Glossary

Glossary

Elizabeth

Elizabeth's England: 'The Queen is dead, long live the Queen'

  • Autocracy – rule by a sole person with absolute power
  • Consensual – arriving at a decision or position by mutual consent

Elizabeth's England: restoring the English currency

  • Debased – degraded, devalued

Elizabeth's England: the religious settlement: the middle way

  • Catholic – Christian faith, church organized under the Pope, worship centred on the Mass
  • Protestant – Christian faith, denies the authority of the Pope, worship focused on the Bible
  • Papist – derogatory term for Catholics, as believers in the power of the Pope
  • Heretic – derogatory term for Protestants, as dissenters from the Catholic Church
  • Clergy – those who work for churches, priests

Elizabeth's adventurers: imperial ambition

  • Colony – people settled in a new territory but still under the control of the parent state
  • Synopsis – summary, outline
  • Empire – a major political unit covering a vast extent of peoples or territories under a single ruler
  • Monopoly – exclusive ownership or control
  • Imperial – relating to an empire

Threats to the Crown: rallying the troops

In Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury:

  • But - here meaning 'not'
  • Parma - referring to the Duke of Parma
  • Venter - venture or vent
  • Concord - agreement

The Queen's Court: court entertainment and ritual

  • Suitor – someone wanting and hoping to marry a woman
  • Courtier – member of the royal court

Representing the Queen: the evolution of Elizabeth's image

  • Wars of the Roses – civil wars fought in England between 1455 and 1485. Called the Wars of the Roses because the symbols for the two sides were roses – red for the House of Lancaster and white for the House of York.
  • Icon – pictorial illustration, image (usually in a symbolic sense)

Elizabeth resources >>