Elizabeth I

1533-1603, Tudor, queen of England (1558-1603). Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. She died without direct heir and was succeeded by James VI/I.

Elizabeth was born at the Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, on September 7 1533. Her childhood is often described as difficult, starting with the fact that she was considered an illegitimate child after the execution of her mother Anne Boleyn May 19 1536. Later she lived with her stepmother Catherine Parr. In 1554, under the rule of her sister Mary, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London and held under arrest at Woodstock later.

On November 17 1558, Elizabeth became Queen of England; the official coronation ceremony took place on January 15 1559. (The coronation, however, is not necessary for someone to become King/Queen of England.) 1559 was also a decisive year in the process that came to be known as the Protestant Settlement: Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity; the Queen became the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. In 1570, Elizabeth was excommunicated by the Pope.

There were several Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth (Ridolfi Plot, Babington Plot), many of which focussed on Mary Stuart, the former Queen of Scotland. As Elizabeth's closest living relative, she would be the next Queen of England. Catholics might even argue that she already was, since Elizabeth was a bastard child - born while Henry was legally married to Catherine of Aragon because only the Pope could have annulled that marriage. Having been kept under arrest for 19 years, Mary Stuart was executed on February 8 1587.

The Catholic threats to Elizabeth's reign did not stop there. In 1588, Spain tried to invade England, but the English navy (and an Atlantic storm front) won the battle against the Armada. The victory was exploited to consolidate Elizabeth's power. The so-called Armada Portrait shows the Queen in a splendid dress that is adorned with pearls, i.e. fruits of the sea; her hand rests on a globe, laying claim to the West Indies, i.e. Spanish oversea territory. Making a similar point, the Armada Medal bears the inscription, "Afflavit Deus et dissipati sunt", 'He [i.e. God] blew his winds, and they [i.e. the Spanish] were scattered.' Thus, the victory was said to confirm that God was on the side of the English, as well as Protestants throughout Europe.

Elizabeth I is also known as the Virgin Queen due to the fact that she never married or had any children. Nevertheless, she had several suitors, and there were rumours about a romantic relationship with Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, who, in the popular contemporary version seems to resemble Joseph Fiennes.

Queen Elizabeth died on March 24 1603, and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Sources

• Grant, Neil. Kings & Queens. An Illustrated Guide to British Monarchs. London: HarperCollins, 2004.
• Maurer, Michael. Kleine Geschichte Englands. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2007.
• Weatherly, Myra. Elizabeth I. Queen of Tudor England. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2006.