Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her
father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife,
Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the
king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
King Henry had moved heaven and earth to marry Anne Boleyn. He had parted
from the Catholic church, established the Church of England, and annulled his
twenty-four year marriage to Queen Catherine - partly because he loved Anne, and
partly because he wanted the male heir Catherine could not give him. Henry and
Anne were convinced that their first child would be a boy. The new queen even had
a document drawn up ahead of time that announced the birth of a prince. When the
prince turned out to be a princess, her parents were dismayed.
Over the next few years Anne had three miscarriages, and Henry - who had become
disenchanted with her even before Elizabeth's birth - decided to be rid of her. In
1536 he had Anne arrested on false charges of adultery. The Archbishop of
Canterbury bowed to the king's will by declaring that Henry's marriage to Anne
had never been valid. Like her half-sister Mary, two-year-old Elizabeth was now
considered illegitimate. Anne was executed, and two weeks later the king married
Jane Seymour.
In 1537 Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Elizabeth and Mary
participated in his christening ceremony. As Edward grew older, he and Elizabeth
became close; although they lived in separate households, they wrote to each other
often.
When Elizabeth was four, Katherine Champernowne became her governess. The
well-educated Champernowne - known as Kat Ashley after her marriage in 1545 -
began teaching Elizabeth astronomy, geography, history, math, French, Flemish,
Italian, Spanish, and other subjects. Elizabeth was an excellent student. Her tutor
Roger Ascham later wrote, "She talks French and Italian as well as she does
English. When she writes Greek and Latin, nothing is more beautiful than her
handwriting."
In 1540 Elizabeth's father married Anne of Cleves. Repelled by what he perceived as
his bride's ugliness, Henry quickly had the marriage annulled and instead married
Anne Boleyn's first cousin Katherine Howard. Katherine was very young - about
fifteen - and something of a featherbrain, but she was kind to Elizabeth, who was
surely appalled when, in a repetition of the past, the queen was arrested and
charged with adultery. This time the charges were true. Queen Katherine was
beheaded in 1542, when Elizabeth was seven years old.
many times for the sake of Elizabeth, and the most important is that she chose
On Sept. 7th 1533, Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry was born. The King of England wasn’t as thrilled since she wasn’t a boy, who would mean an heir to the throne, but it was still okay. Due to the fact that after 2 more births that resulted in death, Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1936 when Elizabeth was only 3 years old. As her father continued to remarry, divorce, and execute his wives, one more child would be born, resulting to Elizabeth having one sister, Mary, and a new born brother named Edward. After Edward was born, his mother Jane died. She was known for being the one wife that Henry actually loved. Elizabeth grew into a very smart girl. She was known as Bess as times spoke Latin, French, German, and Henry gave her a tutor to study with. Along with everything else, she developed a temper that would help her later on as being a Queen.
Elizabeth, ‘reasonably’: John, have you ever shown her somewhat of contempt? She cannot pass you in the church but you will blush-
Elizabeth from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is bright, direct, and unapologetic. Throughout the novel she proves to have her aspirations and goals clear and will not settle for any less. She refuses proposals from men in high places who would more than likely rise her hierarchal status, simply because the men would not make her happy. Austen makes it very clear that Elizabeth sets herself apart. When Darcy and Bingley are discussing what makes a woman accomplished, Elizabeth is quick to refute this claim because she, “never saw such capacity, and taste, and application, and elegance.”(Austen) Lizzy is typical in that she is a self-acclaimed woman who is “not like other women” but like all humans, she is susceptible to the effects
Elizabeth's strength of character is emphasized by its contrast with the weak, naive acceptance of Jane's, the instability and excess of Mrs. Bennet's and the blind, weak-willed following of Kitty's. Her strength is also shown in her rejections of the proposals of Mr. Collins and Darcy. Unlike her mother, she does not base her choice of lovers on the financial security they will give her, and has the strength to reject them. This is especially evident in her rejection of Darcy's initial proposal, when she displays a passionate strength in her anger due to her belief that he has willfully prevented Jane and Bingley's marriage and wronged Wickham by refusing to grant him the property that the old Mr. Darcy bequeathed him. In both cases, the suitor is self-assured that his suit will be accepted, and as a result Elizabeth's rejections are amplified by the size of the blows that their egos receive. In Rosings, she does not let Lady Catherine tyrannize her as "the mere satellites of money and rank, she thought she could witness without trepidation." The Lucases and Collinses are submissive to Lady Catherine, with Maria being "frightened almost out of her senses", and it is probable that society as a whole behaves likewise, as Elizabeth suspects she is "the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with such dignified impertinence". She is again presented as a rebel against ideas of class when Lady Catherine pays a visit to her to ensure that ...
Transition: Before we can pass judgment on her royal downfall we must first look at her life before she became the “executed” queen.
Elizabeth’s relationship with her elder male cousin, the Duke of Norfolk, was not good at all. The Duke of Norfolk wanted to kill Elizabeth because he wanted to become the king of England. Becoming the king of England was impossible while Elizabeth was still the queen. When Mary was on her deathbed with cancer the Duke of Norfolk tried to get Mary to sign a paper that would allow him to kill Elizabeth and become King of England. The Duke of Norfolk would speak against Queen Elizabeth and try to turn England against her. At one meeting she had to lock him and his men up so he wouldn’t cause a disturbance. They both had their differences.
Elizabeth's half-brother, Edward died in 1553. Her half-sister and cousin, Lady Jane Grey, both wanted to take the crown. Edward had appointed Grey to be his successor. Her reign was very short-lived. It only lasted nine days, because Mary had gained the support of the English people and unseated Grey.
In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Catherine married fourteen-year-old Henry, the second son of King Francis I of France. Pope Clement arranged Catherine’s wedding. Their marriage was meant to bring great wealth. On March 31,1547, her husband became King Henri II, and Catherine became the Queen of France. She loved Henry from the start of their marriage, but he was more interested in his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, a French noblewoman. Catherine had ten children, three who would temporarily reign as king. All of Catherine's children’s names were, Francis II, Elisabeth of Valois, Claude of Valois, Louis, Charles IX, Henry III, Marguerite of Valois, Francois, Duke of Anjou, Victoria of Valois, and Joan of Valois. Unfortunately, three of them didn’t survive infancy, but four of their boys and 3 of their girls survived. At the wedding of Philip II and Elisabeth, who was the teena...
...in states her love for him and hopes for equal affection. “I could not help supposing that you might regret our connection, and believe yourself bound in honour to fulfill the wishes of your parents although they opposed themselves to your inclinations. But this is false reasoning. I confess to you, my friend, that I love you” (186) allows for intuition of her vulnerability without a man. The introduction, preface, and letters throughout the novel display the amenable approaches of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth does not listen. She does not realize it fully until he asks to marry her and
leave the throne to, but his wife Jeanne was pregnant. When she gave birth though she
This was because Elizabeth was a very caring person and did not like the things
As a retaliation Elizabeth stuns Darcy by refusing his proposal very harshly stating "I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry." This shows the extent of her prejudice against Darcy as she says that even from the beginning she disliked him. She condemns him for his arrogant manner in which he proposed his actions to separate Jane and Bingley and his actions of unfairness on Wickham. He accepts these accusations without apology, even with contempt. However, he flinches when she accuses him of not behaving like a gentleman and when Elizabeth finishes her denunciation of him, Darcy angrily departs.
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.