Elizabethan era

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_England   

The Elizabethan era is the period associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry and literature. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished and William Shakespeare and many others, composed plays that broke free of England's past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became the national mindset of all the people.

The Elizabethan Age is viewed so highly because of the contrasts with the periods before and after. It was a brief period of largely internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics and the battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the seventeenth century. The Protestant/Catholic divide was settled, for a time, by the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, and parliament was not yet strong enough to challenge royal absolutism. England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. The Italian Renaissance had come to an end under the weight of foreign domination of the peninsula. France was embroiled in its own religious battles that would only be settled in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. In part because of this, but also because the English had been expelled from their last outposts on the continent, the centuries long conflict between France and England was largely suspended for most of Elizabeth's reign.

The one great rival was Spain, with which England conflicted both in Europe and the Americas in skirmishes that exploded into the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604. An attempt by Philip II of Spain to invade England with the Spanish Armada in 1588 was famously defeated, but the tide of war turned against England with an unsuccessful expedition to Portugal and the Azores, the Drake-Norris Expedition of 1589. Thereafter Spain provided some support for Irish Catholics in a debilitating rebellion against English rule, and Spanish naval and land forces inflicted a series of reversals against English offensives. This drained both the English Exchequer and economy that had been so carefully restored under Elizabeth's prudent guidance. English commercial and territorial expansion would be limited until the signing of the Treaty of London the year following Elizabeth's death.

England during this period had a centralised, well-organised, and effective government, largely a result of the reforms of Henry VII and Henry VIII. Economically, the country began to benefit greatly from the new era of trans-Atlantic trade.

Romance and reality

Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. Detail from The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession, c.1572, attributed to Lucas de Heere.

The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era. The Encyclopædia Britannica still maintains that "The long reign of Elizabeth I, 1533-1603, was 

England's Golden Age...'Merry England,' in love with life, expressed itself in music and literature, in architecture, and in adventurous seafaring."[1] This idealising tendency was shared by Britain and an Anglophilic America. (In popular culture, the image of those adventurous Elizabethan seafarers was embodied in the films of Errol Flynn.)[2]

In response and reaction to this hyperbole, modern historians and biographers have tended to take a far more literal-minded and dispassionate view of the Tudor period. Elizabethan England was not particularly successful in a military sense during the period. The grinding poverty of the rural working class, which comprised 90% of the population, has also received more attention than in previous generations. The Elizabethan role in the slave trade and the repression of Catholic Ireland—notably the Desmond Rebellions and the Nine Years' War—have also drawn historians' attention. Despite the heights achieved during the era, the country descended into the English Civil War less than 40 years after the death of Elizabeth.[citations needed]

On balance, it can be said that Elizabeth provided the country with a long period of general if not total peace, and generally increasing prosperity. Having inherited a virtually bankrupt state from previous reigns, her frugal policies restored fiscal responsibility. Her fiscal restraint cleared the regime of debt by 1574, and ten years later the Crown enjoyed a surplus of £300,000.[3] Economically, Sir Thomas Gresham's founding of the Royal Exchange (1565), the first stock exchange in England and one of the earliest in Europe, proved to be a development of the first importance, for the economic development of England and soon for the world as a whole. With taxes lower than other European countries of the period, the economy expanded; though the wealth was distributed with wild unevenness, there was clearly more wealth to go around at the end of Elizabeth's reign than at the beginning.[4] This general peace and prosperity allowed the attractive developments that "Golden Age" advocates have stressed.[5]

Both from an anachronistic modern perspective and from that of 19th century humanism, England in this era had some positive aspects that set it apart from contemporaneous continental European societies. Torture was rare, since the English legal system reserved torture only for capital crimes like treason[6]—though forms of corporal punishment, some of them extreme, were practised. The persecution of witches was also comparatively rare; while some persecutions did occur, they did not reach the hysterical proportions that disfigured some European societies so severely in this period.[7] The role of women in society was, for the historical era, relatively unconstrained; Spanish and Italian visitors to England commented regularly, and sometimes caustically, on the freedom that women enjoyed in England, in contrast to their home cultures.

Elizabeth's determination not to "look into the hearts" of her subjects, to moderate the religious persecutions of previous Tudor reigns—the persecution of Catholics under Henry VIII and Edward VI, and of Protestants under Mary—appears to have had a moderating effect on English society in general. While Elizabethan England has been characterised by one sceptic as a "brutal dictatorship,"[8] it was, as brutal dictatorships go, one of the more benign.

Science, technology, exploration

Lacking a dominant genius or a formal structure for research (the following century had both Sir Isaac Newton and the Royal Society), the Elizabethan era nonetheless saw significant scientific progress. The astronomers Thomas Digges and Thomas Harriot made important contributions; William Gilbert published his seminal study of magnetism, De Magnete, in 1600. Substantial advancements were made in the fields of cartography and surveying. The eccentric but influential John Dee also merits mention.

Much of this scientific and technological progress related to the practical skill of navigation. English achievements in exploration were noteworthy in the Elizabethan era. Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1581, and Martin Frobisher explored the Arctic. The first attempt at English settlement of the eastern seaboard of North America occurred in this era—the abortive colony at Roanoke Island in 1587.

While Elizabethan England is not thought of as an age of technological innovation, some progress did occur. In 1564 Guilliam Boonen came from the Netherlands to be Queen Elizabeth's first coach-builder—thus introducing the new European invention of the spring-suspension coach to England, as a replacement for the litters and carts of an earlier transportation mode. Coaches quickly became as fashionable as sports cars in a later century; social critics, especially Puritan commentators, noted the "diverse great ladies" who rode "up and down the countryside" in their new coaches.[9]

Fine arts

It has often been said that the Renaissance came late to England, in contrast to Italy and the other states of continental Europe; the fine arts in England during the Tudor and Stuart eras were dominated by foreign and imported talent—from Hans Holbein the Younger under Henry VIII to Anthony van Dyck under Charles I. Yet within this general trend, a native school of painting was developing. In Elizabeth's reign, Nicholas Hilliard, the Queen's "limner and goldsmith," is the most widely recognized figure in this native development; but George Gower has begun to attract greater notice and appreciation as knowledge of him and his art and career has improved.[10]

Sports and entertainment

Main article: Elizabethan leisure

There were many different types of Elizabethan sports and entertainment:

Feasts  

A large, elaborately prepared meal, usually for many persons and often accompanied by court entertainment. Often celebrated religious festivals 

Banquets  

A ceremonial dinner honouring a particular guest 

Fairs  

The Annual Summer Fair was often a bawdy affair 

Plays  

Started as plays enacted in town squares followed by the actors using the courtyards of taverns or inns (referred to as Inn-yards) followed by the first theatres (great open air amphitheatres built in the same style as the Roman Coliseum) and then the introduction of indoor theatres called Playhouses 

Miracle Plays  

Re-enactment of stories from the Bible 

Festivals  

Celebrating Church festivals 

Jousts / Tournaments  

A series of tilted matches between knights 

Games and Sports  

Sports and games which included archery, bowling, cards, dice, hammer-throwing, quarter-staff contests, troco, quoits, skittles, wrestling and mob football 

Animal Sports  

Included Bear and Bull baiting, and Dog and Cock fighting 

Hunting  

Sport followed by the nobility often using dogs 

Hawking  

Sport followed by the nobility with hawks (otherwise known as falconry) 

Elizabethan festivals, holidays, and celebrations

A wedding feast, c.1569.

During the Elizabethan era, people looked forward to holidays because opportunities for leisure were limited, with time away from hard work being restricted to periods after church on Sundays. For the most part, leisure and festivities took place on a public church holy day. Every month had its own holiday, some of which are listed below:

The first Monday after Twelfth Night of January (any time between January 7 and January 14) was Plough Monday. It celebrated returning to work after the Christmas celebrations and the New Year. 

February 2   : Candlemas. Although often still very cold, Candlemas was celebrated as the first day of spring. All Christmas decorations were burned on this day, in candlelight and torchlight processions. 

February 14   : Valentine's Day. 

Between March 3 and March 9: Shrove Tuesday (known as Mardi Gras or Carnival on the Continent). On this day, apprentices were allowed to run amok in the city in mobs, wreaking havoc, because it supposedly cleansed the city of vices before Lent.The day after Shrove Tuesday was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent when all were to abstain from eating and drinking certain things.March 24: Lady Day or the feast of the Annunciation, the first of the Quarter Days on which rents and salaries were due and payable. It was a legal New Year when courts of law convened after a winter break, and it marked the supposed moment when the Angel Gabriel came to announce to the Virgin Mary that she would bear a child. 

April 1   : All Fool's Day, or April Fool's Day. This was a day for tricks, jests, jokes, and a general day of the jester. 

May 1   : May Day, celebrated as the first day of summer. This was one of the few Celtic festivals with no connection to Christianity and patterned on Beltane. It featured crowning a May Queen, a Green Man and dancing around a maypole. 

June 21   : Midsummer, (Christianized as the feast of John the Baptist) and another Quarter Day. 

August 1   : Lammastide, or Lammas Day. Traditionally, the first day of August, in which it was customary to bring a loaf of bread to the church. 

September 29   : Michaelmas. Another Quarter Day. Michaelmas celebrated the beginning of autumn, and Michael the Archangel. 

October 25   : St. Crispin's Day. Bonfires, revels, and an elected 'King Crispin' were all featured in this celebration. Dramatized by Shakespeare in Henry V.October 28: The Lord Mayor's Show, which still takes place today in London.October 31: Halloween. The beginning celebration of the days of the dead. 

November 1   : All Saints' Day, followed by All Souls' Day. 

November 17   : Accession Day or Queen's Day, the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne, celebrated with lavish court festivities featuring jousting during her lifetime and as a national holiday for dozens of years after her death.[11] 

December 24   : The Twelve days of Christmas started at sundown and lasted until Epiphany on January 6. Christmas was the last of the Quarter Days for the year

Elizabethan War

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-war.htm

The Elizabethan Age - Elizabethan WarThe Elizabethan Age saw three main Elizabethan Wars:

The English War with Spain from 1585 - 1603 

The Spanish Armada was defeated in in 1588

The Wars in Ireland 

The Irish War also known as the Desmond Rebellions - A series of Rebellions regarding control over the province of Munster over three decades 1560's, 1570's and 1580's 

The Irish family of the Earl of Desmond fighting for the control of Munster from the English

Religious reasons - Catholics in Ireland against the Protestant England

Catholic Spain supported the Desmond rebellion

The Tyrone Rebellion, also known as the Nine Years War from 1594 - 1603 

The Catholic Irish Earl of Tyrone fighting against the Protestant England's control of Ireland

The Nine Years War was centered in the North of Ireland but spread right across the country

Religious reasons - Catholics in Ireland against the Protestant England

Catholic Spain supported the Tyrone rebellion

The Elizabethan War with Spain from 1585 - 1603The reasons for the Elizabethan War with Spain from 1585 - 1603 exploded due to various conflicts surrounding the wealth and power to be gained from trade from the New World. And the differences in Religion. Under Elizabeth I England became a Protestant country. Elizabeth was excommunicated by the Pope The fanatical Catholics in Spain saw a war and the conquest of England as a religious crusade. The escapades of the Elizabethan seamen, or pirates, included attacking Spanish vessels and taking any gold and silver. Not surprisingly Elizabeth made no real effort to chastise these escapades! Drake, Hawkins, Raleigh and Frobisher hated the Spanish and the Catholic religion. The religious differences had been boiling over many years. The following dates and events played an important part in the Elizabethan War with Spain, which lasted for nineteen years.

The notorious Spanish Inquisition was established in 1542.

During the reign of Mary Tudor 1555 - 1558 Protestants were persecuted and 300 burnt at the stake (in later times this leads to Queen Mary I being called Bloody Mary)

1569 The Nevilles of Durham and Percys of Northumberland plot to overthrow Elizabeth I and reinstate Roman Catholicism in “The Rising of the North”. Pope Pius V heard of the revolt and decided to help the rebels by deposing Elizabeth. The rebellion failed but the Pope's action increased her distrust of Catholics

1570 The excommunication of Elizabeth I by the Catholic Church

1572 August 24, St Bartholomew's Day massacre where French Protestants were massacred by French Catholics in Paris which was witnessed by Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir FrancisWalsingham. Similar atrocities elsewhere in France result in thousands of deaths, and caused panic in England with fears of a Catholic invasion

1584 William of Orange was murdered and England sends aid to the Netherlands

August 14, 1585 - Queen Elizabeth issues a declaration taking the Netherlands under her protection

December 8, 1585 - Robert Dudley leads the English army to fight the Spanish forces who are occupying the Netherlands

Oct. 25 1586 - The Catholic Mary Queen of Scots is convicted of involvement in the Babbington plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Queen

April 19, 1587 - Drake destroys the Spanish fleet at Cadiz

August 8, 1588 - The Spanish Armada of 132 ships is defeated by the English fleet of 34 ships and 163 armed merchant vessels under Lord Howard of Effingham, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins

April 17, 1591 - Queen Elizabeth sends to aid King Henry IV of France lead by Sir John Norris with 3000 men

1595 Spanish forces land in Cornwall, England and burn the town of Penzance

1597 King Philip II sends a second armada against England but a storm scatters his ships

24 March 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I dies and James I of England, James VI of Scotland, (great-great-grandson of Henry VII) is proclaimed King

The outcome of the Elizabethan War with Spain from 1585 - 1604 was:

In 1603 the war with Spain officially ended. King James I issued a decree that all acts of piracy must cease

The Elizabethan Irish War also referred to as the Desmond RebellionsThe reasons for the Elizabethan War in Ireland ( Desmond Rebellions ) were:

The War in Ireland (Desmond Rebellion) sought to control Munster which was instigated by the Catholic Earl of Desmond dynasty - the Fitzgerald family of Desmond

The Protestant English government wanted to establish English military governors who would replace the local Irish Lords

Henry Sidney was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland

The power, influence and religion of the Catholic Irish Lords was challenged by the English

The Catholic James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, leader of the Desmond dynasty, instigated a rebellion and was joined by other Irish Lords

The first rebellion started in 1569 and lasted until 1573 when hundreds of Irish rebels were executed by Drury, the new Lord President of Munster

Many Irish Lords fled to Europe

Strict English Laws were imposed banning private armies

Irish customs were outlawed in an attempt to eradicate the Irish culture

James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, one of the exiled Lords launched an invasion of Munster in 1579

Following the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I in 1570 the Pope had ruled that Irish Catholics did not owe allegiance to Protestant England

The Pope and backed the Irish War with Papal money and troops. It was also planned that King Philip of Spain would take over the monarchy of Ireland

The 600 Papal troops were beaten by the English. As were the Irish Lords and rebels

The English adopted the policy of burning the crops in Ireland resulting in famine and submission

The Earl of Desmond was betrayed by the O'Moriartys who received 1000 pounds of silver from the English government

The outcome of the Irish War and the Desmond Rebellions were:

Terrible famine in Munster

The Desmond clan was defeated

The vast Desmond estates were allocated to the English who had fought in the war

The Elizabethan War against the Tyrone Rebellion ( Nine Years War ) from 1594 - 1603The reasons for the Tyrone Rebellion ( Nine Years War ) were:

The Nine Years war was led by Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone

The reasons were the increased power of the English who had settled in Ireland and their threat to Ulster

The Irish Catholics abhorred the Protestant religion

The Irish believed that Queen Elizabeth and all Protestants were heretics

The Irish received aid from King Philip of Spain

The English army suffered a massive defeat in Ireland at the battle of the Yellow Ford in 1598 and more Irish joined the rebellion

In 1599 the Earl of Essex travelled to Ireland with over 17,000 English troops

Many of the English troops died of various diseases and the Earl of Essex agreed an unauthorised truce with O'Neill

In 1601 Essex returned to England and mounted his own rebellion against Queen Elizabeth. On 25th February 1601 Robert Devereux the Earl of Essex was executed on Tower Green

Essex was replaced by Lord Mountjoy. George Carew was given the command in Munster. Arthur Chichester was given the command in Ulster

King Philip sent 3500 Spanish soldiers to Ireland to support the Irish but they were outnumbered by English troops

The O’Neill and O’Donnell soldiers were defeated at the Battle of Kinsale

24 March 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I dies and James I of England, James VI of Scotlandis proclaimed King

The Irish surrendered, on good terms, to the new English monarch just one week after the death of Queen Elizabeth

Elizabethan Women

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-women.htm

Upper Class Elizabethan WomenElizabethan Women were subservient to men. They were dependent on their male relatives to support them. They were used to forge alliances with other powerful families through arranged

marriages. There was little dispute over such arrangements as Elizabethan woman were raised to believe that they were inferior to men and that men knew better!

Elizabethan women were tutored at home - there were no schools for girls

Elizabethan women were not allowed to enter University

Elizabethan women could not be heirs to their father's titles ( except female royals)

Elizabethan women could not become Doctors or Lawyers

Elizabethan women did not have the vote and were not allowed to enter politics

There were no Elizabethan women in the Army or Navy

Elizabethan women were not allowed to act in the theatres ( but women at court were allowed to perform in the Masques)

Disobedience was seen as a crime against their religion. The Church firmly believed this and quoted the Bible in order to ensure the continued adherence to this principle. The Scottish protestant leader John Knox wrote: 

"Women in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man." 

The fabric of Elizabethan society was built with this belief and Elizabethan women could not be heirs to their father's titles. All titles would pass from father to son or brother to brother, depending on the circumstances. The only exception was the monarchy.

Royal Elizabethan WomenUnderstanding the subservient role of Elizabethan women provides an understanding as to why Queen Elizabeth was reluctant to marry. All of her immediate male relatives had died. She was answerable to no male member of the family. Had she married all this would have changed. Elizabeth would have been expected to obey her husband. Mary Queen of Scots placed herself in this situation when she married Lord Darnley. He expected Mary to obey his wishes. The same occurred when the Queen's own sister, Mary, married Philip of Spain - she was placed in a subservient role to this foreign prince. The tragic Lady Jane Grey was used as a pawn to further the ambitions of her powerful family by joining the family in marriage to the Dudleys. She was, first of all, forced to marry Guildford Dudley. Jane did raise objections saying that she was already promised to Edward, Lord Hertford. The punishment for disobey was the whipping stool - Elizabethan girls were beaten into submission and this happened to Lady Jane. She was later forced into taking the throne against her wishes. She was eventually executed by beheading - she was just seventeen years old. These stories about the lives of Elizabethan women illustrate how, even Royal Woman were totally dominated by the male members of their families.

The Education of Upper Class Elizabethan WomenThe Elizabethan period brought the Renaissance, new thinking to England. Elizabethan women from

wealthy and noble families were sometimes allowed the privilege of an Education. The girls of Noble families were invariably taught by tutors at home and Elizabethan women were taught from the age of five, or even younger. Various languages were taught including Latin, Italian, Greek and French. Music and dancing skills were essential for Elizabethan women. Elizabethan women were not allowed to go to university but might be sent away to complete their education. As young as seven years old girls would be sent away from their home to live with another noble family. Elizabethan women would be taught a range of subjects and skills. Manners and etiquette were of prime importance, including how to curtsey. Music, dancing , riding and archery were also taught. These young girls were expected to act as servants to the Ladies of the castle - their duties would be to look after clothes and the assist ladies with dressing and coiffure. Some housewifely duties such as preserving fruits and household management would be also be learnt. High ranking young women would take on the role of ladies-in-waiting to the Queen.

Lower Class Elizabethan WomenElizabethan Women from the lower classes were also expected to obey the male members of their families without question. Lower class Elizabethan women would not have attended school or received any formal type of education. Elizabethan women would have had to learn how to govern a household and become skilled in all housewifely duties. Their education would have been purely of the domestic nature in preparation for the only real career option for a girl - marriage! Single Elizabethan women were sometimes looked upon with suspicion. It was often the single women who were thought to be witches by their neighbours. All Elizabethan women would be expected to marry, and would be dependant on her male relatives throughout her life.

Elizabethan Women and MarriageElizabethan women were expected to bring a dowry to the marriage. A dowry was an amount of money, goods, and property that the bride would bring to the marriage. It was also referred to as her marriage portion. After marriage Elizabethan women were expected to run the households and provide children. Large families were the norm as the mortality rate for children and babies was so high. Many Elizabethan woman made arrangement for the care of their children in case they themselves died during childbirth.

Elizabethan Women - AppearanceThe appearance of a noble Elizabethan woman was important. An Elizabethan woman aged quickly during this era. Constant child bearing and pregnancies took its toll on a woman's body. The Elizabethan diet lacked Vitamin C resulting in bad teeth and bleeding gums. A Medieval woman might even dye her hair yellow with a mixture of saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil! Face make-up was applied to acquire a pale look. A pale complexion was so desirable that Elizabethan women were bled to achieve the desired look. Face paint made from plant roots and leaves was also applied. The white make-up was lead based and therefore poisonous - Elizabethan women who applied this make-up were often ill and if it was used in sufficient quantities it would result in death. The dress and clothing of Elizabethan women was a series of different layers. Uncomfortable corsets were worn to create the desired look dictated by fashion. The color and materials that were worn were not just a matter of choice. The type of clothing worn by Elizabethan women was dictated by the Sumptuary Laws!

Queen Elizabeth I - Jews and Catholics

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/queen-elizabeth-i-jews-catholics.htm

Queen Elizabeth I - Jews and CatholicsQueen Elizabeth I - Jews and Catholics. There was prejudice against both members of the Jewish and Catholic religions. Religion in Elizabethan England was firmly in the hands of those adhering to the Protestant religion. The people of England were expected to adhere to the religion of the reigning monarch. And Queen Elizabeth I was a Protestant.

Queen Elizabeth I and CatholicsQueen Elizabeth had spent her whole life surrounded by the fanatical views of both Protestants and Catholics. The English people careered from the Catholic religion to the Protestant religion as the following table shows:

1509 -1547King Henry VIII - Catholic then established the Church of England in 1531 adhering to many Protestant doctrines

1547 -1553His son, King Edward VI, adhered to the Protestant religion. Edward died young and was succeeded by his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey

1553 Queen Jane only reigned for nine days and was replaced by Edward's sister Mary

1553 -1558Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic - she obtained the name Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants

1509 -1547Queen Elizabeth succeeded Mary. She adhered to the Protestant religion but was tolerant to Catholics

The life of Queen Elizabeth had been dependent on her outward conformity to the Catholic religion during the reign of her half-sister Mary. When Elizabeth succeed to the throne of England she wanted to show tolerance to Catholics. Her level of tolerance decreased as the years went by due to the various Catholic plots aimed at replacing Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch and returning England to the 'old' religion.

Queen Elizabeth I and the Popes of RomeIn 1570 Pope Pius V (1566-1572) issued a bull excommunicating Queen Elizabeth I for her actions in separating the English Church from the Roman Church and her persecution of Roman Catholics in Britain. In 1580 Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) conspired to have Queen Elizabeth I assassinated after his initial failure to get Emperor King Philip II of Spain to attack Ireland, the Netherlands and then England.

Queen Elizabeth I , the Catholic Plots and War with SpainThe decline in Protestant / Catholic relations with Queen Elizabeth was caused by various Catholic plots in Europe and England and the war between Protestant England and Catholic Spain:

In 1569 the Nevilles of Durham and Percys of Northumberland plot to overthrow Elizabeth I and reinstate Roman Catholicism in “The Rising of the North”

In France on August 24 1572 the St Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred when French Protestants were massacred by French Catholics in Paris which was witnessed by Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Walsingham. Similar atrocities elsewhere in France result in thousands of deaths, and caused panic in England with fears of a Catholic invasion

March 18, 1581 - The English Parliament passes strict legislation against Roman Catholics with heavy fines hearing Mass

1584 - The Protestant William of Orange is murdered and England sends aid to the Netherlands

1585 - Elizabethan War with Spain from 1585 - 1603 exploded due to various conflicts surrounding the wealth and power to be gained from trade from the New World. And the differences in Religion. The fanatical Catholics in Spain saw a war, and the conquest of England, as a religious crusade which had been given Papal blessing

1586 - The Babington Plot - Sir Francis Walsingham discovers plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and replace her with Catholic Mary Queen of Scots

1588 August 8 - The Catholic Spanish Armada of 132 ships is defeated by the English fleet of 34 ships and 163 armed merchant vessels

1593 - Penalties are proposed for people who refuse to attend Church of England services and to make it a crime to attend Catholic services

1595 - Catholic Spanish forces land in Cornwall and burn the town of Penzance

1597 - King Philip II sends a second armada against England - a storm scatters his ships

The war with Catholic Spain only ends with the death of Queen Elizabeth I and the succession of King James I

The Catholic plots, the Catholic war all played a massive part in the decline of Protestant / Catholic relations during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Non-conforming Catholics were punished under the Elizabethan Recusants and Recusancy Laws.

Queen Elizabeth I and the JewsThe prejudice against the Jewish race in Elizabethan England was a completely different matter to the

prejudice against the Catholic faith. But to understand this it is necessary to look at the history of Anti-Semitism in England.

History of the persecution of English Jews 1290 - 1655The persecution of English Jews dated back to the Medieval era of King Edward I. In 1255 a number of Jews were imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution for the alleged murder of Hugh of Lincoln. Eighteen Jews were hanged. In 1270 anti-semitic feeling grew, until King Edward I decreed that the Jews were a threat to the country, decreed that all Jews must wear a yellow star to identify them in public. All the heads of Jewish households were arrested, many taken to the Tower and executed. Finally, in 1290 King Edward banished all Jews from England. The exile of Jews lasted until 1655, when Jewish scholar Manasseh ben Israel obtained Oliver Cromwell’s assent for Jews to return to London.

The reputation of the Jews in Elizabethan EnglandJews had come to England following the Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of 1066. The expulsion of Jews from England by Edward I initiated a further decline in the reputation of the Jews. Jews were looked upon as heretics. In Europe the Catholics treated both Protestants and Jews as heretics. The Spanish inquisition set days for interrogating heretics and those who not acquitted were burnt at the stake. The reason for this method of execution for Jewish and Protestant heretics was because the Church was “forbidden to shed blood". The reputation of the Jews suffered badly during the Medieval era. Jews were considered to be responsible for spreading the Bubonic Plague or Black Death amongst Christians. There was no cure for this terrible disease and angry and frightened people always look for someone to blame - it did not matter that Jewish people were also struck down by the illness.

The Demonising of the JewsChristians believed that Jews possessed magical powers which they had obtained by making a pact with the Devil. Jews were therefore associated with Elizabethan witches. The stereotypical Jewish features consisted of a long, hooked nose and a swarthy complexion and the Jews were believed to worship the devil. Witches were also believed to worship the devil and were also stereotyped as having long, hooked noses, warts and wrinkles. Jews celebrated the Sabbath, witches celebrated at their Sabbat.

Queen Elizabeth I and the JewsThere were a small number Jews in Elizabethan England. Jews had long been restricted to only two occupations - money lending and as peddlars. Elizabethan Jews would have had to outwardly conform to the Christian Protestant religion. Any adherence to the Jewish religion would have been undertaken in utmost secrecy, just as with the Catholics.

Prejudice against Elizabethan JewsThere were few Jews in England. Most Elizabethans would never had even met one Jew. All that was known about Jews and their religion and customs were from vague rumour and reputation mixed with horrifying wives tales about the Jews being responsible for spreading the Bubonic Plague.

How Jews were portrayed in Elizabethan Plays and LiteratureAnti-Semitism was rife in Elizabethan England. Theatre audiences expected Jews to be portrayed according to the Jewish stereotype. The dramatists of the Elizabethan era gave their audiences what they expected to see. William Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice in which a Jewish character called Shylock was depicted as the stereotype Jew who was also a money lender. Jews were known to circumcise the men of their race. In the plot Shylock agrees to lend the hero 3,000 ducats, and as forfeit would have to return a pound of flesh if the debt was not repaid. Elizabethan men would have been horrified to see this as a connection to the Jewish ritual of circumcision. Christopher Marlowe wrote the play entitled the Jew of Malta. His Jew is also depicted as a cruel, egotistic, and greedy man.

Queen Elizabeth I - Jews and CatholicsThe Elizabethan era saw great forms of prejudice against people who did not adhere to the Protestant religion. But the prejudice against Catholics related to their faith whilst the Anti-Semitism extended to the whole of the Jewish race as well as their religion.