Challenges Abroad in 1588

• The French Threat

  • France was wealthier than England and had a bigger population.
  • Elizabeth's cousin Mary queen of Scots was married to the heir to the French throne. Mary had a strong claim to the English throne and English Catholics might rally to her if the French invaded England.
• The Auld audience

  • Frances alliance with Scotland threatened England. Mary of Guise (James V's widow ) who ruled Scotland on behalf of her daughter, Mary queen of Scots, kept French soldiers there who could attack England. The relationship between France and Scotland was strengthened by the marriage of Francis (the heir to the French throne ) to Mary Queen Of Scots in 1558. Francis became King Francis II of France in 1559.
• War was an expensive business

  • The Crown was in debt
  • So England could not afford war with France, Scotland or Spain as this would be ruinously expensive and deepen the governments debts.
• Under the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis

  • England had lost Calais to France. This was England’s last remaining territory on the continent and there was pressure on Elizabeth to regain it.
  • However, war with France would be expensive

  and dangerous.
• France had ended its war with Spain.

  French military resources were no longer

  stretched by war with Spain, making a

  war with England more likely. There was

  also the possibility that France and

  Spain, both Catholic countries, would

  unite against Protestant England. Spain

  also had troops in the Netherlands,

  not far from England.