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A Thing Doubly Inscrutable : A Woman And A Queen : Elizabethan Foreign Policy: 1558-1584, Virginia Lesley Mathewson

Master's Theses

On November 17, 1558 it appeared that the argosy of England had in fact been shipwrecked and the "rocks and shoals" surrounding her greatly reduced the possibility that she would ever spread her sails again. At war with France, she was both militarily weak and financially exhausted. Ravaged by recent years of religious persecution she faced the prospect of a rejuvenated Catholic church on the continent and Calvinist impatience at home. She was threatened by France in Scotland and by the impending loss of her only ally in Europe, as France and Spain negotiated a marriage agreement. Finally, to captain …