Queen Elizabeth

• Elizabeth never married.  
• Marriages became alliances between countries.  
• Religion and politics were joined.  
• Elizabeth wanted to have England remain on it's own. 
• She retained ultimate power in England and kept them from getting into any bad alliances.
• Spain is a Catholic country. It was more like a "puppet" for the pope. 
• During the term of Mary I the relations between England and the Vatican became a bit better.
• After Mary, England becomes a Protestant country under Elizabeth.  They become a natural enemy of Rome. 
• Italy itself has a fractured government.  The pope isn't able to raise a fighting force to fight the English.
• He gets the Spanish to fight the English for him.  
• Spain invades England starting a sort of Holy War between the Catholics and Protestants.
• The English are vastly outnumbered by the Spanish.  

Background: 

• Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. 
• When Elizabeth was 3 months old she was given her own household.
• Hatfield
• Mary was sent to live at Hatfield as well and be one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting.
• This angered Mary, but she did as she was told. 
• In 1534 a law was passed declaring that Henry's only heirs could be from Anne Boleyn. 
• When Elizabeth was 2 her mother was arrested and sentenced to death because she could not give birth to a son.
• After this Elizabeth was treated as a bastard child.  
• Within two weeks of Anne's death, Henry married Jane Seymour.
• Now that Mary and Elizabeth were both bastardized the rivalry between then calmed down. 
• Jane gave birth to a son named Edward VI
• Elizabeth received a great education.  She was learning everything that her brother was.
• Elizabeth adored her father.  She was fascinated by his power and wealth. 
• In 1547, Edward ascended to the throne after her father's death.
• Elizabeth was now an orphan in the world. 
• Elizabeth stayed with Katherine Parre, Henry's window.
• Thomas Seymour was the one time love of Katherine Parre.  He wanted to marry Elizabeth so he could be in line for the throne. 
• Elizabeth rejected him, so he moved back to Katherine Parre.  They were married.
• Seymour would romp in the beds with Elizabeth.  Katherine put a stop to it, but she blamed it on Elizabeth.
• Soon after Katherine died and Seymour went back to Elizabeth.
• There were rumors that Elizabeth was pregnant with his child, but Elizabeth dismissed these rumors as gossip.  
• Her brother would not talk to her and her servants were imprisoned.  
• Seymour was soon executed.  
• Elizabeth would appear in stark black and white instead of the rich colors like everyone else wore.
• Edward was dying and Lady Grey and Dudley set up a plot to win the throne by trying to persuade Edward to not allow his sisters to become the ruler of England. 
• Mary won the battle with Lady Grey and Dudley after Edward's death.
• Mary ascended to the throne.
• Elizabeth sat waiting for her time. 
• At first people were thrilled with Mary as their new Queen, but with her policy to return England back to Catholicism, their minds soon changed. 
• Elizabeth's following grew as people stopped liking Mary.  
• Mary thought that Elizabeth was plotting against her.  She was locked in the Tower for 2 months.
• There was not enough evidence though so Elizabeth had to be released.  
• Mary and Elizabeth needed to be reconciled so that Elizabeth could become queen.  If they did not reconcile then Mary Queen of Scots would become queen.
• After the meeting Elizabeth was allowed to go back to Hatfield.  Things had become better between Mary and Elizabeth.
• In 1557, Mary's husband, Phillip, left her and Mary's health was weakening.  
• Mary allowed Elizabeth to ascend to the throne as long as Elizabeth would keep the Roman Catholic Religion. 
• Mary died and Elizabeth became queen at age 25 in 1558.  
• Elizabeth's ambition was to be queen.  Her only sense of purpose is to remain queen.
• She was quick tempered and very unpredictable.  
• She believed that she had been chosen by God to be ruler of England and that what she wanted was all that mattered.  
• Elizabeth remained unmarried. 
• She refused to be someone else's subordinate. 
• The only serious conventions for Elizabeth's affections was Robert Dudley. 
• The problem was that Dudley was married. 
• She was discovered at the foot of a set of stairs with her neck broken.
• This put Elizabeth and Dudley at suspicion.  
• She could not marry him now because there would be too much suspicion that she had been apart of Dudley's wife's death.
• Mary Queen of Scot's was Elizabeth's cousin.  
• She was always the focus of any plots to take down Elizabeth because she was Catholic. 
• Mary made about every wrong decision in her life. 
• Mary was trying to make herself Queen of England
• Eventually Mary was executed after plotting against the Queen. 

• Elizabeth was very vain.  She did not want any pictures of her to show that she was aging. 
• She also loved dresses and flattery.  She was not especially beautiful though.
• Elizabeth wanted to marry the duke of France, but he was a Catholic so her advisors would not allow her to marry him.
• The alliance with France would not happen.
• Elizabeth would not marry or ever have children. 

• England and Spain then went to war against each other.  
• They had great naval battles.
• England won the war with Spain.

• Elizabeth was brilliant at promoting Elizabethan England.  
• She was not a good ruler for this time because she hated change.  
• She did not make any great changes during her reign in England.  
• She was well loved though and great at promoting her country. 
• Until she was 60 she kept her young figure & energy.
• Robert Devereux the Earl of Essex. 
• She was 53 and he was 19 when they met.
• He could be rude & petulant, but she was always forgiving. 
• Essex started a rebellion against her & England. 
• She had Essex executed.
• After Elizabeth became weak.
• She died at age 69. 
• Before she died she said that she wanted James VI to succeed her. 
• The people were very sad about her death.
• She left the country with all the problems she had ignored. 
• James VI took the throne as king of England