Was Elizabeth I an absolute ruler?

What exactly did Queen Elizabeth do to make her such a popular ruler?

• I entered the History Fair at my school and the theme is Actions and Legacies. I picked Queen Elizabeth because she's popular and should be easy to do research on. I thought ...show more

• Answer:

  ok, im english, so you can trust what i say lol 1. Elizabeth wasnt a religious fanatic like her sister-she didnt persecute people because of their faith, at that time, the catholics and the protestants were fighting REALLY badly. She "redecorated" the church of england, making it mainly protestant, but with a few catholic details, and she didnt call herself head of the church of england- and thats what really got the catholics angry, when protestant rulers called themselves head of the church. she said she was the "supreme governor" so not quite the head, but still high up there. She settled for a "middle way" (look up catholics and protestants on google or something as well as Mary I, [her sister] you'll get a lot more info, which will help) 2. The spanish armada led by Philip of Spain was trying to invade the UK, because Mary Queen Of Scots was plotting to over throw Elizabeth, and Elizabeth had her executed. Philip liked Mary, because she was catholic like him)Philip of Spain, was also insulted because she (Elizabeth) refused to marry him, this made the English people love her, because NONE of them wanted him on the english throne (the spanish inquisition was terrifying europe at the time, because Spain ruled over :spain (obv!) Netherlands, And some of germany, which was a collection of states at that time. The stories coming out of these countries concerning the Spanish Inquisition were horrific) (look up Mary Queen Of Scots, Philip Of Spain, Spanish Inquisition, and the Spanish Armada. Anyway, back to the point, the tiny english navy beat the spanish armada, because the wind direction was in their favour, the spanish navy kept making mistakes, the little english boats were a lot faster and more nimbler than the huge, clumsy spanish galleons. The galleons also got stranded on the dangerous "sandbanks"in the english channel, making them sitting ducks for the english cannons.All over europe, people accredited this victory to the "favour of god" at this point in history, the favour of god was a huge deciding factor in battles, if soldiers thought the enemy had the favour of god, they would more or less just surrender. Beating Spain allowed England To become a huge naval power, which it has been until the end of the 19th century, we nearly lost everything in WW1 and WW2 (look up Spanish Armada) 3.She brought peace and prosperity to england, due to Sir Francis Drake stealing spanish gold coming fresh from south america. 4. She wouldn't marry a foreign prince, and this is what really scared the english populace 5. Was very merciful when it came to criminals, and put her country before her own personal happiness I think if you base your project around the Spanish Armada, you'll get a lot more info, because England was a naval supremacy until quite recently ever heard the phrase "Brittainia rules the waves" lol, that was her legacy