BORN: 7 SEPTEMBER 1533

 SUCCEEDED: 17 NOVEMBER 1558

DIED: 24 MARCH 1603

 Elizabeth’s life was troubled from the moment she was born. Henry VIII had changed the course of his country’s history in order to marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn, hoping that she would bear him the strong and healthy son that Catherine of Aragon never did. But, on September 7, 1533 in Greenwich Palace, Anne bore Elizabeth instead, the daughter that would later become one of England’s greatest queen’s.

 Queen Anne Boleyn did eventually conceive a son, but it was stillborn. By that point, Henry had begun to orchestrate her downfall. Most, if not all, historians agree that Henry’s charges of incest and adultery against Anne were false, and the other charge of witchery had to be false, but they were all he needed to sign her execution warrant. Anne was beheaded on the Tower Green on May 19 1536, leaving Elizabeth motherless at the age of three.

 Elizabeth was sent away from court, as she was a reminder to Henry of her mother, Anne Boleyn. Henry had remarried and was eagerly awaiting the son he hoped Jane Seymour was carrying. As it turned out, she was to bear Henry a son, Edward who would later become King Edward VI. However Jane Seymour died fourteen days after her son was born.

 Elizabeth’s last stepmother was Katherine Parr, the sixth queen to Henry VIII. Katherine had hoped to marry Thomas Seymour (who was the brother to the late queen Jane). However Katherine caught Henry’s eye. She brought both Elizabeth and her half-sister Mary back to court. When Henry died, Katherine became the Dowager Queen and took her household from Court, mainly because of the young age of Edward VI. Elizabeth went to live with the Queen Dowager Katherine, but left her household after an incident with the Lord Admiral, Thomas Seymour, who was now Katherine’s husband .What occurred between Elizabeth and Thomas will never be known for certain, but rumours at the time suggested that Katherine had caught them kissing.

 Katherine was pregnant at the time of the incident. She later gave birth to a daughter named Mary. Katherine died not too long afterwards and was buried at Sudeley Castle. This left Thomas Seymour as an eligible bachelor once again.

 Because Elizabeth was a daughter of the late King Henry VIII, she was in line to the throne and was therefore a most sought-after bride. During the reign of Edward VI, Thomas Seymour asked for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage, which she refused. From this incident, both Thomas and Elizabeth were suspected of plotting against the king. Elizabeth was questioned, but was never charged. Seymour however, after an attempt to kidnap the young king, was arrested and eventually executed for treason.

 Edward may have contracted what was then called consumption .It seemed very possible that the teenage boy would die without an heir of his own body, and plots for his crown began. It was during this time that Guilford Dudley married Lady Jane Grey, who was a descendant of Henry VIII’s sister Mary, and was therefore also an heir to the throne. When Edward VI died in 1553, Jane was proclaimed Queen by her father Henry Grey and her father-in-law John Dudley, who rallied armies to support her. However, many more supported the rightful heir: Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Nine days after Jane was proclaimed Queen, Mary rode into London with her sister Elizabeth. Jane Grey and her husband Guilford were imprisoned in the Tower of London.

 Shortly after becoming Queen, Mary was wed to Prince Philip of Spain, which made the Catholic Queen quite unpopular. The persecuted Protestants saw Elizabeth as their saviour, since she was seen as an icon of “the new faith”. After all, it was to marry her mother Anne Boleyn that Henry instituted the break with Rome. Because of this, several rebellions and uprisings were made in Elizabeth’s name, although she herself probably had little or no knowledge of them.

 However, Mary sensed the danger from her younger sister, and imprisoned her in the Tower. The story, possibly apocryphal, of Elizabeth’s entry into the Tower is an interesting one. She was deathly afraid of the Tower, probably thinking of her mother’s fate in that place, and when she was told she would be entering through Traitor’s Gate, she refused to move. She had been secreted to the Tower in the dark so as not to raise the sympathy of supporters. That night was cold and rainy, and the Princess Elizabeth sat, soaking wet, on the stairs from the river to the gate. After her governess finally persuaded Elizabeth to enter, she did so and became yet another famous prisoner of the Tower of London.

 When it appeared that Mary had become pregnant, Elizabeth was no longer seen as a significant threat, and the aging Queen let her return to her residence at Hatfield, under semi- house arrest. Mary Tudor was nearly 40 years old when the news of her “pregnancy” came. After a few months, her belly began to swell, but no baby was ever forthcoming. Some modern historians think that she had a large ovarian cyst, and this is also what lead to her failing health and eventual death. News of Mary’s death on November 17, 1558 reached Elizabeth at Hatfield, where she was said to be out in the park, sitting under an oak tree. Upon hearing that she was Queen, legend has it that Elizabeth quoted the 118th Psalm’s twenty-third line, “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” Elizabeth finally was Queen of England.

http://tudorhistory.org/elizabeth/

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

BORN: c.1504?
MARRIED: JANUARY 1533
DIED: 19 MAY 1536 

Anne Boleyn is one of the most famous queens in history since the sixteenth century, she ruled England during the Tudor era alongside her husband King Henry VIII. Anne was the king’s second wife, and she had a desperate struggle to show her people that she could be Queen, as few people liked her as she was not of noble birth.

Anne spent her adolescence in France. However, when she returned to England, her intelligence was her greatest charm. She soon became secretly engaged to Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland. She also entered the service of Queen Catherine of Aragon with her sister Mary Boleyn.

But the King, soon fell in love with Anne Boleyn. He ordered Henry Percy from court and tried to make Anne his mistress but she refused that order. As her sister, Mary Boleyn, had been the king’s mistress and gained little from it. With her hopes with Henry Percy ruined; Anne wanted that the king to marry her.

Anne waited almost seven years for Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon. It finally took a permanent breach with Rome, before they were married in January 1533. But Anne was unable to give Henry the son that he desired, Elizabeth was born on 17th September 1533. Anne did eventually conceive a son, but it was still born. Henry soon grew tired of Anne and began to devise her downfall. Anne’s marriage with the king ended tragically. She was executed on false charges of witchcraft, incest and adultery on 19 May 1536. Her daughter, Elizabeth I, would become one of England’s greatest queen’s.