ter of King Henry VIII and his second wife
Anne Boleyn, she was educated at court
and showed a talent for languages, learn-
ing several as a young girl. She lost her
place in the succession when the king had
Anne Boleyn executed on false charges in
- In 1544, however, she was restored
to the succession by an act of the English
Parliament. Her half brother Edward be-
came king after Henry’s death in 1547; the
sickly Edward’s reign was short-lived, how-
ever, and in 1553 Mary Tudor became the
first reigning queen of England. A devout
Catholic, Mary suspected the Protestant
Elizabeth of harboring ill intentions to-
ward her. In 1554, when a revolt led by Sir
Thomas Wyatt challenged the queen, Mary
had her sister thrown into the Tower of
London, then held under house arrest at
the royal palace of Hatfield, where Eliza-
beth continued her study with the scholar
Roger Ascham.
In 1558, on the death of Mary, Eliza-
beth became the queen of England. The
nation was militarily weak, struggling with
debt, and the scene of violent conflict be-
tween Catholics and the supporters of the
Church of England, the Protestant sect es-
tablished by Henry VIII. Elizabeth also
faced a threat from her cousin Mary, a
Catholic grand-niece of Henry VIII and
the queen of Scotland. The wife of King
Francis II (Francois) of France, Mary was
supported in her claims to the English
throne by several wealthy English nobles
and a French army stationed in Scotland.
Her claims were supported by the fact that
Elizabeth refused all offers of marriage,
throwing the succession into doubt. In
1568 Mary abdicated her throne during a
rebellion and fled to England. Elizabeth
held her prisoner for the next nineteen
years, and finally in 1587, fearing Mary’s
plots against her, allowed her execution.
Elizabeth’s enforcement of laws against
Catholics inspired several plots against her
life; in 1570 the pope officially declared
her deposed from the English throne by a
bull (proclamation) that sanctioned open
rebellion among Catholics in England. The
queen responded by enforcing harsh laws
against Catholics and having several
prominent clergy executed. In 1588, the
Catholic king Philip II sought to bring En-
gland to heel and counter English support
of Protestant rebels in the Spanish-held
Low Countries. Philip sent a massive naval
fleet, known as the Spanish Armada,
against England. The fleet arrived in the
English Channel but was soon at the mercy
of stormy weather and the skillful assaults
of the English captains. As the Armada
fled, Elizabeth’s prestige in Europe soared.
With Elizabeth’s encouragement, the
English settled new colonies in the Carib-
bean and North America and English cap-Queen Elizabeth I of England, in full court
regalia, from an engraving by Crispin van
da Passe.
Elizabeth I