Elizabeth I of England



Queen Elizabeth (b 1533) was Queen of England in the late sixteenth century. She was a member of England's Tudor dynasty, the second daughter of Henry VIII and ascended to the throne in 1558 upon the death of her sister, Mary Tudor. A Protestant, she made that religion the official state religion of England, as it had been under her father and younger brother, Edward VI; Catholicism had been the state religion under Mary. (During her reign, she persecuted Catholics, although generally not to as vicious an extent as Mary had and the Spanish-backed Queen Isabella would.) For this reason she was excommunicated by Pope Pius V in 1570.

Elizabeth's entire reign was marked by tense diplomatic relations with Spain. Knowing her nation would most likely lose in a war against its much stronger neighbor, Elizabeth, with the assistance of her counselor, William Cecil, avoided a war between the two for as long as she could, but her support for Protestant rebels in the Spanish colony of the Netherlands forced the issue. In 1588, King Philip II of Spain launched the Spanish Armada, a massive fleet of 138 warships, against England. The Armada defeated the English fleet and landed its armies on England's shores. These easily defeated the English army commanded by Sir Robert Dudley, and Elizabeth was soon overthrown. Philip's daughter Isabella was made Queen of England. Philip ordered that Elizabeth be imprisoned in the Tower of London, saying "Though she herself murdered a Queen [she had executed her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, a year before being overthrown] I will not do the same."

Elizabeth remained in the Tower for ten years before a plot set in motion by Cecil and executed by his son, Robert, expelled the Spanish and restored Elizabeth to the throne. She became exceedingly grateful to English playwright William Shakespeare for glorifying her in his play Boudicca. She granted him knighthood; patronage for his acting troupe formerly Lord Westmoreland's Men and afterward known as The Queen's Men; a divorce from his wife, Anne Hathaway; the parole of Lope de Vega; permission to perform King Philip; and a substantial monetary reward despite the depleted state of her treasury.