The Early Elizabethan Polity
William Cecil and the British Succession Crisis, 1558–1569

An alternative account of the so-called 'succession crisis' in the first decade of the reign of Elizabeth I.

Stephen Alford (Author)

9780521622189, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 September 1998

288 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.59 kg

'The book makes good use of Cecil's massive personal archive, the most extensively by far of any contemporary statesman or politician … the book does, certainly, reveal a familiar figure in a new light and disposes of Macaulay's caricature of him as a wooden yes-man.' Lincolnshire History and Archaeology

Traditionally historians have argued that the court of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) was factional, divided between competing subjects who were manipulated by their Queen. This book provides a different account: of councillors who were united by two connected dangers, namely Catholic opposition to Protestant England and Elizabeth's refusal to marry or to settle England's succession. This alternative account of the first decade of Elizabeth's reign investigates three main areas. It challenges the notion that Elizabeth I and her councillors agreed on policy, and that the Queen and her secretary, William Cecil, formed an inseparable political partnership; it establishes the importance of rhetorical training and the relationship between education and Elizabethan debates on the issue of service to the Queen, balanced against service to the Commonwealth; and it deals with the radical political conditions of the first decade, and argues that the origins of later Elizabethan crises lay in the 1560s.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. William Cecil and early Elizabethan political culture
2. The politics of Britain and the development of the British succession crisis, 1558–1559
3. Anglo-British negotiations for a settlement, 1560–1563
4. New Tudor politics and the domestic impact of the succession issue, 1560–1563
5. The Darnley marriage and weaknesses in the Elizabethan polity, 1564–1566
6. Cecil, parliament and the succession, 1566–1567
7. Cecil's proposal for the settlement of Britain, 1567–1568
8. The crisis of 1569 and an alternative remedy
Conclusion: the early Elizabethan polity
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]