The Penguin History of Britain: New Worlds, Lost Worlds:The Rule of the Tudors 1485-1630 (67 page)

The chapter’s title is taken from one of William Cecil’s memoranda on of the state of the realm, where England’s peril is a constant refrain; in
A Collection of State Papers… left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley
, ed. S. Haynes (London, 1740). Elizabeth reveals something of herself in her letters:
The Letters of Queen Elizabeth I
, ed. G. B. Harrison (London, 1935). Biographies of the Queen abound: see especially J. E. Neale,
Queen Elizabeth
(London, 1938 edn); and W. T. MacCaffrey,
Elizabeth I
(London, 1993). The first full history of her reign, written by an historian who witnessed many of the events, is still enthralling: William Camden,
The History of… Princess Elizabeth
(3rd edn, London, 1675) and
The History of… Princess Elizabeth: Selected chapters
, ed. W. T. MacCaffrey (Chicago and London, 1970). See also
Annals of the first four years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth by Sir John Hayward
, ed. J. Bruce (Camden Society, London, 1840). Important studies of the first years of her reign are: W. T. MacCaffrey,
The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime: Elizabethan Politics, 1558–72
(London, 1969); C. Read,
Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth
(London, 1955);
The Reign of Elizabeth I
, ed. C. Haigh (Basingstoke, 1984); R. B. Wernham,
Before the Armada: The Emergence of the English Nation, 1485–1588
(London, 1966); N. L. Jones,
The Birth of the Elizabethan Age: England in the 1560s
(Oxford, 1993); and S. Alford,
The Early Elizabethan Polity: William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558–1569
(Cambridge, 1998).

Letters of reformers about the state of the Elizabethan Church and religion are printed in
Zurich Letters,
AD
1558–1602, ed. H. Robinson (2 vols., Parker Society, Cambridge, 1847). The most convincing account of the making of the Elizabethan settlement is now N. L. Jones,
Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion, 1559
(London, 1982). For the debates in Parliament, see
Proceedings in the Parliaments of Elizabeth I
, vol. 1,
1558–1581
, ed. T. E. Hartley (Leicester, 1981).

Religious divisions and European politics are examined in N. M. Sutherland,
The Massacre of St Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 1559–1572
(London and Basingstoke, 1973); D. R. Kelley,
The Beginning of Ideology: Consciousness and Society in the French Reformation
(Cambridge, 1981); and
International Calvinism, 1541–1715
, ed. M. Prestwich (Oxford, 1985). Useful documents are collected in
Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1610
, ed. A. Duke, G. Lewis and A. Pettegree (Manchester, 1992). For Philip II of Spain, see G. Parker,
Philip II
(London, 1979); and H. Kamen,
Philip II
(New Haven and London, 1997). The Dutch revolt is studied by P. Geyl,
The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555–1609
(2nd edn, London, 1958); G. Parker,
The Dutch Revolt
(Harmondsworth, 1977); A. Duke,
Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries
(London and Ronceverte, 1990); and M. Van Gelderen,
The Political Thought of the
Dutch Revolt, 1555–1590
(Cambridge, 1992). See also W. T. MacCaffrey, ‘The Newhaven Expedition, 1562–1563’,
Historical Journal
, xl (1997).

For the hopes of creating a united and Protestant British Isles, see J. Dawson, ‘William Cecil and the British dimension of early Elizabethan foreign policy’,
History
, lxxiv (1989); and S. Alford,
The Early Elizabethan Polity
. Scottish politics are discussed in G. Donaldson,
All the Queen’s Men: Power and Politics in Mary Stewart’s Scotland
(London, 1983).

The Queen’s marriage and the succession are studied in M. Levine,
The Early Elizabethan Succession Question, 1558–1568
(Stanford, California, 1966); S. Doran,
Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Elizabeth I
(London, 1996); and M. Axton,
The Queen’s Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession
(London, 1977). For courtship, see C. Bates,
The Rhetoric of Courtship in Elizabethan Language and Literature
(Cambridge, 1992).

Many letters to Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland are printed in
Sidney State Papers, 1565–1570
, ed. T.Ó Laidhin (Dublin, 1962). Sidney’s own letters from Ireland are found in
Letters and Memorials of State
, ed. A. Collins (2 vols., London, 1746), I. His ‘summary relation of all his services in Ireland’, written for Sir Francis Walsingham in March 1583, is printed in
Calendar of Carew MSS, 1575–1588
, ed. J. S. Brewer and W. Bullen (London, 1868), pp. 334–60. In writing about Ireland in the 1560s, and of the mutual consequences of faction in Ireland and in England, I have relied on the important works of C. Brady,
The Chief Governors: The rise and fall of reform government in Tudor Ireland, 1536–1588
(Cambridge, 1994) and ‘Faction and the origins of the Desmond Rebellion of 1579’,
Irish Historical Studies
, xxii (1981); N. Canny,
The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A pattern established, 1565–76
(Hassocks, 1976); and J. G. Crawford,
Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council and the Expansion of Tudor Rule, 1556–1578
(Dublin, 1993). See also D. Edwards, ‘The Butler Revolt of 1569’,
Irish Historical Studies
, xxviii (1992–3). For Sir Humphrey Gilbert in Ireland, see
The Voyages and Colonising Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert
, ed. D. B. Quinn, (2 vols., Hakluyt Society, London, 1940); and T. Churchyard,
Churchyarde’s Choise, a general rehearsal of warres
(London, 1579).

The sense and the reality of the dangers which beset the Elizabethan polity in the late 1560s are understood by reading
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic and Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, Elizabeth, 1566–8
and
1569–71
; and
Proceedings of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth I
, vol. 1,
1558–1581
. For the politics, see W. T. MacCaffrey,
The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime: Elizabethan Politics, 1558–72
; C. Read,
Mr Secretary Walsingham and the policy of Queen Elizabeth
(3 vols., Oxford, 1925); S. E. Lehmberg,
Sir Walter Mildmay and Tudor Government
(Austin, Texas, 1964); and M. R. Thorp, ‘Catholic conspiracy in early Elizabethan foreign policy’,
Sixteenth Century Journal
, 15 (1984). For the crisis occasioned by the Darnley murder, and by Mary, Queen of Scots’ abdication and flight, see A. Fraser,
Mary, Queen of
Scots
(London, 1989 edn); J. Wormald,
Mary, Queen of Scots: A study in failure
(London, 1991); G. Donaldson,
The First Trial of Mary, Queen of Scots
(London, 1969); and H. Villius, ‘The Casket Letters: a famous case reopened’,
Historical Journal
, xxviii (1985). The Norfolk match and the rebellion of the northern earls are described in William Camden,
The History of… Princess Elizabeth
, ed. MacCaffrey, Ch. 7; and M. James, ‘The concept of order and the Northern rising, 1569’ in his
Society, Politics and Culture: Studies in Early Modern England
(Cambridge, 1986). The choices faced by English Catholics are considered by E. Rose,
Cases of Conscience: Alternatives open to Recusants and Puritans under Elizabeth I and James I
(Cambridge, 1975). For the debates surrounding the punishment of Mary, Queen of Scots, see P. Collinson, ‘The Monarchical Republic of Queen Elizabeth I’ in his
Elizabethan Essays
(London and Rio Grande, 1994).

John Calvin’s teachings are found in his
Institutes of the Christian Religion
, trans. H. Beveridge (2 vols, London, 1962); his teachings upon grace in Book Third of the
Institutes
. For the working of providence in the lives of the godly, see K. V. Thomas,
Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in popular beliefs in sixteenth and seventeenth century England
(London, 1971), Ch. 4. For English Calvinism, see P. Lake, ‘Calvinism and the English Church, 1570–1635’,
Past and Present
, 114 (1987) R. T. Kendall,
Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649
(Oxford, 1979); and N. Tyacke,
Anti-Calvinists: the Rise of English Arminianism
, c.1590–1640 (Oxford, 1987). The Protestant understanding of history is explained by G. J. R. Parry,
A Protestant Vision: William Harrison and the Reformation of Elizabethan England
(Cambridge, 1987); see also R. Helgerson,
Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan writing of England
(Chicago and London, 1992); and K. R. Firth,
The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain, 1530–1645
(Oxford, 1979).

Patrick Collinson has illumined the world of Elizabethan Protestants in a series of magisterial and indispensable works:
The Elizabethan Puritan Movement
(London, 1967),
Archbishop Grindal, 1519–1583: The Struggle for a Reformed Church
(London, 1979),
The Religion of Protestants: The Church in English Society, 1559–1625
(Oxford, 1982),
Godly People: Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism
(London, 1983) and
The Birthpangs of Protestant England: Religion and Cultural Change in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(Basingstoke, 1988). Important documents, with commentaries, are printed in
Puritanism in Tudor England
, ed. H. C. Porter (London and Basingstoke, 1970). For the debates in Parliament, see
Proceedings in the Parliaments of Elizabeth I
, vol. 1,
1558–1581
, ed. T. E. Hartley (Leicester, 1981). The interpretation of J. E. Neale,
Elizabeth I and her Parliaments
(2 vols., London, 1953–7) is questioned by G. R. Elton,
The Parliament of England, 1559–1581
(Cambridge, 1986). Biographies of each member of Parliament are found in
The House of Commons, 1558–1603
, ed. P. W. Hasler (3 vols., London, 1981).

For understanding English politics and England’s place in Europe, the state papers are, as ever, indispensable:
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign
. See also
Relations Politiques des Pays-Bas et de l’Angleterre
, ed. Baron J. Kervyn de Lettenhove (11 vols., Brussels, 1882–1900); W. Murdin,
A Collection of State Papers relating to Affairs in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth from 1571 to 1596
(London, 1759); T. Wright,
Queen Elizabeth and her times
(2 vols., London, 1838). Important studies are C. Read,
Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth
(London, 1960) and
Mr Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth
(3 vols., Oxford, 1925); W. T. MacCaffrey,
Queen Elizabeth and the Making of Policy, 1572–1588
(Princeton, 1981); R. B. Wernham,
Before the Armada: The growth of English foreign policy, 1485–1588
(Oxford, 1966); and C. Wilson,
Queen Elizabeth and the Revolt of the Netherlands
(London, 1970). B. Worden,
The Sound of Virtue: Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Elizabethan Politics
(New Haven and London, 1996) is a compelling study of the ethics and politics of the forward Protestants and of the way in which the world of politics infused literature.

For the events leading up to the massacre in Paris, see N. M. Sutherland,
The Massacre of St Bartholomew and the European Conflict, 1559–1572
(London and Basingstoke, 1973); B. B. Diefendorf,
Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris
(New York, 1991);
Calvinism in Europe, 1540–1610
, ed. A. Duke, G. Lewis and A. Pettegree (Manchester, 1992); and G. Parker,
The Dutch Revolt
(Harmondsworth, 1977).

The structure of the court and the nature of its politics are analysed by S. L. Adams in ‘Eliza Enthroned? The Court and its Politics’, in
The Reign of Elizabeth I
, ed. C. Haigh (Basingstoke, 1984) and ‘Favourites and factions at the Elizabethan Court’, in
The Tudor Monarchy
, ed. J. Guy (London, 1997); P. Williams, ‘Court and Polity under Elizabeth I’,
Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 65
(1982–3). The letters in
Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton
, ed. H. Nicolas (London, 1847) are revealing of life at court.

The ‘Civil wars of the Church of God’ are explained by P. Collinson,
The Elizabethan Puritan Movement
(London, 1967). For puritan attempts to transform society, see his
The Birthpangs of Protestant England
(Basingstoke, 1988) and ‘The Puritan Character: Polemics and polarities in early seventeenth-century English culture’ (Williams Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, 1989); and M. Spufford, ‘Puritanism and social control?’ in
Order and Disorder in Early Modern England
, ed. A. J. Fletcher and J. Stevenson (Cambridge, 1985). For an illuminating study of changing religious and secular rituals, see R. Hutton,
The Rise and Fall of Merry England: The ritual year, 1400–1700
(Oxford, 1994).

For understanding Ireland, C. Brady,
The Chief Governors: The rise and fall
of reform government in Tudor Ireland, 1536–1558
(Cambridge, 1994); N. Canny,
The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: A pattern established, 1565–76
(Hassocks, 1976); J. G. Crawford,
Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council and the expansion of Tudor Rule, 1556–1578
(Dublin, 1993) are essential. For Edmund Campion’s time in Dublin, see E. Campion,
Two bokes of the Histories of Ireland
(1571), ed. A. F. Vossen (Assen, 1963). Philip Sidney’s views upon Ireland are found in
Miscellaneous Prose of Sir Philip Sidney
eds. K. Duncan-Jones and J. van Dorsten (Oxford, 1973). For Spenser in Ireland, see E. Spenser,
A view of the present state of Ireland in 1596
, ed. W. L. Renwick (London, 1934, reprinted Oxford, 1970);
The Faerie Queene
, Book V in
Spenser: Poetical Works
, ed. J. C. Smith and E. de Selincourt (Oxford 1912; reprinted 1989); A. Hadfield,
Spenser’s Irish Experience: Wilde fruit and salvage soyl
(Oxford, 1997); and important essays by C. Brady and R. McCabe in
Spenser and Ireland
, ed. P. Coughlan (Cork, 1989). The hardening of English attitudes to the Irish is best shown by J. Derricke,
The Image of Irelande
(London, 1581); see also V. P. Carey, ‘John Derricke’s
Image of Ireland
: Sir Henry Sidney and the massacre at Mullaghmast, 1578’,
Irish Historical Studies
, xxxi (1999); and A. Hadfield, ‘Briton and Scythian: Tudor representations of Irish origins’,
Irish Historical Studies
, xxviii (1993). The plans for Ulster are studied by H. Morgan, ‘The colonial venture of Sir Thomas Smith in Ulster, 1571–1575’,
Historical Journal
, xxviii (1985). For composition, see B. Cunningham, ‘The composition of Connaught in the lordships of Clanrickard and Thomond, 1577–1641’,
Irish Historical Studies
, xxiv (1984).

The nature and success of Elizabethan Catholicism have occasioned controversy. John Bossy’s contention in
The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850
(London, 1975) that the old Catholic Church died and a new community was created was challenged by C. Haigh, ‘The Continuity of Catholicism in the English Reformation’ in
The English Reformation Revised
, ed. Haigh (Cambridge, 1987). See also C. Haigh,
English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors
(Oxford, 1993) and ‘From Monopoly to Minority: Catholicism in early modern England’,
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
, 5th series, 31 (1981). The attitudes of Catholics towards their position are considered by P. Holmes,
Resistance and Compromise: The political thought of the Elizabethan Catholics
(Cambridge, 1982), and A. Pritchard,
Catholic Loyalism in Elizabethan England
(London, 1979). The best account of Campion’s life remains R. Simpson,
Edmund Campion: A biography
(London, 1896). See also
Anthony Munday: The English Roman Life
, ed. P. J. Ayres (Oxford, 1980).

For John Dee, see P. French,
John Dee: The world of an Elizabethan magus
(London, 1984 edn). The crisis for the godly in the late 1570s is best explained in B. Worden,
The Sound of Virtue
(New Haven and London, 1996); P. Collinson, ‘The downfall of Archbishop Grindal and its place in Elizabethan political and ecclesiastical history’, and W. T. MacCaffrey, ‘The Anjou match and the making of Elizabethan foreign policy’ in
The English Commonwealth, 1547–1640
, ed. P. Clark, A. G. R. Smith and N. Tyacke (Leicester, 1979); C. Marsh,
The Family of Love in English Society, 1550–1630
(Cambridge, 1994); and C. Wilson,
Queen Elizabeth and the Revolt of the Netherlands
(London, 1970). For Scotland, see G. R. Hewitt,
Scotland under Morton, 1572–80
(Edinburgh, 1982); and K. M. Brown,
Bloodfeud in Scotland, 1573–1625: Violence, justice and politics in an early modern society
(Edinburgh, 1986). For the alarm with which the Anjou match was viewed, read
John Stubbs’s
Gaping Gulf
with letters and other relevant documents
, ed. L. E. Berry (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1968). For a Catholic condemnation of Leicester and his purposes, see
Leicester’s Commonwealth: The Copy of a Letter written by a Master of Art of Cambridge (1584)
, ed. D. C. Peck (Athens, Ohio and London, 1985). Robert Persons’ mission is uncovered by J. Bossy, ‘The heart of Robert Persons’ in
The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits
, ed. T. M. McCoog (Woodbridge, 1996). For a thrilling, and chilling, account of the world of spies, see J. Bossy,
Giordano Bruno and the Embassy Affair
(New Haven and London, 1991). The Bond of Association and its implications are explained by P. Collinson, ‘The Elizabethan Exclusion Crisis and the Elizabethan Polity’,
Proceedings of the British Academy
, 84 (1994).