Queen Elizabeth the First

Posts Tagged ‘queen elizabeth the first’

In her first year, Elizabeth made brilliant appointments that had much to do with her later success. The most important of these was Sir William Cecil, her chief advisor, who worked with her through her entire reign.

She gave Cecil’s opinions the utmost respect and consideration but in the end, all decisions were made by her alone.

An envoy who met her early during her reign said:

She gives her orders and has her way as absolutely as her father did.

People often compared Elizabeth’s temperament to her father’s, as she herself did.

She refused to allow Parliament, or the public, to discredit her on the basis of gender, saying:

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

Young as she was, Elizabeth immediately proved herself a competent and capable monarch. One nobleman described her this way:

All her faculties were in motion, and every motion seemed a well guided action; her eye was set upon one, her ear listened to another, her judgment ran upon a third, to a fourth she addressed her speech; her spirit seemed to be everywhere, and yet so entire in herself as it seemed to be nowhere else.

It truly was a Golden Age for England

In the 45 years of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign fewer people died in religious conflicts than in the three years Mary Tudor was queen. In all that time, Queen Elizabeth I of England burned only four men at the stake and although that seems like four too many by today’s standards, by the standards of the 1600’s it was almost negligible.

The four who died were Anabaptists, believers in total social equality, a concept that would have meant their deaths in any Christian country of the time. England’s religious conflicts were temporarily resolved, giving the country time to heal, grow, and prosper.

Queen Elizabeth the First’s story was a captivating one even before she was born. Queen Elizabeth started out her life as Elizabeth Tudor, the second daughter of King Henry VIII. She was the only child of the short marriage between King Henry and Anne Boleyn, the King’s second wife, amidst a considerable amount of controversy.

The relationship of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

The relationship between Anne Boleyn and Henry the Eighth of England started out loving. Henry VIII had once loved Anne Boleyn passionately, despite its brutal ending. King Henry loved Anne Boleyn so much that he was willing to shock all of England by leaving the Catholic Church so he could divorce his first queen, Catherine of Aragon for her.

Henry VIII then established a separate church, the Church of England, with himself as the head. As head of his own church, Henry VIII then sanctioned his divorce and his marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

A few months after Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were married, Anne Boleyn gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, who would eventually become Queen Elizabeth the First. King Henry VIII was so outraged at another daughter that he refused to attend the Elizabeth Tudor’s christening.

The loving marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII did not last long. Their marriage came to an end and King Henry became disenchanted with Anne Boleyn when she failed to have a son. King Henry VIII desperately wanted a male heir and Anne Boleyn failed him repeatedly.

The Birth of Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533. Queen Elizabeth I ’s birth did not please her father, King Henry VIII for he had desperately wanted a son. When Queen Elizabeth I ’s mother, Anne Boleyn, could only produce a stillborn son, King Henry VIII denounced her and had Queen Anne Boleyn beheaded in 1536. Queen Elizabeth I was only three at the time.

A binding marriage between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII

After Anne Boleyn had a series of miscarriages, the only son Anne Boleyn was able to deliver was stillborn. Henry VIII was convinced his marriage to Anne Boleyn was cursed and he set his eyes on a new, younger woman named Jane Seymour. But Henry VIII knew he couldn’t divorce Anne Boleyn without making a fool of himself since at the time of their marriage he’d publicly stated, as head of the Church of England, that the marriage to Anne Boleyn was permanent and binding.

He had just set the rules in place, he would have lost all credibility to break them now. However, King Henry was not the kind of person to let a little thing like rules get in the way of what he wanted.

How did King Henry VIII divorce Anne Boleyn?

King Henry VIII divorced Anne Boleyn by destroying her reputation. He decided to destroy Anne Boleyn’s reputation instead of just divorcing Anne Boleyn and making a fool of himself. To do so, he simply made up false charges of adultery and treason.

Several innocent men were tortured until they agreed to confess to affairs with the queen Anne Boleyn. One of the accused was Anne Boleyn’s own brother. There was a trial, the queen Anne Boleyn was found guilty and sentenced to die.

Anne Boleyn’s Noble Sacrifice

Shortly before the death of Anne Boleyn, King Henry had visited Anne Boleyn in her cell in the Tower of London and offered Anne Boleyn one last chance: if Anne Boleyn agreed to divorce him, to exile herself and her daughter, Elizabeth Tudor, to France, and give up Elizabeth Tudor ’s rights to the throne, he would let her live.

Anne Boleyn had refused. She preferred an honorable death to a life of disgrace. More importantly, she had no intention of depriving her daughter Elizabeth Tudor of her legitimate birthright. Anne Boleyn believed that Elizabeth Tudor would be a queen someday and she believed Elizabeth would be a great queen. She was right, Elizabeth Tudor became Queen Elizabeth Tudor or Queen Elizabeth I and led England into a prosperous era.

Anne Boleyn sacrificed her life for Elizabeth Tudor

With that conviction and faith, Anne Boleyn sacrificed her life. Anne Boleyn did not do so in vain.

Elizabeth Tudor grew up to become Queen Elizabeth Tudor or Queen Elizabeth I, queen of England, the most famous monarch in the history of the country. Queen Elizabeth Tudor ’s achievements in exploration, the arts, and international and domestic politics were so outstanding that her period of reign has ever since been called The Golden Age of England.

The Death of Anne Boleyn

On May 19th of the year 1536, a slim and beautiful 29-year-old queen named Anne Boleyn was led to a green before the Tower of London where a small crowd of spectators waited to witness the execution of Anne Boleyn by beheading.

Anne Boleyn was quiet and calm and made no attempt to resist the guards who led her to her gruesome execution. But inside Anne Boleyn was confused and stunned; Anne Boleyn had been quite sure her husband, King Henry VIII would change his mind at the last minute and stopped the execution. He didn’t.

Beheading Anne Boleyn

For the beheading of Anne Boleyn, an expert executioner from Calais was called in. Instead of using an axe, as was the practice in England, he would use a sword. Anne Boleyn was grateful the king had approved the sword, which Anne found more refined than an axe. Anne Boleyn said, perhaps with some irony: “The King has been very good to me. He promoted me from a simple maid to a marchioness. Then he raised me to be a queen. Now he will raise me to be a martyr.”

When Anne Boleyn arrived at the green Anne Boleyn refused to be blindfolded. The executioner found Anne Boleyn so charming, and was so unnerved by her lovely expression, that he persuaded someone to distract her, so his task would be easier. Then, when Anne Boleyn was looking elsewhere, he stole silently up behind her and completed his grim work.

Anne Boleyn was then beheaded and her body and head were put into an arrow chest and buried in an unmarked grave.

Elizabeth Tudor was barely three years old. No one knows how Anne Boleyn’s death affected the young Queen to be since Queen Elizabeth I never mentioned her mother for the rest of her life.

Nevertheless, Queen Elizabeth I seemed to learn an important lesson from the treachery that led to her mother’s death and which was such an integral part of England ’s royal history. As queen, and even as a young woman, Queen Elizabeth Tudor  was known for her cautious and secretive manner and her ability to neutralize potentially dangerous situations.

Buy Elizabeth: The Acclaimed Saga of England’s Virgin Queen (2000)

Buy Masterpiece Theatre: Elizabeth I – The Virgin Queen (2005) at Amazon