Farms

Farms

Bradly

During the 16 th century and the
beginning of Elizabeth’s rule England was not ranked among the powerful of Europe. 2
The great continental states of France and Spain overshadowed the island nation and
were the true powerbrokers of the West. All that allowed England to command any
respect at all was the presence of her powerful and modern fleet of warships. Under
Henry VIII, Elizabeth’s father, England had built its fleet up to a peak of over 50 ships,
and during Elizabeth’s reign it had kept up with advancements in naval warfare. Despite
this naval prowess, foreign influence in England continued. England was yet to even
unify the British Isles at the time of Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, and she had to
be constantly wary of the French presence in a Francophile Scotland. At the same
time, while at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the Spaniards were not enemies, the
Penguin Group, 2005); Conyers Read, Mr Secretary Walsingham and the Policy of Queen Elizabeth (London: Oxford
University Press, 1925), Vol. II. See also Vol. III. For descriptions of the various difficulties Elizabeth I faced in ruling,
see Carole Levin, The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power (Philadelphia:
University of Philadelphia Press, 1994). For how Catherine the Great used political propaganda in the form of
public entertainment, see Lurana D. O’Malley, “The Monarch and the Mystic: Catherine the Great’s Strategy of
Audience Enlightenment in The Siberian Shaman,” Slavic and East European Journal 41 (Summer 1997): 224‐242.
For a discussion on how Russia built its powerbase, see Lindsey Hughes, “Russia,” in A Companion to Eighteenth‐
Century Europe, ed. Peter H. Wilson (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2008), Chapter 14. For a comparison of
foreigner’s views and native Russian’s views on Catherine’s rule, see Brenda Meehan‐Waters, “Catherine the Great
and the Problem of Female Rule,”...