Shakespeare and Taming of the Shrew - Research Paper Example

During her reign, the British monarchy expanded to the rest of the world particularly in North America. The expansion to North America was made possible by voyages by people like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake. Other accomplishments during her reign included the victory of play rights called Shakespeare over the Armada of Spain. Despite the fact that many accomplishments were attained during the reign of Queen Elizabeth that led to the emergence of Britain to be in the economic forefront, her reign was also full of assassinations.

Some of the assassinations were genuine while others were made up so as to accuse the queen falsely (William, 67). Among the claims included whether or not she was virgin and the level of influence she received from her outhouse council. There are several factors that triggered Queen Elizabeth to marry. One of them was the small pox disease that she contracted in the year 1562 (Elizabeth, 2). This disease almost made her die. This disease piled a new fervor for her to get married. The powerful proceedings of parliament also had messages that the queen should get married so as to be in line with the traditions of the British.

According to the British traditions, the queen needed to be married for several reasons including succession issues. These factors mounted pressure on her to get married. Further, debates were also geared to the person she would marry (Beem, 19). Most of the people of England were unsure whether the queen would marry a foreigner or a subject. This is because the person the queen was to marry had to handle issues of domestic and international stability and not just a matter of succession. Queen Elizabeth marriage was very important as she had witnessed marriage lessons from her sister Mary went through because of a hurried marriage to a Spanish King called Phillip II.

Because of these factors, it forced a marriage petition to be raised by the House of Commons so that more pressure can make the queen to marry. These were attempts to caution Queen Elizabeth of the consequences that would result if she did not choose a husband with a lot of wisdom. The major fears of the people were civil war's miseries that could arise. However, House of Commons acknowledged that an alliance involving foreign powers being created through the institution of marriage was deemed to be advantageous.

For instance, marrying Philip II could have helped British be more stable in matters of peace consultations with France (Guy, 15). Nonetheless, the issue of being subjected to the French foreign yoke was also foreseen. The best candidate that was considered to be the queen’s husband, Edward Courtenay had died abruptly leaving no suitable substitute to marry Queen Elizabeth. This left Queen Elizabeth with a hard task to solve. The queen had no option, but to devise a way she was going to barrage pressure of getting a husband to marry (Guy, 90).

She exploited the masculine prejudice that existed around her. In the process, Queen Elizabeth made a serious mistake by considering Levine. One reason is that the queen’s virtues were far much better than the person she had considered as her husband. Many people were amazed by her decisions. Bishop Quadra commented that the queen had many devils within her and it the devils that may have influenced her choice of Levine. The bluffing tactic of the queen made her attain