Elizabeth I

BORN: September 7, 1533 • Greenwich, England

DIED: March 24, 1603 •Richmond, Surrey, England

English queen

When Elizabeth I became queen of England in 1558, she inherited a weak and backward island that had been severely divided by three religious upheavals in two decades. Most of her subjects doubted the ability of a woman to lead the troubled country and anxiously waited for her to marry. But Elizabeth chose to play her role as the monarch of the realm alone. Applying her instinct, intelligence, energy, and stubborn willfulness to the task, she would become the strongest and most beloved monarch the island had seen in centuries. During Elizabeth's reign England became one of Europe's most powerful and sophisticated countries and a growing empire. In military strength, exploration, commerce, and above all the arts, the nation experienced a golden age that changed the culture of England, as well that of Europe and North America, forever.

"I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too."

Birth and early childhood

Despite her royal birth, Elizabeth suffered some terrible hardships as a child. At the time of her conception (when her mother became pregnant with her) her father, Henry VIII (1491–1547; see entry), had been married to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536) for over twenty years. The royal couple had only one surviving child, Mary I (1516–1558; see entry). Henry, who desperately wanted a male heir to the throne, sought to get out of his marriage. He had developed a passion for Anne Boleyn (c. 1504–1536), his wife's well-educated and attractive lady-in-waiting, and he wished to marry her. (A lady-in-waiting is a woman in the queen's household who attends the queen.) Henry hoped the Catholic pope, the head of the Catholic Church, would quietly terminate his marriage. When the pope refused, Henry secretly married the already pregnant Boleyn, claiming his first marriage had been illegitimate. As the pope prepared to excommunicate the king, depriving him of membership in the church, Henry broke off England's centuries-old relationship with the Roman Catholic Church and named himself head of the church in England. English citizens who continued to practice Catholicism under the pope's leadership had their property taken away or were imprisoned.

Elizabeth was born on September 7, 1533. Her father had changed the course of English history in order to provide a male heir to the throne, so he was not happy to find out his child was a girl. Within a few months the infant Elizabeth, tended by a small group of noblewomen, or women born to families of high rank, was sent to live in her own household about twenty miles north of London. Boleyn visited her child and sent her gifts of clothing, but she had other challenges to face. It was not long before Henry lost interest in his new queen. Less than three years after their marriage Boleyn was arrested on charges of committing adultery. Few people, even those who disliked her, believed the charges, but Henry overpowered all objections. Boleyn was beheaded on May 19, 1536. Within two weeks of her death Henry married Jane Seymour (c. 1509–1537). From this third marriage he finally got a son, Edward VI (1537–1553), although his new wife died twelve days after giving birth.

Elizabeth was not yet three years old when her mother was executed. She never spoke publicly or wrote about her feelings about her mother's death or her father's part in it.

A royal education

Elizabeth was raised in a series of royal households under the loving care of her governess, Kat Ashley. Her older half-sister, Mary, often lived in her household, and the sisters got along well with each other. After years of separation from their father, Elizabeth and Mary were invited to Henry's sixth and final marriage to Katherine Parr (c. 1512–1548) in 1543. Parr was a loving stepmother, creating a warm family life Elizabeth had not experienced before. Under Parr's influence, the aging Henry made certain that both his daughters were in line to inherit the throne, making it official that upon his death the English throne was to pass to Edward. If Edward died without an heir, Mary was next in line, and then Elizabeth.

The top educators in England were hired to teach Edward, and Elizabeth, who was already an outstanding student, was allowed to study under them as well. The tutors had all participated in the new humanist movement that had spread from Italy to England's Cambridge University in the beginning of the century. Humanism stressed educating students in the ancient Latin and Greek languages, preparing them to study about human virtue and morality from the classic texts. Elizabeth surpassed all expectations as a student. Well before reaching her teens, she was fluent in Latin, French, Italian, and Welsh, and knew a considerable amount of Greek. She was fond of translating ancient Latin and Greek works into English or French, and she studied the Bible and the works of the classical philosophers as well as history on a daily basis. Revealing the prevailing notion of his day that women were inferior, her teacher, the humanist Roger Ascham (1515–1558), quoted in Simon Schama's A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 bce–1603 ce wrote: "Her mind has no womanly weakness, her perseverance is equal to that of a man, and her memory long keeps what it quickly picks up." Ascham took the unusual step of teaching Elizabeth oratory, or the art of public speaking, which was not considered a useful skill for women. She excelled in it.

Katherine Parr had become intrigued with the era's religious reformers, people of the new Reformation movement who believed there was corruption in the Catholic Church and disliked some of its practices. This movement resulted in the establishment of several Protestant churches. The Protestants preferred a simple, pious study of the Bible and more personal experiences in seeking truth and faith. Parr held daily religious meetings, and both Elizabeth and Edward eagerly attended. Ascham was a Protestant as well.

The child king

When Henry VIII died in 1547, nine-year-old Edward took the throne as Edward VI. By the orders of Edward's regents, the people appointed to rule England in his name while he was under age, Catholic traditions and rituals (established ceremonies performed in precise ways according to the rules of the church) were forbidden and a new Protestant prayer book was introduced that outlined the services for all English churches. Catholics were expelled from the council of royal advisors, Catholic bishops were fired and replaced by Protestants, and those English people who would not accept the Protestant faith were persecuted. Faithful Catholics watched in silent horror as mobs destroyed their churches, smashing the altars and the images of the Virgin Mary and other Catholic symbols.

After her father's death, Elizabeth lived with Katherine Parr, who had hastily married a former love, Thomas Seymour (c. 1508–1549). Seymour was the ambitious and good-looking uncle of the young king. He was also the younger brother of Edward's first regent, the Duke of Somerset. Seymour began to make inappropriate romantic advances toward the fourteen-year-old Elizabeth, who evidently found him intriguing. Parr died due to complications in childbirth and Seymour began to consider the possibility of marrying Elizabeth. Though she never agreed to marriage, Elizabeth did not object to his attentions. In the end Seymour's ambitions got the better of him. He made plans to kidnap Edward and take over his brother's role as regent. The plot was uncovered, and Seymour was sent to the Tower of London. (The Tower was a fortress on the Thames River in London that was used as a royal residence, treasury, and, most famously, as a prison for the upper class.) Details of the relations between Elizabeth and Seymour quickly became a matter of public knowledge, and Edward's councilors questioned Elizabeth to find out if she had participated in Seymour's conspiracy. The young princess maintained a quiet dignity even when, two weeks later, Seymour was beheaded for treason. No one has ever known how Elizabeth felt about Seymour and his execution; she had learned at a very early age to keep her thoughts and feelings to herself.

Imprisoned during Mary's rule

In 1553 Edward died at the age of fifteen. Mary, a devout Catholic, took the throne, determined to restore England to Catholicism. She soon became engaged to marry the heir to the Spanish throne, Philip II (1526–1598; see entry). It was a very unpopular marriage in England. Spain was the richest and most powerful nation in Europe. The English people, Catholic and Protestant alike, feared that Philip would make England a province of Spain. A group of English noblemen hastily planned to overthrow Mary before she could wed Philip and place Elizabeth on the throne. The effort failed, but it left Mary suspicious that Elizabeth had participated in the plot. The queen imprisoned her younger sister in the Tower of London. There Elizabeth spent two miserable months, sick and afraid for her life. When she was released, she was placed under house arrest at the home of one of her sister's loyal followers. Mary married Philip in 1554.

After a failed pregnancy Mary turned her attention to forcing Protestants to conform to the Catholic Church, beginning by enacting harsh laws against heresy, religious opinions that conflict with the church's doctrines. The most prominent religious leaders and statesmen of Edward's reign as well as more humble Protestants who refused to deny their religious beliefs were sentenced to burn at the stake. About three hundred people died in this manner during Mary's short rule, earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary." Many Protestants fled to Europe.

Elizabeth, living under constant watch, attended Catholic masses and kept her ideas about religion to herself. For good reason, she spent much of Mary's reign wondering if she would live to see the next day. Despite fears for her life, Elizabeth was observing the reigns of her brother and sister. If she succeeded to throne, Elizabeth did not wish to repeat their mistakes.

Elizabeth takes the throne

Mary died of cancer in 1558. English legend has it that when the lords arrived to bring Elizabeth the news, they found her reading a Bible under an oak tree in her garden. (The oak tree is an English symbol of the nation's stability and duration.) Upon hearing of Mary's death, Elizabeth fell to her knees, and the messengers heard her recite a verse from Psalm 118 in Latin: "This is the Lord's doing: and it is marvelous in our eyes" (as quoted in Peter Brimacombe's All the Queen's Men).

Mary had left the nation in poor shape. Its military powers were diminished, the royal government was deeply in debt, poverty was widespread, and the population had become bitterly divided by the rapid religious changes imposed by three monarchs in a row. Elizabeth got to work before her sister was buried. She began by reorganizing the Privy Council, the board of advisors that carried out the administrative function of the government in matters of economy, defense, foreign policy, and law and order, and its members served as the king's or queen's chief advisors. Elizabeth dismissed thirty of Mary's councilors. Her first appointment to the council was William Cecil (Lord Burghley; 1520–1598; see entry) as secretary of state and her chief advisor. No one but Elizabeth herself was to have greater power during her reign. Though Cecil began his office holding the firm belief that a woman alone could not rule England, he would serve Elizabeth faithfully for forty years. He was a voice for caution and moderation and a valuable counterbalance to some of the dashing, but rash, statesmen that flocked to Elizabeth's court. One of these courtiers, or royal attendants, was her long-time favorite, Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester; 1532–1588; see entry), a childhood companion who was, in these first days, named Master of Horse. Cecil and Dudley would be at odds with each other for many years to come. Elizabeth seemed to enjoy the conflict and valued both of their points of view.

At her coronation, or crowning as queen, Elizabeth immediately demonstrated her royal dignity and her understanding of her subjects. She knew that many viewed her as the illegitimate child of Anne Boleyn and that few believed a woman was fit to lead them, but she gave no sign of self-doubt as she appeared before thousands of Londoners. Observers noted that Elizabeth gave her attention to each person, listening to the speeches of children, attentively watching the plays in her honor, accepting gifts, smiling upon all, and constantly stopping to offer her thanks for the outpouring of love she received. Somehow she appeared as both goddess and warm personal friend. At twenty-five the red-haired Elizabeth was very attractive. She was tall and slender, with high cheekbones and piercing dark eyes, and she was very proud of her beautiful long-fingered hands. She created a worthy royal display, wearing Mary's coronation garments of silk, gold, and ermine (a type of fur) under her own purple velvet robes. Thousands of attendants waited upon her, and all of them had been exquisitely outfitted in silk, gold, silver, and velvet.

The religious settlement of 1559

No one was certain what Elizabeth's personal religious beliefs were, but her goal was clear: she wished to create a united church in which all English people could worship. In her 1559 religious settlement she devised a compromise between the Catholics and the Protestants. Elizabeth's church retained some of the religious objects of Catholicism—the candles, crucifixes, priests' robes, and altars. But in Elizabethan England there would be no Catholic Mass, the service at which an ordained priest performs transubstantiation, blessing the Eucharist (bread and wine) and miraculously changing it into the blood and body of Christ, while maintaining the appearance of bread and wine. Protestants objected to this ceremony because they believed that only God, not human priests, could perform such miracles. Elizabeth restored the Book of Common Prayer, which set out all the services, ceremonies, and rituals of the new church. The book was from Edward VI's Protestant reign, but the wording was made so vague that Protestants and Catholics alike could follow their own beliefs while using it. Services of the new church were conducted in English, as opposed to the Latin Catholic services, and the translated Bible was readily available to all. Elizabeth intended to be the head of the new Anglican Church, but Parliament, England's legislative body, objected strongly to a woman serving in this role. Elizabeth compromised, calling herself the supreme governor of the church and leaving final decisions on religious matters to the church authorities.

Elizabeth made it known that she meant to enforce an outward appearance of conformity, and that everyone could believe as they wished as long as they were private about it. "There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is a dispute over trifles," Elizabeth told a French diplomat, as quoted by Alison Weir in The Life of Elizabeth I. Nevertheless, the act made Protestantism the religion of England. Everyone in England was required to attend the local Anglican Church. For Catholics, these changes were unwelcome and for many Protestant reformers, the changes were not nearly enough. But most people accepted the religious compromise.

The question of succession

As soon as Elizabeth took the throne, Parliament and her Privy Council urged her to marry. They wanted an heir to the throne when she died, but that was not the only reason. Most believed that no woman could be a capable ruler. There were many suitors for the young and attractive queen of England. Her sister's husband, Philip, now the king of Spain, asked for her hand, as did the king of Sweden and the archduke of Austria. Elizabeth seems to have enjoyed the attention and did her best to keep her suitors guessing what her intentions were. But she repeatedly said she did not want a husband. She accepted her role as England's ruler and had no intention of sharing it. Furthermore there were problems with almost any choice of husband for Elizabeth. The English people did not want a foreign king, as she had seen when her sister married Philip; and Elizabeth considered most English matches beneath her.

There was one other problem. Elizabeth was apparently in love with her Master of Horse, Robert Dudley, whom she called her "Bonny Robin." Though Dudley was married when he took his post, he and Elizabeth spent hours together every day. Their intimacy raised eyebrows around the court. One of the first scandals of Elizabeth's reign occurred when Dudley's wife, who was ill with cancer, died under suspicious circumstances. Although an investigation found the death to be an accident, Elizabeth knew that suspicion remained, making marriage between Dudley and herself impossible. She made Dudley the earl of Leicester and gave him many powers in her court, remaining close to him through the years. In the meantime Elizabeth began to promote her image as the Virgin Queen, married only to her kingdom.

The queen and her court

Elizabeth's court traveled with her to her many palaces, usually consisting of from one thousand to fifteen hundred attendants and servants. The royal court was England's main place of government, business, entertainment, and art—in fact some have called it the center of English culture. Attending court was vital for all who wanted to advance their careers or be noticed. Along with statesmen and foreign representatives, the best musicians, artists, philosophers, and explorers were found at court. Young women of England's highest-ranking families sought positions at court as maids of honor. Their reward for a job well done was a marriage arranged by the queen. All who attended court dressed in the latest fashions and knew the proper manners to use in the presence of royalty. Elizabeth maintained regal magnificence in her court night and day. She believed the strength of her rule depended on a lavish display of grandeur. She dressed extravagantly and followed the elaborate royal traditions.

Elizabeth spent most of her day in the well-guarded Privy Chamber, where she conducted her business or entertained herself. Only a few privileged attendants could enter the Privy Chamber. Others met with the queen in the more public Great Hall, usually gaining entrance by paying one of her staff for the privilege.

Elizabeth was remarkably energetic. She loved sports, especially riding horses and hunting. She also loved to dance. Well into her sixties, she was frequently seen on the dance floor executing intricate hops and twirls with one of her favorites. Elizabeth's favorites were the many bold and handsome young men that she kept in her presence. Most were able flatterers, as well as good dancers, dressers, or horsemen. The queen enjoyed interesting young men who could challenge her intellect, and she preferred them to be handsome. She was very vain about her own looks. Males who wished her favor acted as though they were in love with her, even as she got older. Elizabeth expected a great deal of time and loyalty from her favorites. She had a fiery temper, once throwing a shoe in a tantrum. With her intimates she swore like a sailor, and spared no one from her sharp tongue when annoyed. But the queen also showed warm and loyal affection to her closest associates. Most of her attendants were genuinely drawn to her magnetic presence. Writer Sir John Harington (1561–1612), as quoted by Brimacombe, summarized: "When she smiled, it was a pure sunshine, that everyone did chose [choose] to bask in if they could."

Elizabeth applied her vast energy wholeheartedly to her work, involving herself in every detail of her rule, often working late into the night. Elizabeth's work included propaganda, or creating a persuasive heroic image of herself. She carefully staged her public appearances and made an effort to travel regularly to be seen by her people. During the summer she often took her whole court on progresses, lengthy and expensive visits to the estates of favored attendants.

Plots for the throne

Elizabeth's councilors constantly feared conspiracies to overthrow her. No one caused them more alarm than Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587; see entry). Mary had become the queen of Scotland as an infant, but she was raised in France and at the age of fifteen had married the heir to the French throne. She was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII (1457–1509), Elizabeth's grandfather, and had a strong claim to the English throne. Mary, a devout Catholic, returned to rule Scotland in 1560 after the death of her husband.

In 1565 Mary married Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley (1545–1567), the next heir after herself to the English throne. Darnley was an arrogant man who drank too much and offended everyone, including his wife. The couple had a son, James (1566–1625). A year after their child was born, Darnley was murdered. Many in Scotland suspected Mary had been involved. When she married the man suspected of committing the murder, the Scottish people rose up against her and forced her to give up the throne in favor of her infant son, who then became James VI of Scotland. Mary fled to England in 1568, where she asked Elizabeth for protection.

Elizabeth had much to fear from her Scottish cousin. Spain, France, the Catholic Church in Rome, Catholics in England, and exiled English Catholics abroad would all have liked to see Mary take the English throne and restore Catholicism as the nation's official religion. Elizabeth's Privy Council urged her to send Mary back to Scotland where she would be imprisoned, but Elizabeth believed strongly in the God-given authority of kings and queens. She also viewed Mary as family and did not want to be the instrument of her downfall. Elizabeth placed Mary in the watchful care of some loyal followers. As feared, Mary became a symbol of the Catholic cause and the focus of several conspiracies against Elizabeth.

The first conspiracy arose in 1569 in the distant and largely Catholic northern provinces. The rebels successfully restored some northern cathedrals to Catholicism before Elizabeth gathered a large army to suppress the rebellion, which became known as the Northern Rising. More than four hundred northern rebels were executed. The Catholic Church in Rome had supported the uprising, and in 1570 Pope Pius V (1504–1572) belatedly excommunicated Elizabeth, calling on her Catholic subjects to rise against her. At the same time Philip II became involved in a plan, known as the Ridolfi plot, for Spain to invade England and install Mary Stuart on the throne. This conspiracy failed quickly. An uneasy peace, with Mary living in captivity, continued for fifteen more years. In 1586 Elizabeth's spymaster Francis Walsingham (1532–1590; see entry) intercepted a letter in which Mary consented to a plan to kill Elizabeth. She was found guilty of treason and Elizabeth reluctantly signed the death warrant. In 1587 Mary was beheaded. After so many plots, Elizabeth's government became far less tolerant of Catholics. Hundreds of English Catholics, many of them priests, who worked to promote Catholicism were executed.

War with Spain

Spain and England had traditionally been friendly with each other, but by the 1580s, tensions between them were high. The major reason was that Philip had dedicated himself to defending the Catholic faith, and he began to feel it a point of honor that he would one day restore England to Catholicism. But there was more to it than that. England was beginning to resent Spain's monopoly (exclusive right) on trade with the Americas. Spain's monopoly had made it immensely rich and powerful. Elizabeth began allowing English privateers to attack Spanish ships. (Privateers are seafarers who own and operate their own ships independently but are authorized by their government to raid the ships of enemy nations, often capturing the entire ship with all its cargo.) This practice infuriated Philip.

Protestants in the Spanish-dominated Netherlands rose up against Philip in 1585. They asked for Elizabeth's help, and she sent them troops in a direct confrontation with Spain. Philip began planning an invasion of England immediately. By early July 1588 the Spaniards had assembled the Great Armada, a fleet of one hundred and thirty vessels, and sailed for the English Channel. The English navy of about sixty-six ships set out to meet the Armada. The sea battle began on July 19, 1588. Although the English were outnumbered, their ships were smaller, faster, and easier to maneuver. They carried cannons on their decks that could damage enemy boats from a distance. The two navies fought for more than a week without a decisive battle. Then the English waged a second attack, setting fire to several ships and sending them directly into the Spanish fleet. The Armada scattered to avoid fires. Just as they were about to get back into position, a fierce windstorm arose, further scattering the remaining Armada. The Spanish fleet retreated only to face a severe storm. About thirty-five of the Spanish ships were lost. The English had won the fight.

Meanwhile, not knowing who was winning the battle at sea, England prepared for a Spanish invasion on its soil. Elizabeth, attended by Dudley, fearlessly rode to Tilbury, a camp at the mouth of the Thames River, to appear before her troops. Dressed in silver and white velvet and holding a silver helmet and the sword of state, she spoke to the soldiers from her white horse. The speech at Tilbury enthralled her troops and became one of the defining moments of the queen's reign.

Having defeated Europe's most powerful navy, England could claim to be the greatest sea power in the world. But as her nation celebrated, Elizabeth was cast into mourning. Dudley died two weeks after escorting her to Tilbury, and this loss was only the beginning of difficult times for the queen. As the years passed and more of her closest advisors died, the aging Elizabeth sank into loneliness and depression. She mourned the loss of her old governess, Kat Ashley, and her trusted advisor, William Cecil.

The last years

In her last decades Elizabeth continued to have young favorites such as the renowned explorer, poet, and statesman Walter Raleigh (1552–1618; see entry). Her strongest affection was given to a handsome but temperamental and highly ambitious young man, Robert Devereux (Earl of Essex; 1566–1601; see entry). Elizabeth granted Devereux many favors, but she did not place him in the powerful positions he wanted, probably distrusting his abilities. In 1599 Devereux convinced Elizabeth, against her better judgment, to give him command of a force intended to stop a rebellion in Ireland. The mission failed, with Devereux unaccountably making a truce with the enemy and returning to England without orders to do so. He soon found himself out of the queen's favor and denied access to her presence. Devereux found this disgrace too humiliating to endure. He organized a poorly planned rebellion against his queen and was arrested in the act of treason. Elizabeth, in her late sixties, was forced to sign the death warrant of her last favorite. Devereux was beheaded in 1601.

Though she wore a red wig to cover her thinning hair and thick white powder to cover her wrinkles, Elizabeth's magnificence faded in her old age. In the winter of 1603 she became ill. Refusing medical treatment and food, she prepared herself for the end. She died in her bed in March. James VI of Scotland was proclaimed King James I (see entry) of England a few hours after Elizabeth's death.

At the time of her death Elizabeth was sixty-nine and had ruled England for forty-five years. Her reign was over, but the culture that had found its center in her court continued to inspire humankind with its spirit of adventure and conquest and its thirst for the arts and theater. The image that Elizabeth had cultivated over the years as "Gloriana," the symbol of a newly discovered national pride in England, survived long after the queen was gone.

For More Information

BOOKS

Brimacombe, Peter. All the Queen's Men: The World of Elizabeth I. London: Sutton Publishing, 2000.

Schama, Simon. A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 bce–1603 ce. New York: Hyperion, 2000.

Starkey, David. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

Weir, Alison. The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.

WEB SITES

"Elizabeth I." Historic Figures: BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/elizabeth_i_queen.shtml (accessed on July 11, 2006).

"Elizabeth I: Biography." http://www.elizabethi.org/uk/biography.html (accessed on July 11, 2006).

Rodriguez-Salgado, Mia and Joan Pau Rubies. "England Under Elizabeth." Kingship in the Modern World. London School of Economics and Political Science. http://www.fathom.com/course/21701738/sessionl.html (accessed on July 11, 2006).