Elizabeth possessed great qualifications in government. She had a very masculine attribute – a forceful imperious personality. She used this ruthlessly to subordinate both Court and Council to her will. Elizabeth displayed two other qualities. The first was self-mastery which enabled her, at crucial moments, to put political goals ahead of personal preferences. The great testing time for this quality came in 1560–61 when she turned away from marriage with Dudley. But that mastery was not always complete. In her relations with Mary Stuart, for instance, personal biases alternated uncertainly with political calculation, and her ministers had always to reckon with the influence of these half-buried but intensely felt instinctive reactions. Secondly there was the keen political judgement which the professionals of her court came to appreciate. This professional admiration which the Queen commanded in the highest political circles stood her in good stead when her control of policy was seriously challenged in 1569.
Adapted from Wallace MacCaffrey, The Shaping of the Elizabethan Regime,1969
Overall argument: Elizabeth had a strong decisive style of government and was successful in her control of government
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