Violence was still a part of the texture of everyday life. Private
armories and armed gangs were not uncommon. Agricultural laborers
kept sword and bow in a corner of their fields in the first part
of Elizabeth's reign. Non-political brutal crime and homicides
were commonplace. There were frequent local riots and
disturbances, in the country and in the towns. Occasionally there
were large-scale rebellions. But the rebellion of the Earl of
Essex in 1601 had no aftermath in violence. In 1590, the Queen
issued a proclamation enforcing curfew for London apprentices, who
had been misruly. The Queen issued proclamations to certain
counties to place vagrant soldiers or vagrants under martial law
because of numerous robberies. She ordered the deportation of
vagrant Irishmen in 1594.
After exhausting every other alternative, the Queen reluctantly
agreed with her Privy Council on the execution in 1572 of Mary,
Queen of Scots, who had been involved in a plot to assassinate her
and claim the throne of England. Her Council had persuaded her
that it was impossible for her to live in safety otherwise.
Francis Drake sailed around the world from 1577 to 1580. Walter
Ralegh made an expedition to North America in 1584 with the
Queen's authority to "discover barbarous countries, not actually
possessed of any Christian prince and inhabited by Christian
people, to occupy and enjoy".
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