Queen Elizabeth the First

Queen Elizabeth the First ascendant the throne of England on November 17, 1558, and
ruled until her death in 1603.Also referred to as the Virgin Queen, The Good Queen Bess, the
Faerie Queen, and Gloriana, she was the 5thand the last ruler belonging to the Tudor dynasty.
But even if she ruled until her death, her throne was always in danger. Her cousin Mary Queen of
Scotland wanted the throne of England.
Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland, born on Sunday the 7th of September 1533,
and, like all the Tudors except Henry VII, at Greenwich Palace, was the only surviving child of
Henry VIII by his second queen, Anne Boleyn
Elizabeth life was not so easy until her coronation. Because she was considered as an
illegitim child of king Henry the VIII. And her sister Mary make her life more difficult.
In 1558 when she discovered that she will be a queen, an apocryphal story about
Elizabeth's accession says that she was out in the meadows surrounding Hatfield when the
courtiers approached. They bowed before her, and presented Mary's signet ring. Elizabeth
supposedly fell upon her knees and exclaimed, most aptly, 'A Domino factum est illud et est
mirabile in oculis nostris.' ('This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in Our eyes.') The
citizens of London undoubtedly felt the same; upon receiving word of Mary's death, bonfires
were lit and tables were set in the streets for a grand celebratory feast.
But becoming a queen was not so easy for Elizabeth, but she was also well aware of the
dire situation she faced. She herself had been the victim of the religious and political confusion
of Mary's reign. Even the weather had been uncooperative for Queen Mary; the droughts which
had plagued farmers led to high prices and much poverty. Most of the poor flocked to London
where they crowded into ever-expanding slums. Mary's attempts to reform the debased currency
of Henry VIII and Edward VI's reign had been somewhat successful, but England was still
considered a poor credit risk on the Continent.
Her succession was assured and untroubled. But Elizabeth knew that when the
celebrations ended, the real work would begin. Almost immediately, she would be forced to
consider a rival claim to the throne by her cousin, Mary Stuart. Queen of Scotland since infancy,
and now the wife of the French dauphin (and crowned queen of France in 1559), Mary was
denied a place in the Tudor succession by Henry VIII's will. But she was a Catholic and had the
French monarchy behind her.
Mary Stuarts was related to the Tudors. Her grandmother was Margaret Tudor, Henry
VIII's older sister. Margaret Tudor had married King James V of Scotland, and her son was
Mary's father, James V. Henry VIII was thus her great Uncle, and she and Elizabeth were
cousins. Henry VIII father of Elizabeth, wished to have baby Mary as a future bride for his infant
son, Edward, and in 1544, his forces invaded Scotland in an attempt to force this matter, but he
failed. Mary was sent to France to marry the Dauphin, Francis, the eldest son of the king of
France, later Francis II. Her mother, Mary of Guise, acted as regent in Scotland.
In 1559, the King of France was killed in a jousting accident, and at only seventeen years
of age, Mary became Queen of France. This alarmed Elizabeth, who had only just become Queen
herself, as she and her government feared that the French would now try and claim the English
throne as well.

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 Mary was always seen as a considerable threat to Elizabeth. Many Catholics did not
recognize Elizabeth as the true Queen of the realm. They did not recognize the marriage of her
mother, Anne Boleyn to her father, and so believed that she was illegitimate. Illegitimate
children were not supposed to become kings or queens. As well as this, Elizabeth was also a
Protestant, but Mary a Catholic. For many years Catholics plotted to depose and kill Elizabeth in
order to put Mary on her throne. Mary herself did not recognize Elizabeth as the true Queen, and
believed that she herself was the rightful Queen of England. Sometimes she even referred to
herself as such. The relationship between Mary and Elizabeth was always very difficult. As
mutual queens and cousins they tried to keep up a pretense of friendship, but in reality they did
not like each other very much. Perhaps because she was nine years older than Mary, Elizabeth
always treated Mary with care, and was remarkably tolerant of her less than respectful cousin.
Unlike Mary queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth never get married. She had great faith in
her own talents, she saw no reason to share her throne with a husband. And so, out of love of
independence and power, and a native distrust of marriage Elizabeth was determined to remain
single. Her councilors, for their part, pretended to believe otherwise for quite a long time.
Despite her repeated vows to 'live and die a virgin', they embarked upon countless rounds of
diplomatic negotiations searching fur a husband. They visited her in private, they openly begged
her; they eventually forced a parliamentary showdown upon her. William Cecil prayed that 'God
would send our mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have
a masculine succession.' Despite their close friendship, and mutual respect, even Cecil
succumbed to the sexism 'of their age he rebuked a messenger for talking to the queen of
something that 'was too much for woman's knowledge.
But over the years, her councilor's discomfort lessened. Mary Stuart bore a son, James, in
1566 and was imprisoned in England shortly afterwards. James was raised as a Protestant and
was soon the only Tudor relative with a viable claim. His religion allowed most, Englishmen to
look favorably upon him as Elizabeth' s eventual heir.
Contemporary gossip said that she was debarred from matrimony by a physical defect;
and her cry when she heard that Mary queen of Scots had given birth to a son is the most
womanly thing recorded of Elizabeth. Her features were as handsome as Mary's, but she had
little fascination, and in spite of her many suitors no man lost his head over Elizabeth as men did
over Mary. She was far too 'masculine' in mind and temperament, and her extravagant addiction
to the outward trappings of femininity was probably due to the absence or atrophy of deeper
feminine instincts. In the same way the impossibility of marriage made her all the freer with her
flirtations, and she carried some of them to lengths that scandalized a public unconscious of
Elizabeth's security. She had every reason to keep them in the dark, and to convince other courts
that she could and would marry if the provocation were sufficient. She could not marry Philip II,
but she held out hopes to more than one of his Austrian cousins whenever France or Mary Stuart
seemed to threaten; and later she encouraged two French princes when Philip had lost patience
with Elizabeth and made Mary Stuart his protegee. Her other suitors were less important, except
Leicester, who appealed to the least intellectual side of Elizabeth and was always a cause of
distraction in her policy and her ministers.
The queen expertly considered all options but never committed to any. This routine
would continue until advancing age made childbirth impossible. Only then was Elizabeth truly
free of parliamentary meddling in her private affairs. Even if Elizabeth never get married, Mary
Stuarts, get married not just once. After she married Dauphin, Francis, the eldest son of the king
of France, and unfortunately the King of France was killed in a jousting accident, Mary become a

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widow. She returned to Scotland: where after a short while people were beginning to ask who
she would marry. As with Elizabeth, her marriage was of immense political importance. It
concerned the English government greatly. Elizabeth feared .that she would marry a very
powerful prince who could help her raise an army to invade England. Elizabeth wanted Mary to
marry a mall with very little power or influence, so that her Scottish cousin would be less of a
threat. Perhaps with this in mind, Elizabeth offered her Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
This all made sense to Elizabeth, but the other people involved in her plan had different
ideas. Dudley was alarmed at the thought of being cast off to Scotland, and did all that he could
to prevent the match, even reputedly writing to Mary denying his interest in her hand. Mary at
least pretended to be sincere, but did not relish taking a man that her cousin did not find good
enough to make her own husband. In an attempt to make Dudley more suitable for a Queen,
Elizabeth raised him to the nobility in 1564, making him Earl of Leicester and Baron of Denbigh.
Although Elizabeth appeared to be sincere in the negotiations, many doubted that she really
meant it, as she and Dudley were so close that she could not bear for him to even leave the court.
Whatever Elizabeth's motives may have been, the offer was made with all sincerity.
Had Mary accepted the offer, and Elizabeth agreed to it, Dudley would have found
resistance virtually impossible, but to his relief, the negotiations fell through. Lord Henry
Damley, an English Catholic cousin to Mary who also had a claim to the English crown, was
permitted by Elizabeth to travel with his father to Scotland, and Mary, attracted by his person
and position, decided to marry him. Elizabeth was outraged. With their joint claim to her throne,
Elizabeth feared that they would have substantial support for trying to depose her. It , also
emerged that Damley's mother, Lady Lennox, had been involved in secret negotiations to have
Mary and Damley placed upon the English throne. There was very little Elizabeth could do,
however, as Mary and Damley were legally married, and she had to accept him as Prince
consort.
It was Mary's life that Damley made more miserable. Their marriage was certainly not a
happy one. Perhaps the only benefit of it, was the birth of Mary's only son, James, in 1564.
Damley was possessive, jealous, and a drunkard. He did not aid in the government of the country
at all, or make Mary's political life easier he only made it worse.
Mary was not staying at the House at the time, although she was meant to have been
there, but decided to stay somewhere else. Mary declared that the explosion was meant to kill
her, but very few people believed her. It was widely thought that she had connived with Bothwell
to murder her husband. Bothwell and Mary had been close for some time, 11nddespite the public
outcry against him following Damley's death, Mary married him very soon after.
This was the beginning of the end of her reign in Scotland. Her people were outraged
that she had married the man suspected of murdering her husband.
Mary's marriages destroyed her political life, her life as a queen. The people no more
like her, and nobody wanted her as a queen. From here we can notice that Queen Elizabeth was
lucky not marrying. Maybe if she married like her cousin Mary, she never could rule England as
good as she did.
After Mary was taken as prisoner and also released, she helplessly fled to England. She
had few friends and many enemies, and even her European supporters had turned against her.
She beseeched Elizabeth to help her.
She needed an army to recover her throne from Protestant rebels who had forced her
abdication and imprisoned her. Elizabeth and her councilors were aghast. Mary was the true
queen of England in the eyes of Catholic Europe, as well as some Catholic Englishmen. And she

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was now in England, on her way to becoming the greatest quandary of Elizabeth's reign. Just as
Elizabeth had been the inevitable focus of conspiracies and plots against Mary I's rule, Mary
queen of Scots would be the focus of discontent against Elizabeth. And if Elizabeth should die,
naturally or otherwise, Mary had the strongest claim to the English throne. All of the Protestant
councilors were terrified; what should they do with Mary Stuart?
Elizabeth took Mary under her protection, but in reality she was little more than a
prisoner. For the rest of her life, this is what she became. Mary,was kept in various Castles in
England for nineteen years -including Sheffield for fourteen years, Bolton, Wakefield, and
Tutbury. In 1570, she obtained a divorce from Bothwell.
Many people wanted Mary dead, but Elizabeth would not hear of executing her cousin
and fellow monarch, and refused all requests of releasing her so that her enemies could kill her.
It was not until the Babington plot of 1586that she finally relented, and only then
because there was proof of Mary's complicity. Elizabeth was hurt and angry that Mary had
personally endorsed her murder, when for almost twenty years, she had protected Mary's life.
She wrote a letter to Mary to this effect.
This letter was sent from Queen Elizabeth to her cousin Mary:

You have in various ways and manners attempted to take my life and to bring my
kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded so harshly against you, but have,
on the contrary, protected and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you
and all made manifest. Yet it is my will, that you answer the nobles and peers of the kingdom as
if I were myself present. I therefore require, charge, and command that you make answer for I
have been well informed of your arrogance.
Act plainly without reserve, and you will sooner be able to obtain favour of me.
Elizabeth.

Mary defended herself at the resulting trial; her most potent argument was that she was a
sovereign queen and thus not liable to the laws of England. She also denied ever plotting the
death of Elizabeth. But it was too late. She was condemned to death. Elizabeth at first refused to
sign the warrant for execution, much as she had earlier with Norfolk.
Elizabeth had been queen for almost thirty years, surviving numerous obstacles and
conspiracies. Her councilors now believed the greatest threat to her reign was over. But they
were wrong
Queen Elizabeth as Gloriana may have seemed to many to be immortal, but by the turn of
the seventeenth century, she was beginning to display very real human frailty.  Life as a monarch
may have been glorious at times, but it was a difficult, demanding, and often very lonely task,
and Elizabeth was tired both physically and emotionally.
By the late winter of 1602/3 Elizabeth was feeling unwell. She had caught a chill after
walking out in the cold winter air, and complained of a sore throat as well as aches and pains. 
It was getting late, and those in vigilance around the Queen's bed left her to the care of
her ladies. The Queen fell into a deep sleep, and died in the early hours of the 24th of March,
1603.  It was a Thursday, the death day of her father, and her sister.  It was the eve of the
annunciation of the Virgin Mary,  perhaps an apt day for the Virgin Queen to die
It was with sadness that the Queen's death was announced on the streets of London the
following morning, and witnesses described the eerie silence of the stunned  crowd.  For almost
45 years they had been ruled by Elizabeth, and knew no other way of life.

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Reference List:

Briscoe, A. (2010). Elizabeth I: An Overview. Retrieved 2010, from BBC - History - Elizabeth I:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors

Eakins, L. E. (2007, September). Tudor History. Retrieved 2010, from http://tudorhistory.org

Jokinen, A. (2008). The Life of Queen Elizabeth. Retrieved 2010, from Luminarium: Anthology of English
Literature: http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizabio.htm

Jones, M. B. (2005). Elizabeth the First. Retrieved 2010, from Info Britain:
http://www.infobritain.co.uk/elizabeth_the_first.htm

Letter to Mary Queen of Scots. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, from The Elizabeth Files:
http://www.elizabethfiles.com/resources/letters-of-elizabeth-i/letter-to-mary-queen-of-scots-1586/