Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, Henry had desperately wanted a son and showed no interest in baby Elizabeth. Following two miscarriages of boys, Anne was beheaded when Elizabeth was 2 years old.

This tragic start in life may have helped to shape the resilience of one of England’s best-loved monarchs ~ ‘Good Queen Bess’. She bore no children herself as she refused to marry, so she was also known as the ‘Virgin Queen’. Elizabeth was to be the last of the Tudor monarchs. Her two half-siblings from Henry’s first and third wives were crowned before her, one of them shutting her in the Tower of London!

After their deaths, Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 and her reign is known as the ‘Golden Age’, with legendary figures such as Shakespeare, Drake and Raleigh making their mark. She ruled for 45 years, during which time she displayed her intelligence, tolerance and gift for public speaking, as in her famous “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king…” speech in defiance of the approaching Spanish Armada.

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