Elizabeths Wars 1585-1603 Flashcards
(8 cards)
The background of Elizabeths wars.
In the medieval period Western Europe was almost entirely Christian, this made the Catholic Church, led by the pope in Rome, too wealthy and too powerful in many peoples eyes so the process of reformation by Protestants began as they wanted ordinary people to be able to hear church services spoken in their own language rather than Latin, this divided many European rulers with some seeing the advantages of the reformation and others backing the power of the church. These divisions erupted into many wars.
Henry VIII supported the catholic cause until he conflicted with the pope who refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so as a result Henry left the church and established himself as the head of the Church of England. This was carried on by his son Edward VI but he dies shortly after and was succeeded by his catholic sister Mary, much to the dislike of many Protestants who refused the restoration of the catholic religion in England. But after Mary died she was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth who made England Protestant but allowed some religious tolerance while still fining and restricting catholics. This led to many catholic rebellions in England and intervention from the pope. This eventually drew Elizabeth unwillingly into the European wars.
The nature of Elizabeths wars?
Elizabeths wars are hard to categorise as they fall under three different brackets, wars of:
Religion,
Defence,
Ambition.
Elizabeth was very wary of getting involved with the wars taking place in mainland Europe largely down to the great cost and her limited resources. Many of her advisers disagreed with this and wanted her to send large armies to the Netherlands to help them in the war against the Spanish, but Elizabeth wouldn’t be persuaded as she knew such a campaign would most likely fail due to spains overwhelming strength on land which would lose her faith from the people as heavy taxes would also have to be introduced to afford such a war.
Instead of directly going to war herself Elizabeth preferred to support her enemies enemy, for instance when a Protestant rebellion threatened to overthrow their catholic leader(backed by France) Elizabeth supported them with money, weapons and ‘volunteers’ as troops so that she wasn’t officially involved.
She followed the same method against the Spanish in Netherlands as she yet again sent ‘volunteers’ as troops.
Elizabeth much preferred utilising Englands naval power as England dominated the English Channel and could attack any enemy cargo ships. She saw her only way to gain any advantage over Spain was to attack their ships and seaports, this was successful as she had the backing of notable seamen such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. Yet again it was not direct naval warfare though as it was called privateering far more like piracy.
Elizabeths wars with Spain?
1: unofficial privateering,
Privateers were privately owned ships who had the government’s permission to attack enemy shipping, Spain was England greatest threat and was the most powerful country in Europe and had colonies throughout the world notably in South America. Spanish king Phillip II was also a fierce catholic and a powerful military commander. The relationship between Spain and England had been good during Mary’s reign but Elizabeths repeated privateer attacks harmed this relationship and when Francis drake attacked Spanish ports in America Elizabeth gained around £265000 (roughly £80 million today) Drake earned a knighthood and Spain began to plot against Elizabeth.
2: War in the Netherlands,
Netherlands was part of the Spanish empire and in the 1570s Elizabeth unofficially supported a Protestant rebellion against Spanish rule, she tried to avoid being drawn in directly and claimed to be a peacemaker but in 1585 the treaty of Nonsuch was signed whereby Elizabeth agreed to send troops to the Netherlands officially joining the war against Spain.
Elizabeths wars with Spain 2 (the Spanish Armada)?
By the late 1580’s king Phillip II decided to fight back and assembled a great fleet called to Spanish Armada to invade England, loss seemed inevitable but in 1587 Sir Francis Drake invaded the port of Cadiz greatly delaying the departure of the armada giving Elizabeth much needed time to improve England’s defences.
Once the 127 ships of the Spanish Armada led by Duke of Medina Sidonia finally set sail up they first went to Netherlands to meet up with the Duke of Parma. Once they set off up the English Channel in July 1588 they were tracked by and English fleet of 197 ships led by Lord Howard and sir Francis Drake. The Spanish had more men but the English had more and better gunned ships as they repeatedly outgunned the Spanish.
Once they docked in Calais the English sent fire ships at them and the Spanish retreated in chaos sailing north to travel around Scotland and Ireland but bad weather did more damage than the English had and when they eventually returned to Spain less than half of the ships remained and over 10,000 soldiers and sailors died.
This was a huge victory for England and showed off their technical and tactical superiority but many English soldiers died of disease and the government refused to pay for their care or wages.
Over the next few years Elizabeth feared a repeat invasion from Phillip II so she sent fleets to destroy any growing armadas but this led to great cost and casualties so she returned to her use of privateering to reduce the Spanish threat.
Elizabeth feared Spain might use Ireland as a back door to attack England as it was fiercely catholic and opposed any English rule, so when a major revolt broke out in Ulster led by O’Neill Spain sent 3,500 troops to help the Irish and within three years England had lost most control of Ireland, in response Elizabeth launched a full scale conquest of Ireland which eventually worked and peace was made, but this cost an estimated 1.9 billion pounds (around £6 trillion today) Ireland remained a troublesome territory despite it’s defeat and the wars were greatly unpopular in England.
How did Elizabeth grow her army?
Before 1585 England had a small army and navy so Elizabeth had to recruit thousands of soldiers and sailors and during the period 1585-1603 she recruited 385,000 men when the population of England was only 4 million.
She organised the militia which consisted of better off men who were less willing to go to war, they were trained and armed to act as a home defence against invasion.
Around 5000 men signed up as volunteers.
Many noblemen were willing to serve as officers but they required military training so Elizabeth began training them.
She used traditional feudal measures to recruit roughly 16,000 men mainly servants of aristocrats, these men mainly formed the cavalry.
She also had over 110,000 men fighting overseas, these were recruited by Lord-lieutenants and militia and noblemen were exempt.
Elizabeth also built her navy massively with more ships and troops, but the navy had no permanent officers or sailors as they were led by freelance captains who were temporarily paid by the queen, most also only did it for personal gain
How did Elizabeth raise money for the wars?
During the wars Elizabeth spent roughly £500,000 a year when her annual income was around £300,000, so she needed various methods to gain money.
1: Local taxes,
Many of the costs of war were given to the towns and counties as they had to:
Train and equip the militia,
Pay to build and maintain the queens ships,
Repair coastal forts,
Equip troops for overseas service
This led to local taxes being increased.
2: Profits from privateers
Many captains of the privateering raids shared large amounts of the wealth with the queen, but some did claim the whole extent of the wealth.
3: Selling crown lands and loans,
Elizabeth raised £608,000 from selling crown lands and borrowed a further £461,500 from wealthy subjects.
4: Ship money,
Coastal towns had always had to provide merchant ships to be used in the navy but Elizabeth demanded money and ships, this was bitterly opposed.
5: Taxes approved by parliament
Taxes were increased slightly by the government but people were taxed much lighter than in Spain.
The impacts of the Elizabethan wars?
1: Economic Crisis,
In the 1590’s England faced an economic crisis with widespread unemployment and mass inflation. As food prices soared many died from malnutrition.
This was largely due to military recruitment as men who would of worked the land before would now be at war. The wars also disrupted trade with other countries but at the same time certain English industries profited from the war. The plague grew in size during the war but that had been present for years. Despite these various economic problems there was little to no protests and riots.
2: casualties,
There was no fighting and damage done in English soil so their were no civilian casualties, but military casualties were huge mostly from disease as conditions were very poor.
How did Elizabeth keep the support from the people?
1: Keeping support of parliament, England was no longer like medieval society where the monarch could basically do whatever they wanted as parliament was far more important so to do go anywhere as a monarch you needed the support of parliament. So Elizabeth made sure to get parliaments approval for wars and some even felt confident enough to criticise her policies which often led to her accepting their view and changing.
2: propaganda
The people also had a far bigger say in society now than they ever did before so Elizabeth needed to keep the support of the people, one way of achieving this was through propaganda, including portraits which made her look like a wise, caring and loyal leader, and also showed off her successes, noblemen were given copies to hang in their homes and spread the powerful image. The wars were also defended with powerful religious propaganda as the government used pamphlets, songs and even playing cards to make Spain and Catholicism look evil.
3: War weariness,
Keeping a good national morale was very important at the time and following the Spanish armadas invasion Elizabeth had the backing of the people as thousands volunteered to protect their country and the victory was celebrated throughout the country.
However by the last 1590’s the war had been dragging on and people disliked the huge taxation and casualties and despite her best efforts dissatisfaction grew especially following a series of bad harvests.
