Religion and Foreign Policy at the start of Elizabeth I's reign, part 1

I have started reading Warren's "Elizabeth I: Religion and Foreign Affairs". The book is very interesting and so now I am blogging based on this reading and the thoughts it has generated. Also, this will be my first attempt at a thematic approach to my learning/writing. The first theme is Religion and Foreign Policy, obvious really considering the book I am reading, but let's see how I get on.

The beginning of Elizabeth's reign was a very delicate time for England in both religious and foreign affairs. Moreover, these two areas were inextricably linked; Elizabeth urgently needed to resolve the question of religious worship in England and at the same time had to extricate the country from a costly and unsuccessful war with France. All this had to be done without risking the security of either the country or her throne.

To understand why Elizabeth was faced with these two urgent priorities and why they are so inextricably linked it is necessary to look back to before the Tudors came to the throne in 1485. Let's start with religion. The relationship between the Church and the Crown was always a very important one throughout the history of medieval England. There are several reasons for this.

• Religion was assumed to be crucial for civil order
• The vast majority of people believed in God, Heaven and Hell and that the Church was the way to learn what God wanted and therefore to secure a place in Heaven
• The clergy had always provided important officials for the crown due to their learning and ability to read and write (this had lately become less important as the growth of lay learning provided the crown with capable lay officials)
• Many clergy were careerist crown officials whose high Church office was a result of crown service
• The Church was hugely wealthy and powerful as a result
• Church prelates (Bishops, Archbishops and Abbots) were peers of the realm who sat in the House of Lords when a parliament was called
• The Church had legal powers covering much of people's behaviour in such areas as wills and marriage
• As the monarch was not an ordained priest he had no real authority over the church, that roles was the Pope's

As a result the Church was in many ways a state within a state (not that the concept of a state really existed then) and the crown resented this implicit challenge to its authority. Crown and Church needed to work together to ensure the harmonious running of the country. When their relationship broke down there were problems for all. A good example of this was the dispute between Henry II and Thomas a Becket.

During 16th Century this relationship was fundamentally changed by Henry VIII when in 1531 to 1533 he broke with Rome and replaced the Pope with himself as head of the English Church. We do not need to look at why Henry brought about these changes other than to say that it was very largely political and driven by his need to produce a male heir and was brought about by his inability to obtain from the Pope an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon to enable him to marry Anne Boleyn.

At the time of this, continental Europe was undergoing the protestant Reformation driven by the teachings of Luther et al. But Henry's break with Rome did not turn England into a protestant country. Henry remained for the most part a Catholic if not a Roman Catholic. However, the break with Rome did allow protestant teachings and influence to develop at Henry's court from time to time. The Boleyns (Elizabeth's family) and Seymours (Edward VI's family) were enthusiastic protestants as was Catherine Parr, Henry's last wife. Whilst Mary (Henry's daughter by Catherine of Aragon) was raised as a Catholic, both Elizabeth and Edward were raised as Protestants.

After Henry died, Protestant influence gather pace as Edward's minority meant governors ruled in his name, first Somerset and then Northumberland. By 1553 the English church was officially protestant, though it is doubtful that rural areas were anything but catholic. However, Edward did not last long enough for this reformation to really embed and Mary ascended the throne in 1553 determined to return England to the fold of Rome. It is likely that in many areas this was not entirely unwelcome as the spread of protestantism was limited to the major cities and ports even though it had many powerful supporters. However, political issues meant that a full return to Rome was going to be very difficult if not impossible, certainly in the short term. The dissolution of the monasteries from 1536 had seen the distribution of much church property to a large number of wealthy and powerful lay families and reversing this would be impossible. Mary's reign did see a return to the cult of saints, shrines and pilgrimages, but not to the extent it had been before 1533 and Mary was never able to re-establish the supremacy of the Pope.

Perhaps most significant was the Marian persecution of protestants. Some 200 prominent protestants were burnt as heretics including Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer. This gave protestantism in England its first martyrs and helped the movement gain support. In 1558 when Elizabeth succeeded Mary to the throne, protestants saw her as a saviour; the City of London even put on a show for her. Many prominent protestants who had lived in exile during Mary's reign returned. Yet Elizabeth was faced with an almost completely Catholic hierarchy in the country as reflected in the House of Lord in her first parliament.

See part 2 for Foreign Affairs legacy...