Mary I and catholic resurgence

Mary had never renounced her Catholicism. The half-Spanish Mary, with many friends, advisers and relatives from her mother's country, set out on a policy which was as bold as her father's but far more foolhardy. Until Mary's death, England was an instrument of Spanish foreign policy. This led directly to the loss of Calais, in the course of a Spanish-led war with France: it had been England's last small foothold on the European continent.

The Great Seal of Mary I

Concord and compromise

Elizabeth, the twenty-five-year-old daughter of Anne Boleyn, was very different in her own way. Her mother's family too had inclined towards religious reform. Henry VIII's will prevailed without question and though in the eyes of traditional Catholics she was a bastard and so debarred from the throne, her accession was uncontested and greeted with general relief. It was hardly to be expected that she would continue Mary's policy.

The two crucial aspects of English society. One was veneration of the idea of monarchy. Linked to this was the belief that the monarch should be free to pursue his – and, more lately, her – own course of policy. Such a course would not necessarily be accepted tamely, or by everyone. Parliament petitioned Mary against her Spanish marriage. Wyatt led an armed revolt against it. Up and down the country, Protestants quietly ignored Mary's ban, and Catholics ignored Elizabeth's wherever they were strong enough in numbers. But the principle and the practice are both generally clear. The other vital aspect was the acceptance that the law checked, and in some respects governed, the monarch. The ultimate expression of that law lay with parliament.

No weak and feeble woman

The reign of Elizabeth 1 shows, not quite for the first time - her grandfather Henry VII had shown the way - but in a manner which made a deep impression on the English people, how these two ideas, in combination, could result in the monarch and her counsellors on the one hand, and parliament on the other, working together in the interest of the survival and prosperity of the nation as a whole. The queen's vanity, played up to by courtiers and sycophants, her avoidance of difficult decisions, her highly successful 'Gloriana' mythology screening her failures and lackings, has led to a campaign of detraction by some modern historians. But there is every reason to consider her one of the country's most successful, as well as remarkable, monarchs, in the execution over many years of a job which was fraught from beginning to end with difficult choices, dangerous decisions and intense pressures from many conflicting quarters.

An age of discovery

An important early achievement of her government was the reform of the currency, which was completed by 1561, with all the adulterated coins called in and a new silver coinage minted. With a currency that could be trusted, business confidence among the small but economically very important and politically influential merchant class was restored. First revealed to western Europe by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Americas were by now a source of fabulous wealth in gold, silver and delicious, exotic foodstuffs. If an Englishman could grab some of the plunder by force, then he would. The line between merchant venturers and buccaneers was often too finely drawn to be visible. The population was growing rapidly, with the most informed estimates putting the total at3.01 million in 1551, and 4.1 million in 1601: an increase of a third in two generations. But trade was also growing fast, agriculture was prosperous and becoming more commercial, towns were becoming more populous and city markets were becoming larger, more varied in their goods and commodities and more sophisticated in their forms of dealing. England was still a small country measured against France and Spain, but among the smaller countries of Europe, it was one of the most influential, especially when after 1559, it was confirmed as a Protestant state.

At this time, it maybe noted, no one in England had ever eaten, or even heard of, a potato. No one had chewed or smoked tobacco. Tea and coffee were equally unknown. Oranges were exotic rarities and tropical fruits unseen. Silk was a rare and highly expensive import, as was virtually every other high quality fabric and such luxury items as fine china and glassware. These were accessible only to the wealthiest. The country's main imports were wine, manufactured cloth, timber, pig iron and furs. Its exports were corn, wool, coarse cloth and coal. The 'balance of payments' was probably weighted slightly in favour of imports over exports. For the majority of the population, the large increase in numbers brought a steady drop in living standards. It was a young population; schooling was minimal or non-existent for the majority; and it was expected that a child would work. A larger labour market depressed wages and led to unemployment and a growing drift from the country into the towns, especially London.