The reign of Elizabeth I began with a sense of uncertainty and danger, which would rarely leave it. The fears that assailed her new subjects

Elizabeth determined to rule by love rather than by fear. (Brigden pg 215) “You may well have a greater prince, but you shall never have a more loving prince.” (Hibbert pg 225) Her state did not require her to command, what she knew her people would willingly do from their own love for her. (Brigden pg 215) Godfrey Goodman, reminiscing of his childhood meeting with the Queen said, “[Elizabeth] wrought such an impression upon us that we all did nothing but talk what an admirable Queen she was, and how we would adventure our lives to do her service.” (Hibbert pg 226)

at the end of 1558 were shared by many of their European neighbors, for England did not stand-alone. “Invasion of strangers, civil dissensions, the doubtful disposition of the succeeding prince, were cast in every man’s conceit as present peril.” (Brigden pg 213) The whole premise of Elizabeth’s right to rule was her divine right as a sovereign. She made no attempt to hide the fact that she believed that she was the child Henry VIII had wanted. To the rest of the world she was illegitimate, her father’s marriage to Anne Boleyn being void, and had no authority to govern. Only to her subject’s reliance in their social hierarchy kept her on the throne.

Sir John Harrington wrote, “Where obedience lacked she left no doubtings whose daughter she

Some topics in this essay:
Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth, John Harrington, Britain Europe, Life Times, Anne Boleyn, Godfrey Goodman, Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII, brigden pg, Supremacy Brigden, pg 215, brigden pg 215, hibbert pg, pg 225, pg 68, hibbert pg 225, queen elizabeth,