The Influence of Machiavellian Beliefs on England’s Golden Age Under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze and investigate the impact of Machiavelli’s teachings on new rulers in general and on Queen Elizabeth I in particular. The study attempts to answer the following questions: Was Queen Elizabeth I a Machiavellian ruler? Is there any Machiavellian political theories and teachings that were applied by the Queen? Did the Queen read/own a copy of any of Machiavelli’s books? In this study, an analytical-qualitative approach is adopted by the analysis of the collected data. The main results proved that Elizabeth’s I reign was in fact highly influenced by Niccolo Machiavelli’s political thoughts. In addition, that Queen Elizabeth I was indeed a true Machiavellian ruler