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Queen Elizabeth II Biography

She served as the longest-serving British monarch for over 70 years presiding over continual change both within the Royal Family, Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Elizabeth was the eldest child of Prince Albert, the Duke of York (later George VI) and his wife Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother). Her father Prince Albert was second in line to the throne until his elder brother Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 – pushing the shy Prince Albert into an unexpected role of King. King George VI rose to the challenge though he died early in 1952.

Elizabeth was educated at home, along with her sister Princess Margaret. During the Second World War, they were evacuated to Balmoral and later Windsor Castle. Towards the end of the war in 1945, Elizabeth joined the Women’s Royal Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she served as a driver and mechanic. After the war, she increasingly stepped into her role of performing public service and made her first overseas trip to South Africa in 1947. Shortly before her 21st birthday, she said:

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

Yet, there were still high points for the Royal Family, such as her ‘Silver Jubilee’ in 1977 and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981. By the 1990s, the media had a widespread fascination with Princess Diana , but as their marriage broke down, the Queen was increasingly perceived as being out of touch. In 1992, she famously declared the year to be her ‘ annus horribilus ‘ The year saw media headlines dominated by the marriage breakup of Charles and Diana, a fire in Windsor, and other criticisms of the Royal Family.

“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an ‘ Annus Horribilis ‘.” (Christmas address, 1992)

In 1996, Princess Diana died in a car crash, and temporarily there was public dismay as the Queen appeared distant and refused to fly the flag at half-mast. But, after the Queen later expressed admiration for Princess Diana the hostility evaporated. Nevertheless, the relationship between Princess Diana and the Queen was best described as being ‘cool’.

“In tomorrow’s world we must all work together as hard as ever, if we’re truly to be United Nations.”

After the difficulties of the 1990s, the 2000s saw a resurgence in her popularity as the Royal Family put many difficulties behind them, and they were able to celebrate good news. If 1992 was her annus horribilus , 2012, was perhaps her annus mirabilis . Firstly, in April, Prince William married Kate Middleton to widespread public enthusiasm. Then in summer, her Golden Jubilee was widely celebrated and popular despite the wet weather. Finally, in July 2012, she took part in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics – which was a huge global success.

During her time as Head of State, Queen Elizabeth has sought to refrain from interfering in political issues and provide a moderating influence on the nation.

“We are a moderate, pragmatic people, more comfortable with practice than theory.” (30 April 2002)

She is a committed Christian and often mentions her religious beliefs in her Christmas addresses. However, in her role as Head of the Church of England, she has stated that she is committed to protecting the rights of all different faiths.

“The concept of our established Church is occasionally misunderstood and, I believe, commonly under-appreciated. Its role is not to defend Anglicanism to the exclusion of other religions. Instead, the Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.”

– During a speech at Lambeth Palace, 15/02/2012.

Despite passing 90 years, she remained in relatively good health and continued to serve.

Elizabeth II passed away on 8 September 2022 causing an outpouring of love and good wishes for her unique reign and life of duty and service. Her funeral at Westminster Abbey on 19 September attracted heads of state from around the world. It was the first state funeral since Winston Churchill and huge crowds came to see her final journey to Windsor Castle where she was buried next to her husband Prince Phillip.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Queen Elizabeth II”, Oxford, UK  www.biographyonline.net , 30/01/2013. Updated 20 September 2022.

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The life of Queen Elizabeth II – a timeline

Key dates in the life of the Queen, from her birth in April 1926 to her death in September 2022

21 April 1926

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor is born at 2.40am at 17 Bruton Street, London, her maternal grandparents’ house. It was home to her parents, Elizabeth (née Bowes-Lyon), and Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. She was third in line to the throne behind her father and Edward, Prince of Wales.

21 August 1930

Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret Rose , is born.

20 January 1936

George V dies. Edward VIII becomes king .

10 December 1936

Edward VIII abdicates so that he can marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

11 December 1936

Bertie, the Duke of York, is formally proclaimed King George VI. Princess Elizabeth is now heiress presumptive.

Elizabeth becomes a Girl Guide at the age of 11.

12 May 1937

Coronation of George VI at Westminster Abbey.

21 April 1939

Elizabeth celebrates her 13th birthday , and begins a course of study at home under the vice-provost of Eton College.

22 July 1939

Princess Elizabeth meets Cadet Capt Philip of Greece at the Royal Dartmouth naval college.

3 September 1939

Britain declares war on Germany.

7 September 1940

The blitz on London begins. While the King and Queen stay in the city, Elizabeth and Margaret are evacuated to Windsor.

13 October 1940

Elizabeth makes her first broadcast to the nation.

21 April 1942

On her 16th birthday, Elizabeth carries out her first public engagement when she inspects the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been appointed colonel-in-chief.

21 April 1944

Elizabeth receives her first corgi , Susan, as an 18th birthday present.

4 March 1945

Elizabeth joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service , learning how to drive and maintain vehicles.

Elizabeth makes her first overseas visit, to South Africa , and gives a speech dedicating herself to the Commonwealth.

10 July 1947

Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Lt Philip Mountbatten , her third cousin.

20 November 1947

The couple marry at Westminster Abbey. He is thenceforth known as the Duke of Edinburgh.

14 November 1948

Prince Charles is born.

15 August 1950

Princess Anne, now the Princess Royal, is born.

31 January 1950

Elizabeth and Philip leave for a tour of east Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

6 February 1952

George VI dies and Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne. She is in Kenya when her father dies – the first British monarch since George I to be out of the country at the time of succession.

15 February 1952

Funeral of George VI takes place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

7 April 1952

Proclamation issued declaring the family’s dynastic surname will remain Windsor.

2 June 1953

Coronation of Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in the first televised coronation service.

24 November 1953

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh embark on a tour of the Commonwealth.

15 May 1954

The royal couple return to England after six months abroad.

31 October 1955

Princess Margaret releases a statement confirming she will not marry Gp Capt Peter Townsend. Her relationship with him had been controversial because he was divorced, and her request to marry him – with its echoes of the abdication crisis – had been opposed by large sections of the establishment.

November 1956

Britain and France invade Egypt in a botched attempt to seize control of the Suez canal. Lord Mountbatten later claimed the Queen disapproved of the venture.

21 October 1957

The Queen visits New York and addresses the UN general assembly.

19 February 1960

Prince Andrew, now the Duke of York, is born.

Princess Margaret marries the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.

10 March 1964

Prince Edward, now the Earl of Wessex, is born.

The Queen visits West Germany, the first British monarch to do so since the first world war.

20 September 1967

The Queen launches the Cunard cruise liner the Queen Elizabeth II (popularly known as the QE2).

21 June 1969

First broadcast of Royal Family , a documentary with unprecedented access to the family’s daily life.

1 July 1969

Prince Charles is invested Prince of Wales. Lord Snowdon designs a new coronet for the occasion as the Duke of Windsor took the previous one with him to Paris.

First walkabout during a state visit of Australia and New Zealand.

20 October 1973

The Queen opens Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House in Australia.

14 November 1973

Princess Anne marries Capt Mark Phillips.

February 1974

The Queen’s tour of Australia and Polynesia is interrupted after the prime minister Edward Heath calls a snap general election. She flies back to Britain.

November 1975

The Queen refuses to intervene in an Australian constitutional crisis when the prime minister Gough Whitlam is dismissed by the governor general Sir John Kerr.

7 June 1977

Queen’s silver jubilee. More than a million people line the streets of London, and a chain of beacons is lit across the country.

27 August 1979

Lord Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, is killed by an IRA bomb off the coast of Sligo in the west of Ireland.

November 1979

Sir Anthony Blunt, the former surveyor of the Queen’s pictures, is exposed as a communist spy.

24 February 1981

Prince Charles announces his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer.

29 July 1981

Charles and Diana marry in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

13 June 1981

Shots are fired at the Queen as she attends Trooping the Colour. Marcus Serjeant, a 17-year-old air cadet from Folkestone, Kent, pleads guilty under the 1842 Treason Act and is jailed for five years. The shots were blanks.

21 June 1982

Diana gives birth to Prince William.

9 July 1982

Michael Fagan breaks into the Queen’s bedroom during the early hours, evading alarms, guards and police. He sits on the edge of her bed, talking for 10 minutes, before being led away by footman Paul Whybrew, given a whisky and arrested.

15 September 1984

Diana gives birth to Prince Harry.

23 July 1986

Andrew marries publishing executive Sarah Ferguson , known as Fergie.

7 June 1992

The first instalment of the serialisation of Andrew Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story, appears in the Sunday Times , revealing that Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles continued to have an affair during his marriage to Diana, that Diana tried to kill herself and had bulimia. It later emerges that much of the information had been supplied by Diana herself.

20 November 1992

Windsor Castle is partly destroyed by fire.

24 November 1992

The Queen gives a speech at Guildhall to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession. In it, she refers to recent events as part of an “annus horribilis”.

9 December 1992

The prime minister John Major announces in the House of Commons that Charles and Diana are to separate.

Buckingham Palace is opened to the general public for the first time to help fund the restoration of Windsor Castle.

The Queen and the French president François Mitterrand open the Channel Tunnel.

28 August 1996

Charles and Diana’s marriage is dissolved

31 August 1997

Diana dies in a car crash in Paris. The Queen stays in seclusion for several days, and is heavily criticised in the press for her silence. Then, on the eve of Diana’s funeral, she does a walkabout to meet mourners outside Buckingham Palace and gives a televised address, speaking “as your Queen and as a grandmother” and paying tribute to Diana. “She was an exceptional and gifted human being,” she said. “In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.”

11 December 1997

Her Majesty’s yacht Britannia is decommissioned; the government decides against funding a replacement.

24 November 1998

The Queen’s speech at the opening of parliament announces plans to abolish the traditional rights of 700 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.

26 May 1999

The Queen opens the national assembly in Wales.

1 July 1999

The Queen opens the Scottish parliament.

Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, dies .

30 March 2002

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, dies .

30 April 2002

Elizabeth launches her golden jubilee celebrations with a speech to both houses of parliament.

9 April 2005

Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a civil ceremony at Windsor’s Guildhall. The Queen attends the service of blessing held for the couple at St George’s Chapel.

21 April 2006

The Queen celebrates her 80th birthday.

19 Nov 2007

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh mark their 60th wedding anniversary.

22 December 2007

Elizabeth II surpasses Victoria to become the UK’s oldest reigning monarch.

14 Oct 2010

The Queen cancels a planned Christmas party at Buckingham Palace after deciding it would be inappropriate to celebrate as Britons feel the effects of the economic crisis.

29 April 2011

Prince William, second in line to the throne , marries Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey.

17-20 May 2011

The Queen visits Ireland , becoming the first British monarch to do so since its independence in 1921. She expresses sympathy to those who suffered during hundreds of years of conflict between the two neighbours.

The 60th anniversary of the death of George VI and of Elizabeth’s accession to the throne.

2-5 June 2012

Events take place throughout the country to celebrate Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee , including a pageant of 670 boats sailing along the Thames in London.

27 July 2012

The Queen opens the London Olympics . In her first acting role, a film shows her leaving Buckingham Palace with James Bond, played by Daniel Craig, and appearing to parachute into the stadium in Stratford, east London.

25 April 2013

The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 receives royal assent , so that the eldest child inherits the throne regardless of gender. The act also ends the disqualification from the line of succession of a person married to a Catholic.

4 June 2013

The Queen joins 2,000 guests for a service at Westminster Abbey to mark 60 years since her coronation.

22 July 2013

The Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to a son at 4.24pm. Prince George is third in line to the throne.

The Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to a daughter at 8.34am. Princess Charlotte is fourth in line to the throne.

9 September 2015

The Queen surpasses her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, and becomes Britain’s longest ever reigning monarch.

21 April 2016

The Queen celebrates her 90th birthday.

2 August 2017

Prince Philip, aged 96, retires from his official royal duties as the Queen’s consort, having completed 22,219 solo engagements and 5,493 speeches since 1952.

6 February 2017

The Queen becomes the first British monarch to commemorate a sapphire jubilee.

20 November 2017

The Queen and Prince Philip celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary after 70 years of marriage. She is the first British monarch to do so.

23 April 2018

The Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to a second son at 11.01am. Prince Louis is fifth in line to the throne.

19 May 2018

Prince Harry, sixth in line to the throne, marries Meghan Markle at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

The Duchess of Sussex gives birth to a son at 5.26am. Archie Mountbatten-Windsor is seventh in line to the throne.

20 November 2019

The Queen in effect suspends Prince Andrew from duties by giving him permission to “step back from public duties for the foreseeable future” after intense public reaction to a BBC Newsnight interview about his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

8 January 2020

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they will step back from their roles in public life as senior members of the royal family, and will divide their time between the UK and North America. The couple confirm they will become financially independent and cease to represent the Queen. They retain their HRH stylings but are not permitted to use them.

19 March 2020

The Queen and Prince Philip move to Windsor Castle and sequester there as a precaution as the coronavirus hits the UK. Public engagements are cancelled and Windsor Castle follows a strict sanitary protocol nicknamed HMS Bubble.

5 April 2020

The Queen gives a rare televised address to the nation , the fifth in her 68-year reign, as an unprecedented lockdown is enforced. The monarch thanks her subjects for following government rules to stay at home, praises key workers, and asks people to “take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return”. She adds: “We will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.” The broadcast is watched by an estimated 24 million viewers.

7 March 2021

In a hotly anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey , the Duchess of Sussex claims members of the royal family had openly expressed concerns about how dark her son Archie’s skin would be and says they had tried to deny him a royal title. Both Meghan and Prince Harry make a point of praising the Queen and instead direct their criticism at the royal household. Two days later, the Queen issues a statement saying “the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning” and that “some recollections may vary”.

9 April 2021

Prince Philip dies “peacefully” at the age of 99 at Windsor Castle, two months before his 100th birthday. The Queen, who was at his bedside, describes his death as leaving “a huge void” in her life. Philip is the longest-serving royal consort in history.

17 April 2021

Funeral of Prince Philip at Windsor. He had indicated wishes for a smaller funeral, though amendments were still made to bring his service in line with Covid regulations, including quarantine for members of his family travelling from abroad.

4 June 2021

The Duchess of Sussex gives birth to a daughter. Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor is eighth in line to the throne.

20 October 2021

The Queen reluctantly cancels a planned two-day visit to Northern Ireland after advice from her doctors that she should rest.

The Queen spends a night at King Edward VII’s hospital after being admitted for “preliminary investigations” having cancelled a two-day trip to Northern Ireland on the advice of doctors that she should rest for a few days. A palace source said a “cautious approach” had been taken by the medical team aiding the monarch and the overnight stay was for practical reasons, adding that she returned to Windsor and was undertaking “light duties” the next day. It was her first overnight stay in hospital since 2013, when she was treated for gastroenteritis.

13 Jan 2022

The Queen further distances the monarchy from the Duke of York by stripping him of his military affiliations and royal patronages. The palace also says he will not use the style His Royal Highness in any official capacity. The move means Prince Andrew is completely removed from royal life.

15 February 2022

Prince Andrew settles the sexual assault case filed against him by Virginia Giuffre for an undisclosed sum, avoiding having to give evidence in a trial and protecting the royal family from further reputational damage.

2-5 June 2022

The Queen celebrates her platinum jubilee after a record 70 years on the throne. She crowns the historic celebrations with a last-minute appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, bringing to a close four days of festivities over a bumper bank holiday weekend. In a written message, she says she is “humbled and deeply touched that so many people have taken to the streets to celebrate”.

6 September 2022

In a break from tradition as a result of her ongoing mobility issues, the Queen appoints the 15th prime minister of her reign , Liz Truss, at Balmoral Castle rather than Buckingham Palace. The outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, also travels to Scotland to offer his resignation to the Queen. The following day she postpones a privy council meeting, which she was due to attend virtually, under doctors’ advice to rest.

This article was amended on 14 September 2022 because an earlier version incorrectly referred to Mitterrand as the prime minister of France. He was the president.

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Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I was a long-ruling queen of England, governing with relative stability and prosperity for 44 years. The Elizabethan era is named for her.

(1533-1603)

Who Was Queen Elizabeth I?

Queen Elizabeth I claimed the throne in 1558 at the age of 25 and held it until her death 44 years later. Elizabeth I was born a princess but declared illegitimate through political machinations. Eventually, upon her half-sister Mary Tudor’s death, she took the crown.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Father and Mother

Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was only 2 years old when her mother was beheaded on the orders of her father, based on questionable charges of adultery and conspiracy.

Early Life and Education

Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533, in Greenwich, England. Elizabeth was raised much like any other royal child. She received tutoring and excelled at languages and music.

After her father's death in 1547, Elizabeth spent some time under the care of her stepmother Catherine Parr. Parr hired tutors on Elizabeth's behalf, including William Grindal and Roger Ascham.

Tensions with Parr over Parr's new husband, Thomas Seymour, led Elizabeth to return to the royal estate at Hatfield, away from the court. Her relationship with Seymour later came under scrutiny, and Seymour was tried for conspiring to wed Elizabeth in a bid to gain power. Found guilty, Seymour was executed.

Elizabeth I of England’s Siblings

Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary Tudor , who was the king’s first child with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and the only to survive to adulthood. Elizabeth also had a younger half-brother, Edward, who was the king’s first and only legitimate son with his third wife, Jane Seymour .

Elizabeth and Mary were declared to be illegitimate as their father sought to pave the way to the throne for Edward, his male heir. The girls were later reinstated as potential heirs. Upon Henry VIII’s death in 1547, Edward succeeded his father as King Edward VI.

Edward VI died just six years later, in 1553. Mary Tudor and their cousin, Lady Jane Grey , both were in line for the crown.

Edward had appointed Grey to be his successor. Her reign proved to be very short: Mary gained the support of the English people and unseated Grey after only nine days on the throne.

Even though Elizabeth supported Mary in her coup, she was not free from suspicion. A staunch Roman Catholic, Mary sought to restore her country back to her faith, undoing her father's break from the Pope. While Elizabeth went along with the religious change, she remained a candidate for the throne for those who wanted a return to Protestantism.

In 1554, Thomas Wyatt organized a rebellion against Mary in the hopes of making Elizabeth queen and restoring Protestantism to England. His plot was uncovered, and Mary quickly imprisoned Elizabeth. Although Elizabeth disputed any involvement in the conspiracy, her sister was not wholly convinced.

Although she was soon released, Elizabeth's life was firmly in her sister's hands. Wyatt was executed, but he maintained that Elizabeth was not aware of the rebellion. Elizabeth eventually returned to Hatfield and continued with her studies. In 1558, Elizabeth ascended to the throne upon Mary Tudor’s death.

Elizabeth I’s Reign

Elizabeth ruled for 44 years, from 1558 until her death in 1603.

Elizabeth I inherited a number of problems stirred up by her half-sister Mary. The country was at war with France, which proved to be a tremendous drain on the royal coffers.

There was also great tension between different religious factions after Mary worked to restore England to Roman Catholicism by any means necessary. Mary had earned herself the nickname Bloody Mary for ordering the execution of 300 Protestants as heretics.

Elizabeth acted swiftly to address these two pressing issues. During her first session of Parliament in 1559, she called for the passage of the Act of Supremacy, which re-established the Church of England, and the Act of Uniformity, which created a common prayer book.

Elizabeth took a moderate approach to the divisive religious conflict in her country. "There is one Jesus Christ," she once said. "The rest is a dispute over trifles."

Historians differ on the extent that Catholics suffered religious persecution and execution under Elizabeth’s reign. The Roman Catholic Church took a dim view of her actions, and in 1570, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth.

With the assistance of her key advisor, William Cecil, Elizabeth ended England’s war with France. She was able to avoid clashing with the other superpower of the age, Spain, for much of her reign.

In 1585, however, Elizabeth entered the fray to support the Protestant rebellion against Spain in the Netherlands. Spain then set its sights on England, but the English navy was able to defeat the infamous Spanish Armada in 1588. According to several reports, the weather proved to be a deciding factor in England's victory.

Elizabethan England

Elizabeth’s reign was sometimes referred to as the England's Golden Age or Elizabethan England, an era of peace and prosperity when the arts had a chance to blossom with Elizabeth's support.

While she worked hard at court, Elizabeth took time for leisurely pursuits. She loved music and could play the lute. Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were among her court musicians. Elizabeth also enjoyed dancing and watching plays. Elizabeth's reign supported the creation of works by such greats as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe .

Writers paid tribute to the queen in many literary forms. The poet Edmund Spenser based his character of Gloriana in The Faerie Queen on Elizabeth, and she was sometimes referred to by this name.

Portraiture was the reigning form of painting at the time, and artists honored Elizabeth by painting her portrait. These images reveal that Elizabeth was an early fashionista in many ways. She loved jewelry and beautiful clothing; her garments were often made with gold and silver. With the help of makeup, Elizabeth cultivated a dramatically pale look.

Rivalry Between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots

During Elizabeth’s rule, Mary, Queen of Scots lay claim to the English crown and posed one of the greatest internal threats to remove her cousin from the throne. Mary was raised Catholic and was considered by many English Catholics to be the rightful monarch of England.

The daughter of King James V of Scotland, Mary Stuart united her country with France in 1558 when she married the future King Francis II. After Francis' death, Mary returned to Scotland in 1561.

Elizabeth jailed her cousin in 1567 in connection with several assassination attempts, including the Babington Plot. Elizabeth kept Mary imprisoned for nearly 20 years before she had her cousin executed in 1587.

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Later Years

Troubled times marked the final years of Elizabeth's reign. The country suffered from failed crops, unemployment and inflation. There were riots over food shortages and rebellions in Ireland.

Elizabeth faced many challenges to her authority, including from one of her favorite noblemen, Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex. She had sent him to Ireland to quell a rebellion known as the Nine Years War led by Gaelic lord Hugh O'Neill. Instead, Essex returned to England and sought to start his own rebellion. He was executed for treason in 1601.

Elizabeth I’s Golden Speech

Despite her fading power, Elizabeth still showed her devotion to her people. She gave one of her most famous speeches in 1601 to Parliament.

During what is referred to as her "Golden Speech," a self-reflective Elizabeth seemed to look back on her long reign. "Of myself I must say this, I was never any greedy, scraping grasper, nor a strait, fast-holding prince, nor yet a waster. My heart was never set on worldly goods but for my subjects' good."

While the end of her reign had been difficult, Elizabeth is largely remembered as a queen who supported her people. Her lengthy time on the throne provided her subjects with stability and consistency. Her political acumen, sharp wit and clever mind helped navigate the nation through many religious, social and governmental challenges.

Did Queen Elizabeth I Have a Husband or Children?

Elizabeth never married or had children; she seemed to have no interest in sharing power with a spouse. Over time, she cultivated her image as a queen married to her job and her people, earning her the nickname the "Virgin Queen."

Succession was a pressing issue for Elizabeth. During her reign, she managed a number of suitors and potential royal matches. Through her father and her sister, however, Elizabeth had seen the troubles and challenges of royal marriages.

Elizabeth's half-sister Mary Tudor had made an unpopular choice in marrying Philip II of Spain, who shared her devotion to the Roman Catholic faith. In the hopes of reuniting their two countries once more, Phillip offered to wed Elizabeth at one time. She refused.

Other suitors for Elizabeth's hand included the Archduke Charles of Austria and the future King Henry III of France. She used her availability as a means to political ends, but she never agreed to marriage.

Elizabeth herself seemed to have some interest in a member of her court, Robert Dudley. Their relationship was the subject of much gossip and speculation; both parties came under suspicion of the mysterious death of Dudley's wife.

Queen Elizabeth I’s Death

Elizabeth died on March 24, 1603, at Richmond Palace in Surrey. It’s believed that the cosmetic concoction Elizabeth used to cultivate her infamously pale look, called the "spirits of Saturn" — made by mixing white lead and vinegar — may have impacted her health.

Successor to Queen Elizabeth I

Because Elizabeth I had no children, with her death came the end of the house of Tudor — a royal family that had ruled England since the late 1400s. The son of her former rival and cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, succeeded her on the throne as James I.

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QUICK FACTS

• Name: Elizabeth
• Birth Year: 1533
• Birth date: September 7, 1533
• Birth City: Greenwich
• Birth Country: United Kingdom
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: Elizabeth I was a long-ruling queen of England, governing with relative stability and prosperity for 44 years. The Elizabethan era is named for her.
• World Politics
• Astrological Sign: Virgo
• Interesting Facts
• Elizabeth I was called the Virgin Queen because of her refusal to marry.
• It’s believed that the cosmetic concoction Elizabeth used to cultivate her infamously pale look may have impacted her health and contributed to her death.
• Death Year: 1603
• Death date: March 24, 1603
• Death City: Richmond, Surrey
• Death Country: United Kingdom

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Queen Elizabeth I Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/royalty/queen-elizabeth-i
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: February 7, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.
• I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.
• I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.

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History | Updated: May 9, 2024 | Originally Published: March 12, 2020

The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary,’ England’s First Queen

History remembers Mary I as a murderous monster who burned hundreds of her subjects at the stake, but the real story of the Tudor monarch is far more nuanced

Meilan Solly

Associate Editor, History

The first woman to rule England in her own right didn’t simply inherit the throne. She seized it with unprecedented ambition from those who sought to thwart her.

Historian Sarah Gristwood describes the ascension of Mary I as a “staggeringly bold” course of action undertaken with little chance of success. After unseating Lady Jane Grey , the Nine-Day Queen , Mary rode into London on August 3, 1553, to widespread acclaim. In the words of one contemporary chronicler, “It was said that no one could remember there ever having been public rejoicing such as this.”

Centuries later, however, the Tudor queen is remembered as one of the most reviled figures in English history: “ Bloody Mary .” This is the story of how a heroic underdog became a monarch who was then mythologized as a violent despot, despite being no bloodier than her father, Henry VIII, or many other English monarchs . It’s a tale of sexism, shifting national identity and good old-fashioned propaganda, all of which coalesced to create the image of an unchecked tyrant that endures today.

Born on February 18, 1516, Mary was not the long-awaited son her parents , Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon , had hoped for. But she survived infancy and grew up in the public eye as a beloved princess—at least until her teenage years, when her father’s infatuation with Anne Boleyn led him to divorce her mother and break with the Catholic Church. Declared illegitimate , downgraded from the title of “princess” to “lady” and separated from her mother, Mary refused to acknowledge the validity of her parents’ divorce or her father’s status as head of the Church of England. It was only in 1536, after Anne’s execution and Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour , that Mary finally agreed to her mercurial father’s terms.

Welcomed back to court, she survived Henry—and three more stepmothers —only to see her younger half-brother, Edward VI , take the throne in 1547 as a Protestant reformer, adopting a stance anathema to her fervent Catholicism. When Edward died six years later, in 1553, he attempted to subvert his father’s wishes by leaving the crown to a Protestant cousin, Jane, excluding those next in line in the succession: Mary and her younger half-sister, the future Elizabeth I. Though Mary could have sought refuge with relatives in Spain, she chose to remain in England and fight for what was rightfully hers. Eluding the armies of her antagonists, she rallied support from nobles across the country and marched on London. Mary and Elizabeth rode into England’s capital side by side, one as a queen and the other as a queen-in-waiting.

During her five-year reign, Mary navigated the manifold challenges associated with her status as the first English queen to wear the crown in her own right, rather than as the wife of a king. She prioritized religion, implementing reforms and restrictions aimed at restoring the Catholic Church’s ascendancy in England. Most controversially, she ordered around 280 Protestants burned at the stake as heretics—a fact that would later cement her reputation as “Bloody Mary.”

The queen also set precedents and laid the groundwork for initiatives that would be built upon by her much-lauded successor, Elizabeth—among others, financial reform, exploration and naval expansion. But Mary failed to fulfill arguably the most important duty of any monarch: producing an heir. When she died at age 42 in 1558 of an ailment alternatively identified as uterine cancer, ovarian cysts or influenza, Elizabeth claimed the throne.

Prior to England’s break from Rome in 1534, Catholicism had dominated the realm for centuries. Henry VIII’s decision to form the Church of England proved predictably contentious , as evidenced by the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace uprising , which found some 30,000 Northerners taking up arms in protest of the dissolution of the monasteries, banning of feasts and holy days, and violent treatment of clergy who refused to accept the new order. Under Henry’s son, Edward, the English Reformation reached new extremes , with legislation allowing priests to marry, ending the practice of Latin Mass, and discouraging the veneration of relics and religious artifacts.

According to Linda Porter , author of The Myth of “Bloody Mary,” Edward “moved much faster and much further than the majority of the population wanted, … remov[ing] a great deal that was familiar and depriv[ing] the congregation of what many of them saw as the mystery and beauty of the experience of worship.” Protestantism, she says, was the “religion of an educated minority,” not a universally adopted doctrine. At its core, Porter and other historians have suggested, England was still a fundamentally Catholic country when Mary took the throne.

An ardent Catholic herself, Mary was measured in her initial attempts to restore the old church. But as historian Alison Weir writes in The Children of Henry VIII , these initiatives grew more controversial following the queen’s marriage to Philip II of Spain in July 1554, at which point they were “associated in the public mind with Spanish influence.” During the first year of Mary’s reign, many prominent Protestants fled abroad , but those who stayed behind—and persisted in publicly proclaiming their beliefs—became targets of heresy laws that carried a brutal punishment: burning at the stake.

Such a death was an undoubtedly horrific sentence. But in Tudor England, bloody punishments were the norm, with execution methods ranging from beheading to boiling to being hanged, drawn and quartered . “They lived in a brutal age,” Porter says, “… and it took a lot to revolt your average 16th-century citizen.”

During the early modern period, Catholics and Protestants alike believed heresy warranted the heavy sentence it carried. Mary’s most famous victim, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer , was preparing to enact similar policies targeting Catholics before being sidelined by Edward’s death. According to Gristwood’s Game of Queens: The Women Who Made 16th-Century Europe , “That obdurate heretics who refused to recant should die was an all but universal tenet.”

To the 16th-century mind, heresy was a contagion that threatened not just the church but also the stability of society as a whole. Heretics were deemed guilty of treason, as questioning a monarch’s established religious policies was tantamount to rejecting their divinely ordained authority. The justification for one heretic’s death, writes Virginia Rounding in The Burning Time: Henry VIII, Bloody Mary and the Protestant Martyrs of London , was the “salvation of many innocent Christians, who might otherwise have been led astray.” Even the gruesome method of execution had an underlying purpose: Death at the stake gave recalcitrant heretics a taste of hellfire, offering them one final chance to recant and save their souls.

Mary and her advisers hoped the initial spate of burnings would serve as a “ short, sharp shock ” warning errant Protestants to return to the fold of the “true” faith. As the queen explained , executions should be “so used that the people might well perceive them not to be condemned without just occasion, whereby they shall both understand the truth and beware to do the like.” But Mary had grossly underestimated Protestants’ tenacity—and their willingness to die for the cause.

“In mid-16th-century Europe,” writes Porter in her biography of Mary, “the idea of respecting another person’s beliefs would have provoked incredulity. Such certainties bred oppressors and those who were willing to be sacrificed.”

All that said, inextricable from Mary’s legacy are the 280 Protestants she consigned to the flames. These executions—the main reason for her unfortunate nickname—are cited as justification for labeling her one of the most evil humans of all time and even depicting her as a flesh-eating zombie . They are the impetus for the image of a monarch whose “raging madness and open tyranny,” as described by 16th-century writer Bartholomew Traheron , led her to “swimmeth in the holy blood of most innocent, virtuous and excellent personages.”

Consider, however, the following: Even though Mary’s father, Henry, only had 81 people burned at the stake over the course of his 38-year reign, heresy was far from the sole charge that warranted execution in Tudor England. Estimates suggest Henry ordered the deaths of as many as 57,000 to 72,000 of his subjects—including two of his wives—though it’s worth noting these figures are probably exaggerated. Mary’s brother, Edward, had two radical Protestant Anabaptists burned at the stake during his six-year reign; in 1549, he sanctioned the suppression of the Prayer Book Rebellion , resulting in the deaths of up to 5,500 Catholics. Mary’s successor, Elizabeth, burned five Anabaptists at the stake during her 45-year reign; ordered the executions of around 800 Catholic rebels implicated in the 1569 Rising of the North; and had at least 183 Catholics , the majority of whom were Jesuit missionaries, hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors.

If numbers are the main reasoning behind such sobriquets as “Bloody Mary,” then why aren’t Mary’s family members dubbed “Bloody Henry,” “Bloody Edward” and “ Bloody Bess ”? Why has the myth of “Bloody Mary” persisted in Great Britain’s collective imagination for so long? And what did Mary do that was so different from not only other Tudor monarchs but also other kings and queens across early modern Europe?

These questions are complex and predictably fraught. But several recurring themes persist. As England’s first queen regnant, Mary faced the same challenge experienced by female rulers across the continent—namely, her councilors’ and subjects’ lack of faith in women’s ability to govern, a dilemma best summarized by contemporary Mary of Hungary : “A woman is never feared or respected as a man is, whatever her rank. … All she can do is shoulder the responsibility for the mistakes committed by others.”

Lucy Wooding , a historian at the University of Oxford, says descriptions of Mary tend to have misogynistic undertones. “She’s simultaneously being lambasted for being vindictive and fierce” and “spineless and weak,” criticized for such actions as showing clemency to political prisoners and yielding authority to her husband, Philip. Most experts agree that the Spanish marriage had an adverse effect on Mary’s reputation, painting her, however unfairly, as an infatuated, weak-willed woman who placed earthly love ahead of the welfare of her country.

As Porter explains, marriage was a complicated issue for queen regnants, who “were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t.” Mary and Elizabeth exemplify both sides of this dilemma. The former, who chose to wed a prince next in line for the Spanish throne instead of one of her own subjects, avoided elevating any of England’s noble families above the others but raised fears of ceding too much authority to the far more powerful Habsburg Empire . Additionally, writes Weir, Mary “underestimated the insularity and xenophobia of her subjects, who … had heard terrible tales of the tortures of the dreaded [Spanish] Inquisition .”

Elizabeth, on the other hand, never wed, perpetually playing the game of courtly love and ensuring power stayed in her hands alone. Though she eventually won acclaim as England’s “ virgin queen ,” her decision to remain unmarried—and her constant prevarication on the subject—infuriated her advisers, who believed women were unfit to rule without the guiding influence of a husband. When Elizabeth died childless in 1603, leaving the crown to James VI of Scotland, the son of her longtime rival Mary, Queen of Scots , she effectively ended the Tudor dynasty after just three generations.

While Elizabeth’s marital status is viewed as one of her greatest strengths, Mary’s is often cited as a sign of weakness. Popular lore suggests Mary, who was 38 years old at the time of her wedding to Philip, became besotted with her 27-year-old husband, who was in turn disgusted by his aging wife. A phantom pregnancy failed to help matters, deeply embarrassing both would-be parents and leaving the kingdom doubtful of Mary’s ability to produce an heir. A year into the marriage, Philip left England to fulfill his duties back on the continent—an act widely described as abandonment but, in truth, an anticipated arrangement necessitated by the Spaniard’s status as the prince (and soon-to-be king) of an entirely different nation.

Porter points out that scholars know very little about the true nature of the couple’s relationship, as their surviving correspondence focuses mainly on issues of state. “Given the fact that they both had similar cultural interests and both wanted to make the marriage work for the benefit of their countries,” she says, “they probably did get along tolerably well, but we don’t know how she felt about him on a personal level, and we know very little of how he felt about her.”

While Mary’s gender played a pivotal role in the formation of her image—especially during her own lifetime, says Porter—arguably the most important factor in the “Bloody Mary” moniker’s staying power was the rise of a national English identity built on the rejection of Catholicism. A 1563 book by John Foxe, known popularly as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs , contributed to the creation of this Protestant identity, detailing the torments suffered by men and women burned at the stake during Mary’s reign through word-of-mouth accounts and visceral woodcut illustrations . (The accuracy of Foxe’s manuscript remains a point of contention among historians.) The book was enormously popular during the Elizabethan era, with copies even placed in local churches alongside the Bible.

“Foxe’s account would shape the popular narrative of Mary’s reign for the next 450 years,” writes Anna Whitelock in Mary Tudor: England’s First Queen . “Generations of schoolchildren would grow up knowing the first queen of England only as ‘Bloody Mary,’ a Catholic tyrant.”

Porter argues that Mary’s burnings might have become a “mere footnote to history” if not for Foxe’s intervention; historian O.T. Hargrave, meanwhile, describes the persecution as “unprecedented” and suggests it “succeeded only in alienating much of the country.” Either way, after taking the throne, Elizabeth took care not to replicate her sister’s religious policies. Writing in Mary Tudor , Judith M. Richards observes, “It may have helped protect Elizabeth’s reputation that many [of the executed] … were hanged as seditious traitors for seeking to restore Catholicism rather than burned as heretics.”

To put it bluntly, says Porter, “Mary burned Protestants, [and] Elizabeth disemboweled Catholics. It’s not pretty either way.”

The myth of “Bloody Mary” is one mired in misconception. England’s first queen regnant was not a vindictive, violent woman, nor a pathetic, lovestruck wife who would have been better off as a nun. She was stubborn, inflexible and undoubtedly flawed, but she was also the product of her time, as incomprehensible to modern minds as our world would be to hers. She paved the way for her sister’s reign, setting precedents Elizabeth never acknowledged stemmed from her predecessor, and accomplished much in the arenas of fiscal policy, religious education and the arts.

If she had lived longer, Mary might have been able to institute the religious reforms she so strongly believed in, from a renewed emphasis on preaching, education and charity to a full reunion with Rome, says Gristwood. Because Mary died just five years after her accession, however, Elizabeth inherited the throne and set England on a Protestant path. Over the centuries, most significantly in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Protestantism became a core component of British identity.

Mary’s reputation, says Wooding, was “very painstakingly constructed after her death [and] had extraordinary longevity because of the fundamental place that Protestant identity came to take in British identity.” Her enduring unpopularity, then, reflects a failure to properly contextualize her reign: As historian Thomas S. Freeman writes , “Mary has continually been judged by the standards of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and not surprisingly, has been found wanting.”

For all her faults, and regardless of whether one falls into the competing camps of rehabilitation or vilification, Mary—the first to prove women could rule England with the same authority as men—holds a singular place in British history.

“She was an intelligent, politically adept and resolute monarch who proved to be very much her own woman,” writes Whitelock. “Mary was the Tudor trailblazer, a political pioneer whose reign redefined the English monarchy.”

As John White, the Bishop of Winchester, observed during Mary’s December 1558 funeral sermon, “She was a king’s daughter, she was a king’s sister, she was a king’s wife. She was a queen, and by the same title a king also.”

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Meilan Solly | | READ MORE

Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history.

Baroness Floella Benjamin shares poignant detail about late Queen's final days

The former tv presenter received the bafta fellowship.

Baroness Floella Benjamin has shared a glimpse inside the late Queen Elizabeth II's   final days before her death in September 2022.

After scooping the Bafta Fellowship prize at the BAFTA TV Awards   on Sunday evening, the veteran TV presenter explained during the winners' press conference how the late monarch had been reading her autobiography just two days before she passed away in Balmoral.

"The late Queen, two days before she died, she had my autobiography on her desk," the 74-year-old revealed.

"And in the autobiography, there's a story of when she and I met, when I was the Chancellor of the University of Exeter, the first black woman Chancellor in this country. And I spoke about forgiveness to her and she was so open with me and I thought I'd be open with her about my life.

"And I said, 'You know ma'am, when I was a little girl in Trinidad, I used to stand in the playground and say, “God Save The Queen”, I was told the Queen loved me and Britain loved me, I was part of that motherland. But when I came here, it was not like that and so many people did horrible things to me and my family."

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She continued: "They sent the police to arrest us when we went to live in Beckenham in Kent. That's why I'm called Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham, I've claimed Beckenham for my mum and dad.

"And I said to her, 'I've forgiven all the people who were horrible to me because forgiveness frees the soul,' and two days before she died, she was reading my autobiography, which has that story in it."

Floella finished by adding: "Apparently the private secretary Edward Young told me the Queen said to him, 'I want to appoint Floella Benjamin into the Order of Merit.' Only 24 living people are in that order and she wanted me to be one of those. To give all little ten-year-olds hope, to show them anything is possible. That's why I feel good holding this, that I'm giving people watching out their hope, telling them anything is possible. Don't ever be afraid to speak out." Take a look in the video below... 

The former children's TV presenter, known for her work on Play School and Play Away, was recognised for her "tireless support of children and young people [and] her unwavering championing of diversity".

Floella was given an OBE in 2001 and was chosen by the late Queen to receive the Order of Merit, one of the Queen's last wishes. She received the Order at St James's Palace from King Charles in November 2022.

During the awards ceremony, Floella received a special message from the Prince of Wales in a pre-recorded video. In recognition of her achievements, Prince William told the audience: "In a career spanning more than five decades, she has touched the lives of millions. She has graced our screens as a much-loved presenter of children’s television, most notably Playschool and Play Away.

"She has also contributed greatly to BAFTA itself – she chaired the BAFTA Television Committee from 1997 to 2000 and established the BAFTA Children’s Awards in 1995."

He added: "Beyond the screen arts, Baroness Benjamin has steadfastly advocated for children’s education and welfare, supported a great number of charitable organisations, tirelessly campaigned for social justice - and as a member of the Windrush Generation - she has given voice to those who faced discrimination upon arrival in the UK."

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