Elizabeth 1 Dbq Analysis

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Elizabeth I, Queen of England from 1558-1603, brought much success and political stability to England during her reign. However, the ideas about gender at the time greatly influenced her rule. With the views of the religious peoples during Elizabeth’s reign leaning towards negativity about a woman ruler, Elizabeth I responded to these challenges against her ability to rule wisely with sophisticated anger and strong leadership, while not responding to the challenges to her authority as a religious leader.

One of the main challenges to Elizabeth’s right to rule came from the church. Document 1, “First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women” by John Knox, a Scottish religious reformer, shows the biased views of a Scot who …show more content…

Document 3, the 1559 Act of Supremacy from the Parliament of England, shows how she got Parliament to acknowledge her as supreme governor of the Church of England in accordance with her father’s break from the Catholic Church in 1534. This reinforcement also shows her strong will to lead and maintain her position. Document 6, a report on Elizabeth’s response to a Parliamentary petition on succession by Jacques Bochetel de La Forest, a French ambassador to England, shows some bias as the French were under Catholic rule at the time as opposed to the Elizabeth, who was Protestant. He describes how Elizabeth defends her position and attacks Parliament for being incompetent on the issue. She says that she will work with half a dozen men to decide what to do. Another response by Elizabeth was in Document 11, a speech to Parliament in which she states how men are not needed on the throne because she alone can care for society. Throughout these documents, she neglects to defend herself as being able to rightly lead the Church of England. However, in Document 12, her speech to English troops before the attempted invasion of the Spanish Armada, she passionately defends her ability to rule just the same as any king. Elizabeth showed how she was for the people and would lead them as well, as she did with the destruction of

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