WARS

Elizabeth on her accession found herself engaged in the war with France begun in the previous reign, in alliance with Spain. Mary of France and Scotland, Queen of France part of 1559 - 60, had laid claim to the English throne, on the plea of the illegitimacy of Elizabeth, end the anti-French interests of Spain compelled Philip to continue the alliance with England. An English fleet and army aided the Scotch lords to expel the French garrison from Leith, 1560.
In 1562 English troops were sent into Normany to help the Huguenots against the party of the Guises; and in 1563 they defended Havre in a two months' siege.
In 1569 the Northern Counties rose for Queen Mary under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and the revolt was only suppressed after considerable desultory fighting, which extended into Scotland, where the Queen's party supported the English rebels.
In 1585 war with Spain was openly begun, and Drake took St. Domingo and Carthagena in the West Indies.
In 1586 a skirmish at Zutphen was made remarkable by the death of Sir Philip Sidney.
In 1588 the Armada was defeated.
In 1589 Drake and Norris led an abortive expedition against Lisbon. In 1596 Lord Howard of Effingham and the Earl of Essex took Cadiz. In 1598 Sir Henry Bagenal was defeated at Blackwater by the Irish under the Earl of Tyrone, which led to the appointment of Essex to the command in Ireland.
In 1600 the Stadtholder of the United Provinces, Maurice of Nassau, with the aid of Sir Francis and Sir Horace Vere, defeated the Spaniards at Nieuport and established at least military equality with than for the future

OFFICIALS

Lord Chancellors
1558. The Queen, Keeper.
1558. Sir Nicholas Bacon, Keeper, with the authority of Lord Chancellor, by statute,
Elizabeth 5, c. 18.
1579. The Queen, Keeper. Lord Burleigh and the Earl of Leicester Keepers. Sir Thomas Bromley, Chancellor.
1587. Lord Hunsdon, Lord Cobham, Sir Francis Walsingham, Keepers.
Lord Burleigh, the Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham, Keepers.
Sir Christopher Hatton, Chancellor.
1591. Lord Burleigh, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Cobham, Lord Buckhurst Commissioners of the Great Seal.
1592. Sir John Pickering, Keeper.
1596. Sir Thomas Egerton, Keeper.
Lord Treasurers and Chancellors of the Exchequer
1558. The Marquis of Winchester, Treasurer. Richard Sackville, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1566. Sir William Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1572. Lord Burleigh, Treasurer, till his death in 1598.
1589. Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1598. Lord Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset, Treasurer.

SECRETARIES Of STATE 1558. Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, till 1572. 1572. Sir Thomas Smith. 1574. Sir Francis Walsingham 1578 Thomas Wilson, in addition. 1586. William Davison, in addition. 1590. Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury, acting 1596.Secretary of State. 1596. Robert Cecil, Chief Secretary of State, to the end of the reign. The Archbishops cease to be of the great political importance of earlier times. With the exception of William Laud,1633 - 1644, Cardinal Pole was the last Archbishop who took a great part in the government of the kingdom. The chief influence in the government is not necessarily to be found in any one office at this period. No Lord Chancellor under Elizabeth was a statesman of the first rank, and influence was without doubt exerted on the government by favourites and advisers of the Queen who held no high office. She was herself, however, the chief framer of her own policy. Her most trusted advisers, Burleigh and Walsingham, did not fully enter into the reasons for the moderate course which she wished to keep in religion, nor into the temporizing policy which she succeeded in following for so long in foreign politics. Here her justification is the brilliant success of the end of her reign.

ACTS AND DOCUMENTS
( After the settlement of religion )

1559. Peace of Cateau Cambresis with France. The French made numerous cession to the Spaniards of places in Italy, and made and received restitution of places taken in the war In France and in the Low Countries. The French agreed to restore Calais to England in eight years if no war intervened. The aid of Elizabeth to the Huguenots in 1562 justified the French in refusing to make the restitution. A supplementary treaty was concluded with the King and Queen of Scots, the Dauphin and Mary Stewart (Rymer xv. 5O5. )
1560. The treaty of Edinburgh was concluded between Elizabeth and tie Scotch " Lords of the Congregation," the Reforming and anti-French lords, acting in the name of the Queen Mary, for confirming the Peace of Cateau Cambresis, for the evacuation of Scotland by the French, and for the dropping of the title of Queen of England, assumed by Queen Mary. Philip of Spain was expressly included in the treaty. (Rymer xv. 593.)
1564. A treaty concluded at Troyes between France and England, after Elizabeth's interference on behalf of the French Huguenots, binding the two powers not to support or harbour rebels against the other (Rymer, xv. 640.)
This treaty may be considered the beginning of the approach between the English and French monarchies, in face of the common danger of Spanish power co-operating with the Guises in France, and with Mary Stewart , a Guise through her mother in Scotland. The policy of Catherine de Medicis, Charles IX., and Henry III, was swayed at different times by various motives but the more decidedly Spain and the Guises became Catholic in policy, the more the French monarchy was inclined to toleration of the Huguenots and to an understanding with England.
1564. Publication of the decrees of the Council of Trent, confirming the schism between Romanists and Protestants. The policy of the Jesuits, founded in 1547, triumphs, and Catholic Recusancy becomes very general in England, the conservative religious party largely withdrawing from the church services. The Decrees of Trent are printed in Concilii Tridentini Canones et Decreta. Gauthier Paris,1832. See also Father Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent.
1570. Elizabeth excommunicated and deposed by Pope PiusV. The Bull is printed in Burnet, History of the Reformation. It reiterates the complaint of Northumberland and Westmoreland, in 1569, that the Queen was swayed by " ignoble councillors." Compare the language of the old nobility in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Though it exposed the Queen to great immediate danger, it identified her rule with national independence, to the great ultimate advantage of both her power and of the Reforming party.
1571. Eliz.13, c. I. An Act making it high treason to call the Queen Heretic, Schismatic, Infidel, Usurper, &c., and to affirm the right in succession to the crown in some other than the Queen.
Eliz.13, c. 2. An Act against the introduction of Papal Bulls, and against reconciling anyone with Rome.
1581. Eliz. 23, c. 1. An Act making it treason to reconcile anyone to Rome. Saying or hearing Mass, and absence from Church punished by fines.
1583. The Court of High Commission for exercising the Queen's Ecclesiastical authority finally constituted. See Eliz.1,c. clause 18, and Strype, Annals, iii. 180.
1584. Eliz. 27, 2. An Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests. Jesuits and Seminary Priests banished on pain of treason, to aid or receive them made felony, all persons being educated in foreign seminaries to return and take the oath of supremacy in six months, on pain of treason. 1585. The Queen accepts the Protectorate of the Netherlands. The Petition of the States-General of the Netherlands is printed in Rymer, xv. 793. It is followed by the Queen's commission appointing Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Thomas Cecil, Governors of the cautionary towns to be placed in her hands, Flushing, Rammekins, and Brill.
1593 Eliz. 35, c. 1. An Act against Puritans attending Conventicles or disputing the Queen's ecclesiastical authority, who are to be imprisoned till they conform, for three months, then refusing to conform to abjure the realm on pain of death.
Eliz. 35, c. 2. A further Act against Popish recusants, confining them to the neighbourhood of their house; and banishing them if they cannot pay the fines for non-attendance at church. 1600. A Charter granted to certain merchants for exclusive trade with India and China. The foundation of the East India Company.
The Charters of the East India Company, grants, treaties were printed in London, 1774.
1601. Eliz.43,c. 2. An Act for the relief of the poor, enabling the Justices to appoint Parish Overseers with power to Levy a compulsory poor rate, to provide houses for impotent poor. The foundation of the Poor Law system as it existed down to 1834. The above Acts are printed in the Statutes.
In 1598 Henry IV. of France made the treaty of Vervins with Spain, whereby he was acknowledged as King of France. The treaty was based on that of Cateau Cambresis. In the same year by the Edict of Nantes an equal political position and local freedom of worship with strong securities for their protection, was accorded to the Huguenots. They were to be tolerated everywhere, but were only to perform public worship in certain towns and on the estates of certain seigneurs.
The Treatry of Vervins and the Edict of Nantes are printed in extenso in Dumont, vol v. pt. 1, pp. 561 and 545 respectively.