Chapter I.

Early life

1.1. Childhood

Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace in London on September 7, 1533 and

was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth
Howard. She was the second child of Henry VIII of England born in wedlock to survive
infancy. Her mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was
the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. Her older half-sister, Mary, had
lost her position as a legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's
mother, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne, with the intent to sire a male heir and
ensure the Tudor succession.

Elizabeths early life and childhood were greatly controlled by the various
political changes and intrigues surrounding the court of her father.
 When Elizabeth was two years and eight months old, her mother was executed
on 19 May 1536. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the
royal succession. Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's death, Henry married Jane
Seymour, but she died shortly after the birth of their son, Prince Edward, in 1537.

The birth of her half-brother Edward changed things, for the young Elizabeth.
The Third Act of Succession restored Elizabeth to the succession after Edward and
Mary, though without reversing her bastardization in a legal sense. A very
uncertain state for her in which to be growing up. She could not call herself princess
but had to be addressed formally as the Lady Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's first governess or Lady Mistress, Margaret Bryan, wrote that she
was "as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew any in my life". By
the autumn of 1537, Elizabeth was in the care of Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy, who
remained her Lady Mistress until her retirement in late 1545 or early 1546.

1.2. Elizabeth's education

Elizabeth was a very bright and smart child. Ever since she was a little girl, a
lot of attention had been paid to her education.
Her first tutor was Katherine Champernowne (who would later marry Sir
John Ashley), who was simply called Kat by the little Elizabeth. A well-educated
woman, Katherine was appointed governess to Elizabeth in the autumn of 1536 and
led the foundation for her education. She taught Elizabeth to read and write, English
and grammar. In addition, Elizabeth also learnt the rules of etiquettes, how to
behave in polite society, subservience to her father and elders and embroidery, a
very popular pastime for women at the time.
A precocious girl gifted with excellent memory, Elizabeth had a great grasp of
the English language by the time she was five or six. It was now time for her to start
studying foreign languages. Kat taught her the rudiments of Latin but pretty soon it
became clear that the pupil had learned all her teacher knew and needed other
tutors.
Luckily, she was allowed to share her brother Edward's tutors: Jean Belmain,
who taught French; Richard Cox, Provost of Eton who taught Greek and Latin, mixed
with modern events such as Henry VIII invading France and conquering Bolougne,
and was able to turn studying into a game; and John Cheke, regius professor of
Greek at St. Johns College and a classic linguist who focused on readings of the Holy
Scriptures, Cicero, Aristotle and Plato. Cheke quickly noticed Elizabeth's precocity
and suggested to her step-mother Catherine (Parr), that the young girl should be
given a private tutor.
The choice fell upon William Grindal, a twenty-something Cambridge student
and Aschams pupil. In the mornings, he would teach Elizabeth Greek, focusing on
readings of the New Testament and Greek classics. The afternoons were dedicated
to Latin, with particular emphasis on the works of Cicero and Livius. She also studied
theology, philosophy, maths, geometry, history and literature. She was particularly
good at foreign languages and by the time she was eleven she was fluent in Greek,
Latin, Italian, French and English.
In 1548, Grindal died and was replaced by Roger Ascham, a Yorkshireman
who studied at Cambridge. Asham loved reading and discussing the old Greek and
Roman classics with his bright students. Asham followed the daily routine set by
Grindal, choosing texts that best adapted to supply her tongue with the purest
diction, her mind with the most excellent precepts, and her exalted station with a
defense against the utmost power of fortune. He focused mainly on Cicero, Livio,
Sophocles, Demosthenes, St. Cipriani and the Greek New Testament.
Apart from academic studies, Elizabeth but she also enjoyed playing, just like
other children. Her education also included non-academic subjects befitting a lady of
her rank and status. These other lessons included sewing, embroidery, dancing,
music, archery, riding and hunting. Roger Ascham also remarked that Elizabeth had
the intelligence of a man and this held her in good stead in the years of her reign.
Her handwriting was beautiful and her elegant style can be seen from examples of
her signature.
Overall, Elizabeth was a very bright and clever student who loved to learn new
things. This, coupled with the excellent education she received, really helped her,
once she was crowned Queen, to become a successful ruler.

1.3. Thomas Seymour

 Henry VIII died in 1547 and Elizabeth's half-brother, Edward VI, became king
at age nine. After Henry's death Catherine Parr, who was the 6th and last wife of
Henry VIII, becomes the guardian of Elizabeth and she married Thomas Seymour of
Sudeley.
Thomas Seymour happens to be one of the most ambitious men at court
and the brother of the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. He
courted Katharine in secret and married her with indecent haste in May 1547 - just
four months after Henry had died. Their marriage was without permission from his
brother or the Privy Council. The couple took Elizabeth into their household
at Chelsea.
Living under the same roof as Elizabeth, Thomas became more than a little
familiar, if not intimate, with Elizabeth, indulging in daily romps with her, tickling her.
Her governess, Kat Ashley, thought this scandalous, and reported it to Catherine. At
first, Catherine dismissed the behavior as just innocent fun, and even joined in the
romps on a few occasions. When Catherine was pregnant in the spring of 1548, she
had become concerned enough about her husbands flirtatious relationship with
Elizabeth that she sent Elizabeth away to live with Anthony Denny and his wife, Joan
Champernowne, in Hertfordshire.
However, Thomas Seymour continued scheming to control the royal family
and tried to have himself appointed the governor of the King's person. When Parr
died after childbirth on 5 September 1548, he renewed his attentions towards
Elizabeth, intent on marrying her. The details of his former behaviour towards
Elizabeth emerged, and for his brother and the king's council, this was the last straw.
In January 1549, Seymour was arrested on suspicion of plotting to marry Elizabeth
and overthrow the Lord Protector. Elizabeth, living at Hatfield House, would admit
nothing. Her stubbornness exasperated her interrogator, Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, who
reported, "I do see it in her face that she is guilty". Seymour was beheaded on 20
March 1549.
 Chapter II. Elizabeth became queen

2.1. The struggle for the throne

Elizabeth once again found herself embroiled in political intrigue after

Edward's death in 1553. His will swept aside the Succession to the Crown Act 1543,
excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from the succession, and instead declared as his
heir Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, Duchess of Suffolk.
Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by the Privy Council, but her support quickly
crumbled, and she was deposed after nine days. On 3 August 1553, Mary rode
triumphantly into London, with Elizabeth at her side.
The show of solidarity between the sisters did not last long. Mary, a devout
Catholic, was determined to crush the Protestant faith in which Elizabeth had been
educated, and she ordered that everyone attend Catholic Mass; Elizabeth had to
outwardly conform. Mary's initial popularity ebbed away in 1554 when she
announced plans to marry Prince Philip of Spain, the son of Emperor Charles V and
an active Catholic. Discontent spread rapidly through the country, and many looked
to Elizabeth as a focus for their opposition to Mary's religious policies.
In January and February 1554, Wyatt's rebellion broke out; it was soon
suppressed. Elizabeth was brought to court, and interrogated regarding her role, and
on 18 March, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Elizabeth fervently
protested her innocence. Though it is unlikely that she had plotted with the rebels,
some of them were known to have approached her. Mary's closest confidant,
Charles V's ambassador Simon Renard, argued that her throne would never be safe
while Elizabeth lived; and the Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, worked to have
Elizabeth put on trial. Elizabeth's supporters in the government, including Lord
Paget, convinced Mary to spare her sister in the absence of hard evidence against
her. Instead, on 22 May, Elizabeth was moved from the Tower to Woodstock, where
she was to spend almost a year under house arrest in the charge of Sir Henry
Bedingfield. Crowds cheered her all along the way.
 On 17 April 1555, Elizabeth was recalled to court to attend the final stages of
Mary's apparent pregnancy. If Mary and her child died, Elizabeth would become
queen. If, on the other hand, Mary gave birth to a healthy child, Elizabeth's chances
of becoming queen would recede sharply. When it became clear that Mary was not
pregnant, no one believed any longer that she could have a child. Elizabeth's
succession seemed assured.
King Philip, who ascended the Spanish throne in 1556, acknowledged the new
political reality and cultivated his sister-in-law. She was a better ally than the chief
alternative, Mary, Queen of Scots, who had grown up in France and was betrothed
to the Dauphin of France.
When his wife fell ill in 1558, King Philip sent the Count of Feria to consult
with Elizabeth. This interview was conducted at Hatfield House, where she had
returned to live in October 1555. By October 1558, Elizabeth was already making
plans for her government. On 6 November, Mary recognised Elizabeth as her
heir. On 17 November 1558 Mary died.
News of Mary's death reached Elizabeth at Hatfield, where she was said to be
out in the park, sitting under an oak tree. Upon hearing that she was Queen,
Elizabeth quoted the 118th Psalm's twenty-third line, in Latin: "A Dominum factum
est illud, et est mirabile in oculis notris" - "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes."

2.2. Elizabeth Accession

 Elizabeth became queen at the age of 25, and declared her intentions to her
Council and other peers who had come to Hatfield to swear allegiance. The speech
contains the first record of her adoption of the mediaeval political theology of the
sovereign's "two bodies": the body natural and the body politic:

My lords, the law of nature moves me to sorrow for my sister; the burden
that is fallen upon me makes me amazed, and yet, considering I am God's
creature, ordained to obey His appointment, I will thereto yield, desiring
from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be
the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me. And as
I am but one body naturally considered, though by His permission a body
politic to govern, so shall I desire you all ... to be assistant to me, that I with
my ruling and you with your service may make a good account to Almighty
God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth. I mean to direct all
my actions by good advice and counsel. And therefore, considering that
divers of you be of the ancient nobility, having your beginnings and estates
of my progenitors, kings of this realm, and thereby ought in honour to have
the more natural care for maintaining of my estate and this commonwealth;
some others have been of long experience in governance and enabled by my
father of noble memory, my brother, and my late sister to bear office; the
rest of you being upon special trust lately called to her service only and
trust, for your service considered and rewarded; my meaning is to require
of you all nothing more but faithful hearts in such service as from time to
time shall be in your powers towards the preservation of me and this
commonwealth. And for council and advice I shall accept you of my
nobility, and such others of you the rest as in consultation I shall think meet
and shortly appoint, to the which also, with their advice, I will join to their
aid, and for ease of their burden, others meet for my service. And they
which I shall not appoint, let them not think the same for any disability in
them, but for that I do consider a multitude doth make rather discord and
confusion than good counsel. And of my goodwill you shall not doubt, using
yourselves as appertaineth to good and loving subjects.
 Chapter III. Marriage problem

3.1. Elizabeth I and marriage

From the start of her reign in 1558, Elizabeth I was pressurised into marriage
so that there would be an heir to the throne. Even though Elizabeth was Queen,
members of the Privy Council still felt that it was their right and duty to persuade
Elizabeth that marriage was for the best of the nation. Marriage was a political
necessity and a way of forming a useful alliance with a European power. Children
would secure the line of succession.
The years passed until in 1566 Parliament refused to grant Elizabeth any
further funds until the matter was settled. This was a big mistake. No one told the
Queen what to do and, using the skills of rhetoric she had been taught, Elizabeth
addressed members of Parliament. The welfare of the country was her priority, not
marriage. 'I am already bound unto a husband which is the Kingdom of England ' she
once remarked. She would marry when it was convenient and would thank
Parliament to keep out of what was a personal matter.
More than that, Elizabeth simply did not wish to be married. 'If I followed the
inclination of my nature, it is this,' she said, 'beggar woman and single, far rather
than queen and married.'
However for several years she seriously negotiated to marry Philip II's
cousin Archduke Charles of Austria.

3.2. Robert Dudley

Despite all these tactics Elizabeth was capable of falling in love, and the one who
came closest to winning her heart was her childhood friend. Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester. It was said that Amy Robsart, his wife, was suffering from a "malady in one
of her breasts", and that the Queen would like to marry Dudley if his wife should die.
By the autumn of 1559 several foreign suitors were vying for Elizabeth's
hand; their impatient envoys engaged in ever more scandalous talk and reported
that a marriage with her favourite was not welcome in England. Amy Dudley died in
September 1560 from a fall from a flight of stairs and, despite the coroner's
inquest finding of accident, many people suspected Dudley to have arranged her
death so that he could marry the queen. Elizabeth seriously considered marrying
Dudley for some time.
Among other marriages being considered for the queen, Robert Dudley was
regarded as a possible candidate for nearly another decade. Elizabeth was extremely
jealous of his affections, even when she no longer meant to marry him herself. In
1564 Elizabeth raised Dudley to the peerage as Earl of Leicester. He finally remarried
in 1578, to which the queen reacted with repeated scenes of displeasure and lifelong
hatred towards his wife, Lettice Knollys.
 Chapter IV. Catholic cause

4.1. Elizabeth and Mary

 Queen Elizabeth I wanted to build a stable, peaceful nation with a strong
government, free from the influence of foreign powers in matters of the church and
the state but she inherited a number of problems stirred up by her sister, Mary.

The country was at war with France, which proved to be a tremendous drain
on the royal coffers. There was also great tension between different religious
factions after Mary worked to restore England to Roman Catholicism by any means
necessary. In fact, she earned the nickname Bloody Mary for ordering the execution
of 300 Protestants as heretics.
With the assistance of her key advisor, William Cecil, Elizabeth ended the war
with France. She was able to avoid clashing with the two other superpowers of the
age, France and Spain, for much of her reign. In 1585, Elizabeth entered the fray to
support the Protestant rebellion against Spain in the Netherlands. Spain then set its
sights on England, but the English navy was able to defeat the infamous Spanish
Armada in 1588. According to several reports, the weather proved to be a deciding
factor in England's victory.
Elizabeth also had to fend off internal efforts to remove her from the throne.
One of the greatest threats came from Mary Stuart, queen of Scots. The daughter of
King James V of Scotland, she united her country with France in 1558 when she
married the future King Francis II. After Francis's death in 1561, Mary returned to
Scotland to take up the reins of power, but the country had an established
Protestant church and was run by a council of Protestant nobles supported by
Elizabeth. She was raised Catholic and was considered by many English Catholics to
be the rightful monarch of England.
In 1565 Mary married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who carried his own claim
to the English throne. The marriage was the first of a series of errors of judgement
by Mary that handed the victory to the Scottish Protestants and to Elizabeth. Darnley
quickly became unpopular in Scotland and then infamous for presiding over the
murder of Mary's Italian secretary David Rizzio. In February 1567, Darnley was
murdered by conspirators almost certainly led by James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell.

4.2. Mary's death

Shortly afterwards, on 15 May 1567, Mary married Bothwell, arousing

suspicions that she had been party to the murder of her husband. These events led
rapidly to Mary's defeat and imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle. The Scottish lords
forced her to abdicate in favour of her son James, who had been born in June 1566.
James was taken to Stirling Castle to be raised as a Protestant. Mary escaped
from Loch Leven in 1568 but after another defeat fled across the border into
England, where she had once been assured of support from Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's first instinct was to restore her fellow monarch; but she and her
council instead chose to play safe. Rather than risk returning Mary to Scotland with
an English army or sending her to France and the Catholic enemies of England, they
detained her in England, where she was imprisoned for the next nineteen years
before she finally agreed to have her cousin executed in 1587.
 Chapter V. Elizabeth's wars

5.1. Anglo-Spanish War (15851604)

Although relations between Spain and England had begun rather well, with
Philip even proposing marriage to the English Queen, over the 30 years since the
Queen's accession, relations had deteriorated. There were many reasons for this. To
begin with, England was a Protestant country, and Spain was a Roman Catholic one.
The Spanish made no secret of their hostility to the English Queen, who they
believed was illegitimate and had no right to the English throne, and had been
involved in plots to dethrone her. Elizabeth herself had encouraged the activities of
the English pirates, who plundered Philip's ships as they made their way from the
New World, seizing their treasures. This had angered Philip immensely, especially as
the stolen treasure was used to help fund those people rebelling against his rule in
the Netherlands.
As early as 1585, Philip had begun to prepare a great fleet that, under the
Spanish commander Santa Cruz, would invade England. At first the aim of the
Armada was to liberate the captive Queen of Scots, but when Mary was executed for
conspiring Elizabeth's death in 1587, Philip planned to invade England in the name of
his daughter, the Infanta Isabella. Philip believed he had a genuine claim to the
English throne, both by descent from John of Gaunt, and as Queen Mary I's husband.
The purpose of the mission was to depose Elizabeth, put Mary/Isabella on the
throne, and make England Roman Catholic once again.
Santa Cruz died, and his successor, the Duke of Medina Sedonia, was not at
all suited to the post. He had little faith in the enterprise and little experience. He
begged Philip to release him from the charge, but the King was adamant. The
enterprise had received another set back when Francis Drake and his men had sailed
to the coast of Spain and destroyed many of the Spanish ships at Cadiz. Queen
Elizabeth had heard mutterings of the intended invasion of England by Spain for
some time. She was not, however, at first concerned about the rumours.
Despite numerous setbacks the Spanish had received, they were determined to
set a fleet against England, and in the May of 1588 at last the great fleet set out. It
was planned that the Spanish fleet, consisting of over 100 ships, would sail up from
Spain along the English Channel and meet with the forces of the Duke of Parma,
Philip's nephew, making their way from the Netherlands. Together they would sail
towards England. It was believed that this force would overwhelm the English. The
English would be conquered, and the heretical Queen would be captured. As soon
as the ships began to make their way up the channel, the fighting began. While
English soldiers and sailors fought for England's liberty, Queen Elizabeth made her
way to Tilbury. She was not going to sit trembling inside a guarded Palace while her
people fought, but was going to go to the coast of the battle and "live or die" with
them. Like a true warrior Queen, Elizabeth, upon a White Horse, inspected her
soldiers, and made what was possibly her most famous speech of all.
The Queen's confidence in God and her people was rewarded. In the English
channel, the Spanish were suffering a humiliating defeat. The weather was dreadful,
with the wind and rain against them, and they were not able to compete with the
superior English ships and war tactics. They fled in terror when fire ships were aimed
at them. The only way back to Spain was the perilous journey around the coast of
Scotland, and many a Spaniard never saw his home country again. The battle was
over, the English had won.
5.2. Rebellion in Ireland.

She wanted to have firm control of Ireland because she feared that her
enemy, the Spanish and Catholic king, King Philip, would send forces to Ireland and
would use them to attack England. She wanted Ireland to be loyal to England. To do
this , she sent more English settlers to Ireland and gave them lands cheaply so that
they would keep the neighbouring Gaelic clans and chiefs under control. Elizabeth
also established a new religion from the protestant faith; it was called the Anglican
faith.
Munster was ruled at the time by a powerful family led by the Earl of
Desmond, who at first was on friendly terms with the queen. However, in 1580, a
rebellion began in Munster against Queen Elizabeth. Many of the families who lived
there hoped to get help from the Catholic king of Spain to defeat Queen Elizabeth.
The Earl of Desmond did not put down the rebellion and was called a traitor by the
agents of the queen. His estate lands were burned and his tenants were killed. The
Earls castles were also taken.
In 1580, the Queens new deputy, Lord Grey, led an English fleet of ships into
the bay of Smerwick (Dn an ir in Irish) and laid siege to the fort which was being
defended by six hundred Irish and Spanish soldiers. After three days the soldiers and
the rebels surrendered. A monument was erected in 1980 to commemorate the
massacre of the whole garrison which had surrendered at the fort of the
Fitzmaurices in Smerwick, Co. Kerry.
In order to force other rebels to surrender during the 1580s, the English
troops under Lord Grey destroyed the lands of the rebels in five counties. This
caused a famine to occur in Munster.
The Earl of Desmond was hunted down and killed in 1583. Huge areas of land
in Munster were taken over by the English crown. From 1585, the plantation of
Munster began and new English settlers were given land. Many of the new settlers
found it difficult to find the location of their new land and the local Irish population
was hostile to them. About 300,000 acres of land were confiscated in total.
Some huge estates were given to Englishmen, such as Walter Raleigh. These new
settlements were often attacked by the local population and many settlers decided
to return to England.

5.3. Nine Years' War.

Between 1594 and 1603, Elizabeth faced her most severe test in Ireland
during the Nine Years' War, a revolt that took place at the height of hostilities with
Spain, who backed the rebel leader, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. On the death of
Shane O'Neill, Turlough O'Neill became Lord of Tyrone. Turlough attempted to
establish an independent power-base in Ulster. The English government responded
by backing Hugh O'Neill as a rival leader.
Hugh O'Neill was given an English education and modern military training and
experience. The English helped him assert control over part of the Tyrone territory
and in 1585 Elizabeth made him Earl of Tyrone. However, Hugh O'Neill was
ambitious to be far more than Elizabeth's favorite vassal. During the late 1580s he
began to make contacts with Rome, Spain and his Irish rivals.
In April 1593, Tyrone directed his brother to revolt, but himself pretended
continued loyalty to the crown. Only in February 1595 did Tyrone openly join the
rebellion and move against the English garrison at Blackwater Fort. He equipped a
modern army and proclaimed himself the champion of native Irish Catholics against
English Protestant interlopers.Tyrone continued to try and negotiate alliance with
traditional enemies amongst the Gaelic Lords. In 1596, he persuaded the chieftains
of Munster to rebel. He was also able to obtain some money and munitions from
Spain.
 The English were preoccupied with the continued threat of Spanish invasion
and sent only limited forces to Ireland. The mounted uncoordinated expeditions that
were defeated at the Battle of Clontibert (1595) and the Battle of Yellow Ford (1598).
In spring 1599, Elizabeth sent Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, to put the revolt
down. To her frustration, he made little progress and returned to England in
defiance of her orders. He was replaced by Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who took
three years to defeat the rebels. O'Neill finally surrendered in 1603, a few days after
Elizabeth's death. Soon afterwards, a peace treaty was signed between England and
Spain.
 Chapter VI. Death and legacy

6. Death and legacy

"It is not my desire to live or to reign longer than my life and my reign shall be for
your good." - Elizabeth I to her Parliament (1601)

The Queen's health remained fair until the autumn of 1602, when a series of
deaths among her friends plunged her into a severe depression. In February 1603, the
death of Catherine Howard, Countess of Nottingham, the niece of her cousin and
close friend Catherine, Lady Knollys, came as a particular blow. In March, Elizabeth
fell sick and remained in a "settled and unremovable melancholy". She died on 24
March 1603 at Richmond Palace, between two and three in the morning. A few hours
later, Cecil and the council set their plans in motion and proclaimed James VI of
Scotland as James I of England.
Elizabeth's coffin was carried downriver at night to Whitehall, on a barge lit
with torches. At her funeral on 28 April, the coffin was taken to Westminster Abbey
on a hearse drawn by four horses hung with black velvet. In the words of the
chronicler John Stow:
"Westminster was surcharged with multitudes of all sorts of people in their
streets, houses, windows, leads and gutters, that came out to see the obsequy, and
when they beheld her statue lying upon the coffin, there was such a general sighing,
groaning and weeping as the like hath not been seen or known in the memory of
man."

Elizabeth was interred in Westminster Abbey in a tomb she shares with her
half-sister, Mary. The Latin inscription on their tomb, "Regno consortes & urna, hic
obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis", translates to
"Consorts in realm and tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of
resurrection".
The son of her former rival, Mary Stuart, succeeded her on the throne as
James I.