Good Queen Bess

Good Queen Bess

When Anne Boleyn gave birth to King Henry the eighths first born daughter, it changed the world's history as we know it. His daughter, Elizabeth the 1st would have a huge impact on the culture, life and the way women are thought of in British history.

On Sept. 7th 1533, Elizabeth, the daughter of King Henry was born. The King of England wasn't as thrilled since she wasn't a boy, who would mean an heir to the throne, but it was still okay. Due to the fact that after 2 more births that resulted in death, Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1936 when Elizabeth was only 3 years old. As her father continued to remarry, divorce, and execute his wives, one more child would be born, resulting to Elizabeth having one sister, Mary, and a new born brother named Edward. After Edward was born, his mother Jane died. She was known for being the one wife that Henry actually loved. Elizabeth grew into a very smart girl. She was known as Bess as times spoke Latin, French, German, and Henry gave her a tutor to study with. Along with everything else, she developed a temper that would help her later on as being a Queen.

Now, Henry had an heir to the throne, his son Edward. As time would pass, the future king of England was getting more and more weak and sicker. Henry passed on,

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and Edward was given the throne, but just for a little while. The frail 16 year old died (1553) after just a couple of months as king. Then there was a fight for the throne. Elizabeth and Mary was both heiress to the throne and wanted to be queen. Mary finally took the throne and had Elizabeth placed in the tower....the same tower that her mother, Anne was placed in at her time of execution. Mary's intentions were just to keep her safe from any danger, since there was a risk for her being the princess. After a few months at throne, Mary thought she was pregnant due to her stomach swelling so large, she was 40 years old. Later it was discovered that she had a large ovarian cyst that would kill her. Now Elizabeth was Queen to the throne.

On Nov. 17th 1558, Elizabeth became the queen of England. She would rein till 1603 till her death. As queen she remained faithful to her people, fighting in war along side her armies and remaining single and never married. It was said that she was married to all of England since she and the country loved each other so much. She put so much time and energy in to her country and served them well. England prevailed thought the wars with Spain and had a supreme navel power that was in the 1600-that lasted till the 1700's.

Now there was a threat coming from Mary Queen of Scotts (Cousin of Elizabeth) who really wanted to claim the throne of England for herself. That meant a threat for Elizabeth, who loved her cousin, but knew that it would be the end of her if she gave into Mary. After 3 years of a secret plot to get Mary, she was taken and executed on Feb.8th 1587. Elizabeth had signed her death warrant.

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Of course there were a lot of men that were after her and wanted to marry her. Some even just wanted to marry her to get the throne and become King. Those plots were found out and taken as treason. Treason means execution.