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Queen Elizabeth I
I chose Queen Elizabeth as my topic because I love old English things like this. I’ve always been interested in things like this and it seemed to be a topic that would be like reading a Jane Austen book. Why Queen Elizabeth kept the faith of her father was something I have always wanted to know. The reason why Elizabeth never married is something that everyone at one point thinks about. I’ve have always wondered how Elizabeth became queen and her story before coming queen.
September 7, 1533 the long awaited male heir to Henry VIII was suppose to be born NOT a red haired baby girl, Elizabeth (18). The king though became close to her and declared Elizabeth the only legal child of his, Mary Tutor was no longer princess (18). But then Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother was executed for adultery and Elizabeth was declared a bastard (20). She was no longer a princess (20). Elizabeth watched her father marry four more times (61). Jane Seymour gave birth to Henry VIII’s successor, Edward VI, and died in child birth (61). When Henry’s fifth wife was executed he married Catherine Parr and she convinced him to bring Mary and Elizabeth back to court (20). Henry left a will saying Edward VI was to be his successor and his legitimate heirs (4). If he died before he had any heirs, Mary Tutor and her heirs, Elizabeth and her heirs, Lady Jane Grey and finally Mary Stewart were to be his successors (4). Edward though named Lady Jane Grey has his successor followed by Mary Tutor and then Elizabeth (3). Even though Edward was closer to Elizabeth, Mary Tutor was more acceptable than Elizabeth because most people considered Elizabeth not to be Henry VIII’s legitimate child (7). Since Elizabeth was Anne Boleyn’s child they did know if Henry VIII was her real dad (17). Some say she looked a lot like Mark Smeaton, a lover of Anne’s (17). Also, at 15, Elizabeth had a reputation that she was pregnant with a child of Thomas Seymour, Catherine Parr’s husband (62). In July of 1553 Lady Jane Grey took the throne (5). Mary Tutor came to challenge her and nine days later Mary was Queen (6). Mary became very fixated on her faith and started to burn Protestants at the stake, thus the nickname “Bloody Mary” (9). The Protestants wanted a Protestant Queen and both Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey were Protestant. Mary executed Lady Jane Grey and sent Elizabeth to the tower (10). They couldn’t find anything to charge Elizabeth with and the people were yelling for her so they sent her to a country prison (11). Elizabeth pretended to covert to Roman Catholic and came back to court (12). Elizabeth was in Hatfield House in Hertford on November 17, 1558 when she learned of Queen Mary’s death (63). When she found out about Mary’s death she got down on one knee and said “It is the Lord’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes (19).” On January 15, 1559 Elizabeth was crowned the Queen of England and was to be known as the Virgin Queen (1).
In this time period women were the lesser gender (24). They were governed by the men (24). Yet in this time Elizabeth never married. Some say she was scared of marriage because of watching her mother and step-mother be executed, another step-mother die in childbirth, and the other marriages her father have were not very happy (26). With Henry VIII’s six marriages she never really saw very many happy marriages (21). When Elizabeth was nine years old she told her childhood friend, Robert Dudley, that she would never marry (25). Elizabeth was 15 when Thomas Seymour started to woo her (31). He wanted her to become queen so he could be king if he ever succeeded in marring her (31). He was married to Catherine Parr, Elizabeth’s step-mother (31). When he was beheaded they questioned Elizabeth but she never showed any emotion (31). Mary Tutor tried to marry her to a foreign prince so she wouldn’t be a threat to the throne, but Elizabeth declared that she was going to stay a virgin her whole life and calmed Mary’s fears (40). She saw all the problems Mary Tutor’s marriage to the Catholic King of Spain (27). The Protestants weren’t happy and the people didn’t like having the king of another country to be connected to their country (27). Lady Jane Grey didn’t keep her throne very long because the people didn’t like the man she was married to (29). When Mary Stewart married the King of France the people in Scotland revolted (30). She then married Lord Darnley and he held her captive (30). After his murder she was abducted by and forced to marry Earl of Bothwell (30). All of these marriages caused rebellions or hate so Elizabeth for political reasons more than likely didn’t marry (64). She got many offers to marry, for example the King of Spain, the Duke of Anjou, the Duke of Alençon, and the Archduke of Austria (37). At one point Elizabeth told the French ambassador and courtiers that she would marry Francis, the Duke of Alençon (38). She even gave him a ring but a little later the engagement dropped (38). Elizabeth loved and enjoyed being flattered and flirtatious but a married woman could never enjoy those things (36). Some thought she would marry Robert Dudley because they were so close and were childhood friends (65). But when Robert’s wife, Amy, died on September 8, 1560, Elizabeth never married him (66). Elizabeth wanted to be both queen and king (28). She didn’t want to share power even with the man she loved the most (28). In the end, she was wedded to England, the only husband she was going to have.
As her childhood influenced her idea on marriage, it also helped her make the decision on her religion. When Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn he made Protestant the Church of England (41). So, as a child Elizabeth was raised in the Protestant faith (42). She seemed to stay with the religion of her childhood, which was Evangelical and mostly Lutheran (60). She agreed with the Lutherans on the Lord’s Supper but the Catholic view on the Lord’s Supper she thought was not right at all (57). She thought that the Catholic Masses were superstitious and unscriptural (56). She also thought that the Pope was a “wolf” instead of a “shepherd” (56). Pope Gregory XIII said though that whoever killed Elizabeth “did not commit any sin” (51). She took the advantage that women were supposed to be indecisive (47). The Pope could never tell if she was going to change the Church of England to Protestant (48). Elizabeth wanted to have the Church of England to be Protestant, but she did want to make it mandatory because she feared a civil war (44). If she did change the religion she would be excommunicated by the Pope, France and Scotland would try to start a war, and the Irish would definitely revolt (45). But Elizabeth couldn’t change the religion without talking about it with Parliament first, so until they got together she couldn’t change anything (52). On January 25, 1558 the Parliament allowed Elizabeth to change the religion, and it became legal in April (67). She kept the Masses still but gave the first place to Protestants (49). She let the people make fun of the Catholics but never made it the law to change to Catholic because she didn’t want to make anyone a martyr (49). After Queen Mary and her burring people at the stake, the last thing she wanted was to make martyrs (43). All she wanted was that there was stability in her land (53). The people could believe what they wanted but had to follow the Act of Uniformity (55). When the Spanish attacked she came out openly that she was the protector of the Protestants (59). Elizabeth was Protestant and thought that any arguments were beside the point (50). “There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is a dispute over trifles” she said (50).
Queen Elizabeth had some very difficult decisions to make like if she was going to change the religion or get married and she made the decisions without creating a civil war of any kind. When making the decision of marriage she decided not to and avoided a civil war about the man she would marry. The subject of religion came around she avoid a war by letting the people believe what they wanted to. Finding out how she became queen was interesting to me because she had to outwit many people to become queen. When in the tower she had to make sure she didn’t answer wrong or she would have lost her head like Lady Jane Grey. As Mary Tutor was trying to marry her off, she had to come out with a way to calm her fears but not let her lose her chance at the throne. When it all came down to it, Elizabeth only had herself to rely on to solve her decisions.
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Points: 1015
Reviews: 6