Elizabethan England

Elizabethan England – her succession

At his death two candidates were took into consideration for the succession: Elizabeth Tudor, who was born in wedlock (something considered illegitimate for Catholics) of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and Mary Stuart, that was the Catholic Queen of Scots and wife of the French King Francis II.

It was thought, though, that if England had been ruled by the Stuart, it would have risked to be depended to France so the English Parliament, largely Protestant, preferred Elizabeth.

As a matter of fact, in 1558 Elizabeth Tudor was crowned.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth

In fact, she managed the economy according to the dictates of mercantilism.

An example of that is the fact that International trade was the focus of her development plan: the Crown promoted the privileged companies, especially the ones with a monopoly on the trade in a particular aera, but also made use of pirates, who preyed on Spanish and Portuguese vessels.

She brought stability after years of religious changes to state leaders: she became protestant but she decided not to persecute Catholics.

The only religious issue she had was with Mary Stuart.
She fled Scotland after trying to reintroduce Catholicism and she took refuge with Elizabeth but in 1587 she was executed because it seems that she plotted against the British government.

For this reason, Philip II took the opportunity to declare war on Elizabeth but in 1588 the Spanish fleet was defeated by the English. Anyway, the war continued until 1604.

Both monarchs died. At Queen Elizabeth’s death, the throne of England was inherited by James Stuart, who was the son of Mary, and he reached to unify the Kingdom of Scotland and England.

Culture under Queen Elizabeth

At the same time, Italian intellectuals, such as Dante, Petrarch or Machiavelli, were considered models for the English literature and the literary works, especially sonnets, of Sidney, Spencer, Wyatt and Shakespeare.

In 1576, the really first theatre of London, called “The Globe”, was inaugurated in the Norden part of the city, in the Shoreditch, while years later other theatres, “Rose” and “Swan”, were also opened in the outskirts because acting was considered sinful and unseemly the society.

Nonetheless, theatre was a connotative element of this period so that day by day it became a complex and full of different facets but also an integral part of citizens' daily life.
It was also thought that behind the pseudonym of William Shakespeare there was Queen Elizabeth, consequentially she would have written all of his works.