Queen Elizabeth ruled England from 1558 until her death in 1603. Many historians (such as Penry Williams)see her reign as the start of England becoming a great power. Throughout her reign Elizabeth was faced with many challenges, one of the biggest being what to do about religion. Religion was of fundamental importance in sixteenth century Europe and was a crucial part of peoples lives. When Elizabeth ascended to the English Throne most rulers believed that uniformity of religion (everybody following the same religion) was the best way to avoid disturbances or even civil war occurring in their countries. In England the previous queen, Queen Mary had converted England to Catholicism, which along with marrying a foreign King, made her very unpopular, after the two previous Kings had instated Protestantism as the uniform religion. When Elizabeth rose to the throne she was immediately faced with challenge of which religion she should implement in England.

Elizabeth was not a fanatic Protestant or Catholic having once declared "There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is a dispute over trifles". Elizabeth realised she would need popular support

Some historians though, like Christopher Haig believe that her compromise option was indicative of her "not attempt(ing) to solve problems, she simply avoided them". However other historians like Penry Williams believe that "her moderation in the first part of her reign was probably important in bringing conservatives into sympathy with the new church". It seems almost certain that her moderate approach helped avoid Catholic uprisings at the start of her reign when an uprising had the best chance of success and later on make it impossible for the Catholics to rebel successfully so should be judged an success.

Elizabeth used Sir Francis Walsingham, effectively as a spymaster on Catholics throughout Europe and he was instrumental in the finding of evidence to convince Elizabeth to execute Mary and also managed to have spies in every major city in Europe who often discovered and stopped Catholic plots. Elizabeth also tried peace talks with Spain but Phillip 2nd decided to invade England anyway and implement the Catholic religion. When Elizabeth heard that Spain was invading according to Robert Cecil Elizabeth "was very calm upon hearing the news" as her delaying tactics allowed her to protect England as well as possible. The Spanish Armada was called "invincible" by the Spanish but due to a series of Spanish blunders, bad weather, strong winds and the smaller faster English boats England defeated the Armada and Catholicism. This instance was probably when the Catholic threat posed the greatest amount of danger to Elizabeth's rule as the Spanish Armada was much stronger than English navy and if Spain was successful they would have implemented Catholicism.

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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)