How successful was the Elizabethan religious settlement, and how did foreign policy respond to the Catholic threat?
The Elizabethan religious settlement and its challenges from Catholics and Puritans, and the foreign policy of conflict with Spain, including the Netherlands and the Armada.
A focused guide to Elizabethan religion and foreign policy for AQA A-Level History (the Tudors). Covers the religious settlement of 1559, the Catholic and Puritan challenges, the slide into war with Spain over the Netherlands, and the Armada of 1588.
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What this dot point is asking
You need to assess the Elizabethan religious settlement (1559) and the challenges to it from Catholics and Puritans, then explain how foreign policy slid into war with Spain, climaxing in the Armada of 1588.
The religious settlement of 1559
The settlement combined Protestant doctrine with deliberately ambiguous wording and familiar forms, intended to bring in as many subjects as possible. The communion words of 1559 fused the 1549 and 1552 phrasings so that worshippers could read the rite as the real presence or as commemoration; the Royal Injunctions (1559) kept vestments, music and church ornament that comforted conservatives; and the title Supreme Governor, rather than Supreme Head, eased Catholic and reformed consciences alike. The doctrinal core was firmed up later in the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563, enforced 1571). Historians divide between Sir John Neale's view that a Puritan "choir" in the Commons forced Elizabeth into a more Protestant settlement than she wanted, and the revisionist case (Norman Jones) that the 1559 settlement was broadly what the queen intended, a conservative-leaning Protestant church.
The Catholic challenge
The government responded with escalating recusancy laws (fines for non-attendance rising to a crippling £20 a month in 1581), Acts making it treason to convert subjects to Rome or to harbour a priest, and the hunting of the seminary priests trained at Douai and the Jesuit mission (Campion and Persons from 1580). Around 130 priests and 60 lay people were executed. Historians debate whether English Catholicism declined into a quiet, gentry-led survivalism or remained a genuine threat; the plots suggest the regime's fears were not baseless, even if most Catholics stayed loyal.
The Puritan challenge
Puritans wanted to purge the church of remaining "popish" elements, pressing through the vestiarian controversy of the 1560s (over the surplice and clerical dress), the prophesyings (preaching exercises Elizabeth ordered Archbishop Grindal to suppress, suspending him when he refused), the Admonitions to Parliament, and the more radical presbyterian movement of Cartwright and Field that wanted to abolish bishops. Elizabeth, who regarded church government as part of her prerogative, resisted firmly, backing Archbishop Whitgift's drive for conformity through the Court of High Commission in the 1580s. The classic presbyterian movement collapsed after the scandalous Marprelate Tracts (1588 to 1589) discredited radicalism, and by the 1590s the conformist church was secure.
Foreign policy and the Armada
Foreign policy shifted from caution to open war with Spain, the great Catholic power, driven by ideology, security and trade:
- The Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule drew England in; after the assassination of William of Orange, the Treaty of Nonsuch (1585) committed an English army under Leicester to help the Dutch rebels, in effect a declaration of war.
- Privateers such as Drake and Hawkins raided Spanish treasure shipping and the New World (Drake's circumnavigation, 1577 to 1580, and the 1587 raid on Cadiz), enriching the crown and provoking Philip.
- Philip II, encouraged by the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and the prospect of restoring Catholicism, launched the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was defeated by English gunnery and fireships at Gravelines and then scattered by the "Protestant wind", but the war dragged on expensively, with further Armadas (1596, 1597) and the costly Irish campaign against Tyrone, until peace came only under James I in 1604.
Try this
Q1. What two Acts made up the 1559 settlement? [2 marks]
- Cue. The Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity.
Q2. What did the 1570 papal bull do? [2 marks]
- Cue. It excommunicated Elizabeth and released Catholics from allegiance to her.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 201820 marks'The Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559 was a successful compromise.' Assess the validity of this view. (Component 1, breadth essay, rescoped from 25)Show worked answer →
Test "successful compromise" against the threats from both flanks, and define success before judging.
Argue for success: the 1559 settlement married Protestant doctrine (the Thirty-Nine Articles, the communion) to deliberately ambiguous wording and familiar ceremonial; it commanded broad outward conformity, lasted the whole reign, and spared England the religious civil wars of France.
Argue against: it faced a serious Catholic threat (the 1569 Northern Rebellion, the 1570 excommunication, the seminary and Jesuit missions, the plots) and persistent Puritan pressure (the vestiarian controversy, prophesyings, the presbyterian movement), so it satisfied neither flank fully.
Reach a judgement. Markers reward defining success as durability and the avoidance of civil war rather than universal acceptance. A strong line is that it was a successful compromise precisely because it was enforced and outlasted its critics.
AQA 20224 marksExplain why the papal bull of 1570 increased the Catholic threat to Elizabeth. (Component 1, short explanation)Show worked answer →
A 4 mark explanation rewards a clear consequence plus a developed example.
Identify the act: Regnans in Excelsis (1570) excommunicated Elizabeth and declared her deposed, absolving Catholics of their allegiance.
Explain the mechanism: it turned loyal Catholicism into a potential act of treason and gave foreign powers and plotters a religious licence to act against her, sharpening the regime's fear of a fifth column.
Develop: it prompted harsher recusancy laws and the hunting of missionary priests, and lay behind plots such as Ridolfi and Throckmorton. Markers reward the link from excommunication to a heightened, treasonable threat.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level History (7042) specification — AQA (2015)