Started Reading Elton

So I have started reading up about Elizabeth I, starting with G R Elton's "England under the Tudor's". I have skipped roughly the first half of the book and started with "Mary and the Failure of Reaction".

What is evident straight away from the language and tone of the book is it's age. First published in 1955, this book certainly feels and reads as though research and historical thought has move on. Nonetheless it does not feel overly imbalanced.

The first link is the fact that Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower after Wyatt's conspiracy of 1554 during which Charles Wyatt led some 3000 men of Kent to the capital in an attempt, apparently, to prevent England joining with Spain. The conspiracy, or perhaps it is better described as a rebellion ended when the late Northumberland's supporters defeated it. According to Elton, Elizabeth nearly met the fate of her mother. At this stage I do not know enough of teh story to know how close to the truth this is.

The rebellion failed and England did indeed side with Spain. Perhaps this was to be expected given that Mary was Catholic and wanted to return England to Rome and that she was marrying Philip of Spain. The result of this was to leave Elizabeth with an expensive and embarrasing legacy from the moment she ascended the throne. At Spain's side England went to war with France and in January 1558 Calais, English held for over 200 years and the last English possession in France, was recaptured by the French.

Next I hope to post some knowledge I have gained about the economic and social issues of Elizabeth's reign. These draw some comparisons with what we are experiencing today and it is always worth looking to other factors when considering why certain events happened, be those causes economic, social, or more fundamentally still, climatic.