2. War with Spain

● In 1585, Elizabeth finally sent an army to the Netherlands to try and secure Dutch independence.

● In 1596 and 1597, Spain sent further Armadas but these were wrecked in storms before they became a threat to England.

● The wars with Spain were very expensive, even though some of the costs were offset by English privateering against Spanish ships. The pressure on royal finances forced the sale of crown lands and led Elizabeth to unpopular devices like monopolies for paying her servants.

● Elizabeth's government needed parliamentary taxation to continue functioning, and so she was obliged to bow before the House of Commons' complaints about monopolies in 1601.

● Although the costs of war were high, England's successful defiance of Spain (the greatest power in Europe) increased its international reputation.

3. Ireland

● Henry VIII had named himself King of Ireland in 1541, and had attempted to extend his control beyond the Dublin Pale.

● In the later years of Henry's reign, the government had no money to bribe Irish nobles, and the energetic efforts of Edward VI's government to impose the Reformation were unpopular.

● 1579-1583 - Gerald Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond led a rebellion in Munster, that was encouraged by the Pope and supported by 800 Spanish soldiers. Lord Grey was sent to suppress the rebellion, and did so after years of bitter fighting.

● In 1593, the Irish again revolted. Known as the Nine Years War to the Irish and as Tyrone's Rebellion to the English, this rebellion was led from 1595 by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. He was militarily able and unusually successful in uniting the Gaelic lords.

● 14 August 1598, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the English army at the Yellow Ford.

● Elizabeth replaced the Earl of Essex as Lord Deputy with Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy. The Spanish sent 4,000 troops to assist the Irish, but they were nevertheless defeated at the Battle of Kinsale 1601.

● Tyrone surrendered to Elizabeth, and Mountjoy began building forts to try and prevent further Irish unrest.

48. Science and research in Elizabethan times.

The most significant period of the Renaissance falls on the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603). The Elizabethan era was a period of great advances in world exploration, medicine, and the study of the universe. The period brought great advances in medical science, particularly in the study of human anatomy and and surgical operations. Inventions of the period include the graphite pencil, the modern calendar, wind-powered sawmill, and the thermoscope (primitive thermometer).

The astronomers Thomas Digges and Thomas Harriot made important contributions; William Gilbert published his seminal study of magnetism, De Magnete, in 1600. Substantial advancements were made in the fields of cartography and surveying.

Much of this scientific and technological progress related to the practical skill of navigation.Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1581, and Martin Frobisher explored the Arctic. The first attempt at English settlement of the eastern seaboard of North America occurred in this era—the abortive colony at Roanoke Island in 1587.

While Elizabethan England is not thought of as an age of technological innovation, some progress did occur. In 1564 Guilliam Boonen came from the Netherlands to be Queen Elizabeth's first coachbuilder thus introducing the new European invention of the spring-suspension coach to England, as a replacement for the litters and carts of an earlier transportation mode.