ke and contempt" for Protestants, and lacking in respect for the Church of England of which she was the supreme governor. This was a ruler "who recognized no authority in any man except as derived from a source distinct from herself" (Froude, 301). Froude (302รป303) accuses Elizabeth of having little concern for those who served her, of being a liar, of being vulnerable to and solicitous of flattery that was "tawdry," and overly convinced of her own wisdom and sagacity.
A twentieth century Elizabethan scholar, Garrett Mattingly (305) criticized Froude for his treatment of Elizabeth and contends that Elizabeth was wise (or at least politically and economically sound) in determining that only great provocation in the form of the direct threat of the Armada would be cause for war with Spain. While much of Mattlingly's (308) discussion focuses on the Armada, he makes note of the fact that in this struggle, any doubts as to Elizabeth's championing of Protestantism. He concludes that she was immensely popular because of the defeat of the Armada.
These three sets of views on Elizabeth I offer varying degree of praise and blame. From Bacon, who knew her and admired much in her, to Froude who was hypercritical, to Mattingly who offered a more balanced assessment of one part of Elizabeth's reign, the reader gains insight into a woman capable of running a small but often tumultuous country. One recognizes that Elizabeth w
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