Elizabeth I was the last of the tudor monarchs.
Elizabethan Foreign Policy
In December 1559 Elizabeth sent troops to help the Protestants in Scotland after the French had begun reinforcing their garrison. This was in part due to fears that after putting down the protestant uprising, the French would proceed to attack England. Initially Elizabeth had rejected the advice of her privy council and William Cecil to send troops, instead sending the navy to blockade the Firth of Forth to prevent French reinforcements. After Cecil threatened to resign she sent a small army under the command of the Duke of Norfolk. After initially waiting at Berwick in the hope the Scottish protestant lords wouldn’t need her assistance, she ratified the Treaty of Berwick on 27th February 1560 agreeing to jointly fight the French. Elizabeth did not put all her eggs in the one basket of military intervention, and in March began negotiations with Mary of Guise. This turned out to be wise, as the English intervention led by Lord Grey was repulsed when it attacked Leith on the 8th May. However due to bad weather preventing French reinforcements landing at Leigh and domestic troubles in France, England was able to force Scotland to the negotiating table. The war ended in the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh on 6th July 1560, largely to the English advantage, which ended foreign garrisons in Scotland and forced Mary to end her use of English titles and coats of arms which she used as a symbol of her claim to the English throne. Mary Queen of Scots refused to ratify the treaty, but its effect was felt through the dominance of the realm by the Lords of Congregation who had led the protestant uprising and were friendly to England. This led to the Scottish reformation which took place from the summer of 1560 when a Reformation parliament was summoned. From now on Elizabeth would have a Northern neighbour no longer under the influence of England’s perpetual enemy, France, and no longer of a differing religion.
