Biography of Elizabeth I
24 March 1603
Elizabeth I Tudor was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich, at the Palace of Placentia, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, the second wife of the monarch. Christened with the name of grandmothers, Elizabeth Howard and Elizabeth of York, illegitimate is declared at the age of three, when her mother is accused of incest, of high treason and witchcraft, ending up imprisoned in the Tower of London and then beheaded.
Elizabeth therefore loses the title of Princess and is exiled in the Palace of Hatfield, where it grows along with his half-sister Mary (known as the bloody, Bloody Mary). Is again admitted at court when her father marries Anne of Cleves: with the new stepmother, the young Elizabeth holds a deep friendship. Meanwhile, she is reconciled with his father with the new wife-the sixth-the latter, Catherine Parr, that is inserted again in the line of succession: this happens in 1544, with theAct of succession. Elizabeth I, thanks to Caterina, receives an education geared to Protestantism, studying Italian, French, Greek and Latin with the humanist Roger Ascham.
Over the years, sports a highly intelligent and, at the same time, an exceptional memory. Become her father in 1547, stays to live with Catherine, who later marries Thomas Seymour. Then is imprisoned in the Tower of London from half-sister Mary, meanwhile become Queen and married Philip of Spain (who, however, are not appreciated by the Protestant subjects): the Spaniards even to ask for the death of Elizabeth, but this idea is staved off by English subjects, reluctant to condemn to death a member of Tudor. After having spent two months in the Tower, Elizabeth is saved by Mary, who decides not to sign the document for execution, and passes under house arrest, which spends in Oxfordshire, in the castle of Woodstock, in the custody of Sir Henry Bedingfield. Back at Court at the behest of Prince Philip, husband of Mary, who prefers that the English Crown — just in case his wife should die-steps to Elisabetta and not to Mary Stuart, ascended to the throne on 17 November 1558, when actually Maria died of cancer.
Elizabeth I becomes Queen
Crowned on 15 January 1559 the Bishop of Carlisle, as the older bishops refused to do so because he was Protestant and because the Canon law considered unlawful, in the early years of his reign Queen Elizabeth pays great attention to religion, asking for suggestions in regard to William Cecil. The Queen permanently abolishes papal control over the Church of England, assuming at the same time the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England (and not that of Supreme head, not frustrating for the many community members and bishops they consider undesirable the fact that the head of the Church to be a woman).Queen Elizabeth, religion and politics
Elizabethan religious policy is considerable opposition from many bishops, which gradually are removed from its offices and replaced with appointees loyal to the new Queen, who appoints new private counsel so as to decrease the contrasts within the organisation. Supported in its decisions by Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the seals, in the political sphere Elizabeth manages to limit the influence of the Spanish over England, trying to remain independent by Philip II, who had helped her with the peace of Cateau Cambrésis, which had been placed end to the Italian wars, the principle ofEngland for England. Must deal, however, with the hostility of the Catholic Mary Stuart, his cousin and, especially, Queen of Scotland, wife of Francis II, King of France. In fact, Mary in 1559 she self-proclaimed Queen of England taking advantage of the discussed and not clarified legality of Elizabeth, who is the illegitimate Catholic standards since marriage between father Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon had never been cancelled by the Pope, but according to the laws of the Church of England is to be considered as legitimate as those wedding was cancelled.The wars and difficulties
Meanwhile, the mother of Mary I of Scotland, Mary of guise, try to increase the French pressure on England, allowing the French army to build fortifications in Scotland, but was deposed by a group of lord Scottish Protestants allied with Elizabeth: the latter, managed to stave off the French threat, lends assistance during the Huguenot wars of religion that materialize in the same France. Peace between England and France is signed in 1564, a couple years after Elisabeth was ill with smallpox: an evil to which was healed, but that had disfigured his face. Over the years, the Queen finds an unexpected enemy in Philip II of Spain, her brother-in-law, who in 1568 launches a surprise attack on John Hawkins and Francis Drake, English Privateer: the next year, then, Elizabeth ordered him to attack the ships of Spain, but is forced to pay attention to organized conspiracies to lay it down in which the same Philip. In 1598 must come to terms with the death of his most important Adviser, Cecil, whose political role is inherited by his son, former Secretary of State. Meanwhile Elizabeth I must face the nine years ' war and the dangers of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, who had proclaimed himself King: the two reaches, however, an agreement for a truce. Fall, in 1603, in a very deep depression, caused by the approaching death, on 24 March of that year Elizabeth I Tudor exhales its last breath in Richmond upon Thames, in almost seventy years: an age that few at the time riescivano to reach. She's buried next to the remains of sister Maria in Westminster Abbey. His age, named Elizabethan era, is remembered as a period of flourishing arts and culture: William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon are just a few big names among writers, writers and philosophers who lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.Article contributed by the team of collaborators.