Elizabeth I and Foreign Policy, 1558-1603 by Doran Susan;

Author:Doran, Susan; [SUSAN DORAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

1581-85

In the event, Anjou’s military involvement in the Netherlands neither helped the rebels nor removed the threat to England’s security. The duke returned to France in June 1583, having failed to prevent Parma from capturing a string of strategically important towns in Flanders and Brabant. The following year, Parma was poised to attack Antwerp, and it seemed only a matter of time before his army would conquer the entire Netherlands. With the assassination of the rebel leader, William of Orange, in July 1584, the rebels’ plight looked desperate. In consequence, Elizabeth renewed her offers of an English alliance to France to ‘impeach’ Spanish power. Henry, however, showed no enthusiasm for military action against Spain, and stalled throughout the autumn and winter months of 1584. Apart from his persisting suspicions of Elizabeth, the king had his own domestic difficulties to consider. Anjou died in June 1584, leaving the Huguenot⋆ leader, Henry of Navarre, as heir presumptive⋆ to the childless Henry III (see Chart 2). To prevent a Protestant succession, Henry Duke of Guise formed the Catholic League⋆, a paramilitary organisation, and began to look to Spain for funds. A foreign enterprise was impossible at a time when a renewal of the civil wars looked imminent.

Meanwhile, in October 1584 the English privy council debated policy. Initially its members disagreed over whether Elizabeth should intervene directly and send troops to the Netherlands. The interventionists on the council (including Walsingham, Leicester and Hatton) wanted Elizabeth to take the Netherlands under her protection. Others, though (including probably Burghley), feared that this course would be too risky and drew attention to the ‘many difficulties’ that would result from military aggression against Spain. Instead, they thought that England should look to its own defences and leave Henry III to follow in his brother’s footsteps and take the Netherlands under his protection. Eventually, however, the council recommended intervention, but urged Elizabeth to obtain the help of Henry III, John Casimir and Henry of Navarre (HMC 9 Sal. ii: 67-70) Consequently, the following month, Elizabeth sent an ambassador to the States⋆ to investigate the possibility of an alliance, but it was not until Henry III gave a negative answer to the States in March 1585 that detailed negotiations began.

In the spring of 1585, Elizabeth faced her own worst nightmare. She was preparing for war against the strongest power in Europe with only the weakest of allies at her side. Yet, despite justifiable unease, she went ahead with the policy of military intervention. She and her council agreed that war against Spain was inevitable and it was more sensible to fight at the present time as allies of the States than to face a future Spanish invasion alone, once Parma had defeated the north. Few had any doubts that Philip II intended Elizabeth harm, as his hostility towards her was manifest for all to see. In late 1583, Walsingham’s spy network had uncovered the Throckmorton Plot, a conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth, involving the resident Spanish ambassador (De Mendoza), the duke of Guise, Mary Stewart and dissident English Catholics.

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