It was widely expected that Elizabeth would marry.However if she had a husband that would greatly decrease her power as her husband would be expected to rule.
Solution- Elizabeth used her charisma resilience and intelliigence in order to reinvent herself as a monarch. She liked to say that even though she was a female she was not an ordinary woman and so she did not need to have a husband as she could govern the country on her own.
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Inexperience and illegitimacy.
Elizabeths inexperience meant that she needed the support and the advice of her Privy council, especially her Seceratary of state William Cecil.
Elizabeth's legitimacy was in doubt as the Pope refused to recognise her mother's (Anne Boleyn) marriage to Henry VIII undermining her claim to the throne. This problem was an advantage to peoople who wanted to overthrow Elizabeth such as Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeths cousin. Mary had a very strong claim to the throne as she was descended from Margaret Tudor Henry VIII's sister making her Elizabeth's cousin, she was also a Catholic and so that meant that she had the support of many Catholics, including members of nobility, who were prepared to support her claim to the throne.
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Religious tensions
Elizabeth was Protestant, her predecessor Mary I was Catholic.This caused unrest in the country as Catholics didn't see Elizabeth as the rightful heir to the throne, which led to rebellions such as The Revolt of the Northern Earls(1569-70).
Solution-The religious settlement of 1559:
The Act of Uniformity- This established the appearance of churches and how religious services were to be held. It required everyone to attend church
The Royal Injunction- This was a set of instructions that reinforced The Act of Uniformity and The Act of Supremacy.It held instructions on how people should worship God and how church services should be held.
The Book of Common Prayer (1559) introduced a set church service to be used in all churches. The clergy had to follow the Prayer Book wording during services or be punished.
An Ecclestial High Commision was established to keep discipline within church and enforce Elizabeth's religious settlement. Disloyal clergy could be punished.
The Act of Supremacy- Elizabeth became Supreme Governor of the Church of England. All clergy and royal officials had to swear an oath of alleigance to her.
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Debt
The Crown was in debt of £300,000 and had an annual income of £288,667, over £100,000 of this debt was owed to foreign money lenders (the Antwerp Exchange) charged a high interest at 14%. During her reign Mary Tudor sold off Crown lands to pay for wars with France, so the Crowns income from rents was falling. Since the 1540's, the Crown had devalued the coinage, by reducing its silver and gold content in order to make more money so they could wage more wars against France but this then led to inflation as the value of the currency fell.
Solutions- Elizabeth could have:
Raised taxes to boost the crowns income by covening Parliament and asking for special additional taxes. However additional taxes would be unpopular with ordinary people, causing further unrest.
Improved the quality of money by increasing the silver and gold content in the coinage. In 1560, Thomas Gresham, The Crowns financial advisor, suggested this to Willoam Cecil but the Crown was to slow to respond. But even if the Crown responded faster it still wouldn't have been a positive change for most people as any 'new' coinage would be traded alongside older less valuable coins. People would struggle to exchange the older coins for new ones.
What Elizabeth did however was:
She did not raise taxes but instead hoarded her income and cut her expenses in half.
Like her predecessors, she sold crown lands, raising £120,000
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