During the first fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign, efforts to solidify the loose Anglo-German alliance tried to overcome theological differences among Protestants and stand united against Catholicism. In England, the Queen and her advisors received frequent news on the situation in Germany, while some German Princes understood their disputes' repercussions in the wider Protestant world. The severity of these disagreements increased over time, such that by 1577 reconciliation among the heirs of Luther and Melanchthon seemed ever-more distant.

Undeterred and realizing the gravity of developments in France and the Netherlands, Elizabeth sent four major embassies to Germany in 1577. Acting after two mournful deaths in the Empire (the Emperor and Elector Palatine), she was concerned about the consequences. Indeed, uncertainties for the future were legion in winter 1576–7: tension with Catholics everywhere, particularly in France; fractures among those supposed to confederate; and a changing of the guard at the highest levels in the Empire. On all accounts it would be an uphill battle for pan-Protestant unanimity and a formal Anglo-German confederation, but the true measure of the Queen's success cannot rest solely on the eventual lack of a league in all particulars. Rather, her cumulative and evolving attempts to unify the movement and aid the oppressed constituted a worthwhile enterprise.