monarchy, gov, parliment

• Court


  Central to the system of Government, the centre of power, ritual and celebration. A place at court was essential for success as the whole system of government was based on patronage, which the Queen controlled. Membership of the Court would overlap with all the key institutions of central government such as the Privy Council and Parliament. Many courtiers were also councillors. Local government was also administered by the key players at Court, such as Lords Lieutenant who were usually the great nobles.
• Behind every great noble there was a web of people stretching out into the provinces seeking advancement.
• Court

  Allowed the monarch to call leading subjects to counsel her, arbitrate in their quarrels, reward their services to her and display the power and magnificence of the monarch.
• Life at Court revolved around

  • Privy Council Meetings
  • Entertaining Foreign Ambassadors
  • Music and Entertainment
  • Masques and tournaments
• Nobility


  Elizabeth's relationship with the Nobility was central to how her Government worked at both Central and Local level
• Reasons Elizabeth needed the support of the hereditary magnates

  • They were her natural entourage
  • Nobles believed they had the right and duty to counsel the Queen
  • The monarchy was enhanced by the dignity of her nobles
  • They had real power because England was in reality a federation of counties and it was the regional magnates were the key to the relationship between the centre and the localities
  • The Lord Lieutenant controlled the both the local administration and the local militia
  • The great families were essential to the working of this process
  • The LL was virtually an hereditary position in some counties
  • Nobles also controlled Parliamentary elections so Crown management of the Commons required a good working relationship with the nobles
  • They also sat in the House of Lords
  • In times of war they raised the forces and commanded armies and navies
  • In times of peace they ruled and administered the counties
• Duke of Norfolk

  The leading noble in England and uniquely powerful
• Power and influence of the Duke of Norfolk

  • Great Palace at Norwich, HQ at Kenninghall, bases at Framlingham, Castle Rising, Thetford and Castle Acre
  • 2nd Cousin to Queen
  • Commanded the Army in Scotland n support of the Lords of the Congregation against Mary of Guise and negotiated the Treaty of Berwick 1560
  • Controlled the franchise independently in 4 hundreds and 14 other manors
  • Had loyalty and service from tenants on landholdings in Norfolk and Suffolk
  • County families had a long history of service to the Howards
  • He ruled the Norfolk commission of the peace with 50% of JPs appointed through his patronage
  • Controlled Parliamentary elections and nominated MPs for Castle Rising, Kings Lynn, Great Yarmouth, Norwich and Thetford
• Elizabeth had to accommodate the Duke of Norfolk because of his vast power and inherited authority, and he was the leading Catholic!
• Elizabeth's involvement in any conspiracy by the Duke of Norfolk was a very serious business and his execution in 1572 a last and unwelcome resort for Elizabeth
• Court


  A useful mechanism for Elizabeth to keep an eye on her nobles and she would expect them to spend a significant amount of time at Court
• Elizabeth didn't create many new peerages (10 in total) and 6 were restored to families that had lost their titles, and those such as Norfolk attainded for treason were effectively ended along with 14 failures in the male line of families so that she inherited 57 peers and at her death there were 55.
• Elizabeth's approach to the nobility

  One argument is that this kept the status of nobility very high and Elizabeth was very conservative in this regard. The other argument is that she wanted the numbers low so that she could control or at least keeps tabs on the webs of patronage that flowed out from the great men.
• Cecil had a detailed flow chart with genealogies and maps in the form of murals in his home to aid this intelligence
• The Northern families were a potential problem

  They were particularly powerful with garrisons of battle ready soldiers out of necessity to protect against Scotland, and they were also Catholics so their allegiance could not be relied on
• When the Northern Earls rebelled in 1569, the government overcame the rising and remained intact
• The replacement of the great families in the North

  Contributed to the rising in 1569 when Mary became a focus for disaffection in the 1560s
• At Court there was a dangerous combination of Norfolk, Arundel, Lumley, Winchester and Pembroke


  They saw the succession issue being resolved through a Norfolk marriage to Mary and hopefully displacing Cecil to get Mary accepted by Elizabeth
• The 1569 rebellion failed because Leicester took fright and told Elizabeth of the plans, and Norfolk fled to East Anglia and was eventually put in the Tower
• Elizabeth's forces struck in Dec 1569 catching the rebels by surprise and they fled into Scotland
• The rest of the northern nobility had waited on the sidelines probably to see how the rebellion developed before committing themselves to one side or the other
• The Court plotters were angry and alienated and ultimately this led to the Ridolfi plot in 1572 which would cost Norfolk his head
• Elizabeth's use of clothes and jewels

  To protect an image of her as a powerful and strong monarch. She dressed to kill in gowns of black satin or purple velvet, encrusted with gold and pearls, she wore richly jewelled pendants, rings and bracelets and carried embroidered gloves and decorated fans. Elizabeth showed herself off as both a Queen and a woman to her own courtiers and foreign officials.
• The Court


  Provided the ideal setting for displays of majesty as well as romance and political seduction. Elizabeth tried to control her councillors and magnates by drawing them into a web of personal, sometimes emotional relationships with her and in so doing, she politicised the Court and made politics courtly.
• Courtiers


  Every courtier was a potential politician, and Elizabeth drew her leading councillors, ministers and advisors from Court. The life of the Court provided opportunities for private lobbying and relationships which could be pressed into political service.
• Presence at Court

  Crucial to political success, and similarly, absence from Court was politically crippling, because the distribution of patronage was key to political power, which in turn could be determined by the Queen's affections.
• Elizabeth's relationships with courtiers

  She sought to establish personal relationships in a relaxed and intimate fashion, in which all the attention was upon her as a woman, and therefore as a monarch too. She treated her courtier-politicians as if they were her intimate friends giving them nicknames for those closest to her, and in so doing, she was able to use personal friendships as political strings to manipulate her servants.
• Elizabeth's projection of herself

  As the desired object of all her courtiers put woman in a dangerous and vulnerable position. Any act could be taken as a challenge to the Queen, one reason for the rigid sexual discipline of the Court. She tried to prevent the Court ladies marrying and was angry if they did so without her permission.
• Elizabeth's emotions


  She attempted political intimidation by her anger and political seduction by loving words. But in using her emotions to manipulate others, so Elizabeth's emotions became a target for manipulation and while she was puppeteer, she could also be puppet too.
• Elizabeth's affection was such a major political prize so the competition for her approval was fierce
• Elizabeth's behaviour and emotional relationships brought bitter factional rivalries that sometimes threatened disaster
• In the 1560s and 90s there were dangerous factional conflicts that destabilised English politics, with the struggle between Dudley and the Howard alliances, and the conflicts of the 1590s between the Essex and Cecil groups
• As Elizabeth aged, she ran a narrowly based regime made up of old men and the sons of previous councillors, so power was held in just a few hands
• The Earl of Essex had become a recent favourite of the Queen and so people turned to him for advancement, including impoverished nobles, soldiers and failed courtiers
• As the relationship between Elizabeth and Essex soured, so the Essex faction was left angry and restless, leading to the Essex rising of 1601
• 1558 to 1603 Elizabeth was assisted in the government of England by the Privy Council, the departments of state and the law courts
• Ministers


  Those members of the Privy Council who carried out most of her administration and advised her most often, but the name had no official standing
• 4 key periods of Elizabeth's ministers and Privy Council

  • Early Years (1558-1565) – key players were Sir William Cecil, Lord Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester), Earl of Sussex + Duke of Norfolk
  • Faction fighting (1565-1572) – Cecil, Dudley and Sussex
  • Dudley determined to destroy Cecil so became a dangerous rival
  • Consolidation (1572-1588) – Cecil and Walsingham
  • Decline (1588-1603) – Cecil and Essex
• Competition for political prizes and self-aggrandizement
• Ministers


  Members of the Privy Council who carried out most of Elizabeth's administration and advised her most often