7 Henry VIII 7

In 1542 hostilities ensued between the Holy Roman

Emperor and the king of France. Henry joined the emperor;

the Scots promptly joined the French. Henry personally

managed both the war and the subsequent negotiations,

and he displayed amazing energy, despite illness. But

energy is not the same thing as competence, and the war

proved ruinous. Yet, even after the emperor made peace

with France (1544), Henry would not let go until two years

later. As the year 1546 drew to a close, it was apparent to all

observers that the king had not long to live, and he died

early the next year.

Elizabeth I

(b. Sept. 7, 1533, Greenwich, near London, Eng.—d. March 24, 1603,

Richmond, Surrey)

E

lizabeth I (also called the Virgin Queen or Good

Queen Bess) reigned as queen of England during a

period, often called the Elizabethan Age, when England

asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in

politics, commerce, and the arts.

Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and his

second wife, Anne Boleyn. Before Elizabeth reached her

third birthday, her father had her mother beheaded on

charges of adultery and treason. When in 1537 Henry’s

third wife, Jane Seymour, gave birth to a son, Edward,

Elizabeth receded into relative obscurity, but she was not

neglected. She spent much of the time with her half

brother Edward. She also profited, after the age of 10,

from the loving attention of her stepmother, Catherine

Parr—the king’s sixth and last wife. Under a series of dis-

tinguished tutors, Elizabeth received the rigorous

education normally reserved for male heirs.

With the death of Henry VIII in 1547, Elizabeth’s frail

10-year-old brother, Edward, came to the throne. Upon