"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king." These are purported to be the words of Elizabeth I to the troops assembled at Tilbury to repel the invading Spanish forces in 1588.

From her birth in 1533 to Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Tudor was surrounded by controversy. First of all, she was considered illegitimate by Catholics who didn't accept Henry VIII's breaking with the Catholic church. In their eyes, his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn was invalid, and Katharine of Aragon was still his legitimate wife. When Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558 following the death of her sister Mary, she had to contend with the twin difficulties of being Protestant in a largely Catholic continent, in a country which was probably mostly Catholic, and of being a woman.

Yet Elizabeth I has long been considered as one of the most successful monarchs in English history. How did she manage to prevail against the existing orthodoxy which held that women were not fit to rule? How did she rein in the dissident Catholic elements in her kingdom? How did she convince her subjects and historians that she had the "heart and stomach of a king?"

England in 1558: geo-politics and luck

England's position in 1588.(4:05 min)

England in 1558 was, at best, a second-rate power, and some would have put it even lower than that. It had immense strategic value: it was superbly placed along one of the great sea routes of Europe across the English channel, but it was a country that had very significant weaknesses.

For a start it did not have a decent army. There were certainly plenty of men in England that could have been brought into the army but they did not have experience of war. They had not adopted the latest techniques of war and when they saw active service in France in 1557-58 they showed just how weak and inexperienced they were. The navy was more successful. Under Henry VIII, England had developed a sizeable and very well-perceived navy. It incorporated the latest technological advances. However, from that point onwards it had been allowed to decline, both in its numbers and its state of readiness for war .

Nevertheless, England under Elizabeth was extraordinarily lucky, and it was luck as much as any policy initiatives that led to its growth in importance during the first part of the sixteenth century. The first stroke of luck was in Scotland. The Protestant faction rebelled, threw out the French and forged an alliance with England that essentially neutralised this particular danger. The second stroke of luck was that France essentially self-destructed for much of the second half of the sixteenth century. A long war between Catholics and Protestants, and between different political factions, essentially neutralised France for much of this period.

Another area from which England was vulnerable was the Low Countries or the Netherlands, the region nowadays covered by Belgium and Holland. That too, in a sense, self-destructed. A rebellion that broke out after 1566 continued right through to 1648. So England's nearest rivals were neutralised by their own civil conflicts. In this situation England could take a much more aggressive stance without having to constantly watch its back. Political circumstances were a key element in allowing England to succeed in a way that had not been possible in the immediate period before Elizabeth's reign.

Elizabeth's accession: illegitimacy, epidemics and Catholics

Elizabeth's accession in 1558. (5:03 min)

The circumstances of Elizabeth's accession are well known. She succeeded her sister, who was known as Bloody Mary as a result of some very tough policies against Protestants during her reign. She succeeded in a time of widespread gloom and doom: the country was going through an economic crisis; it was also suffering from widespread epidemics; it was losing a war with the French, and had just lost its final possession in continental Europe: Calais.

Elizabeth was very much welcomed by the people because she represented change, and hopefully improvement on what had gone on before. In one sense, things could only get better. The economic crisis really wasn't quite as bad as was being made out. The epidemics eventually disappeared and the war was quickly ended.

Elizabeth also faced a country that was profoundly divided along religious lines. It is impossible to say just what the strength of the respective religious groups was in England, Wales and Ireland at this point, but contemporaries say there was probably a numerical majority of Catholics, although the Protestant minority was very substantial, very vocal and very powerful. Elizabeth was herself a Protestant and wanted to bring back Protestantism without prompting a rebellion from the Catholics. She tackled this delicate situation by not pushing the issue very far. She restored Protestantism but she made it clear that she had no intention of "opening windows into men's souls." She signalled that she was prepared to tolerate a degree of dissent as long as there was a political unity.

The body of a weak and feeble woman

The trials a female ruler faced. (5:59 min)

Mary had been the first female ruler for centuries in England. In that sense she faced many difficulties that Elizabeth did not have to confront. People assumed in this period that women were inferior in many ways to men: they did not have men's political acumen, capacity for reason or decision-making ability. Despite the fact that Mary had been a ruler beforehand, Elizabeth was not free from accusations that she would be weak and incapable of leading England effectively as a result of her gender.

The fact that John Knox's book, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, was published about the time of Elizabeth's accession is useful in that it shows us how the extremists thought about the role of women in politics and power. For people like Knox it was simply unacceptable because it was contrary to the divinely appointed order of things. God had set man above woman. God had created woman for men. It was therefore not tolerable that a woman should give orders to a man, hold political power and power over life and death. Women were not judges, and yet one of the fundamental elements of monarchy in this period was the dispensation of justice.

were in power--and there were a number of women in power at this period--showed that this was complete nonsense. They were tough and skilful politicians as well as very able leaders. But there were certain fundamental problems that women rulers or governors could not overcome, however skilful or tough--and Elizabeth was both tough and skilful. These problems were in the areas of government that concerned religion and the military. Women could not be priests: therefore the idea of a woman at the head of the Protestant Anglican faith in England was simply unacceptable. In fact, the Protestant clergy refused to give Elizabeth the title that they had given Henry VIII. She was given the lesser title of "Governor." Elizabeth compensated for this opposition to a certain degree by using Parliament to control the church. The military, on the other hand, was something she simply could not handle. Even those who were most close and loyal to her, such as Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester, simply ignored her the minute they found themselves at the command of troops. A woman was not thought to have any capacity to handle the detail of military matters or even to determine strategy.

Being a woman was less problematic in the political sphere: there she was able to prove herself a very skilful ruler and it was more acceptable to people that women should be good at the art of dissimulation and such arts of government.

The heart, stomach and role of a king

Elizabeth: a monarch alone. (7:24 min)

The ideas that Elizabeth brought to the monarchy were very traditional. They were based on long-standing Christian and classical concepts of kingship, monarchy and sovereignty. In that sense it was irrelevant whether one was male or female, as the task of the ruler was the same: they existed to bring justice to the people and to protect the church. Those fundamental offices of the sovereign could be exercised in a republic as much as by a monarchy. They are to be found everywhere in early modern Europe, and underpin the very notion of legitimate power. In one sense, therefore, Elizabeth was no different from her predecessors, but she had to compensate for those areas of government that she was excluded from as a woman.

To manage this, however, she needed a husband. This is what Mary Tudor had found. Mary automatically assumed that her first duty was to marry in order to have a husband who would help her govern, someone who was politically experienced, to control the military, to help her regulate the complex relationship between political power and the church. The other vital element was producing an heir, something no woman could do on her own, no matter how tough and skilful she was.

filled the expectations that people had of her. The greatest expectation was that she would continue the dynasty of which she was the last, and it was a primary duty for her to ensure the dynasty's survival. She could also have made her life easier with regards to the military and the church if she had married. The problem was that Elizabeth was not interested in marriage, and for a number of reasons. There were personal elements. She had said from quite an early age that she didn't want to marry. As a monarch, however, there were a number of minuses that she was not willing to consider. She would have to play second fiddle to her husband, and Elizabeth was not willing to do this. Surprisingly, at least to her contemporaries, she enjoyed power. She knew that if she got married she would lose that power and freedom. There were also very substantial problems as to who she might marry. If she married abroad and went for one of the really high-status princes who already had kingdoms of their own, Elizabeth might find herself with greater freedom in England but with England being subjected to foreign states. This had happened under Mary and it had been deeply unpopular. If she married a lesser prince, someone who did not have substantial territories, it would bring down the status of the Tudor dynasty rather than enhance it.

The final problem was that, for most of her life, Elizabeth was in love with Robert Dudley. At the beginning of her reign he was married to someone else, so if not unrequited love, this was certainly love that could not be consummated in any real sense. When Dudley's wife died in very mysterious circumstances he was accused of having engineered her death so that he could marry Elizabeth. Those very circumstances and suspicions made it very difficult for them to go ahead. But there was also a substantial political problem. If she had married one of her subjects, this would have encouraged faction: it would have encouraged, in essence, a civil war within England.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House

This portrait, known as the Ermine portrait, was painted by Nicholas Hilliard (although some attribute it to William Segar) around 1585. This is a highly symbolic image awash with imperial and virginal themes and iconography. On the table at her right lies the sword of justice and she holds the olive branch in her hand. These features personify Elizabeth as “Peace” and monarch as dispenser of justice. It is the ermine, however, which gave the portrait it's name and distinctiveness. The ermine was used by the poet Petrarch to represent Laura’s purity. The ermine in this case is a strong allusion to Elizabeth's purity. The topazes on her collar also symbolize resistance to lasciviousness. In the absence of a husband and with a succession crisis looming, the image of Elizabeth as a pure, unearthly godlike being was especially important. In this portrait Elizabeth's face is taken from a mask that was created by the government, which was used for all representations of her. This was not just vanity, it was extremely important that there were no reminders of Elizabeth's age and the likelihood of a crisis of succession.

In the end Elizabeth dithered. She considered a large number of marriages and she tended to use marriage negotiations as a very useful political ploy. Ultimately she did not get very serious about any of her suitors. I think that Elizabeth worked out fairly early on that the disadvantages of marriage outweighed the very considerable advantages, and opted to remain single, and above all to remain in power, in control and not sharing that political authority with anyone.

Faction and friction: the Elizabethan court

The factions and favourites of Elizabeth's court. (8:27 min)

The Elizabethan court has a reputation for being particularly factional. However, the most recent research shows that factions were present in all early modern courts, and that Elizabeth's court was no more divided than others--except perhaps towards the end of her reign. There was a great deal of unanimity towards the beginning of her reign as people pulled together, realising that they had a difficult job in hand. They also had rather different roles assigned to them. Elizabeth relied very heavily on two individuals at the start. Cecil, who later becomes Lord Burghley, dealt with a lot of the day-to-day government, as well as the serious political advice. Robert Dudley, later the Earl of Leicester, was there as a personal favourite. She certainly consulted him on a number of matters, but it was his personal power over the Queen that made all the difference, and subsequently he became a leading military adviser. He could, in a sense, work with Cecil. They had different spheres of influence and although they overlapped and they fought to have the queen agree with particular policy decisions, there was a degree of unanimity.

	Thinking Points
	Why do you think Elizabeth never married? What were the advantages and disadvantages of her remaining single?

The role of the personal favourites was slightly different in the Elizabethan court. A great deal of sexual politics went on. Elizabeth compensated for her lack of personal satisfaction in terms of a marriage by playing all kinds of elaborate games with male courtiers. She demanded a great deal of lavish praise and that was frequently laced with sexual overtones, and she demanded absolute loyalty from them. She was intensely jealous of them, and managed to prevent a number of them from getting married. When they did--and a number of them got married in secret--they were punished, as were their wives.

Robert Dudley was, until his death in 1588, her absolute favourite, her "sweet Robin." Overlapping with his final years, and then going on beyond, Dudley's step son, the Earl of Essex was the other favourite. It is with Essex that the game really lost some of its charm, and Elizabeth became a victim of her own desires. She tolerated from Essex the kind of behaviour that no one should tolerate from another person. He was an impetuous, brilliant, good-looking young man who behaved abominably. He had tantrums, he railed at people, he shouted at her and refused to obey her. He created many tensions within court because what he wanted was power and particularly the power to determine policy. He would not work alongside the Cecils (the other significant court faction) in the way that Dudley had managed to work before. He became as much a liability as an asset. He was an asset both in a personal sense and in the sense that he was a very popular figurehead.

J.K. Wingfield Digby, Sherborne Castle

Elizabeth in procession attended by courtiers.

In the end those tensions could not be resolved. Although the Queen gave him both military power and a position in the council, Essex was not satisfied with them. He wanted, in essence, to be the sole adviser, the one who dominated the court. He also failed disastrously as a military leader, particularly in Ireland. When he returned to court after the Irish fiasco, he found himself excluded from the position of power that he thought was rightfully his. He subsequently attempted a coup and that is what finished him off. He was arrested, imprisoned and executed. Elizabeth was heartbroken by this, but she had been heartbroken by his behaviour. However fond she was of him, his inability to turn his wild promises of military success into reality had discredited him, even with this rather doting old woman that she had become.