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A* Alevel History Essay - 'Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I controlled her ministers effectively'. Assess the validity of this statementR150,45
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A* Alevel History Essay - 'Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I controlled her ministers effectively'. Assess the validity of this statement
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This essay was awarded 23/25 achieving an A*, focusing on Elizabeth I and her government.
The specific exam question which was asked was 'Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I controlled her ministers effectively'. Assess the validity of this view.
‘Throughout her reign, Elizabeth I controlled her ministers effectively throughout her reign’.
Assess the validity of this view
Throughout Elizabeth I’s reign, between 1558 – 1603, she used government in a number of ways
and critical to the success of her government was her control over her ministers. Where Elizabeth
did not rely so heavily on Parliament throughout her reign, with placing a much higher importance
on her privy council and the subsequent ministers inside of this, her control of these figures was
especially important and it can be debated over to what extent this was dealt with effectively,
especially when focusing on various factors such as the Privy Council and her use of patronage
within this, as well as Parliament itself.
Firstly, we can see that within her Privy Council, Elizabeth controlled her ministers fairly effectively.
The Privy Council was a chief administrative and executive body of the realm which worked to
ensure an orderly state government and state security and it must be noted that Elizabeth had
already inherited a fairly effective institution which was in good shape, due to the successful work
of Sir William Paget during Mary’s reign, so this certainly helped her in maintaining an efficient
council. Elizabeth I took particular interest in her Privy Council, and valued their influence a
considerable amount, yet it was important that she asserted her authority over them – in her role
as Queen of England, with emphasis on her being a female ruler, there was already much concern
with her leadership, whereby the patriarchal views of the 16th century often viewed women as
weak (with John Knox’s ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet of 1558 adding to this idea of the
incompetence of females) and so Elizabeth was understandably particularly keen at proving her
authority and dominance over her subjects. Elizabeth I controlled her ministers through a variety of
methods and tactics in order to gain as much benefit from her advisers as possible as well as
ensuring complete monarchical control. For example, Elizabeth I kept accurate notes on the various
ministers within her Privy Council which she would then use to question her councillors, in the hope
of catching them out if ever they disobeyed the Crown. In addition to this, Elizabeth I often
displayed anger and violence to further keep a tight and orderly control over her ministers and she
also played around the different extremities of this threatening control, in order to best regulate
and ensure their continued loyalty to her. Ensuring loyalty was a matter which Elizabeth I was
rather concerned with, as her fractured upbringing (living as a Protestant under Mary I’s rule)
inflicted this caution on to her, which she kept with for the majority of her reign. The different
violent actions Elizabeth used consisted of things such as being excluded from court such as
Leicester who in 1566, pressed Elizabeth to marry – a matter which was understood in court not too
bring up (seen through the fact that she banned Parliament from speaking of her succession) as
well as executions such as Essex’s. These clearly demonstrate the regulated control that she held
over her ministers in that she had effective methods in place to keep the threats of the council to a
limited, however some would argue that the fact she even had to resort to such extreme measures
such as execution, shows that she couldn’t have controlled her ministers all that well if they were
disobeying her and proving disloyal to her to begin with. Furthermore, another issue which acts as
clear evidence to show that perhaps Elizabeth I did not control her ministers within the Privy
Council all that successfully is the concept of patronage. Patronage (giving people their status
through wealth and lands in exchange for their loyalty), had been used since Mary’s reign, however
Elizabeth I was notoriously known for this through its varying success. Whilst this would initially
mean she wouldn’t have to worry about the same antagonism that Henry VII felt for example, this
only increased factionalism significantly at court, whereby everyone was competing for rewards.
The extent of this division in her Privy Council even resulted in the breakdown of law and order,
with the 1601 Essex rebellion, which saw the fall of one of Elizabeth’s closest companions, Robert
Devereux. Although this was a relatively small scale event, which was supressed rather quickly (in
comparison to that of Elizabeth’s predecessors, such as the Pilgrimage of Grace under her father,
Henry VIII), the fact that this uproar had Devereux, a member of her Privy Council, attempt to
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