Elizabeth I of England Totally Explained

Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, France (in name only), and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. She is sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, and was immortalised by Edmund Spenser as the Faerie Queene. Elizabeth I was the fifth and final monarch of the House of Tudor (the other Tudor monarchs having been her grandfather Henry VII, her father Henry VIII, her half-brother Edward VI, and her half-sister Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor or "Bloody Mary"). She reigned for almost 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide, as well as great religious turmoil within England.
Elizabeth's reign is referred to as the Elizabethan era or the Golden Age of Elizabeth. Playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson all flourished during this era; Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views; and English colonisation of North America took place under Sir James Huckle, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Elizabeth was a decisive ruler. (Numerous observations by Anne Somerset in Elizabeth I don't support this, at least in some circumstances.) Her favourite motto was video et taceo ("I see and keep silent"). This last quality, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. Like her father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (its official name is the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Elizabeth near Dublin) in 1592 and the British East India Company (1600).
In her nearly forty-five years as queen, she created only nine peerage dignities, one earldom and seven baronies in the Peerage of England, and one barony in the Peerage of Ireland. She also reduced the number of Privy Counsellors from thirty-nine to nineteen, and later to fourteen.

Biography

Early life

Elizabeth is the second child of Henry VIII of England to survive infancy; her mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. The couple had been secretly married sometime between the winter of 1532 and late January of 1533. In later life Elizabeth reported to the Venetian ambassador that she'd been told it was the earlier date, possibly in November. Elizabeth was born in the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, on 7 September 1533. She was named for her paternal grandmother Elizabeth of York. Upon her birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England despite having an older half-sister, Mary; Mary wasn't considered by Henry VIII to be a legitimate heir because Henry had annulled his marriage to her mother, the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon. Although the popular rumour would have it that Mary disliked her younger half-sister, in fact they appear to have been fond of one another. However their relationship suffered when the three women were placed in opposite camps by religion and politics.
   Henry required a legitimate son in order to continue the Tudor succession (he had an acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, by Elizabeth Blount, but the boy, who lived 1519–1536, was ineligible to succeed due to his bastardy), but following Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne was unable to provide such an heir, and instead suffered at least two miscarriages, one in 1534 and another at the beginning of 1536. The latter miscarriage was swiftly followed by the downfall of the Queen, who was arrested on 2 May, 1536, imprisoned, and executed (beheaded) on 19 May 1536 after being convicted of treason; incest with her younger brother, George Boleyn; and witchcraft. Historians debate the exact reason why Anne fell from power, but it's generally agreed that she was innocent of the charges against her, and that her death was orchestrated by her political rivals.
   Nearly three years old when her mother was executed, Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and lost the title of princess. She also lost the money and gifts her mother had routinely showered upon her. After Anne's death, she was addressed as the Lady Elizabeth and lived separately from her father as he married his succession of four more wives. In 1537, her father's third wife, Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son, Prince Edward, who became the heir apparent to the throne. Elizabeth's first governess was Lady Margaret Bryan, a baroness whom Elizabeth called "Muggie". At the age of four, Elizabeth acquired a new governess, Catherine Champernowne (later Lady Catherine Ashley), whom she often referred to as "Kat". Champernowne developed a close relationship with Elizabeth and remained her confidante and good friend for life. Matthew Parker, her mother's favourite priest, took a special interest in Elizabeth's well-being, particularly because a fearful Anne had entrusted her daughter's spiritual welfare to Parker before her death. Parker later became Elizabeth's first Archbishop of Canterbury after she became queen in 1558. One companion, to whom she referred with affection throughout her life, was her cousin, the Irishman Thomas Butler, later 3rd Earl of Ormonde (d. 1615).
   Elizabeth was resourceful, determined, and exceedingly intelligent. She loved learning for its own sake. Like her mother and father, she was flirtatious and charismatic. She also inherited their sharp tongues and fiery tempers.

King Edward VI

Henry VIII died in 1547, at which point Elizabeth was 13 years old; Henry was succeeded by Edward VI. Catherine Parr, Henry's last wife, married Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, Edward VI's uncle, and took Elizabeth into her household. There, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham. She came to speak and read six languages: her native English, as well as French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin. In later life she acquired a working knowledge of German, reportedly so she could read religious and military works in that language. Elizabeth was an avid reader and often spent hours reading Greek or Latin literature. Under the influence of Catherine Parr and Ascham, Elizabeth was raised in the new Church of England.
Elizabeth didn't live with her step-mother for long. At Whitsun in May 1548, she was sent to Cheshunt, the home of Sir Anthony Denny, by the then-pregnant Catherine, who had become concerned about the closeness between Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour, and the behaviour of the two: Seymour's behaviour was by the standards of the time thoroughly inappropriate (on one occasion he and Catherine had cut a gown Elizabeth was wearing to pieces; on another, he entered her room when she was still in her nightclothes), and rumours claimed that Seymour had seduced his young charge, or that he'd intended to marry her. Elizabeth never saw her step-mother again, although they exchanged cordial letters before the death of the latter; Catherine died of puerperal fever after childbirth on 5 September 1548. Elizabeth was then moved to the royal manor at Hatfield.
Elizabeth became implicated in Thomas Seymour's schemes to seize control of England in March 1549; when Thomas was arrested for attempting to kidnap the King, and for plotting a coup against the Lord Protector, it was suggested that she'd been a party in this matter, and that she'd encouraged him in his apparent ambitions to marry her. Elizabeth, though questioned by Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, was accepted as being innocent, and wasn't charged. Seymour, less fortunate, was convicted and executed. Later legend claimed that when Elizabeth heard of his execution, she commented, "Today died a man with much wit and not much judgment"; in fact, the story appears to be untrue. As long as Edward VI, her half-brother, remained on the throne, Elizabeth's own position remained secure. In 1553, however, Edward died of tuberculosis and assorted other ailments, aged only fifteen. He left a will, in which he attempted to nullify his father's wishes for the succession: disregarding the Act of Succession 1543, the new document excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne and declared Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Mary, Duchess of Suffolk (Henry VIII's sister) to be heiress. This change was part of a plan hastily thought up by the regent, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was determined to maintain his power and his reforms, and who had been surprised by Edward's sudden decline; with the connivance of Lady Jane's family, the Greys, Dudley married the heiress to his youngest son, Guilford Dudley. After Edward's death, Lady Jane ascended the throne, but was deposed less than two weeks later. Armed with popular support, Mary rode triumphantly into London, her 20-year-old half-sister Elizabeth at her side.

Queen Mary

Mary Tudor contracted a marriage with Prince Philip of Spain (later King Philip II), seeking to strengthen the Catholic influence in England. Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 sought to prevent Mary from marrying Philip, and after its failure, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for her alleged involvement. There were demands for Elizabeth's execution, but few Englishmen wished to put a member of the popular House of Tudor to death. The Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner wanted to remove Elizabeth from the line of succession, but neither Mary nor Parliament would allow it. After two months in the Tower, Elizabeth was released on the same day her mother had been executed eighteen years earlier. She was then put under house arrest under the guard of Sir Henry Bedingfield.
Following a moderate start to her reign, the Roman Catholic Mary opted for a hard line against Protestants, whom she regarded as heretics and a threat to her authority. In the ensuing persecution she came to be known as "Bloody Mary". She urged Elizabeth to convert to the Roman Catholic faith, but Elizabeth, instead, kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions. By the end of that year, when Mary was mistakenly rumoured to be pregnant, Elizabeth was allowed to return to court at Philip's behest. He worried that his wife might die in childbirth, in which case he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than Elizabeth's next-closest relative, Mary Stuart, also known as "Mary, Queen of Scots". Mary Stuart had grown up in the French court and was betrothed to François, the French Dauphin. Although Mary Stuart was Catholic like Mary Tudor, Philip didn't desire Mary Stuart to grasp the English crown because her political stance would be heavily influenced by the French. Mary Tudor died in November 1558 possibly from ovarian cancer which also killed her mother Catherine of Aragon, leaving Elizabeth as heir to the English throne.
There was rejoicing in the streets of London upon Mary's death, and in November 1558 Elizabeth was set to succeed to the throne. Legend has it that she was sitting beneath an oak tree reading the Bible at Hatfield when the news reached her - although this is unlikely given the winter season. A manservant approached her and breathlessly said, "Your Majesty…" Elizabeth then quoted in response: "This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes".

Queen Elizabeth

During her procession to the throne, she was welcomed wholeheartedly by the common people, who performed plays and read poetry extolling her beauty and intelligence. Elizabeth's coronation was on January 15, 1559. She was 25 years old. Since the senior bishops declined to participate in the coronation because Elizabeth was illegitimate under both canon law and statute, the relatively unknown Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle crowned her. The communion was celebrated by Oglethorpe, but a few weeks before the coronation, she demanded that he not elevate the host, which the Bishop refused. Offended by this intransigence, Elizabeth I walked out after the reading of the gospel. Elizabeth I's coronation was the last one during which the Latin service was used; future coronations except for that of George I used the English service. She later made her mother's chaplain, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Elizabeth and the 1559 Religious Settlement

One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth’s early reign was religion. Communion with the Roman Catholic Church had been reinstated under Mary, but was again severed by Elizabeth. She relied primarily on her chief advisors, Sir William Cecil, as her Secretary of State, and Sir Nicholas Bacon, as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, for direction on the matter. Parliament was summoned in 1559 to consider the Reformation Bill and to create a new church. The Reformation Bill defined the Communion as a consubstantial celebration as opposed to a transubstantial celebration, included abuse of the pope in the litany, and ordered that ministers shouldn't wear the surplice or other Catholic vestments. It allowed ministers to marry, banned images from churches, and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Head of the Church of England. The bill met heavy resistance in the House of Lords, as Roman Catholic bishops as well as the lay peers voted against it. They reworked much of the bill, changed the litany to allow for a transubstantial belief in the Communion and refused to grant Elizabeth the title of Supreme Head of the Church. Parliament was prorogued over Easter, and when it resumed, the government entered two new bills into the Houses — the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity.

Act of Supremacy

The Act of Supremacy validated ten Acts that Mary had repealed and confirmed Elizabeth as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Supreme Governor was a suitably equivocal title that made Elizabeth head of the Church without ever saying she was. This was important because many felt that a woman couldn't rule the church. Elizabeth's changes were more wholesale than those of her half-brother, Edward VI. All but one of the bishops lost their posts, a hundred fellows of Oxford colleges were deprived; many dignitaries resigned rather than take the oath. The bishops who were removed from the ecclesiastical bench were replaced by appointees who would agree to the reforms.
On the question of images, her initial reaction was to allow crucifixes and candlesticks and the restoration of roods, but some of the new bishops whom she'd elevated protested. In 1560 Edmund Grindal, one of the Marian exiles now made Bishop of London, was allowed to enforce the demolition of rood lofts in London and in 1561 the Queen herself ordered the demolition of all lofts. Thereafter, the determination to prevent any further restoration was evidenced by the more thoroughgoing destruction of roods, vestments, stone altars, dooms, statues and other ornaments. The queen also appointed a new Privy Council, removing many Roman Catholic counsellors by doing so. Under Elizabeth, factionalism in the Council and conflicts at court greatly diminished. The Act of Supremacy had passed without difficulty.

Act of Uniformity

However, the Act of Uniformity 1559 which forced people to attend Sunday service in an Anglican church, at which a new version of the Book of Common Prayer was to be used, was passed by only three votes. The Bill of Uniformity was more cautious than the initial Reformation Bill. It revoked the harsh laws proposed against Roman Catholics, it removed the abuse of the pope from the litany and kept the wording that allowed for both consubstantial and transubstantial belief in the Communion.
After Parliament was dismissed, Elizabeth, along with Cecil, drafted what are known as the Royal Injunctions. These were additions to the settlement and largely stressed continuity with the Catholic past — ministers were ordered to wear the surplice. Wafers, as opposed to ordinary baker's bread, were to be used as the bread at Communion. There had been opposition to the settlement in the shires, which for the most part were largely Roman Catholic, so the changes were made in order to allow for acceptance to the Settlement. What succeeded more than anything else was the sheer length of Elizabeth's reign; while Mary had been able to impose her programme for a mere five years, Elizabeth had more than forty. Those who delayed, 'looking for a new day' when restoration would again be commanded, were defeated by the passing of years.
Elizabeth ratified the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis established on April 3, 1559, bringing peace with France. She adopted a principle of "England for the English". Her other realm, Ireland, was dealt with differently. The English customs enforced in Ireland were unpopular with its inhabitants, as were her religious policies.

Marriage and power

Soon after her accession, many questioned whom Elizabeth would marry. Her reason for never marrying is unclear; she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of Henry VIII's wives, her mother's death always in her mind, or perhaps psychologically scarred by her rumoured childhood relationship with Lord Thomas Seymour while in his household. Contemporary gossip held that she'd suffered from a physical defect that she was afraid to reveal, perhaps scarring from smallpox. There was also the story that she'd only marry one man, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was rumoured to be deeply in love and whom she appointed her Master of the Queen's Horse; however, until 1560, Dudley was married to Amy Robsart, who died in suspicious circumstances. After Robsart's death, Elizabeth's council refused to consider sanctioning a marriage between the Queen and Dudley, because of Dudley's status as a commoner and his family's past history (his grandfather had been an infamous bureaucrat under Henry VII, executed by Henry VIII; his father had been the still-more infamous Lord Protector). Some believe Elizabeth decided that if she couldn't have Dudley, she wouldn't marry at all.

Virginity

Elizabeth was honored with a colony in the Americas being named after her. Virginia was named for Elizabeth because she was often referred to as the ‘Virgin Queen”. While this is because she never married, it remains unclear whether she was literally a virgin. Even among her contemporaries she was a social and sexual enigma by refraining from marriage, sex, and childbirth. While a king was expected to keep a mistress or concubine it would have been politically dangerous for a woman to behave in the same manner. The sexuality of the sovereign was as important to the national psyche then as in her father's time — though in a very different way.
It was advantageous in several ways for Elizabeth to retain her reputation as a virgin. Even though — had she married — her status wouldn't have changed from that of a queen regnant to a queen consort, there were other consequences to consider. Because a Christian wife was expected to defer to her husband's authority, a reigning queen risked her political supremacy with marriage. Marital life might have created unwanted tension in the bedchamber, at home and abroad — the marriages of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, were sufficient examples in that regard.
However, rumours of affairs abounded, one of the most enduring being with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. Later in her life, the queen was taken with Leicester's stepson, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.

Conflicts with France and Scotland

The Queen found a dangerous rival in her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, who was the wife of the French King Francis II. In 1559, Mary had declared herself Queen of England with French support. In Scotland, Mary Stuart's mother, Mary of Guise attempted to cement French influence by providing army fortification against English aggression. A group of Scottish lords allied to Elizabeth deposed Mary of Guise and, under pressure from the English, Mary's representatives signed the Treaty of Edinburgh, which led to the withdrawal of French troops. Though Mary vehemently refused to ratify the treaty, it had the desired effect and French influence was greatly reduced in Scotland.
Upon the death of her husband, Francis II, Mary Stuart had returned to Scotland. In France meanwhile, conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenots led to the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion. Elizabeth secretly gave aid to the Huguenots. She made peace with France in 1564, agreeing to give up her claims to the last English possession on the French mainland, Calais, after the defeat of an English expedition at Le Havre; but not to her claim to the French crown, which had been maintained since the reign of Edward III during the period of the Hundred Years' War in the 14th century, and wasn't renounced until the reign of George III during the 18th century (a few years after the French Revolution).
Later, several conspiracies aimed at bringing England back into the Catholic Church centered around Mary, Queen of Scots. Secret letters in her own hand were presented as evidence of conspiracy to overthrow Elizabeth, and with great reluctance, Elizabeth had her executed for treason in 1587.

Plots and rebellions

At the end of 1562, Elizabeth fell ill with smallpox, but later recovered. Alarmed by the Queen's near-fatal illness, Parliament asked in 1563 that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent civil war upon her death. She refused to do either, and in April, she prorogued Parliament. Parliament didn't reconvene until Elizabeth needed its assent to raise taxes in 1566. The House of Commons threatened to withhold funds until the Queen agreed to provide for the succession. On October 19, 1566, Sir Robert Bell boldly pursued Elizabeth for the royal answer despite her command to desist; in her own words "Mr. Bell with his complices must needs prefer their speeches to the upper house to have you my lords, consent with them, whereby you were seduced, and of simplicity did assent unto it."
   Different lines of succession were considered during Elizabeth's reign. One possible line was that of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII's elder sister, which led to Mary I, Queen of Scots. The alternative line descended from Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk; the heir in this line would be the Lady Catherine Grey, Lady Jane Grey's sister. An even more distant possible successor was Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who could claim descent only from Edward III, who reigned during the fourteenth century. Each possible heir had his or her disadvantages: Mary I was a Roman Catholic, Lady Catherine Grey had married without the Queen's consent and the Puritan Lord Huntingdon was unwilling to accept the Crown. Mary, Queen of Scots, had to suffer her own troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth had suggested that if she married the Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, then Elizabeth would "proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir." Mary chose her own course, and in 1565 married a Roman Catholic, who also had a claim to the English throne, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Lord Darnley was murdered in 1567 after the couple had become estranged. Darnley was a heavy drinker and had approved the murder of Mary's secretary, David Rizzio, with whom he suspected her of having an affair. Mary then married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely believed to be responsible for Darnley's murder. Scottish nobles then rebelled, imprisoning Mary and forcing her to abdicate in favour of her infant son, who consequently became James VI of Scotland.
   In 1568, the last viable English heir to the throne, Catherine Grey, died. She had left two sons, but they were deemed illegitimate, owing to the absence of any living witnesses to the marriage, or to any clergy who could attest to having performed it. Her heiress was her sister, the Lady Mary Grey, a hunchbacked dwarf. Elizabeth was once again forced to consider a Scottish successor, from the line of her father's sister, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots. Mary I, however, was unpopular in Scotland, where she'd been imprisoned. She later escaped from her prison and fled to England, where she was captured by English forces. Elizabeth was faced with a conundrum: sending her back to the Scottish nobles was deemed too cruel; sending her to France would put a powerful pawn in the hands of the French king; forcibly restoring her to the Scottish throne may have been seen as an heroic gesture, but would cause too much conflict with the Scots; and imprisoning her in England would allow her to participate in plots against the Queen. Elizabeth chose the last option: Mary was kept confined for eighteen years, much of it in Sheffield Castle and Sheffield Manor in the custody of George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, and his redoubtable wife Bess of Hardwick. Mary was later removed to Tutbury Castle.
   In 1569, Elizabeth faced a major uprising, known as the Northern Rebellion, instigated by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland. Pope Pius V aided the Roman Catholic Rebellion by excommunicating Elizabeth and declaring her deposed in a papal bull. The Bull of Deposition, Regnans in Excelsis, was only issued in 1570, arriving after the Rebellion had been put down. After the Bull of Deposition was issued, however, Elizabeth chose not to continue her policy of religious tolerance. She instead began the persecution of her religious enemies, giving impetus to various conspiracies to remove her from the throne. She also permitted the Church of England to take a more explicitly Anglican line by allowing Parliament to pass the Thirty-Nine Articles. These were not intended as a complete statement of the Christian faith, but of the position of the Church of England vis-a-vis the Roman Catholic Church and dissident Protestants.}} Shortly afterwards, twelve royal monopolies were ended by royal proclamation; further sanctions could be sought in the courts of common law. These reforms, however, were only superficial; the practice of deriving funds from the grants of monopolies continued.
   At the same time as England was fighting Spain, it also faced a rebellion in Ireland, known as the Nine Years War. The chief executor of Crown authority in the North of Ireland, Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, was declared a traitor in 1595. Seeking to avoid further war, Elizabeth made a series of truces with the earl; but during this period, Spain attempted two further armada expeditions against Northern Europe, although both failed owing to adverse weather conditions. In 1598, O'Neill offered a truce, while benefiting from Spanish aid in the form of arms and training; upon expiry of the truce, the English suffered their worst defeat in Ireland at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.
   In 1599, one of the leading members of the navy, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and given command of the largest army ever sent to Ireland, in an attempt to defeat the rebels. Essex's campaign was soon dissipated, and after a private parley with O'Neill — in which the latter sat on horseback in the middle of a river — it became clear that victory was out of reach. In 1600, Essex returned to England without the Queen's permission, where he was punished by the loss of all political offices and of the trade monopolies, which were his principal income.
   The succession to the throne had been the ultimate political concern in England since Mary Stuart's arrival in Scotland in the 1560s, and by the end of the century there was only one question in the minds of Elizabeth's advisors: who next? It is in this context that the behaviour of Essex is best explained. In 1601, he led a revolt against the Queen, but popular support was curiously lacking, and the former darling of the masses was executed. Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, a bookish man who liked to wrap himself up in scarves, was sent to Ireland to replace Essex. With ruthless intent, Mountjoy attempted to blockade O'Neill's troops and starve his people into submission; the campaign effectively cast the English strategy of the earlier Desmond Rebellion (1580–83) into a larger theatre, with proportionately greater casualties. In 1601, the Spanish sent over 3,000 troops to aid the Irish, with the justification that their intervention countered Elizabeth's previous aid to the Dutch rebels in the campaign against Spanish rule. After a devastating winter siege, Mountjoy defeated both the Spanish and the Irish forces at the Battle of Kinsale; O'Neill surrendered a few days after Elizabeth's death in 1603, although the fact of her death was concealed from the supplicant rebel with great skill and irony on Mountjoy's part.
   During her last ailment, the Queen is reported to have declared that she'd sent "wolves, not shepherds, to govern Ireland, for they've left me nothing to govern over but ashes and carcasses" (The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1925)). Elizabeth's successor promoted Mountjoy to the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office in which he showed skill and moderation, until his early death in 1605.

Death

Although the last fifteen years of Elizabeth's reign were darkened by political misfortunes, they were also backlit by the artistic glories of the age of Sidney, Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare, by the navigational achievements of Drake and Hawkins, and by the establishment of the first colony in Virginia, named after her. This period had begun with the repulsion of the Spanish Armada, which secured Elizabeth's authority as a Protestant monarch; it ended with the melancholy of old age and the increasing cynicism of a Court that had grown stale. Yet Elizabeth contrived some of her greatest speeches in the autumn of her reign and continued to survive, as she'd all her life, the continual challenges of those who had a claim to the throne.
   The Queen's health remained good until the autumn of 1602, when a series of losses among her remaining friends appeared to throw her into a melancholy. In her depression, she was lethargic and silent, quite unlike her usual brisk manner. Her courtiers anxiously tried to cheer her, but as she admonished her godson, John Harington, "When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less." She withdrew to Richmond Palace and to her bedchamber, lying on cushions on the floor and taking no nourishment. To Robert Cecil, insisting she must go to bed, she flared, "Little man, little man, the word 'must' isn't to be used to Princes." Elizabeth became silent, crestfallen and lethargic. She stood upright staring out of her bedchamber window, without relief, for two days, silent, with her finger held in her mouth like a tired child. It was as if she knew that, lying down, she wouldn't rise again.
   On March 21, 1603, the Lord Admiral finally persuaded the Queen to go to bed. They had to saw the Coronation Ring off her finger where it had grown into the flesh. She could no longer speak. Robert Cecil later alleged that she wordlessly signed to him that James VI of Scotland, son of Mary of Scotland, would be her heir. On March 24, with the Archbishop of Canterbury on his knees by her bed, praying with her women for her soul, she died, between two and three o'clock in the morning. One of the royal chaplains later said it was like watching the falling of "a ripe apple from the tree." Elizabeth had ruled England for more than 44 years, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. A horseman was already travelling north to Scotland, and James VI, carrying her ring.
   The will of Henry VIII had declared that Elizabeth was to be succeeded by the descendants of his younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk, rather than by the Scottish descendants of his elder sister, Margaret Tudor. If the will were upheld, then Elizabeth would have been succeeded by Lady Anne Stanley. If, however, the rules of primogeniture were upheld, the successor would be James VI, King of Scotland. Still other claimants were possible; they included Edward Seymour, Lord Beauchamp of Hache (the quasi-legitimate son of the Lady Catherine Grey) and William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby (Lady Anne Stanley's uncle).
   It is sometimes claimed that Elizabeth named James her heir on her deathbed. According to one story, when asked whom she'd name her heir, she replied, "Who could that be but my cousin Scotland?" According to another, she said, "Who but a King could succeed a Queen?" Finally, a third legend suggests that she remained silent until her death. There is no evidence to prove any of these tales. At any rate, none of the alternative heirs pressed their claims to the throne. James VI was proclaimed King of England as James I a few hours after Elizabeth's death on March 24, 1603; heralding the end of the Tudor Dynasty and the start of the reign of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of England. James I's proclamation broke precedent because it was issued not by the new sovereign himself but by a Council of Accession, as James was in Scotland at the time. Accession Councils, rather than new sovereigns, continue to issue proclamations in modern practice.

Ancestors

Elizabeth I's ancestors in three generations>

Elizabeth I Queen of England and Ireland	Father: Henry VIII	Paternal Grandfather: Henry VII	Paternal Great-grandfather: Edmund Tudor
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Lady Margaret Beaufort
		Paternal Grandmother: Elizabeth of York	Paternal Great-grandfather: Edward IV
			Paternal Great-grandmother: Elizabeth Woodville
	Mother: Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pembroke	Maternal Grandfather: Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire	Maternal Great-grandfather: William Boleyn
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Margaret Butler
		Maternal Grandmother: Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire	Maternal Great-grandfather: Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
			Maternal Great-grandmother: Elizabeth Tilney

Style and arms

Elizabeth I used the official style ' Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Fidei defensor, etc." Whilst most of the style matched the styles of her predecessors, Elizabeth I was the first to use "etc." It was inserted into the style with a view to restoring the phrase "of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head", which had been added by Henry VIII but later removed by Mary I. The supremacy phrase was never actually restored, and "etc." remained in the style, to be removed only in 1801.
She has been retroactively known as Queen Elizabeth I since the accession of Elizabeth II in 1952. Prior to that time, she was referred to as Queen Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's arms were the same as those used by Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Whilst her Tudor predecessors had used a gold lion and a red dragon as heraldic supporters, Elizabeth used a gold lion and a gold dragon. Elizabeth adopted one of her mother's mottoes, Semper Eadem ("Always the Same") and also her mother's emblem as her emblem (The eagle on top of a tree trunk).

Legacy

Assessment of Elizabeth's reign remains a controversial topic. Elizabeth proved to be one of the most popular monarchs in English or British history. She placed seventh in the 100 Greatest Britons poll, which was conducted by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2002, outranking all other British monarchs. In 2005, in the History Channel documentary Britain's Greatest Monarch, a group of historians and commentators analysed twelve British monarchs and gave them overall marks out of 60 for greatness (they were marked out of 10 in six categories, such as military prowess and legacy). Elizabeth I was the winner, with 48 points.
   Many historians, however, have recently taken a less favourable view of Elizabeth's reign, and contemporary Elizabethan biographies and studies of the Tudor period have increasingly cast doubt on the above assessments [for exampleSomerset, Guy, Haigh, Ridley, Elton]. Elizabethan England was generally unsuccessful militarily, and recurring military failures against England's three primary foreign adversaries of the period- France, Ireland and Spain- had serious historical repercussions. England was permanently expelled from its Continental territories following defeat of Elizabeth's armies against France, while the guerrilla war against Ireland late in her reign proved to be politically and financially disastrous. Though England achieved some early military victories against Spain, the English navy and army both were consistently defeated by Spanish forces in the years after the Armada for the duration of the Anglo-Spanish War, enabling Spain to gain dominance of the seas for another half-century while frustrating English attempts to establish overseas colonies. The wars also seriously endangered English finances and mired the kingdom in substantial debt and loss of collateral by 1603.
   Thus Elizabeth had far less military success than other English or British monarchs such as Henry V, Alfred the Great or of course the Norman-born William the Conqueror. Furthermore, her own grandfather and founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII, ultimately proved more successful in bestowing a solvent treasury to his successors, while funding a maritime expedition (by John Cabot) to Newfoundland which resulted in the first English claim to overseas territory as well as seasonal visits to the region's fishing grounds. Despite her long period in power, Elizabeth was unable to build on Cabot's territorial claims with permanent overseas settlements; these were initiated later under the Stuart kings, following treaty negotiations with Spain in 1604. The bloody and damaging conflicts in Elizabethan Ireland, the deterioration of English finances late in the reign, the sale of offices to finance wars and even Elizabeth's role as a sponsor of the first English slave trader, Sir John Hawkins, have been cited as additional grounds for contemporary criticism.
   In other important respects however, Elizabeth was a successful monarch, and recent treatments of her and the other Tudors do generally credit her with helping to steady the nation even after inheriting a significant national debt from her half-sister Mary, while patronising the arts in the manner of Henry VIII during his reign. Furthermore, despite the successful landing and attack by Don Amesquita's Spanish soldiers on western England in 1595, the country managed to escape other Spanish invasions that could have been far more crippling. Moreover, Elizabeth was also able to prevent the outbreak of a religious or civil war on English soil despite the turmoil following Henry VIII's break from Rome, in contrast for example to the divisive religious conflict then gripping France in which English soldiers themselves later became involved.
   In terms of Elizabeth's reputation as a champion of the Protestant cause, for many years after her death, her Accession Day of November was celebrated by Pope-burning processions. Her achievements in this regard, however, were greatly magnified after her death. Although she was often depicted in later years as a great defender of Protestantism in Europe, in reality she often wavered before coming to the aid of her Protestant allies for a variety of reasons. As Sir Walter said in relation to her foreign policy, "Her Majesty did all by halves."

Elizabeth in the arts

Many artists glorified Elizabeth I during her reign and masked her age in their later portraits. Elizabeth was often painted in rich and stylised gowns. Elizabeth is often shown holding a sieve, a symbol of virginity.
There have been numerous depictions of her in the arts. Henry Purcell wrote a 1692 semi-opera The Fairy-Queen, an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. One of Elizabeth's nicknames was "The Faerie Queen", after the poem in her honour by Edmund Spenser. Gioacchino Rossini wrote his first Neapolitanq opera on the subject of Elizabeth I, Elisabetta, regina d'Inghiliterra, in 1814–15, ultimately based on a three-volume Gothic romance novel, The Recess, by Sophia Lee. Elizabeth also appears in two operas by Gaetano Donizetti, Maria Stuarda from 1834 and Roberto Devereux from 1837 about her affair with the Earl of Essex. Benjamin Britten wrote an opera, Gloriana, about the relationship between Elizabeth and Lord Essex, composed for the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II.
20th century American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Maxwell Anderson dramatized episodes of Elizabeth's life in two of his most popular plays: Elizabeth the Queen (1930) and Mary of Scotland (1933).
A historical fantasy of Elizabeth's life, featuring elven guardians, is recounted in This Scepter'd Isle, Ill Met by Moonlight and By Slanderous Tongues by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis.
Elizabeth's own writings, which were considerable, were collected and published by the University of Chicago Press as Elizabeth I: Collected Works.

Popular culture

There have been numerous notable portrayals of Queen Elizabeth in film and television; in fact, she's the most filmed British monarch. George MacDonald Fraser wrote "no historic figure has been represented more honestly in the cinema, or better served by her players". Those who have made an impression in the role of Elizabeth in the last 100 years, have included:

Film classics

French actress Sarah Bernhardt in Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912)

Florence Eldridge in Mary of Scotland (1936)

Flora Robson in Fire Over England (1937), The Lion Has Wings (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940)

Olga Lindo in Time Flies (1944)

Bette Davis in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Virgin Queen (1955)

Jean Simmons in Young Bess (1953)

Agnes Moorehead in The Story of Mankind (1957)

Contemporary films

Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth I and Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Stuart appeared in 1972's Mary, Queen of Scots.

Quentin Crisp portrayed Elizabeth I in the 1993 film Orlando.

Cate Blanchett received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance of Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur's 1998 film Elizabeth. Blanchett reprises the role in the sequel,, also directed by Kapur, and released on October 12, 2007.

Judi Dench won an Academy Award in 1998 for her supporting performance as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

Helen Mirren in "Elizabeth I (TV series)" (2005)

Television

Judith Anderson was nominated for an Emmy Award portraying the title role in the 1968 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production Elizabeth the Queen, opposite Charlton Heston as the Earl of Essex.

Glenda Jackson won two Emmy Awards portraying Elizabeth I in the highly acclaimed, nine hour BBC drama series Elizabeth R in 1971. The series follows Elizabeth from vulnerable princess to aging queen in six 90 minute episodes. Jackson later reprised her Elizabeth for the 1972 historical film Mary Queen of Scots.

Miranda Richardson gave a comic interpretation of Elizabeth (known as Queenie) in the second season (Blackadder II) of the 1980s BBC situation comedy as well as in the feature-length millennium special .

Anne-Marie Duff portrayed the Queen in the BBC's four-part drama The Virgin Queen (2005), featuring state-of-the-art makeup to show the Queen's journey through life.

Helen Mirren also won an Emmy portraying Elizabeth I in the two-part Channel 4 miniseries Elizabeth I in 2005/06, which was later picked up and aired by HBO for American audiences. The drama focused on her relationships with the Earl of Leicester, portrayed by Jeremy Irons, and the Earl of Essex, played by Hugh Dancy. The show gained rave reviews and claimed several Emmys and a couple of BAFTA awards. Mirren has also played Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006).

In a 2007 episode of Doctor Who entitled "The Shakespeare Code", Elizabeth appears, played by Angela Pleasence, in the closing scene claiming that title character the Doctor is her sworn enemy.

Video games

In the popular real time strategy video game Age of Empires III, Queen Elizabeth is the AI personality for the British civilization.

Elizabeth has been the leader of the English civilization in all of Sid Meier's Civilization computer games; she's joined by Queen Victoria in Civilization IV and Sir Winston Churchill in the expansion to that game.

Fictional literature

Author Philippa Gregory had Elizabeth as a character in 4 out of her 5 books on the Tudors. She is seen as a baby and a child in The Other Boleyn Girl, a child in The Boleyn Inheritance, a young woman in The Queen's Fool and as a young queen in The Virgin's Lover.

Legacy by Susan Kay

I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles

Queen of This Realm by Jean Plaidy

Virgin: Prelude to the Throne by Robin Maxwell. Elizabeth's story is spliced with her mother's in Maxwell's book The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. Maxwell also writes of a fictional child Elizabeth and Dudley had in The Queen's Bastard.

In the early 1950s, Margaret Irwin produced a trilogy based on Elizabeth's youth: Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain.

In the 1970s, Mary M. Luke wrote a definitive Tudor trilogy, Catherine the Queen, A Crown for Elizabeth, and Gloriana: The Years of Elizabeth I, with the latter two books focusing on Elizabeth's youth and reign.

In children's and young adults' fiction, Elizabeth's story is told in Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor, a book in the Royal Diaries series published by Scholastic, and also in Beware, Princess Elizabeth by Carolyn Meyer.

Author Karen Harper has a mystery series about Elizabeth. Included in this series are nine fictional novels. They are: The Poyson Garden, The Tidal Poole, The Twylight Tower, The Queene's Cure, The Thorne Maze, The Queene's Christmas, The Fyre Mirror, The Fatal Fashione and The Hooded Hawke.

The 2007 book Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir about Lady Jane Grey features Elizabeth as a young woman.

An aged and dying Queen Elizabeth was a central character in the 2005 Marvel Comics series Marvel 1602.

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