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Elizabethan England 1568–1603

Elizabethan England 1568-1603 is the AQA GCSE British depth study on how a queen surrounded by doubters held her throne for forty-five years. It covers her court, her ministers and Parliament, the Religious Settlement, Catholic plots and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Spanish Armada, and everyday life from theatre and exploration to the Poor Laws. It also includes the specified historic environment site for the exam.

Elizabethan England is on Paper 2 of AQA GCSE History, alongside Britain: Health and the People. The four questions are an interpretation, an importance question, an account of change and a historic environment question. The course tracks your work by the five themes the examiners keep returning to: Court and Government, Religion, Exploration, Poverty and Threats.

A question you will meetWrite an account of the ways in which the Elizabethan Poor Laws changed the way the poor were treated.

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Elizabeth's Court and Parliament

1558-1603

How did a woman hold onto power in a man's world?

Elizabeth I and her court

• Elizabeth's background and character
• The Royal Court and patronage
• Key ministers and the Privy Council

The difficulties of a female ruler

• A woman on the throne: image and authority
• Marriage and the succession
• Elizabeth and Parliament
• The end of the reign and Essex's rebellion 1601

Life in Elizabethan Times

c1568-1603

Was this really a Golden Age - and for whom?

A 'Golden Age'?

• Living standards, homes and fashion
• Prosperity and the rise of the gentry

The Elizabethan theatre

• The rise of the theatre
• Attitudes to the theatre

The poor

• Why poverty increased
• Attitudes and responses to poverty
• Government action and the Poor Laws

English sailors

• Hawkins, Drake and the sea dogs
• Drake's circumnavigation 1577-1580
• Raleigh, Virginia and the failure of colonisation

Troubles at Home and Abroad

1568-1603

How close did Elizabeth come to losing her throne - or her life?

Religious matters

• The religious problem and the Settlement of 1559
• The impact of the Settlement
• The Puritan challenge
• The Catholic threat: excommunication and the missionaries
• The Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569

Mary Queen of Scots

• Mary's background and arrival in England, 1568
• The problem of what to do with Mary
• The plots
• Execution 1587 and its impact

Conflict with Spain

• Why England and Spain went to war
• Naval warfare: tactics and technology
• Events before 1588
• The Armada campaign, 1588

Historic Environment: The Spanish Armada

Specified site, June 2027

What can the Armada campaign tell us about Elizabethan England?

Studying a historic environment

• How to study a site

The Spanish Armada as a historic environment

• Location and geography
• Function and purpose
• Structure and design of the two fleets
• People connected with the Armada
• Culture, values and beliefs
• The Armada and the wider period

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