Not wanting to risk open war, Elizabeth found other ways to aggravate her enemies.. In 1577, when he planned to travel to South America to raid Spanish gold, Elizabeth met Drake with Fra
Trang 1began to retreat Elizabeth’s victory was quick and decisive, with 700 men being executed in a brutal display of power Norfolk was placed under arrest, but a lack of concrete evidence postponed his execution, until he was implicated in the Ridolfi plot, which aimed to make Spain's Philip II king
Elizabeth ordered and rescinded Norfolk’s execution three times – a prime example of how indecisive she could be at times – before finally deciding that
he simply had to die
If Elizabeth’s position at home appeared shaky
it was positively stable compared to how she was viewed abroad The Pope decreed that anyone who murdered the heretical English queen would
be forgiven, a statement King Philip took to heart Not wanting to risk open war, Elizabeth found other ways to aggravate her enemies She quietly patronised the piratical exploits of John Hawkins and later his cousin Francis Drake In 1577, when
he planned to travel to South America to raid Spanish gold, Elizabeth met Drake with Francis Walsingham, one of her ambassadors to France The cautious Cecil had to be kept in the dark, but she told Drake explicitly that she supported him: “I would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for diverse injuries I have received.” Having sailed through the Straits of Magellan and captured
a Spanish ship carrying up to £200,000 in gold,
The return of Mary, Queen
of Scots to Edinburgh
Queen Elizabeth I knighting Francis Drake in 1581
have too much power, but an heir produced by
her favourite and Mary, Queen of Scots could
potentially unite the two countries However,
Dudley refused and Mary had no interest in
marrying her cousin’s paramour
Instead, Mary married for love, choosing Lord
Henry Darnley Seeing this may have prompted
Elizabeth to renew her interest in Dudley, which
greatly upset the council, in particular the
ambitious Lord Norfolk When the tension between
Norfolk and Dudley grew too great, Elizabeth
understood that she needed to assert her authority
“I will have here but one mistress and no master,”
she told Dudley It was both a political statement
and a personal one The lack of a husband and
heir was only made worse in 1566 when Mary
gave birth to a son, James, but she was desperately
unhappy Darnley was a violent, drunken husband:
many believed he brutally murdered her secret
lover, David Rizzio Darnley would meet his
own nasty end a year later, when he was found
strangled in the garden of a house Mary quickly
married the Earl of Bothwell, the man who had
allegedly murdered Darnley, and Scottish forces
rose against her Imprisoned and forced to abdicate,
she eventually fled to England Elizabeth agreed to
give Mary shelter, but her arrival in the north had
given Catholics a figurehead and rebellion brewed
The northern Earls suggested that Norfolk
should marry Mary: soon, the Northern Rebellion
had begun As the rebel forces marched south,
Elizabeth moved Mary to Coventry and mustered
troops of her own The southern Earls rallied to
her cause, which stunned the rebel forces, who
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Elizabeth I
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