Queen Elizabeth the First

Elizabeth “Semper Eadem”

Prologue

Known as The Golden Age in English history, the 45 year rule of Queen Elizabeth I turned the declining country of England, into one of the most powerful and prosperous countries in the world.

Elizabeth Tutor I was born unwanted to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn on September 7 1533. Taught by famous scholars in her youth, she excelled at her studies. From an early age, she was seen to be enormously gifted. She had an especial flair for languages. By adulthood, she was capable of speaking 5 different languages.

In the January of 1547, King Henry passed away leaving Elizabeth 3rd in line to the throne. The true successor to throne was Edward VI but he was far too young to govern, when he died at age at the age of 16, Elizabeth became 2nd in line to the throne, after her half sister Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary.

After a sojourn in The Tower of London, Elizabeth finally ascended the throne in November of 1558. On November 15th, 1558, Elizabeth was at last crowned Queen after years of being cast aside, forgotten, and even tried for conspiracy. She inherited a destitute country filled with religious strife and memories of the many defeats at war. But still, she was determined to live life to its fullest and enjoyed horse-back riding and game/bear hunting. She loved music, dancing, and pageantry. She dressed extravagantly while watching plays, which created the basis for the flourishing of the theater and with it the plays of Shakespeare.

Queen Elizabeth: Gender, Intellect & Politics

Queen Elizabeth the first was one of the first woman monarchs to rule alone in the history of Europe. Her character, the way she ruled, and even her gender transformed her country’s go...

... middle of paper ...

...th died in 1603, England was an expanding power with a rich and growing trade in the Netherlands, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and even Russia. In addition, the groundwork had been laid for the first English settlement in the New World, established in Virginia in 1607. The realm Elizabeth preserved against great odds was on its way to its status as a prime world power, while the sun of Spain was slowly sinking. At her death, England had passed through one of the greatest periods of its history--a period that produced William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, Martin Frobisher, Francis Drake, and other notable figures in literature and exploration, a period that saw England, united as a nation, become a major European power with a great navy, a period in which English commerce and industry prospered and English colonization had begun.