Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada
The cold, stormy night was all too familiar to the English. A devious plan by Spain's king, Philip II, was being formed to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I of England and rid the world of the English "heretics."1 It was a story of deception, false judgments, and poor planning. What was one king's dream turned into his country's nightmare. While the Spanish had bad leaders, the English had good ones. The Spanish had bigger, but slower ships, while the English had smaller and faster ships. The English knew the weather conditions and how to prepare for them, while the Spanish thought it would not be a problem. The English entered the battle in a calm manner, while the Spanish were overconfident. All of these
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At the beginning of her reign, she made the Church of England the official religion of England and she fashioned her court after that of her fathers. For a woman during that era, Elizabeth was a very daring and smart ruler. For example, she secretly encouraged sailors such as Francis Drake to make raids on Spanish shipping and challenge their naval superiority. When she was a little girl, she was well educated and was able to speak several languages, including French, Spanish, and Latin. In addition, throughout Elizabeth's reign, there was always the threat of hostilities in some form or another. Elizabeth kept the peace between rival leaders of different religions by dominating her court so she could keep the balance of power.2 She was smart enough to come up with a plan which kept the church at bay with their questions of marriage.3 She also calmed the Spanish and the French by entertaining suitors of each respective country; Philip II of Spain and Duke of Anjou of France, but she never married either of them and was therefore known as " the Virgin queen".4 Elizabeth was a Protestant queen who was not always on good terms with most Catholic rulers of Europe. Because of that, there were several assassination plots against her so the Catholics could put Mary, Queen of Scots, in her place. During the 1580's, Elizabeth began to bring her full weight onto the catholic rebels. Hundreds of Catholics died at the stake just as the
Zack Lightman is a small town gamer in the book Armada By Ernest Cline. Zack is known around the world for being one of the highest ranking players in a popular video game called Armada. As it turns out Armada is a military simulator used by the government to recruit people to fight in a war against extraterrestrial creatures. Now Zack must overcome the death of his father and anger issues to embark on a journey to save the earth from the alien invaders, and stop the war.
Back in the Middle Ages, rulers of many country were men and/or boys. For a women to be in power was usually a last resort. Elizabeth I fell under this situation and became the Queen of England. As people have regarded females, many disliked the idea of a women becoming the leader of England which has forced Elizabeth to use her power and authority to assert her position whereas people who have accepted Queen Elizabeth I has allowed her to act kind, sympathetic, and proud. Majority of the people during the time period were misogyny
Elizabeth’s character was a mystery to most people at the time she inherited the throne. She had learned to keep her own council, control her emotions, and always behaved cautiously, thus being able to disprove all rumors about her. Always dignified and stately, she could be vain, willful, dictatorial, temperamental, and imperious. She had courage, both in her decisions, and in the face of danger. Possessing an innate of humanity, she was not normally cruel, unlike most rulers of her day. Most regarded her to be unusually tolerant in that age of religious conflict. She saw herself as one who was always honest and honorable, who
Although England faces the menace of the impending Spanish invasion, Queen Elizabeth I reassures her troops that if they commit themselves to the British cause England will be victorious over the Spanish, therefore she incentivises her troops with the promise of honor, glory and wealth. Her purpose is to convince her troops to risk their lives for the safety of England. She accomplishes this by persistent use of parallelism and appeals to ethos.
Elizabeth was a different kind of Queen: quick-witted, clever and able to use feminine wiles to get her own way. Elizabeth could be as ruthless and calculating as any king before her but at the same time she was vain, sentimental and easily
Elizabeth I is considered a Machiavellian queen; she placed the political unity of England above any other aspect of her kingdom, including religion. Elizabeth I’s reign was influenced politically and religiously, in respect to ideas about gender. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII, responded authoritatively to any opposition she faced.
Elizabeth showed much leadership and strength in defeating the Spanish. She heeded Machiavelli 's advice and was able to drive England towards a prosporous Golden Age of wealth and power.
Elizabeth I is now known as one of the greatest monarchs England ever had, but she faced many disagreements and challenges against her ability to properly control England during her reign because she was a woman. Those religious oppositions against her gender influenced her rule greatly, eventually leading to her regal and authoritative responses. The regal responses reassured the people of her ability to control England, while the authoritative responses reestablished the fact that she was to be the only supreme ruler in England and no one should be allowed to cross her or doubt her power.
In her speech to Parliament in 1559, she claims that she has already been married to England (Document 7). This means that she will take care of England like a dutiful wife would care for her husband. However, because it was published after her death, the purpose of this document was to explain the legacy of Queen Elizabeth, and how great of a ruler she was despite being a woman. Another response to views on women in leadership was the execution of her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, due to the threat Elizabeth felt from Mary in an attempt of assassination. This shows how Elizabeth is able to make the most difficult decisions, which is a skill required to have when ruling over a nation. One must also note that women were viewed as weak emotional human beings. But Elizabeth showed that she was not weak by executing her family member and thus, shows her sense of duty to her kingdom. Another example of a positive response was at the start of her reign, when England was on the verge of bankruptcy, due to the financial destruction caused by the previous Tudor reigns. Nonetheless, she managed to make England debt-free, proving that she had the capability of dealing with difficult monetary tasks and therefore, responded to the opinions of women not being able to rule successfully. Finally, before the invasion of the
During the era of the 1500s, there may have been many queens that ruled many other countries, but one specific queen with stunning looks caught many people, especially men's, attention. She is sometimes called the Virgin Queen but is known as Queen Elizabeth l. She was known because of her father who is King Henry VIII and her sister Queen Mary who controlled England and Ireland, which lead the ruling of England to be passed over to Queen Elizabeth from then she was declared queen in the year 1558 at the age of 25. The only exacerbate of being Queen of England was they were at war with France. Once she became queen, the Act of Supremacy became law at the church of England and at that time the Act of Uniformity was also passed, which was the
During the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I experienced a lot of oppression during her reign in England. Many religious figures opposed the idea of a female ruling a country, saying that it is against God’s will. Other citizens of the country, specifically personal associates of Elizabeth, however, stood behind the queen and admired her bravery, confidence and love for England. Elizabeth responded to the gender ideas in an authoritative way, She had to live with female stereotypes, and used it to her advantage when possible but she asserted that the stereotypes did not completely apply to her and that she was perfectly capable of ruling England.
Cortés came not to the New World to conquer by force, but by manipulation. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, in the "Conquest of New Spain," describes how Cortés and his soldiers manipulated the Aztec people and their king Montezuma from the time they traveled from Iztapalaopa to the time when Montezuma took Cortés to the top of the great Cue and showed him the whole of Mexico and its countryside, and the three causeways which led into Mexico. Castillo's purpose for recording the mission was to keep an account of the wealth of Montezuma and Mexico, the traditions, and the economic potential that could benefit Cortés' upcoming conquest. However, through these recordings, we are able to see and understand Cortés'
First and foremost, Elizabeth I was an outstanding ruler of England, who would reign for 45 years. She was a popular leader who was liked by her people. Elizabeth I was welcomed to the throne on November 17, 1558 at the age of 25, the day Queen Mary had died. But, her coronation did not take place until January 15, 1559 (Elizabeth I). During her time, there were many “voyages of discovery” for her country including: Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert. Because of England forming colonies and expanding
in the Channel, on the other hand the way that he went he lost about
Between the years of 1535 and 1547, some sixty-six Spanish ships were captured by French corsairs (Lane 19). Shortly after in the 1550’s, the Spanish came to regret their passive defense strategy when French corsairs made their most punishing raids ever on the Spanish West Indies. They descended on colonies like Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba, and caused heavy destruction that they never really recovered from. Finally in the early 1560’s, Spain was forced to react with expensive long-term defenses. Since the Spanish waited so long to do so they not only lost wealth because of what was captured, but now they also had to spend money to protect what was left.