Catholic challenge from abroad

• many of Europes most powerful rulers tended to be catholic and encouraged by the pope represented a real threat to elizabeths rule as they could seek to remove her from the throne and replace her with a catholic monarch
• when religious war began in France in 1562 Elizabeth backed French protestants hoping to take back calais in return
• the papacy


  the counter reformation meant that the pope was prepared to end th Protestant rule in England
• the pope excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570 this encouraged catholic powers such as France and Spain to attack England
• in 1566 the dutch rebelled against Spanish occupation Elizabeth outwardly condemned the dutch rebels known as sea beggars
• spain as further angered by England seizure of the genoese loan in 1568 the Italian city Genoa lent gold to the Spanish government ships carrying the loan shelters in English ports where Elizabeth seized it arguing it belonged to Italian bankers not Spain
• by 1570 the Spanish rule in the Netherlands was secure th privy council now feared a Spanish invasion as Spanish troops were now in the Spanish Netherlands close to England
• the presence of Mary queen of Scots asana alternative catholic monarch encouraged Spain to plot against Elizabeth