Elizabeth I of England
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| Elizabeth I of England | |
 Queen of England and Ireland Queen of France, nominal title |
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| Born | September 7, 1533 Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England |
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| Died | Richmond Palace, England |
Elizabeth I of England (September 7, 1533 - March 24, 1603) was the Queen of England from November 17, 1558 until she died in 1603. She has also been called The Virgin Queen or Good Queen Bess.
[change] Early life
Elizabeth the First was born in the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the daughter of Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn, but she wasn’t a princess. She had lost her right as a princess, because her mother was killed by the king.
When Elizabeth was four, she met Katherine Champernowne. Katherine was her teacher. Her and Elizabeth had a close relationship and they were good friends for life. Elizabeth was intelligent. She loved learning. She could speak and read six languages, her native English, as well as French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin, and she had music talent from her father.
Elizabeth became the Queen of England in 1558 after her half-sister, Mary I of England, died. She was crowned on January 15, 1559 at Westminster Abbey. She was crowned by Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle. Her father Henry VIII made a new law, the Act of Supremacy, in 1534. Supremacy means top and power. This law decided that the king was top in England. She followed him. At first she did the Reformation, and brought Catholicism and Protestantism together. She accepted Catholicism though she was a Protestant.
Elizabeth has been called the "Virgin Queen", because she never married. It is not clear why Elizabeth never married. They thought it was because of a few things. One is that she was hurt by her mother’s death. There were also rumours that she would only marry one man, Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was deeply in love. But she was opposed by surrounding people. So Elizabeth decided that if she could not have him, she would not marry at all. The most likely reason may be that she didn’t want to cause problems by marriage. For example, politics would become uneasy and England would be opposed by other countries. So She refused even the marriage to Felipe II of Spain. But she had many boyfriends.
Elizabeth I caught smallpox in 1562. This scared Parliament, because they did not know who would be the King or Queen after her. They asked Elizabeth I to name an heir, but she did not.
Elizabeth had a cousin, Mary Stuart. They were rivals. Mary married the French prince, after she became the French queen. And she was the queen of Scots and it also had the right that was able to become the queen in England. For Elizabeth, Mary was a very dangerous person. In 1568, Mary ran away to England, asked for help from Elizabeth. Elizabeth worried very much. Because they were rivals, and their denomination was also different. Because Mary was a strong believer in Catholicism, Elizabeth feared religious confusion in England. After all, she treated Mary as guest and prisoner. She did not want to kill Mary, but surrounding people opposed her. In 1578, Elizabeth put Mary to death after a long hesitation. It is believed Mary had a plot to kill Elizabeth.
In 1572 Elizabeth I made an alliance with France. She made negotiations with them to marry. In 1580, Pope Gregory XIII sent an army into Ireland to help with their rebellion, but this failed.
[change] Later years
After Mary’s death, the trouble with Spain became serious. Elizabeth had helped the Netherlands fight against Spain. The Netherlands fought for independence. An attempted Spanish invasion in 1588 (see Spanish Armada) failed, and this made Queen Elizabeth I very popular.
Elizabeth I fell ill in February 1603, suffering from physical weakness and insomnia. Insomnia means the condition of not being able to sleep.She had no child, so she appointed James VI to be the next king of England. James VI was Mary’s son. Elizabeth I died at age 69, on March 24, 1603. She had kept the independence of England that was a weak state at that time. She has been called "Good queen Bess".
[change] Legacy
There have been many films about Elizabeth I.
- The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) - Bette Davis
- The Virgin Queen (1955) - Bette Davis
- Elizabeth R, a BBC television series - Glenda Jackson
- Elizabeth (1998) - Cate Blanchett played Elizabeth I in the film and almost won an Academy Award for Best Actress.
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