...n she as to her mother as beheaded for adultery, and Elizabeth as exiled from court. She as later placed under the protection of Catherine Parr, Henrys sixth ife, and educated in the same household as her half-brother, Edard. Both ere raised Protestant. The noted scholar Roger Ascham later served as her tutor, and he educated her as a potential heir to the throne rather than as an insignificant daughter of the monarch. Elizabeth underent rigorous training in Greek, Latin, rhetoric, and philosophy and as an intellectually gifted pupil.Edard VI succeeded his father in 1547 at the age of nine. Because of her position as a member of the royal family, Elizabeth became a pan in the intrigues of the nobles ho governed in the boys name. One of them tice proposed marriage to her. hen her Roman Catholic half-sister, Mary I, inherited the cron in 1553, Elizabeth faced different dangers. She as no sought out to lead Protestant conspiracies, despite the fact that she had supported Marys accession and attended Catholic services. In 1554 Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned in the Toer of London, briefly threatened her ith execution, and then placed her under house arrest. Elizabeth lived quietly at her familys country retreat north of London until she became queen upon her sisters death in 1558. Elizabeths experiences as a child and young adult helped her develop keen political instincts that alloed her to skillfully balance aristocratic factions and court favorites during her long reign.IIIElizabethan Economy The nation that Elizabeth inherited as experiencing a steady increase in population. During the 16th century the population of England and ales ould roughly double, and by Elizabeths death in 1603 ould reach 5 million. The continued population groth placed strains on the economy, hich as made orse by serious harvest failures in every decade of Elizabeths reign. Prices for food and clothing skyrocketed in hat became knon as the Great Inflation. The 1590s ere the orst years of the century, marked by starvation, epidemic disease, and roving bands of vagrants looking for ork.Elizabeths government enacted legislation knon as the Poor Las, hich made every local parish responsible for its on poor, created orkhouses, and severely punished homeless beggars. Parliament also passed bills to ensure fair prices in times of shortage and to regulate ages in times of unemployment. One of the queens most important economic decisions as to issue a ne currency that contained a standard amount of precious metal. This raised confidence in the currency and also alloed businesses to enter into long-term financial contracts.During Elizabeths reign, England expanded trade overseas and the merchant community gre. Private shipbuilding boomed and navigational advances made long sea voyages safer. Englands chief commodity as oolen cloth, traded mostly at the Dutch port of Anterp for finished goods and such luxuries as French ines. Cloth exports gre over the course of the reign, but suffered from competition from finer Spanish products and from Anterps decline after its harbor silted up and became impassable by the mid-1560s. In the 1560s financier Sir Thomas Gresham founded the Royal Exchange to help merchants find secure markets for their goods.At the same time, ne enterprises like the Muscovy Company ere chartered to find outlets for English products. In 1600 the government granted the English East India Company a monopoly to trade in Asia, Africa, and America. The desire to expand overseas trade as also a motive in the ventures of English explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir alter Raleigh. Such adventurers established the first English outposts in North America.IVElizabethan Religion Elizabeths accession marked the final change in the nations official religion. Her father and half-brother established Protestantism in England, but her half-sister, Mary, attempted forcibly to restore Catholicism. As Henry VIIIs reign had terrorized Catholics, so Marys persecuted Protestants. Under Mary, prominent Protestant clergymen ere either executed or they fled abroad. The poer of the pope as reestablished in England, though even Mary could do nothing to restore the church lands sold off during Henrys reign.Elizabeth inherited a highly charged religious situation, hich she handled ith great skill. Although there as never any doubt she ould return England to Protestantism, Elizabeth had to contend ith opposition from both Catholics and radical Protestants. Catholic bishops and peers controlled the House of Lords and fought Elizabeths first attempts to bring back Protestantism. Protestants exiled under the reign of Mary I returned to England, and many brought ith them ne and radical Protestant ideas, especially those of John Calvin, a French religious reformer. Calvin stressed the importance of predestination, the belief that salvation as predetermined for some people and not for others. Calvin also anted the clergy to play a less important role in the state church and to concern themselves ith preaching the gospel rather than in becoming bishops.Under Elizabeth, England again broke ith the pope, Catholic services ere forbidden, priests ere alloed to marry, and relics and decorations ere removed from the churches. In attempting to diffuse the religious situation, Elizabeth tried to accommodate Catholic sensibilities in matters she judged less essential. She used Parliament to establish the official doctrine of the ne church, hich ensured that the voice of Catholic peers ould be heard. Under the Act of Supremacy, she assumed the title of Supreme Governor of the Church, rather than the title of Supreme Head, a move to placate critics because Supreme Governor sounded less poerful. She ould not allo retaliation against those ho had assisted Mary, and she treated ith some leniency those ho refused to sear an oath to her supremacy.The English form of Protestantism as defined in part by to measures enacted during Elizabeths reignthe Act of Uniformity of 1559 and the Thirty-nine Articles of 1563. The Act of Uniformity established a common prayer book and set the basic ceremonies of the church. The Thirty-nine Articles established religious doctrine that governed the church until the English Revolution in the 1640s. Both acts ere compromises that favored the vies of more conservative or moderate Protestant groups.Elizabeth vieed the church as an inseparable part of her monarchy and ould not tolerate challenges to it. Such challenges came from both Catholics, ho clung to the old faith and plotted to remove the queen, and from Puritans, radical Protestants ho anted to abolish all traces of Catholicism see Puritanism.Catholic challenges and plots persisted through much of Elizabeths reign, and Elizabeth reacted to them strongly. In 1569 a group of poerful Catholic nobles in northern England rose in rebellion but ere savagely repressed. The northern earls ere executed, their property and those of ...
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