• reading -> Queen Elizabeth I.      (pic1)   (pic2)   (pic3)   (pic4)   (pic5)
• reading--> Elizabeth I:  Portrait of a Queen.
• reading--> The Elizabethan Church.
• document--> Elizabeth I's "Supremacy Act"-1559.
• document--> Elizabeth's Speech Against the Spanish Armada-1588.
• document--> The Execution of Mary Stuart-1587.
• reading--> Philip II of Spain (Catholic Encyclopedia).   (pic1)   (pic2)   (pic3)   (pic4)
• reading--> The Grand Strategy of Philip II.
• document--> Two Documents from the Reign of Philip II of Spain-1559 (on the Indies).
• pictures--> El Escorial.  (aerial view)
• textbook--> pp. 539 - 540.
• reading-->"Philip III and Spain's Economy"

1. How did Elizabeth I deal with the religious issue in England when she became queen?
2. Why did Elizabeth I put Mary Stuart under house arrest for so many years?  What was she afraid of?
3. What role did Sir Francis Drake and the "Sea Dogs" play in the growing tensions between England and Spain?
4. Why did Philip II take upon himself the leadership of the Catholic Counter-Reformation?  Why was Spain ideally suited to be the instrument of Philip's ambitions?
5. What was the general state of political and religious affairs in Europe in the first years of Philip II's reign?  What conflict existed between religious and national loyalties?
6. Why did Philip II send the Armada Católica, the Spanish Armada, against Elizabeth I in 1588?  What were the results of this move for Spain?  for England?
7. What were the political, economic, and religious issues that entered into the revolt of the Netherlands?  How did this revolt merge with the international political and religious struggles in Europe at the time?
8. Why did Spain decline as a major European power during the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV?  What role did the Catholic Church especially play in this decline?

                          ASSIGNMENT 2:

• textbook --> pp. 510 - 516.
• atlas --> pp. 48- 49.
• reading-->an excerpt from the Edict of Restitution.

1. Analyze the validity of this statement:  The Thirty Years' War was in part a German religious war and in part a German civil war fought over constitutional issues in the Holy Roman Empire.
2. How did European rivalries and ambitions become linked to the conflict within Germany in the late 16c and early 17c?
3. Create a CHART which identifies each of the four major phases of the Thirty Years' War, the key players, the time period of each phase, the most important battle, the key issue(s), and the results of the phase.  Who were the "winners" and "losers" of each phase?
4. How was the small area of the United Provinces able to defend itself against Spain?  What explains its rapid economic and cultural success?
5. Why was Sweden able to rise from a second-rate power to a position of dominance in the Baltic during the 17c?
6. Identify the major provisions of the Treaty of Westphalia in the following areas by creating another CHART:  the religious settlement, territorial changes, and political/diplomatic changes.
7. How did the Peace of Westphalia mark the advent in international law of the modern system of independent sovereign states?
8. Why have some historians labeled the Thirty Years' War the "last of the religious wars", while others have called it the "first modern war"?  Which is the more accurate assessment?  Why?
9. What was the military revolution which resulted from the Thirty Years' War?  What effect did it have on warfare in the 16c and 17c?

                         ASSIGNMENT 3:

• textbook --> pp. 516 - 519.
• document--> "An Assembly of Witches"-painting by Franz Francken.
• document--> excerpts from the Malleus Maleficarum.

1. What was the Malleus Maleficarum?  How was it used during the witch craze?
2. Describe the typical "profile" of an accused witch.
3. Why was this profiled individual especially targeted?
4. What were some of the "characteristics" or tell-tale signs of a witch?  [refer especially to the document on pg. 518 of the textbook]
5. What was the theological view of women in the 16c and 17c in Europe?
6. What was the importance of social and economic conditions in explaining the witchcraft hysteria?
7. Why did this hysteria subside substantially by the end of the 17c and early 18c?