Elizabeth I: Foreign Policy - Spain, the Netherlands & the Armada (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• Anglo-Spanish relations deteriorated steadily over two decades, driven by religion, trade disputes and the crisis in the Netherlands (a Protestant revolt against Spanish rule)

• Elizabeth resisted open war with Spain for 20 years, giving the Dutch rebels unofficial support while avoiding direct military commitment

• The Treaty of Nonsuch (1585) finally committed England to open military support for the Dutch rebels, marking the unofficial start of the war

• The Spanish Armada (1588) was defeated through a combination of English tactics, Spanish weaknesses (planning, coordination and leadership) and severe weather

• The Armada's defeat did not end the war

  • Fighting dragged on until 1604, at enormous cost to England

• Historians debate how far Elizabeth's foreign policy was a success

  • Wernham argues she "only half achieved her aims" but that this was a fair result against the power of Philip II

Relations With Spain: From Alliance to Hostility

• Anglo-Spanish relations began well but deteriorated over two decades

  • Philip II proposed marriage to Elizabeth in 1559

    • She declined but relations remained broadly cordial into the 1560s

  • Three overlapping causes drove the countries apart

    • Religion

    • Trade disputes

    • The situation in the Netherlands

Religious tensions

• Religion was a growing source of conflict between the two countries

  • Philip was a committed Catholic and champion of the Counter-Reformation

  • Elizabeth's Protestant settlement and her support for Protestant rebels across Europe put the two increasingly at odds

  • The papal excommunication of Elizabeth in 1570 deepened the divide

    • Philip had not been consulted and was initially angry, but the effect was to make English Catholics appear increasingly suspect to Elizabeth’s government

Trade and privateering

• English privateers were a persistent cause of Spanish grievance

  • John Hawkins conducted slave-trading and privateering expeditions to the Caribbean in 1562, 1564 and 1567

    • These directly challenged Spain's influence over the Atlantic trade

  • In 1568, Spanish ships attacked Hawkins's fleet at San Juan de Ulua

    • Most English ships were destroyed or captured

  • English privateers continued to raid Spanish shipping throughout the 1560s and 1570s

    • Elizabeth turned a blind eye

• The bullion seizure of 1568 was a major diplomatic flashpoint

  • Elizabeth seized Spanish silver being transported through the Channel to pay the Duke of Alba's army in the Netherlands

    • Alba retaliated by confiscating all English ships docked in the Netherlands

  • England banned all trade with Spain and the Netherlands

    • Normal relations were not restored until 1573

The deterioration of relations, 1568–1585

• The table below shows the key events that pushed England and Spain towards war

English Involvement in the Netherlands: Supporting the Dutch Revolt

• The Netherlands mattered to England for both economic and strategic reasons

  • The main market for English cloth exports ran through Dutch ports, especially Antwerp

  • England's security depended on keeping a hostile power off the Channel coastline directly opposite

    • Spain's control of the Netherlands meant a large, professional Spanish army just across the Channel

• From 1566, the revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands created a growing crisis

  • The Duke of Alba was sent with 10,000 troops to crush the revolt in 1567

    • His brutal methods alarmed England

    • The Spanish Fury of 1576 saw unpaid Spanish troops sacked Antwerp and other towns

  • Elizabeth gave unofficial support to the rebels throughout the 1560s and 1570s: money, English volunteers and allowing rebel ships to use English ports

    • She resisted pressure from Leicester and Walsingham to commit troops directly

The turning point: 1584–1585

• A series of events in 1584 forced Elizabeth to act openly

  • William of Orange, the Dutch rebel leader, was assassinated in July 1584

  • The Duke of Parma was steadily reconquering the Netherlands for Spain

  • France allied with Spain at the Treaty of Joinville (1584), removing France as a counterweight

  • The Duke of Alençon, Elizabeth's last potential ally in the Netherlands, died

• The Treaty of Nonsuch (1585) committed England to open military intervention in the Netherlands

  • Elizabeth agreed to send around 7,000 troops and 1,000 cavalry to the rebel provinces

  • The Dutch handed over Flushing and Brill as guarantees

  • Elizabeth refused sovereignty over the Netherlands but agreed to protect the rebel provinces

  • The Earl of Leicester commanded the English forces

• Leicester's campaign was largely a failure

  • He accepted the title of Governor-General in the Netherlands, directly against Elizabeth's instructions

  • English commanders quarrelled among themselves

  • The campaign achieved little militarily, though it kept the revolt alive

  • Leicester returned to England in 1587

The Spanish Armada, 1588: Causes, Events & Significance

Causes of the Armada

• Several causes came together in the mid-1580s to make Philip II decide to invade England

  • The Treaty of Nonsuch (1585) and Leicester's intervention in the Netherlands directly challenged Spanish power

  • Sir Francis Drake, a leading English privateer and naval commander, raided Cadiz in 1587 destroyed around 30 Spanish ships

    • This helped delay the Armada by a year

  • The execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 removed Philip's hope of a Catholic succession in England

  • Philip convinced himself that an invasion was the only solution to English interference

The Spanish plan and its weaknesses

• The plan was for the Armada to link up with Parma's army and transport it to England

  • The Armada of 130 ships and around 30,000 men (estimates vary) sailed from Lisbon under the Duke of Medina Sidonia

  • Parma's army of around 17,000 men was waiting in the Netherlands to embark

• The plan had fundamental weaknesses before the fleet even left port

  • Communication between the fleet and Parma's army at sea was nearly impossible

  • Dutch fly-boats blockaded Parma's forces in shallow ports

    • His troops could not reach the deep-water Armada

    • The Armada could not anchor safely in deep water off the Flemish coast to wait for Parma

  • South-westerly winds made sailing back into the Channel extremely difficult once the fleet had passed

  • Medina Sidonia was an experienced administrator, but not an experienced naval commander

• The Armada’s failure was not inevitable, but the weaknesses in Spanish planning made success highly unlikely once the fleet entered the Channel

  • Supplies were inadequate for a prolonged campaign

  • Ships were designed for transport rather than naval combat

Events of the Armada Campaign:

Illustration - Armada route map (new - Oxford rev guide?)

English advantages in the Armada campaign

• Faster, more manoeuvrable ships

• Superior naval gunnery (faster rate of fire, not just range)

• Experienced commanders (e.g. Drake, Hawkins)

• Fighting in home waters with better supply and coordination

• The defeat of the Armada was a major propaganda victory for Elizabeth

  • Elizabeth visited her troops at Tilbury and delivered one of the most famous speeches in English history

  • The Armada Portrait was commissioned to celebrate the victory and project Elizabeth's power

  • Medals were struck with the inscription "God blew and they scattered"

    • The victory was presented as proof of God's favour for Protestant England

  • However, the defeat of the Armada did not end the war

    • Fighting continued for another 16 years

The Anglo-Spanish War After 1588

• The defeat of the Armada did not end the war; it dragged on until 1604

  • Further Spanish Armadas were launched in 1596 and 1597

    • Both were scattered by storms

  • The war was fought at sea, in the Netherlands, on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and in Ireland

  • It was enormously costly for England

Key events

• The war left England in serious financial difficulty

  • Elizabeth sold Crown lands worth around £800,000 to fund the conflict

  • She issued monopolies as a substitute for taxation, fuelling the parliamentary crisis of 1601

  • The loss of Crown lands reduced regular income for her Stuart successors

How Successfully Did Elizabeth Handle Foreign Affairs? (Spain and the Netherlands)

• Use the specific evidence below to build and support your argument

The case that Elizabeth handled foreign affairs well

• Elizabeth kept England out of open war with Spain for 20 years through careful diplomacy

  • She used marriage negotiations as a diplomatic tool to maintain leverage with France, Spain and the Austrian Habsburgs

  • She gave unofficial support to the Dutch rebels from the mid-1560s to 1585 without triggering war

• The Armada was defeated and England was not invaded

  • The survival of Protestant England in the face of the most powerful Catholic monarchy in Europe was a significant achievement

  • By 1609, the Dutch had effectively secured their independence from Spain

    • English intervention had helped keep the revolt alive

• Elizabeth avoided outright bankruptcy even while fighting a major European power

  • She sold Crown lands and used monopolies to fund the war rather than keep raising taxes or going bankrupt

  • James I was able to make peace in 1604 from a position of security, not desperation

Key historian

The case that Elizabeth's foreign policy had serious weaknesses

• 20 years of indecision over the Netherlands allowed Spain to strengthen its position considerably

  • Parma had reconquered much of the southern Netherlands by the time Elizabeth finally intervened in 1585

  • Leicester's campaign, when it finally came, was a failure

• The war after 1588 produced few decisive results despite large costs

  • Drake's Portugal expedition (1589) was an expensive failure

  • Attacks on Spanish bullion ships became far less effective as Spain developed a convoy system

  • The sale of Crown lands stored up serious financial problems for the Stuart monarchs who followed

  • Elizabeth's failure to reform Crown finances during the war left James I in a weak position