What Were the Chief Threats to the Stability of the Elizabethan Realms

What were the chief threats to the stability of the Elizabethan realms?

Elizabeth inherited from her predecessors more than her fair share of issues. Upon her taking the throne in 1558 religious turmoil, pretenders to the throne and the looming threat of Spanish invasion were but some of the threats any one of such threats can and had, by themselves, toppled monarchs in their scores. As a protestant monarch she was isolated in a catholic Europe and as a women she had to struggle to assert her legitimacy as the rightful queen of England.

Firstly we must look at the threat posed by the queen herself. Her unwillingness to marry, for whatever reason, was a destabilising factor for her reign. A strong foreign ally was desperately needed to aid in either preventing a war or aiding her if one should be declared. Her half sister Mary I had done just that and married Phillip II of Spain. This was especially relevant as the heretical nature of her kingdom gave the perfect ‘Casus Belli’ for any catholic nation, said nation ended up being Spain. The dire nature of being an heirless monarch is well illustrated by King Henry VIII wild quest for a son in order to alleviate such a weakness to his reign. In fact the desire for an heir was so strong that in 1566 there she was petitioned by parliament for her to create an heir. Whilst it could be argued that she utilised her unmarried status as a propaganda piece, making her the ‘Virgin Queen’ the trade off, in my opinion is not worth it. The structure of the monarchical system of government in early modern Britain demanded an heir for stability.

The lack of the heir was coupled by the Queens poor health in the early part of her reign. She contracted small pox, the scars of which she would bear for the rest of her life, and she very nearly died from it. The possibility of her dying and leaving the throne empty made the nobility very uncomfortable. Whilst the succession was unclear there was a possibility for civil war, something that no one wanted to see. Such a civil war would be more political as the two major claimants to the throne, Catherine Grey and Mary Queen of Scott’s (James VI & I mother) were Protestant and Catholic respectively making it a religious civil war.

Due to the culture of the day women were seen as incompetent when handling power, as they are less rational than men and ruled by passions. This was in contrast to men who were seen as dominant and powerful, women could not be expected to command the obedience of men. Women were seen as weak and frail, unable to make tough decisions or command armies in times of war, an all to common occurrence in 16th Century Europe.  However this perceived weakness was used by Elizabeth very effectively to cement her power. She was a master of her public image and often portrayed herself as a king trapped within a women’s body. Her famous speech to the troops at Tilbury she confessed to being “a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king”^[1]. This manipulation of her image inspired great confidence in her underlings to her competence. The great loyalty displayed by the majority of her subjects shows how masterful she was at managing her public image. However whilst in the end her gender was not a constant destabilising factor, in the initial part of her reign it was a major issue and thus the competence she showed in dealing with it does not supersede that fact that she had to deal with such problems in the first place. It was a major threat that, along with most others she successfully dealt with.