404.  Elizabeth’s Death (1603).

The death of the great Queen (1603) was as sad as her life had been brilliant.  Her favorite, Essex, Shakespeare’s intimate friend, had been beheaded for an attempted rebellion against her power.  From that time she grew, as she said, “heavy-hearted.”  Her old friends and counselors were dead, her people no longer welcomed her with their former enthusiasm.  She kept a sword always within reach.  Treason had grown so common that Hentzner, a German traveler in England, said that he counted three hundred heads of persons, who had suffered death for this crime, exposed on London Bridge.  Elizabeth felt that her sun was nearly set; gradually her strength declined; she ceased to leave her palace, and sat muttering to herself all day long, “Mortua, sed non sepulta!” (Dead, but not buried).

At length she lay propped up on cushions on the floor,[1] “tired,” as she said, “of reigning and tired of life.”  In that sullen mood she departed to join that “silent majority” whose realm under earth is bounded by the sides of the grave.  “Four days afterward,” says a writer of that time, “she was forgotten.”

[1] See in the works of Delaroche his fine picture of “The Death of Queen Elizabeth.”

One sees her tomb, with her full-length, recumbent effigy, in the north aisle of Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, while in the south aisle he sees the tomb and effigy of her old rival and enemy, Mary Queen of Scots (S397).  The sculptured features of both look placid.  “After life’s fitful fever they sleep well.”

405.  Summary.

The Elizabethan period was in every respect remarkable.  It was great in its men of thought, great in its literature, and equally great in its men of action.  It was greatest, however, in its successful resistance to the armed hand of religious oppression.  “Practically the reign of Elizabeth,” as Bishop Creighton remarks, “saw England established as a Protestant country."[2]

[2] See “The Dictionary of English History” ("The Reformation"), p. 860.

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 gave renewed courage to the cause of the Reformation, not only in England, but in every Protestant country in Europe.  It meant that a movement had begun which, though it might be temporarily hindered, would secure to all civilized countries, which accepted it, the right of private judgment and of liberty of conscience in matters of religion.

General Reference Summary of the Tudor Period (1485-1603)

I. Government II.  Religion III.  Military Affairs.  IV.  Literature, Learning and Art.  V. General Industry and Commerce.  VI.  Mode of Life, Manners, and Customs

I. Government

406.  Absolutism of the Crown; Free Trade; the Post Office.

During a great part of the Tudor period the power of the Crown was well-nigh absolute.  Four causes contributed to this:  (1) The destruction of a very large part of the feudal nobility by the Wars of the Roses.[1] (2) The removal of many of the higher clergy from the House of Lords.[2] (3) The creation of a new nobility dependant on the king. (4) The desire of the great body of the people for “peace at any price.”