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The Elizabethan Nobility: A Recount and a Reassessment of Elizabeth's Reasons for Creating Noblemen
Author(s) -
SCARD MARGARET
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.13101
Subject(s) - nobility , parliament , caste , limiting , history , queen (butterfly) , classics , genealogy , law , political science , politics , engineering , mechanical engineering , hymenoptera , botany , biology
Elizabeth I is regarded as having been parsimonious in creating new noblemen, allowing the nobility to decrease in size as she sought to maintain the exclusivity of the caste. In reality, the queen created a larger nobility than her Tudor predecessors had done. Her failure to sustain this high number was due not to a policy of limiting the number of noblemen but rather because she did not need so many. Elizabeth had a policy of economy with regard to both creating and using noblemen as she maintained a nobility appropriate for the circumstances of the time, as assessed by her and Lord Burghley. Early Elizabethan peerages honoured her family and restored old titles. Later the choice of candidates was influenced by Burghley's need for more noblemen in parliament and in the counties. However, although Burghley proposed candidates, it was Elizabeth's decision whether to follow his advice and in 1589 she chose to do otherwise.