tholic uprisings at the start of her reign. Elizabeth also had to deal with the threat of the large Catholic countries around her wanting England returned to a Catholic state. One of her main weapons to stop England being invaded by a Catholic country was not marrying anyone (hence her nickname the Virgin Queen). She courted royal suitors from Spain (King Philip 2nd) and France (Duke Anjou) and this meant that France wouldn’t invade England as she could marry someone from Spain and get there help in a war and vice versa. Elizabeth once said “I shall turn my mind to marriage if it be for the public good”. Queen Elizabeth viewed marriage as a weapon to stop countries from invading England and so she nullified the Catholic threat from nearby countries. In 1568 Elizabeth granted refuge to Mary Queen of Scots (her cousin) who was Catholic and to many Catholics the rightful Queen of England. Then in 1570 the Pope declared Elizabeth an illegal ruler to encourage Catholics to rise against Elizabeth. Overseas there was violence occurring against Protestant people (St Bartholomew’s day massacre and murder of William of Orange). These state of affairs worried Elizabeth and she increased the severity of anti-Catholic laws to try and rid England of the Catholic religion. Elizabeth used Sir Francis Walsingham, effectively as a spymaster on Catholics throughout Europe and he was instrumental in the finding of evidence to convince Elizabeth to execute Mary and also managed to have spies in every major city in Europe who often discovered and stopped Catholic plots. Elizabeth also tried peace talks with Spain but Phillip 2nd decided to invade England anyway to attempt to implement the Catholic religion. The Spanish Armada called “invincible” by the Spanish, was defeated by the English. This was due to a series of Spanish blunders, bad weather, strong winds and the smaller faster English boats. England ...
