YEAR 13 -- ELIZABETH I

What we have to cover

Unit 2588: option on Elizabeth I

This option is concerned with interpreting the aims and achievements of Elizabeth I and understanding the controversies which have characterised studies of her reign. The focus is restricted to key domestic issues and candidates will not be tested on foreign relations, although a background knowledge of their relationship with domestic issues will be useful. While pictorial or literary images of Elizabeth I may be included in question 1 on the question papers, art historical or literary criticism will not be required; the emphasis will be on historian�s interpretations of these images.

Key Issues for Study and Examination:
What problems faced Elizabeth I as a female ruler and how did she cope with them?
To what extent was Elizabeth I able to maintain control over and manage her government and parliaments?
Why, and with what consequences, did Puritans challenge the Elizabethan Church?
How serious was the threat posed by Roman Catholics to Church and state in the reign of Elizabeth I?

Content
Contemporary opinions regarding female rulers, positive and negative views of the queen, the marriage question, the roles of the court.

Government and Parliament: their functions and composition. The relationship between Queen, Privy Council and Parliament: co-operation or conflict? The significance and management of issues in dispute: the Church settlement, parliamentary privilege, the marriage question and the succession.

Puritanism: the nature and extent of puritanism, Elizabeth's attitude, the policies of successive archbishops of Canterbury, the puritans in parliament, the defence of the Anglican church (Hooker and Jewel).

Catholicism: the nature and extent of catholic survivalism, changing reactions of government and parliament to England�s Catholics, the papal bull of 1570, the missionary priests, the Rising of the Northern Earls and the plots concerning Mary Queen of Scots.

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