Elizabethan Foreign Policy

1.       Foreign Policy

 Intervention in the Netherlands

·         Key factor in England's relationship with the Netherlands was trade. At least ¾ of all England's overseas trade passed through Antwerp and over ¾ of that export trade was based on woollen cloth. Relations deteriorated when Antwerp businessmen were upset by the new Book of Rates introduced by Mary, in which duties on imports increased by 75% and by incidents of piracy in the Channel where trading was disrupted by pirates.

·          Cardinal Granville, Philip II's chief minister, saw Elizabeth sponsoring Protestant revels and believed that English traders were trying to spread Protestantism in the Netherlands with her backing.

·         In 1563, using the outbreak of plague in London as an excuse, Philip's chief minister in the Netherlands, Cardinal Granville, banned imports of all British cloth. Elizabeth retaliated and stopped imports from the Netherlands, stopping all trade between the countries. This only lasted 12 months but caused problems in the Netherlands.

·         In 1567, Calvinist protestant riots broke out in the Netherlands and a Spanish army was sent to deal with it, causing protestant refugees to seek exile in England, despite Elizabeth's public condemnation of the rebels.

·         However, there were some benefits to this as new trading links with the Baltic and Russia were established.

3.3 The Netherlands and declining Anglo-Spanish relations, 1570-85

·         In 1572, Elizabeth expelled Sea beggers from English ports. They were forced to land in the Dutch port of Brielle and their occupation of the port and…