Monarchy, Government and Parliament

• Key terms:

  • Privy Council - group of the Queen’s advisers
  • Courtiers - had daily access to the Queen
  • Lord Lieutenants - members of the nobility who supervises the milita
  • Justices of Peace - could arrest, search and imprison offenders
  • Parish Constables - helped the JPs, often old
  • Patronage - support/encouragement given to encourage you to work for your queen
• Monarch; Elizabeth strongly defended the Royal Prerogative, she was directly responsible for all state departments and appointed and dismissed all ministers
• Privy Council; A group of advisers (AVG 12) who could meet daily or weekly, can meet separately (without the Queen), they offered advice, support and loyalty; had factions (Cecil vs Dudley, R. Cecil vs Essex), and was good for Elizabeth as they are all trying to impress her (benefits from their hard work)
• Court; the centre of patronage (and the Cult of Gloriana), had 2000 people who saw her daily, it was a place of independent information for the monarch
• The Parliament; meets infrequently (13 times in her whole reign, 45 years), had around 400 people, needed to pass legislation (e.g. Spain, MQoS) - Elizabeth had to be present, they challenged her over the issue of marriage, religion, freedom of speech, etc
• Local Government; regional councils; e.g. the council of the North and the council of the Marches, most of the population were governed by local officials there was a lord Lieutenant for every county (a direct link to the queen and Privy Council) - unpaid local officials - especially the Justices of the Peace (JPs), 40 in each county, and selected by the queen to oversee law and order, it was a great honour to be picked