Why is the Elizabethan age often referred to as the greatest in English History?

Answer 1

In an attempt to be fair and impartial the Elizabethan age has great credentials along with the Victorian for being the greatest in english history. To label it a police state is an anachroism, however Elizabeth did develop a fantastic spy network (incidentially that was how she managed to uncover the various plots against her by the likes of Mary Queen of Scots). One her first major success was to end the period of mass religious persecutions in England, Edward VI's (1547-1553) reign was marred by mass Catholic executions, MAry I (1553-1558) by mass Protestabt executions. Elizabeth who ascended in 1558 soon passed Acts of Parliament that enacted the Religious Settlement a fantastic piece of legal compromise that allowed room for a variety of different forms of worship under the banner of the church of England. This gave Catholics a much more ambigious situation which allowed many to carry on worshiping the way the had under Roman Catholic rule it also allowed for Protestants and increasingly puritans to worship in their own fahsion after Calvin or Zwingli or Luther if they wished. Howevre despite this compromise she did demand all worhsip within the Church of England and acknowledge her as the head. This meant that any relgious malcontents were dealt with as Traitors and charged with Treason rather than heresy. This fact helped solidify the notion of national identity.

Further it also meant she kept in check the various demands of both sides of the religious conflict and did not allow it to weaken England as it had done to the Holy Roman Empire. Also she carried on building the "Civil Service" employing more educated people into offices of state that had begun under her Grandfather Henry VII this was fast becoming the standard way of preventing nobles amassing too much power and becoming disruptive, perusant to their own ends. Also it lead to more efficient government as the Offices were held by specialists and not nobles with more pressing concerns of their own households.

Further England's relative religious tolerance and peace meant many skilled Dutch workers (centre of the Cloth Trade) moved to England enchancing the protoindustrialisation that was already becoming a feature of English rural life. (Dr. Henry French)

Elizabeth also managed to begin the process of English colonisation (hence in America the state still known as Virginia) that would eventually lead to the Largest Empire in history.

Further by diminishing the role of the heresy charge Elizabeth managed to retake for the secular courts the control of legal cases that had previously resided with the canonical courts. This pattern of "state building" according to Professor Elton (a view not accepted whole heartedly but still popular in a modified version) was instrumental in the forming of the English Nation and in solidifying the constitution that would eventually lead to the Parliamentary revolt under the stuarts which itself led to the formation of the constitutional monarchy we have today.

Throw in the defeat of the Armada (many consider more a loss by the Spanish than a victory for the English as the English ships inflicted very little damage) as well as the succesfull and financially rewarding raids of Drake and Hawkins and you spot an English Monarch using all of her country's relatively small resources to exert a major influence on World events. Such World events as the forming and endurance of the Dutch Republic, and the beginning of the Hapsburg decline in Europe.

Answer 2

Harry J. Firstly it is not an ignorant question it is a valid question and one which you have attemped to hijack with you silly Scots Nationalist rant. He has every right to ask an question about a particular time in history when England was an independant nation. You obviously have nothing useful to say about this question instead you just sound off. Why bother when you have nothing useful to say. Go away and answer a Scottish question I'm sure they're afew posted here.
Very interesting about the Scots who are without doubt very clever people.
Certain points to note Kirkpatrick Macmillan did not invent the bicycle although he was the first to put pedals on a bicycle. It was John Kemp Starley from Walthamstow who invented the first modern bicycle as we know it today.
John Chalmers did not invent the adhesive stamp and I quote below;- A schoolmaster from England, Rowland Hill invented the adhesive postage stamp in 1837, an act for which he was knighted. Through his efforts the first stamp in the world was issued in England in 1840. Roland Hill also created the first uniform postage rates that were based on weight rather than size. Hill's stamps made the prepayment of mail postage possible and practical.
Yes there was another Scott the other day stating that James Watt invented the Steam Engine another load of twaddle as the first steam engine was invented by an English military engineer called Thomas Savery and patented in 1698.
King James V1 of Scotland yes he indeed authorised the translation of the bible. He may of authorised it, but he didn't translate it did he. This is the same King who started the 'plantations' in Northern Ireland the cause of all the present problems in Ireland today.
The Stuart Scottish kings also caused the English civil War in which the Scots attempted to interfere, fortunately it wasn't for too long as it was Oliver Cromwell (who had no military experience and didn't even join the Army until the age of 40) formed the 'English' New Model Army, The first true Professional paid Army who soon put a stop to the Scots. The New Model Army rapidly in turn became foremost fighting force in Europe probably without equal.
The Scottish Stuart Kings weren't particularly good and were eventually replaced.
Yes, I could go on about more English inventors and so and so, but it's all rather pointless really. I would prefer to think the English don't need to go on about things like that because obviously unlike yourselves we don't have a complex about it.

Yes the Scots are very clever, but it's not all Scot this and Scot that I'm afraid.
What did you invent?

Answer 3

It shouldn't be.
It was a police state presided over by an indecisive and paranoid autocrat who was so mean that she made her navy set sail to fight the armada without enough gunpowder to last more than a day or two.
They only succeeded because they were able to capture a quantity of powder from a couple of Spanish ships which lagged behind the main spanish fleet. She was so mean that she refused any support whatsoever to the hundreds of the sick and injured mariners who were discharged after the armada had been dispersed up through the North Sea.
Although the defence of the British Isles was tied irrevocably to the fortunes and condition of the navy (which was mostly made up of privately owned vessels forcibly commandeered by Elizabeth and which she afterwards refused to pay for) she squandered money on subsidies to territorial land forces which were hopelessly ill-equipped. These were stationed on the north shore of the Thames estuary although everyone - except Elizabeth - knew that if the Armada succeeded in linking up with the Spanish army of the Netherlands, it would invade from Margate in Kent.
She refused to allow parliament to have anything to do with foreign policy which she conducted by a series of knee-jerk reactions which she was liable to change literally from hour to hour.
She was probably one of the worst monarchs in English history.
It is only by the great good luck, the timely intervention of a major storm, the huge technical superiority of the design of the race-built privateering ships (and their gunnery) developed by Drake, Frobisher and others, and the depredations of the Dutch "sea beggars" on the Spanish army of the Netherlands, that England did not become a vassal state of the Spanish Empire.
But History is always written by the victors, and there is nothing new about spin doctors and cronyism, both of which she had around her in abundance - and that is the only reason why the "Elizabethan age" is referred to ( - by some - and rarely by historians who have looked at the period in depth and detail) as the greatest in English history.

Answer 4

This IS the Elizabethan age.

Answer 5

Here is a cool link as to why.

http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-age.htm

Answer 6

She came to power when society was male dominated. England was not very strong state at that time. She consolidated and utilised all available resources through a very planned and meticulous strategy. i Think that's why she is great

Answer 7

English History?

The average man in the home he calls his castle, slips into his national costume - a shabby raincoat - patented by Chemist Charles Rennie Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.
En route to his office he strides along the lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.
He drives in a car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop, Veterinary Surgeon of Dreghorn, Scotland.
At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by John Chalmers, Bookseller and Printer of Dundee, Scotland.
During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell born in Edinburgh, Scotland. At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Blacksmith of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
He watches the news on T.V. an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland and hears an item about the U.S. Navy founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.
Nowhere can the man turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots. He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible, only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot - King James VI - who authorised its translation. He could take to drink but the Scots make the best in the world.
He could take a rifle and end it all but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.
If he escaped death, he could find himself on an operating table injected with Penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland and given Chloroform, an anaesthetic discovered by Sir James Young Simpson, Obstetrician and Gynaecologist of Bathgate, Scotland.
Out of the anaesthetic he would find no comfort in learning that he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries. Scotland. Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask -

What an Ignorant Question

Answer 8

the best era in this country has been tony blairs rule never been so well off in my life

Answer 9

it was the start of us kicking *** all around the world.we were
number one.