Elizabeth's Court and Government

A throne held without an army

Elizabeth ruled England with no standing army and no police force. She could not simply compel her subjects to obey the way a modern state can. ⭐ So her authority rested on two things instead: LOYALTY and IMAGE. Powerful men were bound to the crown by reward, her decisions were carried out by a small circle of advisers and by unpaid local gentry, and ordinary people were held by a carefully built royal image rather than by soldiers. ⚠️ Hold that one idea and the topic falls into place. Court, Council, Parliament and the counties are all answers to a single question: how do you rule a kingdom you cannot force?

Force, or loyalty and image

A modern government enforces its will through paid officials it hires and dismisses. Elizabeth had to work through people who served her for reward, for duty, or for love of the crown. Seeing that difference is worth marks, because it explains why patronage, image and the local gentry mattered so much to her rule.

Order how a royal decision reached the counties

A royal decision did not enforce itself. Put the stages by which the will of the queen reached her subjects into order, starting from the queen.

• The queen decides what she wants done
• The Privy Council turns her wishes into orders
• Unpaid gentry act on those orders in each county
• Order is kept, with no royal army involved at all

What patronage bought the queen

The queen was the source of all offices, titles, land and grants of trade. Why did handing these out matter so much to how she ruled?

• It tied powerful men to the crown, because their wealth and standing depended on staying in her favour
• It was how the government raised most of the money it needed
• It paid for a permanent royal army to enforce her orders
• It let her pass new laws without summoning Parliament

Words for ruling the Elizabethan way

Five words that let you explain how she ruled, rather than just describe it.

Spot rule by loyalty, not force

Three of these five show authority resting on loyalty or image rather than on force. Choose the three.

• Granting offices and monopolies to leading nobles
• Spreading portraits and staging royal progresses to display the queen
• Relying on unpaid gentry to enforce the law in the counties
• Keeping a permanent army stationed across the country
• Sending a professional police force to arrest lawbreakers

Parliament: managed, not obeyed

Parliament met only when the queen summoned it, and she summoned it rarely. It was useful to her, not a rival. She managed it. Members were allowed to speak, but she fenced off the matters she called her own: her marriage, the succession, religion and foreign affairs. When Puritan members pressed her to reform the Church further or to debate these forbidden subjects, they were silenced and some were imprisoned. But it was not powerless. Late in the reign members protested loudly about monopolies, and she chose to give way and promise reform rather than force the quarrel.

Match each part of government to its work

Find the sentence that explains her control

A student explains why Elizabeth could control Parliament. Select the ONE sentence that gives the correct reason.

• She could choose when to summon Parliament and when to send it home, and she kept the great questions of state off its agenda.
• She never allowed its members to speak at all.
• It had no real power and did nothing that mattered.
• She always did whatever its members asked of her.

A worked example: the Essex rising

Late in the reign, Robert Devereux, the earl of Essex, was a leading favourite who had been given high commands. After he failed in Ireland and quarrelled with the queen, he lost her favour and lost the grant of trade that was his main income. Shut out of reward, he led an armed march into London to force his way back to power and remove his rivals. The people of London did not join him. The rising collapsed within a day, and he was arrested. Now the historian question. A rebellion by a leading courtier that failed at once: is that a sign that royal authority was weak, or that it was strong?

Complete the account of how she governed

Rewards of office, titles and trade that kept the great men loyal were her _____. The small group of chief advisers who ran the government from day to day was the _____. In each county the law was enforced by unpaid _____. The carefully built image of the queen as Gloriana worked as _____. When she needed a grant of taxation, she had to summon _____.

What the Essex rising is evidence of

The rising led by the earl of Essex collapsed within a day, and the people of London refused to join it. Historians most often use this as evidence that...

• royal authority still commanded loyalty, even late in the reign
• the queen had lost control of her kingdom by the end of the reign
• the people of London wanted a new monarch
• the system of patronage had completely broken down

Two ways to read the same rebellion

A grade 9 answer does not pick the dramatic reading. It holds both, because the same event carries two messages at once.

Judge the evidence like an examiner

You are marking three uses of the Essex rising as evidence. For each, choose the soundest historical judgement.

• A source notes that Londoners refused to join Essex. What does this best support?
• A source shows Essex complaining that he had been shut out of all favour. What does this best support?
• An essay concludes that the rising proves Elizabeth had lost control. Is that judgement safe?

Write: authority by loyalty or by force

How far did the authority of Elizabeth rest on loyalty and image rather than on force? Use the Essex rising as evidence on both sides, and reach a judgement. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.

• Name two ways she ruled without force
• Use the Essex rising as evidence authority held
• Use it also as evidence of strain
• Reach a supported judgement