Elizabeth l
Starting life as a princess seems a dream come true to most little girls, but Queen Elizabeth’s life was not always easy. Born in 1533 on September seventh to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. To her parents, Elizabeth’s birth was not one that held great joy as they had both wanted a boy so that their would be a male heir to the throne of England.
In fact, her father the king had arranged a separation to the Catholic church and created the Church of England for the express reason of annulling his marriage as they had only one living child: a girl named Mary. Mary’s mother had passed the age in which it was likely she would have any additional children and the king was determined to have a son. Therefore, Elizabeth’s birth was a slap in the face to him as he had moved mountains to marry her mother for the sole purpose of having a son, not a daughter.
To top it off, Anne Boleyn fell out of favor with the king. He had her arrested, imprisoned, and executed by beheading when Elizabeth was two years old. As a result, King Henry VIII claimed that Elizabeth was illegitimate and therefore not to be awarded the title of princess because she no longer held a place in line for the throne.
Within a few days of Anne Boleyn’s death, Elizabeth’s father remarried. This time, he chose Jane Seymour. This union was to be short lived however, as Jane died during childbirth. She did leave King Henry VIII a son with her passing, though, as the child she bore him was Prince Edward.
Elizabeth and Edward shared the misfortune of growing up motherless, which helped them to form a close bond. Her sister Mary was not as close to her as there was some resentment on Mary’s part at having once been responsible for caring for Elizabeth as an infant. Mary never quite forgave her sister for usurping her title of Princess. To Mary, it mattered not that Elizabeth was not to have the title of Princess either, but only that Elizabeth was the reason Mary was not Princess. Mary and Elizabeth were able to get along, though, during their growing up years, experiencing only a normal amount of sibling rivalry.
Elizabeth was a bright child and she received an extensive and impressive education throughout her youth. She was a gifted student who often delighted those who taught her. Besides an impressive list of languages, including Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, and Welsh, Elizabeth became proficient with musical instruments and learned needlepoint and art.
It was King Henry VIII’s fifth wife that took an interest in Elizabeth upon her marriage to the king. Katherine Howard, a cousin on her mother’s side, often took time to play with Elizabeth and paid her more attention than Elizabeth had known in the court before. In fact, on her first public dining experience, Katherine gave Elizabeth the seat of honor next to her, exalting the experience for the young girl.
Katherine Howard was not to be Elizabeth’s savior and ticket to the limelight for long, though. When Elizabeth was eight years old, Katherine Howard was accused of and found guilty of adultery. She was arrested and sent to the Tower of London where she was executed by beheading.
Elizabeth told her childhood friend Robert Dudley that she would never marry after this incident and indeed she never did. In her short life, she had lost her mother and had three stepmothers, two of whom had died in the same manner as her mother for various charges brought against them. Elizabeth had probably also heard tales of Mary’s mother and may have associated the fate of the mother figures in her life to the consequences of marriage to a man.
The king’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr, eased life for Elizabeth. She insisted on having the royal children with her and Elizabeth and Mary received more attention and time at the court than they had previously. Elizabeth did offend her father at one such appearance at the court and was subsequently banished for a time. Katherine Parr helped to smooth things over and Elizabeth was able to return home.
By the time Elizabeth came home, her father was no longer in the best of health. He was considerably obese and had a large ulcer on his leg. He died on January 28, 1547 when Elizabeth was thirteen years old. Edward, heir to the throne, was only nine years old at the time of his father’s death.
Edward held the throne with the supervision and guidance of his uncle from his mother’s side for a few short years. However, Edward had never been a healthy child. In 1553, at the age of 16, Edward died, leaving his two sisters as heirs to the throne.
Because Mary was older than Elizabeth, she took control of the throne. Since she had been declared illegitimate by the annulment of the King and her mother’s marriage, Mary had to fight for her crown. This made her even more paranoid of having her throne taken by her younger sister, Elizabeth although there never was any proof that Elizabeth had any plans on overthrowing her sister as Queen of England. In fact, Elizabeth had given every indication that she did not ever anticipate gaining the crown as she was the third in line of the King Henry VIII’s children and therefore not an immediate heir. Besides, Elizabeth fully understood that the execution of her mother at the hands of the king had rendered her an illegitimate child of the king and therefore not in a direct line to rule England.
After successfully having Lady Jane Grey arrested and executed in order to take her rightful place upon the throne nine days after Lady Jane Grey succeeded Edward, Mary began to settle into being the new Queen of England. Suspicious by nature, Mary would begin a reign that would not leave Elizabeth untouched by her sister’s jealousy and obvious paranoia.
As Queen Mary was a Catholic, she attempted to rule by reuniting England with Rome and the Catholic church. It is in this particular act as queen that Mary became known as “Bloody Mary”. The nickname was an apt one since she burned more than 300 protestants at the stake for refusing to give up their religious beliefs and adopt hers as the only acceptable views on religion.
Mary also became worried about Elizabeth. She feared her sister desired the throne. During the last few years of her reign, Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tower of London, the same place Elizabeth’s mother had been held and later beheaded on order of King Henry VIII for charges of adultery and witchcraft, violations considered to be high treason against the king. Elizabeth was only released and placed on semi-house arrest after Mary mistakenly thought she had become pregnant, which would have eliminated any claim to the throne that Elizabeth had as a new heir would be born of Mary that would be first in line to succeed her. However, Mary was not pregnant at all. Historians believe from the documentation of the event that Mary may have had a tumor or an ovarian cyst that created the mistaken diagnosis of pregnancy.
Mary’s health began to fade shortly thereafter. She died on November 17, 1558. leaving Elizabeth as the only true heir to the throne of England.
At 25 years of age, Elizabeth found herself the Queen of England. Under her rule, England would see more transformations than it had before as it entered the Golden Ages. It is thus called the Golden Age because of the direction that Elizabeth took her country. Though she never married and was often called the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth had a keen mind and a passion for exploring the possibilities of her times. Francis Drake was but one of the first explorers that Elizabeth empowered to advance England in the world economy of the times. Elizabeth returned her country to the Protestant religion and became an enemy of Catholic Spain. Although she did not have as murderous reign as her sister, she was not without trials and tribulations, including leading the war against the Spanish Armada. |
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As Elizabeth was fond of the fine arts, advancements were also made in the areas of literature and the other arts. In fact, the works of William Shakespeare were written during the time of Elizabeth’s reign. Other famous authors of her time included Spenser and Marlowe. During her reign as queen, Elizabeth was forced to have her cousin executed because of the religious turmoil of the times. Her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, was Catholic in faith and had a strong, legitimate claim to the throne of England. Elizabeth remained determined to have England as a Protestant state as that was her faith. She did not, however, make the decision in haste. When Mary, Queen of Scots, sought exile in England from her own restless country, Elizabeth had her imprisoned in the Tower of London. It would be another twenty years before she gave the order to execute her cousin by means of beheading. Elizabeth died on March 23, 1603, leaving her throne to James VI of Scotland. His faith was protestant and he was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots. |
