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Just like a lot of people, Elizabeth I had in-law trouble. Specifically, her brother-in-law, Philip II of Spain. Phil had been [grudgingly] married to her half-sister, Mary I, and now he was seriously getting on Liz’s last nerve. Sure, he was hot and stylish and had tons of power in Europe (Spain was the most powerful country in the world at that time). But he was also a bit of a jerk and only stayed married to Mary to further increase his power. He couldn’t have cared less about her and didn’t even try to have a happy marriage.
When Mary died and Elizabeth took the throne, Philip thought he could just swoop in and marry the new queen but Liz shot him down the way she eventually shot every other suitor down. He high-tailed it back to Spain and kept the peace with England for a while, but of course only for political reasons.
He kept hoping England would sway back toward Catholicism (remember that Catholic vs. Protestant was a huge deal at that time) but his hopes were dashed for good when the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots was executed by Elizabeth’s people in 1587. Yep, that’ll do it. At that point, his to-do list went something like this:
- Get rid of Elizabeth
- Make it hip once more to be Catholic in England
Phil sent his ships (“the Spanish Armada,” which simply means “the Spanish Navy”) up against the English Navy in the Spring of 1588. But in just a few short months, the Spanish were defeated not only by the English ships but also by disease and by horrible weather conditions. There was a little Ice Age going on and the weather on the ocean was very hard to take, especially if you were accustomed to sunny Spain.
Score one for Elizabeth and Protestantism! Not so much for jerky and power-mad Phil.
A lot of of people talk about this topic but you wrote down some true words.