How Serious Were The Threats To Elizabeth?

There were three main threats to the throne of Elizabeth I; The Spanish Armada in 1588, The Northern Rebellion in 1569 and Mary Queen of Scots. These threats can be seen as both very serious and not so serious. Whilst Elizabeth was Queen, she faced many threats as a result of all the religious tension at the time. All three of these threats involved the removal of Mary’s throne and so can be seen as serious. The most serious of which was the threat from Mary Queen of Scots due to her legitimate claim to the throne and strong support.

On the one hand, the threat from Mary Queen of Scots was the biggest threat to Elizabeth I. This is because Mary had a legitimate claim to the throne as she was Henry VIII’s sister’s great granddaughter; therefore she was second in line to the throne. Mary Queen of Scots also had a lot of Catholic support, a lot of the European Union wanted England to be Catholic, and so they would have wanted Mary to be on the English throne and not Elizabeth.

Philip and the Spanish were attacking England, because they wanted Mary on the throne. The Spanish Armada was a large threat to Elizabeth in 1588, because the Spanish could easily have attacked England; they had a lot more men and boats than the English. The Spanish Armada also posed as a large threat, because it was a new type of threat that no King or Queen had experienced before; the threat was also posed from another country, this makes it a lot more serious than it would have been if it had have been posed from an Englishman.

There was also a third threat, The Northern rebellion in 1569. The Northern rebellion was the least serious of the three threats, but it was still serious. The Northern rebellion occurred in 1569 when the Northern Earls posed the threats. There were three main Earls that posed the threat; The Duke of Norfolk, The Earl of Northumberland and The Earl of Westminster. They were attacking Elizabeth I because they saw an opportunity to replace the Protestant Queen with the Catholic Mary Stuart. The Northern rebellion was a large threat to Elizabeth, because it was a very large rebellion that had support from the whole of the North of England. Elizabeth could have easily been deposed from the throne due to the power of the Northern Rebellion. This is how serious the threats were to Elizabeth I.

On the other hand, the threat from Mary Queen of Scots was not a very large threat to Elizabeth I, because Elizabeth could easily have imprisoned Mary; since Elizabeth was Queen, she could easily have Mary put in prison, therefore she was not a large threat to Elizabeth. Once Elizabeth had imprisoned Mary, she plotted the Babington plot and executed Mary, proving that she was not a large threat to Elizabeth. Another few reasons why the Spanish Armada was not a threat to Elizabeth was because the Armada was a poor attempt to conquer England, their plan did not go exactly according to plan so was therefore not as large a threat to Elizabeth as it would have been if the Spanish’s plan had have gone exactly according to plan.

Also, the way that Elizabeth dealt with the problem that faced her sent out a large and clear message to both England and other countries in the world that she was very strong and powerful and was also a great Queen that knew how to deal with rebellions and attacks. Also, by the time that the Spanish actually reached England, they had lost a lot of men and a lot of boats.

They had lost over half of their boats and men so would have been distressed and shaken; therefore they would not have wanted to attack again and they would not have been very strong when they finally reached London, where the wanted to attack. The last threat, was the Northern Rebellion, this was not a very large threat to Elizabeth, because Elizabeth could have stopped the rebellion. Elizabeth gathered an army of twelve thousand men to attack the Earls, Dukes and their army. Also, nobody in the South would support the Catholic rebellion so Elizabeth could use that to her advantage. Since everybody in the North support their rebellion, the Earls and Dukes would only attack in the South. This meant that Elizabeth I only had to worry about the Dukes and Earls rebelling in half of the country. This is why the threats posed by Mary Queen of Scots, King Philip II and the Earls and Dukes of the North were not very serious to Elizabeth I.

As a conclusion, I think that the threat posed by Mary Queen of Scots was the biggest threat to Elizabeth I. Then the Spanish Armada and finally the Northern Rebellion. I think that Mary Queen of Scots posed the biggest threat, because she had a legitimate claim to the throne and she was a catholic. The Spanish Armada was also a big threat to Elizabeth, because they could easily have attacked England and they had a lot more men and boats than England had. The Northern Rebellion was not such a large threat as no-body South of England would support their rebellion, therefore it was not a very successful rebellion. This is how serious the three threats were to Elizabeth I during her reign.