educated priests who were able to preach, and so they introduced the prophesies, which was a kind of training to teach these priests. Now, Elizabeth thought that this would encourage more Puritan opposition, and in 1576, she ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Grindel, to put a stop to them. Now, Grindel was a moderate Puritan, and he thought that the prophesies were good for the Church, so he refused to obey Elizabeth, and this made her really furious. So she suspended him and put him under house arrest. Now, this therefore fell to Archbishop Whitgift, who tried to suppress Puritanism. So 1583, Grindel died, and Elizabeth made John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, and with her support, he launched an attack on the Puritan clergy, and all priests had to accept the regulation of the Church or face suspension. Therefore, between 200 and 300 Puritan priests were suspended, and Whitgift's campaign made some Puritans feel that there was no hope of reforming the Church of England, so they decided to break away and form a separate Church. Now, these Puritans separates were seen as a major threat to the religious settlement, and the government introduced censorship laws to prevent them from spreading their ideas, and in 1590, several of the leaders were arrested. Now, the threat from Puritan separatists probably wasn't as serious as Elizabeth and her government thought. There weren't that many of them, and they didn't have support of any powerful members of the elite. Most of them were moderates in the work within the Church of England. So that's all when it comes to the threats that Queen Elizabeth faced abroad and at home. If you found this video useful, do give us a thumbs up, but also head over to our website, which is www.firstritutans.com. There, you will find history model answers and exam papers that you can use to enhance your essay writing skills and get top marks in your exam. Make sure you come back for our fifth and final video, which is part of our Queen Elizabeth and the Elizabethan Times series, where we look at England's war with Spain under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I. Thank you so much for listening.