Elizabethan government: court, Privy Council and Parliament
Elizabeth I: Coronation and Early Reign
On 17 November 1558, Elizabeth I became Queen of England at the age of twenty-five. She was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 15 January 1559. Her accession was welcomed by many English people who had grown weary of the religious upheavals and foreign entanglements of her half-sister Mary I’s reign. Elizabeth was seen as a Protestant hope, young and English-born. Her early popularity was genuine — crowds lined the streets for her coronation procession, and she responded warmly, reportedly saying that the love of her subjects was more precious than any treasure.
Elizabeth was crowned on 15 January 1559. Within months she passed the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, establishing her control over the Church of England and setting the style of worship. This swift action showed her ability to govern decisively from the start of her reign.
The Royal Court
The Royal Court was the heart of Elizabethan government. It was wherever Elizabeth happened to be — at Whitehall Palace, Hampton Court, Greenwich or on one of her summer ‘progresses’ through the country. The court served two purposes: it was both a centre of pageantry designed to project royal power, and a practical arena where political decisions were made and favour was dispensed.
Nobles competed intensely to attend the Queen because proximity to Elizabeth meant access to patronage — the granting of offices, grants of land, or licences to trade. Those who lost favour could lose everything. This system gave Elizabeth enormous political leverage: she could reward loyalty and punish disloyalty simply by controlling access to her presence. Favourites such as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and later Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, gained influence through personal closeness to the Queen rather than formal office alone.
The Privy Council
The Privy Council was Elizabeth’s main governing body. It typically comprised around nineteen members — senior nobles, lawyers and churchmen — who met several times a week to advise the Queen, administer royal policy and handle correspondence. The Council had real power: it could issue proclamations, summon individuals for questioning and direct local officials.
The most influential councillor throughout much of Elizabeth’s reign was William Cecil, who served first as Secretary of State (1558–1572) and then as Lord Treasurer until his death in 1598. Cecil was cautious, Protestant and deeply loyal. He gathered intelligence through an extensive network of spies and helped Elizabeth navigate plots and crises. Elizabeth trusted him above all others, though she did not always follow his advice — particularly on the question of marriage and succession.
Sir Francis Walsingham served as Principal Secretary from 1573 until his death in 1590. A committed Puritan, he ran the government’s intelligence service and was responsible for uncovering the Ridolfi, Throckmorton and Babington plots against the Queen. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was Elizabeth’s favourite courtier and sat on the Council for many years; he commanded the English forces sent to the Netherlands in 1585. After Cecil’s death, his son Robert Cecil effectively took over the management of government, serving as Secretary of State from 1596 and eventually smoothing the succession of James VI of Scotland in 1603.
Local Government: Justices of the Peace
Beyond the court and Council, Elizabeth governed England through a network of Justices of the Peace. These were unpaid local gentlemen appointed by the Crown to serve in each county. By the end of the reign there were approximately 50–60 JPs in each county, and their responsibilities were vast: they enforced the law at quarter sessions, collected taxes, regulated wages, oversaw the poor relief system and ensured that royal proclamations were carried out.
The JP system was both the strength and the weakness of Elizabethan local government. It was cheap, and it bound the local gentry into the royal system — serving as a JP was a mark of social status that gentlemen competed for. However, the Crown depended on men it could not directly control. A JP who was sympathetic to Catholicism or reluctant to enforce unpopular policies could simply drag his feet. Elizabeth had no standing army or professional police force to enforce her will; she relied on willing cooperation.
Justices of the Peace were the backbone of Elizabethan local government — unpaid gentry who carried out royal orders in each county. Because they were unpaid and locally rooted, the Crown could not guarantee their full compliance, making local enforcement uneven.
Parliament: Role and Limitations
Parliament in Elizabethan England was very different from Parliament today. It had two chambers — the Lords (nobles and bishops) and the Commons (elected burgesses and knights of the shire) — but it was not a permanent institution. Elizabeth summoned Parliament only when she needed it, typically to grant taxation or to pass laws on matters that required its authority. During her forty-five-year reign she called Parliament only thirteen times, and for a total of fewer than four years in session.
Elizabeth was acutely aware of Parliament’s potential to challenge her authority. She refused to allow MPs to debate matters she considered her personal prerogative: religion, her marriage, and the succession. When Peter Wentworth raised the issue of free speech in Parliament in 1576, Elizabeth had him imprisoned in the Tower. She insisted that freedom of speech in Parliament meant freedom to discuss matters she had already introduced, not freedom to raise whatever MPs wished.
Parliament’s most important constitutional function was granting taxation. The Crown’s ordinary revenues — from royal estates, customs duties and feudal dues — were rarely sufficient to fund war or extraordinary expenditure. Elizabeth therefore called Parliament when she needed ‘subsidies’ voted by the Commons. Parliament used this power carefully; it could, in theory, refuse a subsidy or attach conditions. In practice, Elizabeth managed Parliament skillfully, using a network of ‘privy councillors’ who sat as MPs and managed debates. She also relied on the Speaker of the House of Commons (effectively a Crown appointee in this period) to steer business.