![]() 2 Later, when troops had to be sent to the Low Countries in 1585, strategists toyed with the idea of taking the Dutch at their word, and really making Elizabeth Sovereign of the Netherlands as well. In 1562-1563, by taking advantage of France's first War of Religion, they tried to hold Le Havre (which they called Newhaven), as though it could replace Calais, and failed. In 1558 the English still hankered after European possessions. Because of this the date came to be regarded as deeply auspicious, and eventually was appointed a religious and secular festival throughout the realm. ![]() But November 17 saw the end of the reign of Mary Tudor, under whom the nation had suffered religious conflict and the bitter persecution consequent on it and that day marked the opening of the era of Elizabeth. This was a blow that English pride could hardly stomach. 1įor the English the year 1558 had opened with the humiliation of losing their last territory on the mainland of Europe-Calais. On the whole, the English were less aware than their neighbors were of the true achievements of antiquity, the advances in the human sciences, the investigation of the physical universe and the expansion of European knowledge of the world. ![]() Yet, strangely, although England in 1558 and the years before was so intimately linked to interests abroad, the English had tended to lag behind their continental neighbors in the New Learning that was flourishing in Europe. Her reign marks quite distinctly the beginning of a long period in which the English involved themselves less and less in the domestic concerns of other European countries and became disinclined to undertake any continental entanglements. When Elizabeth Tudor became Queen of England in 1558 the traditional involvement of her country in the affairs of continental Europe was more intense than at any other time while she was on the throne. Listen to this page Introduction The England of Elizabeth I
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |