Welcome to A2 History: England 1558–1603
Welcome to your complete revision and study guide for CCEA A Level History (Assessment Unit A2 2: Historical Investigations and Interpretations - Option 1: England 1558–1603). The Elizabethan era is one of the most exciting and dramatic periods in British history: a time of spymasters, secret Catholic plots, maritime warfare, religious tension, and sweeping social changes.
Don't worry if this paper feels intimidating at first. The A2 2 exam tests your ability to think like a working historian across three distinct areas:
• Question 1 (Source Evaluation): Evaluating primary sources in their historical context.
• Question 2 (Historical Interpretations): Analyzing and comparing how different modern historians interpret an issue.
• Question 3 (Extended Essay): Writing a balanced, evidence-based argument addressing a key historical debate.
Let's break down this 44-year reign into clear, digestible themes to give you total confidence in your exam!
Theme 1: Government, Court, and the Royal Prerogative
1. The Queen and the Privy Council
Elizabeth I ruled through personal monarchy, but she relied heavily on a small, dedicated executive committee known as the Privy Council. Typically made up of only 12 to 20 members, the Council handled the day-to-day running of the kingdom: administering justice, managing state finances, overseeing national security, and giving policy advice to the Queen.
Key Figures in Government:
• Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley): Appointed Principal Secretary of State on the day of Elizabeth's accession (17 November 1558) and later Lord High Treasurer from 1572 until his death in 1598. He was Elizabeth's most trusted, cautious, and indispensable adviser.
• Sir Francis Walsingham: Principal Secretary of State and Elizabeth's legendary spymaster. He ran an extensive intelligence network at home and abroad that systematically uncovered Catholic conspiracies.
• Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: The Queen's lifelong favourite and Master of the Horse. A leading voice on the Privy Council who consistently pushed for an assertive, pro-Protestant foreign policy and led English troops in the Low Countries in 1585.
• Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex: A charismatic, ambitious courtier whose bitter factional rivalry with Robert Cecil (William Cecil's son) and disastrous handling of military operations in Ireland led to the failed Essex Rebellion (1601) and his execution for treason.
2. The Royal Prerogative vs Parliament
A classic exam debate focuses on the relationship between the Crown and Parliament. Elizabeth held firmly to her Royal Prerogative—the constitutional powers that belonged exclusively to the monarch. She insisted that four crucial subjects were entirely off-limits to parliamentary debate unless specifically invited by her:
1. Religion (the doctrine and structure of the Church)
2. Foreign Policy (peace, war, and international treaties)
3. Marriage (who she should marry)
4. Succession (who would succeed her on the throne)
Did Parliament clash with Elizabeth constantly?
Elizabeth called only 13 parliamentary sessions during her 44-year reign. She used Parliament primarily to grant subsidies (taxation) and pass anti-Catholic legislation. While there was genuine friction over the Royal Prerogative, religious reform, and royal monopolies (which led to Elizabeth's famous conciliatory Golden Speech in 1601), relations were generally cooperative. Privy Councillors carefully managed parliamentary business from within.
3. Local Government: JPs and Lords Lieutenant
The central government in London had no standing army or paid police force. To maintain order, enforce laws, collect taxes, and implement the Poor Laws, the Crown relied on unpaid members of the landed gentry serving as Justices of the Peace (JPs), alongside appointed Lords Lieutenant who managed county defence and the local militia.
Key Takeaway for Theme 1: Elizabeth's government was small, personal, and reliant on elite cooperation. Her authority depended on balancing rival court factions, defending her Royal Prerogative, and utilizing unpaid local gentry (JPs) to enforce royal policy.
Theme 2: The Religious Settlement and Religious Conflict
1. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement (1559)
When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, England had swung violently between Protestantism (Edward VI) and Catholicism (Mary I). Elizabeth sought a sustainable compromise—a national Church that was firmly Protestant in doctrine but moderate and traditional in its ceremonial appearance.
• Act of Supremacy (1559): Re-established English independence from Rome. Elizabeth was designated Supreme Governor (rather than Supreme Head) of the Church of England—a clever title that appeased Catholics who believed only the Pope or Christ could head the Church, and Puritans who felt a woman should not hold the title of Head. All clergymen and royal officials were required to swear an Oath of Supremacy.
• Act of Uniformity (1559): Mandated the use of the single 1559 Book of Common Prayer in English for all church services. It enforced church attendance, punishing non-attendance (recusancy) with a fine of 12 pence (1 shilling) per Sunday.
• The Thirty-Nine Articles (1563 / 1571): Defined the theological doctrine of the Church of England, combining Calvinist/Protestant theology with traditional liturgical practice.
2. The Catholic Threat
For the first decade of her reign, Elizabeth pursued a policy of relative moderation towards English Catholics. However, from 1568 onward, external and internal events turned Catholicism into a direct threat to national security:
• Arrival of Mary, Queen of Scots (1568): Elizabeth's Catholic cousin and presumptive heir fled Scotland and arrived in England. As a legitimate Catholic claimant to the English throne, Mary immediately became a magnet for domestic and foreign Catholic plots.
• Revolt of the Northern Earls (1569): Catholic rebellion in northern England led by Charles Neville (Earl of Westmorland) and Thomas Percy (Earl of Northumberland), who briefly restored the Latin Mass in Durham Cathedral before being defeated.
• Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis (1570): Pope Pius V excommunicated and purported to depose Elizabeth, releasing all English Catholics from their allegiance to the Crown. This placed English Catholics in an impossible dilemma: loyalty to their monarch was now framed by Rome as disobedience to the Pope.
• Catholic Plots:
— Ridolfi Plot (1571): A conspiracy involving Roberto Ridolfi and Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, planning a Spanish invasion to replace Elizabeth with Mary.
— Throckmorton Plot (1583): Francis Throckmorton acted as an intermediary for a planned French and Spanish invasion backed by papal money.
— Babington Plot (1586): Anthony Babington used coded letters to communicate with Mary regarding Elizabeth's assassination. Uncovered and decoded by Walsingham's intelligence network, this plot provided definitive legal proof of Mary's complicity.
• Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (February 1587): Following her trial under the Act of Association, Mary was executed at Fotheringhay Castle.
• Seminary Priests and Jesuits: Trained English Catholic priests arrived from Douai (starting in 1574), followed by the clandestine missionary efforts of the Jesuits (including Edmund Campion and Robert Persons in 1580). In response, Parliament passed the strict 1585 Act, making it high treason punishable by death for any Jesuit or seminary priest to remain in England.
3. The Puritan Challenge
Puritans were zealous Protestants who believed the 1559 Settlement had stopped halfway and wanted to "purify" the Church of all remaining Catholic practices ("popish rags").
• Vestments Controversy (1565–1566): Reformist clergy refused to wear traditional church vestments (like the white surplice), viewing them as unscriptural.
• The Presbyterian Movement: Radical reformers led by figures such as Thomas Cartwright and John Field (authors of the Admonition to the Parliament, 1572) who campaigned to abolish bishops and reorganize the Church along Scottish/Genevan lines governed by regional presbyteries.
• Prophesyings: Informal meetings of clergy to study the Bible and practise preaching. Elizabeth ordered them stopped, fearing they spread radical ideas. When Archbishop Edmund Grindal refused to suppress them, Elizabeth suspended him from his duties in 1577.
• Archbishop John Whitgift (appointed 1583): Grindal's successor, Whitgift was an uncompromising disciplinarian who crushed Puritan dissent using the Three Articles and the Court of High Commission, requiring clergy to subscribe fully to the Prayer Book and royal supremacy.
• Marprelate Tracts (1588–1589): Anonymous, scurrilous pamphlets satirizing the bishops. Their offensive tone backfired, alienating moderate support and allowing the government to dismantle the organized Presbyterian movement.
Key Takeaway for Theme 2: The Religious Settlement survived a dual challenge. Elizabeth resisted Puritan demands for radical theological change while treating Catholic resistance not just as religious unorthodoxy, but as state treason—particularly after the 1570 Papal Bull and the plots surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots.
Theme 3: Foreign Affairs and the War with Spain
1. Shifting Alliances (1558–1585)
At the start of her reign, Elizabeth avoided conflict through calculated diplomacy:
• Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) & Treaty of Troyes (1564): England ended open conflict with France and formally surrendered its historical claim to Calais.
• The Dutch Revolt (commencing 1566–1568): Protestant rebels in the Netherlands revolted against Spanish Habsburg rule under Philip II. The arrival of the Spanish Duke of Alba with an army just across the English Channel alarmed English ministers.
• Privateering & Commercial Warfare: Rather than declaring open war, Elizabeth sanctioned English privateers to raid Spanish trade. Sir Francis Drake captured immense treasure (e.g., the treasure ship Cacafuego in 1579) during his circumnavigation of the globe (1577–1580).
2. Open War with Spain (1585–1603)
By the mid-1580s, the collapse of Dutch resistance and the assassination of the Dutch Protestant leader William of Orange forced Elizabeth's hand:
• Treaty of Nonsuch (August 1585): Elizabeth committed England to direct military intervention in the Low Countries, sending funds and troops under the command of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. This marked the unofficial outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War.
• Drake's Raid on Cadiz (1587): Drake sailed boldly into Cadiz harbour, destroying Spanish supplies and dozens of warships. This operation, famously nicknamed "singeing the King of Spain's beard," delayed the Spanish invasion fleet by a year.
• The Spanish Armada (1588): Philip II launched a massive invasion fleet of roughly 130 ships commanded by the Duke of Medina-Sidonia. The strategic objective was to sail up the English Channel, join with the Duke of Parma's veteran army in Flanders, and transport them across to invade England.
Why did the Armada fail?
1. Communication Breakdown: Medina-Sidonia and Parma could not link up safely at sea.
2. English Tactics: English fireships broke the Spanish defensive crescent formation at Calais, followed by the decisive Battle of Gravelines.
3. Superior English Gunnery & Ship Design: Faster, manoeuvrable English galleons outgunned the heavier Spanish vessels.
4. The Weather: Violent Atlantic storms ("the Protestant Wind") wrecked dozens of retreating Spanish ships off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland.
• Later War Years (1589–1603): The war dragged on on multiple fronts, including English expeditions to Portugal, Brittany, and Cadiz (1596), as well as crushing the Spanish-backed Nine Years' War / Tyrone's Rebellion (1594–1603) in Ireland.
Key Takeaway for Theme 3: Elizabeth pursued a cautious, defensive foreign policy designed to protect English national security and keep the Channel coast free of hostile Spanish control. The defeat of the 1588 Armada was a major propaganda triumph, though the war continued until after her death.
Theme 4: Economic and Social Change
1. Population, Inflation, and Poverty
During the 16th century, England experienced intense demographic pressure:
• Population Growth: England's population jumped from roughly 3 million in 1558 to over 4 million by 1603.
• Inflation: Increased demand for food and clothing, combined with bad harvests, drove prices rapidly upwards while real wages dropped.
• Vagrancy and Fear of Disorder: Land enclosure and population displacement forced thousands to wander looking for work. Society made a sharp legal distinction between two groups of poor:
1. The Deserving (Impotent) Poor: The elderly, sick, orphans, and disabled who could not work through no fault of their own.
2. The Undeserving Poor ("Sturdy Beggars"): Able-bodied individuals who were believed to be choosing a life of vagrancy and crime.
2. The Elizabethan Poor Laws
Recognizing that charity alone could not handle widespread destitution, the Elizabethan state introduced statutory national relief:
• Poor Relief Act of 1572: Introduced a compulsory local rate (tax) to fund relief for the impotent poor.
• The Poor Law Acts of 1597 and 1601: These landmark statutes established the national framework of English poor relief that remained in place for over two centuries. They mandated:
— Appointing parish Overseers of the Poor to calculate and collect local churchwarden rates.
— Providing raw materials to put the able-bodied poor to work.
— Setting up apprenticeships for pauper children and constructing almshouses for the impotent poor.
3. Trade and Overseas Expansion
With the disruption of the traditional cloth trade through Antwerp, English merchants founded chartered joint-stock trading companies to open new global markets:
• Eastland Company (1579): Baltic trade in timber and naval supplies.
• Levant Company (1581): Mediterranean trade.
• East India Company (1600): Asian trade in spices and silks.
• North American Exploration: Sir Walter Raleigh organized attempts to establish an English colony at Roanoke (1584–1587), laying the foundation for future transatlantic colonization.
Key Takeaway for Theme 4: Demographic growth and inflation created severe social distress. The Elizabethan government responded with pioneering statutory poor relief (the 1597/1601 Poor Laws) and supported commercial diversification through chartered joint-stock trading companies.
Theme 5: Exam Technique & Historiographical Debates
To score top marks in Unit A2 2 (Paper AHY21), you must master the specific requirements of all three exam questions:
1. Question 1 Masterclass: Primary Source Evaluation (AO2)
• Do not just write a narrative essay! Evaluate the utility, strengths, and limitations of the source extracts.
• Interrogate the provenance (Who wrote it? When? Why? Who was the intended audience?).
• Cross-reference the source's content with your own detailed contextual knowledge to judge its historical accuracy and reliability.
2. Question 2 Masterclass: Historical Interpretations (AO3)
• Do not treat historians' extracts as primary sources. Avoid criticizing a modern historian by saying "they were not alive at the time."
• Identify the core historiographical argument of each extract.
• Evaluate which interpretation is more convincing by deploying specific factual evidence to test the historians' claims.
3. Question 3 Masterclass: The Extended Essay (AO1)
• Plan a balanced, analytical argument addressing the precise wording of the proposition.
• Ensure strong Quality of Written Communication (QWC): clear structure, accurate historical terminology, and a supported conclusion that directly answers the question.
4. Essential Historiographical Debates to Know
A. Crown vs. Parliament: The Neale vs. Revisionist Debate
• The Whig / Traditional View (Sir John Neale): Argued that the House of Commons contained an organized, aggressive Puritan opposition (the "Puritan Choir") that constantly challenged Elizabeth's prerogative, paving the way for the English Civil War.
• The Revisionist View (Geoffrey Elton, Wallace MacCaffrey, Patrick Collinson): Rejected Neale's thesis. Revisionists show that Parliament was characterized primarily by cooperation and consensus. Privy Councillors managed parliamentary debates, and MPs shared the Crown's central goals of political stability and defending the realm.
B. The Character of English Catholicism
• Common Pitfall: Assuming all English Catholics were disloyal plotters or active rebels.
• Historical Reality: The vast majority of English Catholics were loyal subjects who practiced outward conformity by paying their fines or attending mandatory services (known as "church papists"), while maintaining their faith in private.
C. The Puritan Spectrum
• Common Pitfall: Treating Puritans as a single, unified political faction.
• Historical Reality: Puritanism was a broad spectrum ranging from moderate conformists who worked within the Church hierarchy, to Presbyterians who wanted structural reform, to tiny fringes of Separatists who broke away entirely.
Quick Revision Summary Checklist
Before stepping into the exam room, make sure you can confidently explain:
• The structure of the Privy Council and the careers of Cecil, Walsingham, Leicester, and Essex.
• The 4 components of the Royal Prerogative: religion, marriage, succession, and foreign policy.
• The key terms of the 1559 Religious Settlement (Supremacy, Uniformity, 39 Articles).
• The Catholic threat: Northern Earls (1569), 1570 Papal Bull, plots (Ridolfi, Throckmorton, Babington), and Mary's execution (1587).
• The Puritan challenge: Vestments controversy, prophesyings (Grindal), Whitgift's suppression, and the Marprelate Tracts.
• Anglo-Spanish conflict: Treaty of Nonsuch (1585), Cadiz (1587), and the Armada's defeat (1588).
• Socio-economic policy: 1597/1601 Poor Laws and joint-stock companies (East India Company 1600).
• Historiographical debates: Neale's "Puritan Choir" vs. Revisionist views of Crown-Parliament cooperation.