The Second Reign
After the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth’s government entered a more difficult period. Wars in Spain and Ireland continued, taxes grew heavier, harvests failed, and prices rose. Her popularity weakened as the burdens of rule became harder to conceal.
The political generation that had supported her earlier reign also disappeared. William Cecil’s death was followed by the deaths of the Earl of Leicester, Francis Walsingham, and Christopher Hatton. Their absence allowed factional rivalry to dominate the Privy Council.
Essex and the Cost of Favour
Elizabeth increasingly favoured Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Leicester’s stepson. Yet Essex proved irresponsible. After failing in Ireland and returning against orders, he was placed under house arrest and stripped of monopolies.
In 1601, Essex tried to raise a rebellion in London. Few supported him, and he was executed. Elizabeth recognised that her own indulgence had contributed to the crisis, a rare reminder that royal favour could become a political liability.
Death and Succession
Elizabeth fell into deep melancholy after the deaths of close friends. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603. Because she had never publicly named an heir, Robert Cecil had secretly prepared the succession of James VI of Scotland.
Her death was widely mourned, but her reputation soon became even larger. Later generations remembered a golden age of Protestant strength, literary achievement, and national unity, often overlooking military failures and repression in Ireland.
Elizabeth’s legacy rests on a tension: she was both a cautious ruler with serious failures and a master of political survival. Her greatest creation may have been the enduring image of England as a nation secured by one extraordinary queen.