After the Murder of William of Orange in 1584 the Dutch Republic was searching for protection against the Spanish. As a nearby Protestant nation, England seemed to be the obvious choice. Elizabeth was offered the position of dutch sovereign around 1855, but declined. In fear of a Catholic Spanish-French Alliance she did sign the Treaty of Nornik with the Dutch Republic. This treaty promised an expedition army, under the leadership of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Dudley would end acting as the Dutch sovereign (much to Elizabeth's dismay). Things didn't go as planned though and the English expedition forces found themselves outmatched by the Spanish. When in 1586 several English officers defected and turned over the cities they were supposed to be defending, any goodwill left towards the English was lost. The window of opportunity to claim the Dutch crown went along with it. After this fiasco the Dutch swore off any further attempts to find a sovereign and instead continued as a Republic.

There are probably two reasons Elizabeth refused. Firstly, she didn't want to support any rebels who fought against legitimate authority. She was afraid that her subjects, especially the Catholic ones, might get the wrong idea because of that.

Secondly, she didn't seem that keen to fight the Spanish over control of the Netherlands, most likely feeling it was too high of a cost for such little gain. After the initial losses of the expedition army Elizabeth refused to resupply the expedition armies, leaving them without proper supplies and pay for weeks. She also specifically tried to prevent any decisive battles against the the Duke of Parma, the Spanish Commander, and by 1587 was all too eager to start peace negotiations.