Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth Tudor was one of the greatest and perhaps the most famous monarchs of all time. Her life, reign and achievement were viewed as the most influential factors in the shaping of the British history until today.

Elizabeth was born as an illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn on September 7th 1533 (Sommerville). Her mistress mother, Anne Boleyn was executed to the crime of “not able to give birth to a male heir”. To make the matter worse, her kingly father could not care less of her well beings. He was rather busy making a male heir. However, she was fortunate enough to be educated by many famous scholars. This, later on, played an important role in her way of governing the country. Elizabeth’s life was even harder when her father died in 1547 (Sommerville). She was now second in line to the throne next to her half-sister, Mary. She became even a bigger threat when her Brother died. Mary, who was now Queen Mary I saw her as the biggest enemy.

Elizabeth, like her mother, was a protestant. This was a very important issue as England at that time was filled with religious turmoil. Queen Mary, however, was Catholics. She obviously did not want her protestant sister to rule England. Her fear of being overthrown by Elizabeth and her protestant supporters grew to be even more as Mary got older and sicker. Her failure in producing an heir put Elizabeth directly on to the throne of England in 1558 (Wikipedia).

As soon as she sat on the throne, the question of marriage arose. She was now faced with the problems bigger than war itself. She desperately need to find a husband and produce an heir. Elizabeth’s marriage became the country’s number one agenda. She was now the most eligible bachelorette in all of Europe. Every Kings, Princes, and noblemen were fighting to get her hand in marriage. Elizabeth knew of such advantage. She managed to use it to benefit the country by creating an ally or enemy. She gave them hope in return of peace in England. However, in the end, she committed to no one. It would never be known whether Elizabeth really wanted to get married or not. It seemed that the marriage of a Queen was too complicated. It could prove to be disastrous to the country’s well-beings. For her, by marrying a certain someone could jeopardize the relationship with the others. Therefore, it was best not to marry anyone at all. Or perhaps she learned that the institution of marriage did not bring any good as she had seen from the example of her headless mother and ill-fated half-sister. It was not like the Queen was not capable of love. In fact, she wanted to marry her childhood sweetheart, Robert Dudley. Unfortunately, he was already married. This broke her heart. She probably got fed up of all these problems, so in the end she decided to declare herself a “Virgin Queen”.

“...now that the Publick Care of governing the Kingdom is laid upon me, to draw upon me also the Cares of marriage may seem a point of inconsiderate Folly. Yea, to satisfie you, I have already joyned myself in marriage to an Husband, namely, the Kingdom of England...And to me it shall be a Full satisfaction, both for the memorial of my Name, and for my Glory also, if when I shall let my last breath, it be ingraven upon my Marble Tomb, "Here lieth Elizabeth, which Reigned a Virgin, and died a Virgin." (qtd. In Elizabeth I