queen elizabeth biography facts

Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, sitting on the throne for 71 years. She was succeeded by King Charles III in 2022.

Who Was Queen Elizabeth II?

Quick facts, early life and family tree, ascension to the crown and coronation, husband prince philip, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, family scandals and losses, death and funeral, latest news: one year since her death.

On the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, King Charles shared an unreleased photo of the late queen. “In marking the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death and my Accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us,” he said in a statement. Additionally, Prince William and Princess Kate attended a private church service in Wales to commemorate her life, and Prince Harry visited the chapel at Windsor Castle , where the queen is buried. Planning for a memorial to Elizabeth is underway. The targeted unveiling is 2026, the year she would have turned 100.

Queen Elizabeth II became queen of the United Kingdom on February 6, 1952, at age 25 and was crowned on June 2, 1953. She was the mother of Prince Charles , who ascended to the throne after her death, as well as the grandmother of Princes William and Harry . As the longest-serving monarch in British history, she tried to make her reign more modern and sensitive to a changing public while maintaining traditions associated with the crown. Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, at age 96.

FULL NAME: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary BORN: April 21, 1926 DIED: September 8, 2022 BIRTHPLACE: London, England, United Kingdom PARENTS: King George VI and Queen Mother Elizabeth SPOUSE: Prince Philip CHILDREN: King Charles III , Princess Anne , Prince Andrew , and Prince Edward ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Queen Elizabeth II was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on April 21, 1926, in London. Her parents were then known as the Duke and Duchess of York. Prince Albert—later known as King George VI —was the second son of Queen Mary and King George V . Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon .

Elizabeth had ties with most of the monarchs in Europe. Her British ancestors include Queen Victoria (ruled 1837 to 1901) and King George III (ruled 1760 to 1820).

At the time of her birth, most people didn’t realize Elizabeth would someday become the queen of the United Kingdom. Nicknamed Lilibet, she got to enjoy the first decade of her life with all the privileges of being a royal without the pressures of being the heir apparent.

Elizabeth’s father and mother divided their time between a home in London and Royal Lodge, the family’s home on the grounds of Windsor Great Park. Elizabeth and her younger sister, Margaret , were educated at home by tutors. Academic courses included French, mathematics, and history, along with dancing, singing, and art lessons.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Elizabeth and her sister largely stayed out of London, having been relocated to Windsor Castle. From there she made the first of her famous radio broadcasts in 1940, with this particular speech reassuring the children of Britain who had been evacuated from their homes and families. The 14-year-old princess, showing her calm and firm personality, told them “that in the end, all will be well; for God will care for us and give us victory and peace.”

Elizabeth soon started taking on other public duties. Appointed colonel-in-chief of the Grenadier Guards by her father, Elizabeth made her first public appearance inspecting the troops in 1942. She also began to accompany her parents on official visits within Britain.

In 1945, Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service to help in the war effort. She trained side-by-side with other British women to be an expert driver and mechanic. While her volunteer work only lasted a few months, it offered Elizabeth a glimpse into a different, non-royal world. She had another vivid experience outside of the monarchy when she and Margaret were allowed to mingle anonymously among the citizenry on Victory in Europe Day .

When Elizabeth’s grandfather King George V died in 1936, his eldest son (Elizabeth’s uncle) became King Edward VIII . Edward, however, was in love with American divorcée Wallis Simpson and had to choose between the crown and his heart . In the end, Edward chose Simpson and abdicated the crown.

The event changed the course of Elizabeth’s life, making her the heir presumptive to the British crown. Her father was crowned King George VI in 1937, taking on the name George to emphasize continuity with his father. Her mother became Queen Elizabeth.

Fifteen years later, the monarchy changed hands again when King George died. The younger Elizabeth assumed the responsibilities of the ruling monarch on February 6, 1952. At that point, the 25-year-old became Queen Elizabeth II, and her mother became Queen Mother.

Elizabeth was crowned on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey, at the age of 27. For the first time ever, the coronation ceremony was broadcast on television, allowing people from across the globe to witness the pomp and spectacle of the event.

Elizabeth married her distant cousin Philip Mountbatten (a surname adopted from his mother’s side) on November 20, 1947, at London’s Westminster Abbey.

Elizabeth first met Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece, when she was only 13. She was smitten with him from the start. The two kept in touch over the years and eventually fell in love.

They made an unusual pair. Elizabeth was quiet and reserved, while Philip was boisterous and outspoken. Her father, King George, was hesitant about the match because, while Mountbatten had ties to both the Danish and Greek royal families, he didn’t possess great wealth and was considered by some to have a rough personality.

At the time of their wedding, Great Britain was still recovering from the ravages of World War II, and Elizabeth collected clothing coupons to get fabric for her gown.

The family took on the name Windsor, a move pushed by her mother and Prime Minister Winston Churchill that caused tension with her husband. In 1960, she reversed course, issuing orders that her descendants who didn’t carry royal titles (or needed last names for legal purposes such as weddings) would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Over the years, Philip inspired numerous public relations headaches with his off-the-cuff, controversial comments and rumors of possible infidelities.

Philip died on April 9, 2021, at age 99. Days later, Prince Andrew told the media Queen Elizabeth described his death “as having left a huge void in her life.” She had previously said he was her “strength and stay.”

Elizabeth and Philip wasted no time in producing an heir: Their son Charles was born in 1948, the year after their wedding, and their daughter, Anne , arrived in 1950. As queen, Elizabeth had two more children—sons Andrew and Edward —in 1960 and 1964, respectively.

King Charles III

In 1969, Elizabeth officially made Charles her successor by granting him the title of Prince of Wales. Hundreds of millions of people tuned in to see the ceremony on television.

In 1981, Charles, then 32, wed 19-year-old Diana Spencer, who became known as Princess Diana . The wedding drew enormous crowds in the streets of London, and millions watched the proceedings on television. Public opinion of the monarchy was especially strong at that time. Later, rumors surfaced that he was pressured into the marriage by his family.

Now King Charles III, he is married to Queen Camilla .

Princess Anne

Princess Anne began working as a member of the royal family when she was 18 in 1969 and continues today. She is also heavily involved in charity work. A noted equestrian, Anne competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Her mother opened the Games that year, and the rest of the royal family traveled to support Anne.

Previously married to Captain Mark Phillips, she and her current husband, Timothy Laurence, wed in 1992.

Prince Andrew

Andrew was the first child born to a reigning monarch in more than 100 years. In 1979, he joined the British Royal Navy, became a helicopter pilot, and served during the Falkland War in the early 1980s. He became the Duke of York after marrying Sarah Ferguson , though the couple later divorced. Following scandal, Andrew stepped back from public duties in his royal capacity in 2019, a decision that was made permanent in 2022.

Prince Edward

The queen’s youngest child, Edward, worked in theater and television production for many years, at one point through his own production company. Since 2002, he has worked full-time supporting his mother and now brother. Edward is married to Sophie Rhys-Jones. He became the Duke of Edinburgh—a title previously held by his father—in March 2023.

Queen Elizabeth had eight grandchildren and was great-grandmother to 12 in her lifetime.

Her most well-known grandchildren are Charles and Diana’s sons, Prince William , who became second-in-line to the throne at his birth in 1982, and Prince Harry , born in 1984. Elizabeth emerged as a devoted grandmother to her grandsons. Prince William has said that she offered invaluable support and guidance as he and Kate Middleton planned their 2011 wedding.

In addition to Princes William and Harry, the queen’s other grandchildren are: Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, born to Princess Anne; Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, born to Prince Andrew; and Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, born to Prince Edward. Peter is Elizabeth’s oldest grandchild; he was born in 1977, four years before his sister and five years before Prince William.

William and Kate have three children, who are Elizabeth’s great-grandchildren. The Prince and Princess of Wales welcomed Prince George Alexander Louis in July 2013, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana in May 2015, and Prince Louis Arthur Charles in April 2018. All three are currently in the line of succession directly after their father.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and his wife, Meghan Markle gave the queen two more great-grandchildren with the birth of their son, Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor , and daughter, Princess Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor , in May 2019 and June 2021, respectively.

Elizabeth’s other great-grandchildren include Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips, Mia Tindall, Lena Tindall, August Brooksbank, Lucas Tindall, and Sienna Mozzi.

Elizabeth’s long and mainly peaceful reign was marked by vast changes in her people’s lives, in her country’s power, how Britain is viewed abroad, and how the monarchy is regarded and portrayed. As a constitutional monarch, Elizabeth didn’t weigh in on political matters, nor did she reveal her political views. However, she conferred regularly with her prime ministers.

When Elizabeth became queen, post-war Britain still had a substantial empire, dominions, and dependencies. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, many of these countries achieved independence, and the British Empire evolved into the Commonwealth of Nations. Elizabeth II thus made visits to other countries as head of the Commonwealth and a representative of Britain, including a groundbreaking trip to Germany in 1965. She became the first British monarch to make a state visit there in more than five decades.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Elizabeth continued to travel extensively. In 1973, she attended the Commonwealth Conference in Ottawa, Canada and, in 1976, traveled to the United States for the 200 th anniversary celebration of America’s independence from Britain. More than a week later, she was in Montreal to open the Summer Olympics. In 1979, she traveled to Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, which garnered international attention and widespread respect.

In 1982, Elizabeth worried about her second son, Prince Andrew , who served as a helicopter pilot in the British Royal Navy during the Falklands War. Britain went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, a clash that lasted for several weeks. While more than 250 British soldiers died in the conflict, Prince Andrew returned home safe and well, much to his mother’s relief.

In 2011, Elizabeth showed that the crown still had symbolic and diplomatic power when she became the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since 1911 (when all of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom).

As queen, Elizabeth modernized the monarchy, dropping some of its formalities and making certain sites and treasures more accessible to the public. As Britain and other nations struggled financially, Britain abolished the Civil List in 2012, which was a public funding system of the monarchy dating back roughly 250 years. The royal family continues to receive some government support, but the queen cut back on spending.

Also in 2012, Elizabeth celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years as queen. As part of the jubilee festivities, a special BBC concert was held on June 4 featuring the likes of Shirley Bassey , Paul McCartney , Tom Jones , Stevie Wonder , and Kylie Minogue. Elizabeth was surrounded by family at this historic event, including her husband Philip, son Charles, and grandsons Harry and William.

On September 9, 2015, she surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as Britain’s longest-ruling monarch, who reigned for 63 years.

Despite the occasional call to step aside for Charles, Elizabeth remained steadfast in her royal obligations as she passed her 90 th birthday in 2016. She continued making more than 400 engagements per year, maintaining her support of hundreds of charitable organizations and programs.

On February 6, 2017, the queen celebrated 65 years on the throne, the only British monarch to ever celebrate her Sapphire Jubilee. The date also marks the anniversary of the death of her father. The queen chose to spend the day quietly at Sandringham, her country estate north of London, where she attended a church service. In London, there were royal gun salutes at Green Park and at the Tower of London to mark the occasion. The Royal Mint also issued eight new commemorative coins in honor of the queen’s Sapphire Jubilee.

Later that year, the monarchy took what was considered a major step toward transitioning to the next generation: On November 12, Charles handled the traditional Remembrance Sunday duty of placing a wreath at the Cenotaph war memorial, as the queen watched from a nearby balcony.

In August 2019, Elizabeth made a rare intrusion into political matters when she agreed to a request by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to suspend Parliament until October 14, less than three weeks before Britain’s planned departure from the European Union.

In 2022, the nation celebrated Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee year. Another milestone for the monarchy, it marked her 70 years on the throne.

Relationship With Prime Ministers

Elizabeth had 15 prime ministers placed into power during her reign, with the queen and PM having a weekly, confidential meeting. (Elizabeth also met about a quarter of all the U.S. presidents in history, most recently receiving Joe Biden for a state visit in June 2021.)

She enjoyed a father-figure relationship with the iconic Winston Churchill and was later able to loosen up a bit and be somewhat informal with Labour leaders Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. In contrast, she and Margaret Thatcher had a very formal, distant relationship, with the PM tending to be a grating lecturer to the queen on a variety of issues.

Tony Blair saw certain concepts around the monarchy as somewhat outdated, though he did appreciate Elizabeth making a public statement after the death of Princess Diana .

Later, Conservative leader David Cameron, who was Elizabeth’s fifth cousin removed, enjoyed a warm rapport with the queen. He apologized in 2014 for revealing in a conversation that she was against the Scottish referendum to seek independence from Great Britain.

Theresa May was described as being tight-lipped about Brexit plans to leave the European Union, with a rumor circulating that Elizabeth was perturbed over not being informed about future exit strategies.

Two days before her death, Elizabeth welcomed her final prime minister, Liz Truss , at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The September 6, 2022, meeting was her final act as monarch.

Threats to Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family

Elizabeth worked tirelessly to protect the image of the monarchy and to prepare for its future. But she saw the monarchy come under attack during her lifetime. The once-revered institution weathered a number of storms, including death threats against the royal family.

In 1979, Elizabeth suffered a significant personal loss when Lord Mountbatten, her husband’s uncle, died in a terrorist bombing. Mountbatten and several members of his family were aboard his boat off the west coast of Ireland when the vessel exploded on August 27. He and three others, including one of his grandsons, were killed. The Irish Republican Army, which opposed British rule in Northern Ireland, took responsibility for the attack.

In June 1981, Elizabeth herself had a dangerous encounter. She was riding in the Trooping the Colour, a special military parade to celebrate her official birthday when a man in the crowd pointed a gun at her. He fired, but fortunately, the gun was loaded with blanks. Other than receiving a good scare, the queen wasn’t hurt.

Elizabeth had an even closer call the following year when an intruder broke into Buckingham Palace and confronted her in her bedroom. When the press got wind of the fact that Prince Philip was nowhere to be seen during this incident, they speculated about the state of the royal marriage.

The marriage of Elizabeth’s son Charles to Diana made headlines for years before the couple announced their separation in 1992, followed by their formal divorce in 1996. In the wake of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, Elizabeth experienced intense media scrutiny. Her incredibly popular ex-daughter-in-law had been called the “People’s Princess.”

The queen was at her Balmoral estate in Scotland with Charles and his sons with Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry, at the time. For days, Elizabeth remained silent while the country mourned Diana’s passing, and she was sharply criticized for her lack of response.

Stories circulated that the queen didn’t want to give Diana a royal funeral, which only fueled public sentiment against the monarch. Nearly a week after Diana’s death, Elizabeth returned to London and issued a statement on the late princess.

Elizabeth also initially objected to the relationship between her son Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles . Charles and Camilla had dated years before he met his family, but the relationship ended under family pressure, only to resume during Charles and Diana’s marriage. Known to be a stickler for ceremony and tradition, she eventually showed signs of softening her stance over the years. When Charles and Camilla wed in 2005, Elizabeth and Prince Philip didn’t attend the civil ceremony but attended a religious blessing and held a reception in their honor at Windsor Castle.

In 1992, another of Elizabeth’s children, Prince Andrew, ended up in the tabloids after photos emerged of his wife, Sarah Ferguson , and another man engaged in romantic activity. The couple divorced soon after. Along with the dissolution of Charles’ and Andrew’s marriages, Princess Anne divorced her husband Mark Phillips that year. More bad news came when a fire broke out at Windsor Castle in November. The 15-hour blaze destroyed 115 rooms, though it only consumed two pieces of art from the queen’s valuable private collection. The year became known as her “annus horribilis.”

After the start of the 21 st century, Elizabeth experienced two great losses. She said goodbye to both her sister, Margaret, and her mother in 2002, the same year she celebrated her Golden Jubilee that marked her 50 th year on the throne. Margaret, known for being more of an adventurous soul than other royals and who was barred from marrying an early love, died in February after suffering a stroke. Only a few weeks later, Elizabeth’s mother died at Royal Lodge on March 30 at the age of 101.

In November 2017, the media reported the queen had some $13 million invested in offshore accounts. The news came following the leak of the so-called “Paradise Papers” to a German newspaper, which shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The Duchy of Lancaster, which holds assets for the queen, confirmed that some of its investments were overseas accounts but insisted they were all legitimate.

Also in 2017, the former owner of the lingerie company Rigby & Peller, which had serviced Elizabeth for more than 50 years, wrote a tell-all autobiography that included some of her experiences with the royal family. Although the author insisted that “the book doesn’t contain anything naughty,” the queen responded in early 2018 by revoking Rigby & Peller’s royal warrant.

In 2019, Prince Andrew was forced to step down from public duties, following a media firestorm. Andrew had courted years of scandal surrounding his controversial business pursuits and friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ,

Just weeks later, in January 2020, the family again found themselves in the spotlight, following the bombshell decision by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle , the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to step away from their roles as senior royals.

For much of her life, the queen surrounded herself with dogs. She was especially known for her love of corgis, owning more than 30 descendants of the first corgi she received as a teenager, until the death of the final one, Willow, in 2018.

Elizabeth was also a horse enthusiast who bred thoroughbreds and attended racing events for many years.

Not one for the spotlight, Elizabeth liked quiet pastimes. She enjoyed reading mysteries, working on crossword puzzles, and reportedly, even watching wrestling on television.

Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on September 8, 2022, at 3:10 p.m. local time. She was 96 years old. Her official cause of death was old age, according to her death certificate.

The public was first aware of the queen’s ill health earlier that day when Buckingham Palace issued at statement around 12:30 p.m. that said, “Following further evaluation this morning, the queen’s doctors are concerned for Her Majesty’s health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision.”

Soon, members of the royal family began traveling to see the queen. At the time of her death, Prince Charles and Camilla, as well as Princess Anne were at the castle. William, Harry, Andrew, Edward, and Sophie arrived later in the evening. Kate Middleton didn’t travel to say her final goodbyes, citing the recent start of the school year for her children. Meghan Markle was also absent.

Her death was publicly announced at 6:30 p.m. After, newly minted King Charles issued a statement that said:

The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family. We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished Sovereign and a much-loved Mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection in which The Queen was so widely held.

On September 14, Elizabeth’s coffin traveled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall by horse-drawn carriage and lay in state for four days. The day of her state funeral, September 19, was declared a bank holiday. The funeral was held at Westminster Abbey and ended with two minutes of silence, observed there and throughout the United Kingdom.

President Joe Biden , First Lady Jill Biden , French President Emmanuel Macron , and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the dozens of world leaders and 2,000 total people in attendance. Millions more watched or listened in; the funeral was broadcast on TV and radio and streamed on YouTube. Elizabeth’s pony and her corgis, Muick and Sandy, watched the procession, as did tens of thousands of people.

A private burial came later that day. Elizabeth was buried with Prince Philip at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.

• 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.
• 1992 is not a year I shall look back on with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an “annus horribilis.”
• When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.
• Discrimination still exists. Some people feel that their own beliefs are being threatened. Some are unhappy about unfamiliar cultures. They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat.
• Grief is the price we pay for love.
• I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.
• In remembering the appalling suffering of war on both sides, we recognize how precious is the peace we have built in Europe since 1945.
• We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

Adrienne directs the daily news operation and content production for Biography.com. She joined the staff in October 2022 and most recently worked as an editor for Popular Mechanics , Runner’s World , and Bicycling . Adrienne has served as editor-in-chief of two regional print magazines, and her work has won several awards, including the Best Explanatory Journalism award from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers. Her current working theory is that people are the point of life, and she’s fascinated by everyone who (and every system that) creates our societal norms. When she’s not behind the news desk, find her hiking, working on her latest cocktail project, or eating mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

British Royal Family

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales

Kensington Palace Shares an Update on Kate

Prince William

Where in the World Is Kate Middleton?

Princess Kate Is Seen for First Time Since Surgery

Who’s Who in the British Line of Succession

How King Charles Reacted to Prince Harry’s Visit

The True Story of Princess Margaret’s Death

Prince Harry

What We Know About ‘The Crown’ Season 6

• DIGITAL MAGAZINE

MOST POPULAR

15 fun facts about Queen Elizabeth II

From inventing a new dog breed to publishing her first instagram post, discover our favourite facts about this ruler…, 15 facts about the queen, 1. queen elizabeth ii was born at 2.40am on 21 april 1926., 2. she was crowned queen on 2 june 1953..

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable Queen Elizabeth II primary resource ? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

3. She was the longest reigning monarch ever in Britain.

4. as queen, she was served by 15 uk prime ministers..

5. Her favourite dogs were corgis.

6. she was the only person in the uk allowed to drive without a licence., 7. queen elizabeth ii had two birthdays., 8. her birthplace is now a fancy cantonese restaurant., 9. queen elizabeth ii first sent an email in 1976…, 10. she had many hobbies., 11. queen elizabeth became a homeowner at just six years old.,   12. in her lifetime, queen elizabeth ii sent around 50,000 christmas cards..

What a lot of post! 

13. She owned an elephant, two giant turtles, a jaguar and a pair of sloths.

These creatures were all gift from other countries. They now live in London Zoo.

14. Princess Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast in October 1940, during the Second World War.

15. even the monarch went undercover sometimes….

On a low-key trip to Scotland, she met some American tourists while walking. When the tourists asked if she lived locally, she mentioned that she had a house nearby, and when asked if she’d ever met the Queen she simply pointed at her security guard and said, “No, but he has!”

Check out our cool comic about Queen Elizabeth II

If you enjoyed this article, make sure you check out some of our other awesome history pages, too! Go back in time to discover Queen Elizabeth I or Queen Victoria , then jump to present day to learn about King Charles III …

What do you think of our facts about Queen Elizabeth II? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Leave a comment.

Your comment will be checked and approved shortly.

WELL DONE, YOUR COMMENT HAS BEEN ADDED!

this was really helpful thank you

A Great Website I Use This Site In School!

Helped me a lot LOL

maybe next time add more facts!

nice facts,helped me in my school activity

wow! these are so cool!

Very cool and cool Infos

I love them

i LOVE ELIZABETH

that was really good

this was so helpful for my research project thank you!

i love the queen

wow that is cool

Thanks to my father who stated to me concerning this blog, this website is in fact amazing.

Good job your smart

so lovely and amazing I loved it I say a very big thank you to national geographic and I love you guys

i think its better than jam

Extremely Interesting

COOL!!!!!!!!!!

i always wanted to know about Queen Elizabeth ll and these facts are awsome

this is very interesting

Our Queen is one very smart Lady

Hi I am a really big fan of queen Elizabeth and I wanna be a queen when I grow up. Queen Elizabeth is my idol also.

i didn't even know one of those facts! these were mind blowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The queen is nice

interesting

This is amazing! I never knew that the queen owned an elephant, twin turtles a jaguar and a pair of sloths! I wonder what there names are. I’d call on Jerry

So much facts trying to keep them in my head.

WOW I L-O-V-E-D reading these the queen was born on the 21st and became 90 on the 21st too!

I think the facts are pretty cool, I Love the Queen because she has some of the same hobbies as me. She has the same name as the little girl in the movie Drop dead Fred. Please bring the Queen to Mackay so I can meet her.

how come she survived the 2 world wars BTW there's the royal wedding in the 19th of may that's after SATS and on that day its my birthday yyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't knew that the queen had an elephant, two giant turtles, a jaguar and a pair of sloths!!!!!!!!! amazing

I like the queens sloths And how did she get them?

awesome, beautiful lady

She has sloths?????????????????

The comic was cool! I really liked the facts as well.

that's a lot of animals she has! I don't even have a pet!

she is quite amazing

Omg, never knew this stuff!

such interesting facts

the 15 facts were actually quite interesting. I thought it was going to be boring

She is a great queen

The queen is a great lady

Learning about the Queen was very interesting

amazing and cooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that Queen Elizabeth is 91 years old that is so amazing!

It's good for getting facts

I loved this. I learnt a lot from this.

It's so interesting!!!

It has made me learn a bit about the queen I love this website somuch

WoW learnt something new today!

I love the Queen! Once I sent a letter and got a reply! How cool is that?

So cool fun facts

Very interesting highly fascinating

Wow! All these fun facts were great! Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know.

I new some facts but not all of the facts.

How old is she again?

she has got lots of lovely pets. turtles are cool. i have a tortoise

This is so very funny and informative!

Fascinating! loved it never new most of those facts! hilarious!

Really interesting facts about the queen

in the past she has worked in a sweet store

i can not believe the fact that she is the longest reigning monarch ever!

I love you QUEEN

It is pretty intresting to know about these things

She is a great and loyal thing to me

WOAH!! These facts are so cool

Fantastic lady and the best head of state that my country has had God bless her.

She owns a pair of sloths omg!!!

did not know the queen had 2 bdays

I didn't know that the Queen was born on the 21st of April 1926.

I love the queen her favourite Color is yellow

I can not believe the fact that she is the longest reigning monarch ever!

i wish to live in buckingham palace

I never new that

I like this Thank you

Fascinating!

Happy birthday your majesty. I never knew all of those amazing facts about our queen.

This is awesome

I am very happy that you support arsenal.

she must be so proud of herself

SO INTERESTING AND RESOURCEFUL!!!!! LOL!

She is nice and talented

Wow I did not know this before

These facts are just awsome even I like football too

Really liked. Amazing, ng kids.

could be bigger

CUSTOMIZE YOUR AVATAR

More like monarchy.

Queen Victoria’s children

The six wives of King Henry VIII

The life and reign of King Henry VIII

10 Facts About Queen Victoria!

Sign up to our newsletter

Get uplifting news, exclusive offers, inspiring stories and activities to help you and your family explore and learn delivered straight to your inbox.

You will receive our UK newsletter. Change region

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

COUNTRY * Australia Ireland New Zealand United Kingdom Other

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and will receive emails from us about news, offers, activities and partner offers.

You're all signed up! Back to subscription site

Type whatever you want to search

More Results

You’re leaving natgeokids.com to visit another website!

Ask a parent or guardian to check it out first and remember to stay safe online.

You're leaving our kids' pages to visit a page for grown-ups!

Be sure to check if your parent or guardian is okay with this first.

The life and legacy of Britain’s longest-serving monarch

LONDON — She was born a royal but with little hope of wearing the crown. 

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, known by her family as Lilibet , was born April 21, 1926 — third in line to the throne after her uncle and her father. But a scandalous royal love affair changed the course of Lilibet’s life and paved the way for her to become the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, a much-admired symbol of comfort and continuity and arguably the most famous woman in the world. 

Elizabeth’s reign lasted from the industrial age to the internet age — 70 years of endurance and stoicism in which she met generations of legendary, mostly male, global leaders and helped steer Britain through the loss of its empire and its emergence as a midsized multicultural nation.

Follow NBC News’ live coverage here

From a young queen to the grandmother of the nation, decade after decade she smiled, waved, shook hands and chatted with a vast number of her subjects and admirers, despite family scandals and the tragedy of a dead princess.  

Her cool, reliable cheerfulness made her overwhelmingly popular with the British public.

Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday . Her eldest son, Charles, is now king.

On the eve of World War II, her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 after his marriage proposal to an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, erupted in a scandal that engulfed the royal family and embroiled the country’s politicians. 

Elizabeth’s father became a reluctant King George VI, making Elizabeth the direct heir to the crown. 

Elizabeth assumed the throne in 1952 at the age of 25 after the sudden death of her father in his sleep at 56. In the 70 years since, she worked with 15 British prime ministers and met every U.S. president during her time as queen except Lyndon Johnson. The vast majority of Britons have never known another monarch, and she remained overwhelmingly popular until her death.

She reigned against the backdrop of vast cultural and political transformations — the end of Britain’s age of deference and its empire, and the advent of globalization and the multimedia age. Throughout, she and her family experienced unprecedented levels of public exposure and, at times, a fractious relationship with the media.

Elizabeth also oversaw the monarchy’s evolution into a champion of a diminished United Kingdom at home and abroad, and she worked tirelessly to keep the crown relevant in a changing world. A source of unending fascination to many, she’s been the subject of movies, plays and TV series, including “The Crown,” “The Queen,” and “The Royal House of Windsor.”

“She has throughout her reign managed to make people feel that she is the spirit and the soul of the country,” said Clive Irving, the author of “The Last Queen: How Queen Elizabeth II Saved the Monarchy.” “She gives over a maternal feeling. She’s a safe pair of hands at the top. No one else has ever been able to convey that as she did.”

That was evident most recently during the pandemic, when early on the queen addressed the U.K. in a rare broadcast to urge her subjects to show the same “self-discipline” and “quiet good-humored resolve” that characterized previous generations.

The queen, whose image adorns stamps, money and mailboxes, is more than a mere figurehead: She played an essential role in the functioning of the U.K. as a constitutional monarchy. After an election, it is the U.K.’s monarch who calls on the political parties to form a government. The monarch also must give assent to all legislation passed by Parliament, and meets weekly with the prime minister to discuss government matters. They are legally allowed to “advise and warn” the government’s ministers.

Crucial to what is widely seen as a successful reign was Elizabeth’s ability to appear ubiquitous and at the same time remain an enigma. She accomplished this by avoiding expressing her political views or making controversial statements in public — no mean feat for someone constantly in the limelight. This meant keeping her own counsel during thousands of events, appearances and speeches, according to Philip Murphy, the director of history and policy at the University of London.

“She has an incredible capacity for repeating the same sorts of rather dull official events which clearly mean an awful lot to other people,” said Murphy. “So much of being a constitutional monarch is the repetition of boring regimes, and there’s something about her that has never rebelled against that. She would call that a sense of duty.”

During the war, Elizabeth and her sister went to live in Windsor, while their parents stayed in London despite the heavy bombardment from German bombers. She made her first radio address in 1940, speaking to other children who had been separated from their families to keep them safe. 

Toward the end of the conflict, the princess joined the all-female Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a mechanic. 

It was during the war that the young royal began to date her future husband.  

Philip , her third cousin, was a Greek prince but had spent most of his childhood in the U.K. His family fled Greece after a revolution and were largely penniless. The couple first crossed paths in 1934 at a family wedding and then met again in 1939 when she was 13 and he was 18. While he was stationed abroad during the war, they wrote letters to each other, but his background and her youth were a cause of concern to other members of the royal family. 

During their courtship, Philip and Elizabeth would go out driving in Philip’s tiny MG sports car, as well as dancing at London nightclubs. The couple announced their engagement in July 1947 after Elizabeth returned from her first trip abroad to South Africa. They wed that November, and Philip renounced his Greek title and became a British citizen.

Two years later, they moved to Malta, where Philip was stationed with the British Navy and she lived as an officer’s wife, far from the public eye. Royal observers have speculated that these were some of the happiest years of Elizabeth’s life, a time when she was able to drive her own car and mingle with other officers’ wives without the layers of security and protocol that have defined her reign. 

Their relative freedom was cut short when King George, who’s health had long been precarious, suddenly deteriorated. At the time of his death in February 1952, Elizabeth was in Kenya on a royal tour with Philip. After word reached an aide, Philip broke the news to Elizabeth during a walk.

Royal experts say it was Elizabeth’s husband, five years her senior, who helped guide the young queen in the early years.

“She was so young when she ascended the throne,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward said, adding that Elizabeth followed much of the tradition her father had established. “Everything was completely archaic. It was so old-fashioned. I think more than anyone, Prince Philip helped move the monarchy up.”

That was particularly evident in the way he helped revamp the royal estates — the land and holdings belonging to the crown — making their operations profitable, she said.

Philip’s influence on the monarchy as an institution was mirrored in their personal lives, as well.

In one of her more revealing speeches about her husband on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary in 1997, the queen referred to his “constant love and help” and said, “He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.”

Philip, who retired from his official royal duties in 2017, died in April 2021 at the age of 99. He and Elizabeth were married for 73 years.

In addition to Prince Charles, Elizabeth is survived by two sons, Princes Andrew and Edward; a daughter, Princess Anne; four grandsons; four granddaughters; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Over her 70-year reign , the queen eased the U.K. into its new post-World War II role, which had been diminished after the loss of its colonies around the world.

The queen placed a strong emphasis on her position as the head of the Commonwealth , a loose alliance of more than 50 countries, many of which are former British colonies.

“The queen had to work out how to manage decline — the dissolution of the empire, coming to terms with diminished power — but she also understood that diminished power does not have to mean diminished quality,” Irving said.

Her extensive travels around the globe, many on her beloved royal yacht Britannia, helped raise the profile of the U.K. and brought a dose of glamor to the places she visited. In 1961, she visited the former British colony of Ghana, which had gained independence just a few years earlier in 1957. During that trip, a charm offensive in one of the first members of the Commonwealth , she was filmed dancing with the country’s leader, Kwame Nkrumah, at a time when segregation still existed in the U.S.

Like with so much else that the queen does, it was her actions and not her words that carried weight. 

“A man could not have done it,” historian Nat Nunoo Amarteifio said in the BBC documentary “The Queen: Her Commonwealth Story.” “Here is our president, being respected enough by the queen of England for her to put her arms around him.”

While she was lauded for her work abroad, she was also praised for opening up the royal household and giving the public a glimpse of the family’s life at home.

A 1969 documentary, “Royal Family,” revealed the royal couple’s private life for the first time, showing Elizabeth and Philip having dinnertime conversations and engaging in other regular activities, including barbecuing.

“People realized they weren’t gods. They were real people,” Seward said. “A lot of people said this was a turning point.”

While the queen’s steady consistency was largely considered a boon for the monarchy, her children and grandchildren’s lives have occasionally been a thorn in the side of monarchists. 

Most recently, her grandson Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan , accused an unnamed member of the royal family of asking how dark the skin of their children would be. The couple gave up their royal duties and left the U.K. in 2020. 

Just before their departure, the queen was faced with a growing scandal around her son Prince Andrew’s friendship with the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew stepped down from his public duties in support of the queen in November 2019, and she stayed largely silent on the topic.  

Despite the recent challenges facing the monarchy, its popularity has remained high. That hasn’t always been the case. 

In the early 1990s, Charles’ rocky marriage to Princess Diana was all over the news, eventually ending in divorce in 1992. In one of the queen’s most famous speeches marking the 40th anniversary of her ascension, she referred to 1992 as an “annus horribilis,” or disastrous year. Speaking just days after a blaze destroyed a large part of her Windsor Castle residence, the queen made a plea for understanding, saying that “most people try to do their jobs as best they can, even if the result is not always entirely successful.”  

Five years later, when Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris and the world mourned, Elizabeth was criticized for staying silent for days and hunkering down at her home in Scotland with Charles and Diana’s sons, her grandsons Princes William and Harry. Satisfaction with the way she was doing her job dipped to 66 percent after that, according to the U.K. polling company Ipsos Mori. (At the time of her 60th anniversary on the throne in 2012, her popularity had risen to 90 percent.)

“I think that was an extremely challenging time for the monarchy, because people couldn’t understand why the royal family weren’t responding as they wanted to,” Seward said of Diana’s death. “In times of great tragedy, they just always lock down. ... They don’t grieve in public. And people wanted more than that.”

When the queen finally returned to London nearly a week later, she paid tribute to Diana . “I for one believe there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death,” Elizabeth said.

She acknowledged in a 1997 speech that the monarchy “exists only with the support and consent of the people.” 

In September 2015, she became the longest-serving monarch in British history, surpassing her great-great-grandmother Victoria’s record of 63 years, 216 days.

“Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones. My own is no exception,” the queen noted at the time.

While she carried on working until the end, meeting foreign dignitaries, visiting cities around the U.K., supporting charities and promoting her kingdom at home and abroad, she had canceled a number of appearances and events toward the end. 

Perhaps the greatest measure of Elizabeth’s success in carrying the House of Windsor into the future will be how it continues on in her absence. Charles, 73, now becomes king , a role he’s been groomed for since birth. 

At his 70th birthday celebration, in November 2018, Elizabeth called him “a dedicated and respected heir to the throne to stand comparison with any in history — and a wonderful father.”

Yet his popularity is nowhere near as high as his mother’s, coming in sixth on YouGov’s royal popularity ranking, behind his sister, Anne.

While most Britons “love” the queen, Irving said, “the question is how relevant does the monarchy remain after the queen.”

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based editor, producer and writer. 

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

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.

• Queen Elizabeth II

Most viewed

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

Queen Elizabeth II: 15 Key Moments in Her Reign

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: July 25, 2023 | Original: November 12, 2020

Queen Elizabeth II , who ruled the United Kingdom for seven decades, was such a longstanding institution that it’s easy to forget she wasn’t supposed to have become queen at all.

Born in 1926, Elizabeth was the daughter of King George V ’s second son, and had little expectation of succeeding to the throne until her uncle, King Edward VIII , abdicated in 1936 to marry the divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. After the death of her father , King George VI , 25-year-old Elizabeth was called upon to assume the throne, beginning a momentous reign. In February 2022, the United Kingdom staged a series of celebrations for the queen's Platinum Jubilee —marking 70 years of her service to the British Commonwealth.  

Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96, proved consistent and enduring. In April 2021, she lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Phillip , when he died at age 99. In February 2022, the Queen contracted the coronavirus, which she later said left her "very tired and exhausted." She installed her 15th prime minister. Liz Truss, just two days before her death.

1. Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation - June 2, 1953

Held at Westminster Abbey, Elizabeth’s coronation ceremony was the first to be broadcast live on television. Some 27 million people in the United Kingdom (out of a total population of 36 million) watched the ceremony , and 11 million more listened on the radio. Afterward, some 3 million people lined the route as the queen and her entourage made their slow procession back to Buckingham Palace.

2. First State Visit to West Germany - 1965

In the midst of a decade marked by social and political changes , the queen kept to a busy schedule of diplomatic duties, including a 10-day visit to the Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany) that was the first official visit there by a British royal since 1913. Her visit marked the 20-year anniversary of the end of World War II , helping to symbolize the reconciliation between the two countries and recognize Germany’s re-emergence as a power in Europe and on the world stage.

3. Mining Disaster in Wales - 1966

On October 21, 1966, an avalanche of mud, water and debris from a coal mine buried an elementary school in the South Wales village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Though Prince Philip arrived in Aberfan a day after the disaster, the queen herself delayed her visit for over a week, fearing her presence would distract from rescue and recovery efforts. Some of those close to Elizabeth—including her former private secretary, Lord Charteris—have said she regretted the decision not to visit Aberfan sooner .

4. First 'Walkabout' - 1970

During a royal tour of Australia and New Zealand with Philip and Princess Anne in 1970, Elizabeth bucked centuries of royal tradition when she took a casual stroll to greet crowds of people in person, rather than wave to them from a protected distance. Now a regular practice for British royals both abroad and at home, the first “walkabout” in Sydney was proposed by Sir William Heseltine, an Australian who served as the queen’s private secretary and was the driving force behind a 1969 TV documentary featuring the royal family, which attracted a global audience of some 40 million people.

5. Silver Jubilee - 1977

On June 7, Elizabeth and Philip rode in the Gold State Coach from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathedral to officially celebrate her 25th year on the throne. Wearing a bright pink outfit, including a hat decked out with 25 fabric bells, the queen repeated her long-ago pledge to devote her life to service, saying that "Although that vow was made in my salad days when I was green in judgement, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”

6. Prince Charles' Wedding to Lady Diana Spencer - 1981

On July 29, 1981, an estimated 750 million people in 74 countries around the world tuned in to watch Prince Charles, Elizabeth’s eldest son, marry Lady Diana Spencer, at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The romance between the heir to the British throne and the young “Shy Di” had attracted massive media attention, and their lavish nuptials were considered the “wedding of the century.” But while Diana earned the adoration of the public, her marriage to Charles (and her relationship with the royal family) was troubled from the beginning .

7. Visit to China - 1986

In late 1984, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ’s government agreed to return sovereignty over Hong Kong to China beginning July 1, 1997. In 1986, Elizabeth became the first British monarch to visit the Chinese mainland, touring the terracotta warriors in Xi’an, the Great Wall in Beijing and other sites. For the press, the diplomatic importance of the queen’s visit was outweighed by her husband’s characteristic (and sometimes racist) gaffes: Philip called Beijing “ghastly” and told a group of British students they would get “slitty eyes” if they stayed in China too long.

8. 'Annus Horribilis' - 1992

Charles and Diana’s marriage continued to deteriorate, and in 1992 they announced their decision to separate. Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, also separated, while Anne divorced her husband, Mark Phillips. Late that year, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, destroying more than 100 rooms. In a speech delivered to mark the 40th anniversary of her succession, Queen Elizabeth remarked that 1992 “has turned out to be an 'Annus Horribilis'”: Latin for “a horrible year.”

9. Response to Princess Diana’s death - 1997

Public criticism of the royal family grew more intense after Charles and Diana’s divorce in 1996 and especially after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris the following summer. The queen initially remained at her estate in Balmoral, Scotland, and refused to allow the flag to fly at half-mast over Buckingham Palace or address the grieving nation. 

At the urging of her advisers, she soon revised her stance on the flag, returned to London to greet crowds of mourners and delivered a rare televised address to a nation devastated by the loss of the “People’s Princess.”

10. Golden Jubilee - 2002

The queen’s celebration of her 50th year on the throne was marred by a double loss, when her younger sister, Princess Margaret , and their mother died within weeks of each other. As the first British monarch since Queen Victoria to celebrate a Golden Jubilee, Elizabeth traveled more than 40,000 miles that year , including visits to the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. She also visited 70 cities and towns in 50 counties in the United Kingdom. 

Compared with the tumultuous 1990s, the start of Elizabeth’s second half-century as queen coincided with the beginning of more positive relations between Britain and its royal family: In 2005, a majority of the British public supported Charles’ wedding to his longtime love, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

11. Visit to the Republic of Ireland - 2011

In May 2011, Elizabeth and Philip visited the Republic of Ireland at the invitation of President Mary McAleese. Though the queen had frequently visited Northern Ireland over the course of her reign, this was her first to the Republic of Ireland, and the first by a British monarch in 100 years. Elizabeth’s visit, during which she expressed her “sincere thoughts and deep sympathy” for the victims of the troubled Anglo-Irish past , was widely celebrated as the beginning of a new era of friendship.

12. Birth of Prince George - 2013

In July 2013, the queen welcomed a new great-grandson , Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge, the first child of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton, who married in 2011. Second in the line of succession after his father, George is widely expected to become king one day. His birth marked the first time since Victoria’s reign that three generations of direct heirs to the British throne were alive at the same time.

13. Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s wedding - 2018

Perhaps no other event during Elizabeth’s reign symbolized the modernizing monarchy more than the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle, a divorced, biracial American actress. Though the queen reportedly gave her quick approval to the match, the relationship between the couple and the British media—as well as the rest of the royal family— grew increasingly tense after their marriage. In 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping back from their role as senior royals. They later moved to Markle’s native Southern California. Their son, Archie, was born in 2019, followed by their daughter Lilibet in 2021.

14. Prince Philip's death - 2021

On April 9, 2021, Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband of 73 years, died at the age of 99 . The British monarchy’s longest-running love story began just before World War II, when 18-year-old Prince Philip of Greece met his third cousin, Princess Elizabeth, during her family’s visit to the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, where Philip was studying. On November 14, 1947, the couple were married in Westminster Abbey, and King George VI named Philip as Duke of Edinburgh shortly after that.

For more than a half-century, Prince Philip supported his wife in her royal duties and took on an ambitious slate of obligations of his own. Philip's funeral was held on April 17, 2021. Because of coronavirus restrictions, only 30 guests were invited to attend. Photos of the queen sitting alone in St. George's Chapel struck many as a symbol of her loneliness and grief.

15. Platinum Jubilee - 2022

In February of 2022, England began a series of celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II's 70 years on the throne. On June 2, a military parade featuring 1,400 troops in bearskin caps, musicians and 240 horses, a Royal Air Force flyover and an 82-gun salute were staged to honor the 96-year-old monarch, whose birthday was on April 21. One section of London even featured a parade of corgis (Elizabeth's favorite dog breed), with more than 30 of the short-legged canines "marching" in a procession. 

The queen watched the pageantry from the balcony of Buckingham Palace and was joined by four generations of her heirs, including her eldest son, Prince Charles ; his eldest son, Prince William; and William’s eldest son, Prince George. Despite her age and having just sustained a case of COVID-19, the Queen, dressed in pearls and a light blue dress, coat and hat, wore a broad grin.

HISTORY Vault: Profiles: Queen Elizabeth II

Chart the unexpected rise and record-breaking reign of Queen Elizabeth II, which unfolded in the turbulent modern history of the English monarchy.

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

Premium Content

• HISTORY MAGAZINE

Queen Elizabeth II: A lifetime of devotion and service

The funeral of Britain's longest-ruling monarch concludes a life exemplified by a personal motto of "I serve."

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch died on September 8, setting off a series of well-planned events to mark her passing. The culmination of these events is the state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday and her subsequent interment at King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. The people of the United Kingdom and leaders from around the world will gather in London to pay their respects to the late queen and bid a final farewell.

The beginning of an era

Queen Elizabeth II sat at her desk, undertaking her first duties as monarch. Just hours before, she had been Elizabeth Windsor; now she was queen of the United Kingdom, head of the Commonwealth of Nations, and sovereign of the Commonwealth realms.

It was 1952, and she was in mourning. But despite her grief, the young queen shouldered her new responsibility with grace—and her signature stiff upper lip. “She was sitting erect, fully accepting her destiny,” her private secretary later recalled. When he asked her which name she would reign under, she said “My own, of course.”

Over the seven decades that followed, Queen Elizabeth II would leave an unmistakable impression on her nation and the rest of the world. Her road to the throne was a twisted one; her reign beset by crises and social cataclysms. But her destiny was to rule through triumph and sorrow, conflict and almost unthinkable change. Along the way, she would become the longest-ruling British monarch—linking past and present and emerging as an indelible figure on the world stage.

A twist of royal fate

Born in London on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth was the granddaughter of a king and daughter of a duke—the newest member of the House of Windsor. Despite her royal pedigree, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary didn’t seem destined to the British throne. She was third in line to the monarchy, but it was widely assumed that her uncle Edward would become king, marry, and produce royal heirs of his own. History had other plans for Elizabeth.

When she was nine years old, her uncle took the throne as Edward VIII according to plan. Less than a year later he abdicated, abandoning the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite. Elizabeth’s father would become king, and suddenly Elizabeth was next in line to helm Britain’s hereditary monarchy.

The lonely princess

Elizabeth had been raised quietly along with her younger sister, Princess Margaret. But when she became heir to the throne, her future reign indelibly shaped young Elizabeth’s life. Privately educated in Buckingham Palace and overseen by a beloved governess, she was tutored in her future duties by leading scholars and in religion by the archbishop of Canterbury. She learned from her father, too: Shy, stuttering George VI nonetheless addressed his people regularly and insisted on staying in London during the Blitz of World War II.

For Hungry Minds

Elizabeth was a lonely but dutiful young girl—one biographer noted that her loud cries during her christening as a baby were “the last recorded instance of her surrendering to anything like a tantrum.” But the war opened up her horizons.

In 1940, she made her first public speech at age 14, addressing children who had been separated from their parents during the war. “We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage,” she said. “We are trying . . . to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.”

Love and war

The teenage princess took part in the war effort in another way, too. In 1945, Elizabeth made history when she became the first woman in the royal family to serve full-time in Britain’s military as a truck driver and mechanic. When the war ended later that year, she wore her uniform and slipped into the celebrating crowds, blending in with the revelers as she basked in the joy and relief of peace.

By then, the seeds of what would become a seven-decade romance had been sown. Elizabeth and Margaret spent much of World War II at Windsor Castle. Elizabeth’s third cousin, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark often stayed there when he was on leave from the Royal Navy. After the war, their relationship bloomed.

The dashing, blunt prince—who was exiled to England as an infant amid political strife in Greece and became naturalized as Philip Mountbatten in 1947—was an unlikely match for the reserved queen-to-be. He was relatively poor and seemingly rootless, his childhood marked by instability and trauma. But Elizabeth was captivated, reportedly falling in love at age 13. “She had a protective shell around her, and he brought her out of it,” said one observer. They married in Westminster Abbey on November 20, 1947.

The young queen

As a young wife and mother—Charles III was born in 1948 and Princess Anne followed in 1950—Elizabeth began to step into her aging father’s shoes. In 1952, she undertook a world tour in King George VI’s stead. During a brief getaway with Philip in Kenya, word arrived that her father had died. The 25-year-old was now a queen.

Elizabeth II, Britain’s 61st monarch, would reign over a vast empire and serve as head of the Church of England. At the time of her accession, Britain had more than 70 territories overseas. She was sovereign and head of state of the Commonwealth realms, including Canada and Australia, and the second Head of the Commonwealth of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of sovereign states mostly linked to the United Kingdom through a history of British colonial rule. But her role was mostly symbolic: Though technically head of state and church, under the United Kingdom’s constitutional monarchy she possessed no ability to pass or enforce laws and was responsible for serving as a national figurehead, not a politician.

Elizabeth considered her responsibility as monarch a sacred duty. “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,” she said in a radio address on her 21st birthday, when her father was still king. She would spend the rest of her life living up to that promise.

A glittering coronation

As she mourned her father and acclimated to life as queen, Elizabeth prepared for perhaps the most memorable of the many royal appearances she was to make during her long life: Her coronation, held in Westminster Abbey in June 1953, hewed to time-honored tradition.

The day of the ceremony, the demure young queen, wearing an elaborate white satin dress, took a carriage from Buckingham Palace to the abbey. Inside the abbey, she was blessed and anointed with oil, decked with royal robes, and given a scepter and an orb.

Finally, after a nearly five-pound crown studded with jewels was placed on her head, she received the homage of the royal family and the peerage. Prince Philip was the first to kneel before her, pledging to be her “liege man of life and limb.”

Admiring subjects lined the streets of London to celebrate. They weren’t the only ones to take in the grandeur—at the queen’s insistence, television cameras were allowed inside the church for the first time, and the coronation was broadcast live. An estimated three-quarters of the population of Britain, more than 20 million people, tuned in for the ceremony, and millions more watched from other countries. Her coronation was the world’s first must-see television event and ushered in a new, modern monarchy.

Her changing empire

The British Empire of the queen’s forebears was changing rapidly as countries asserted their independence in the postwar years. Elizabeth continued to serve as constitutional monarch of a growing number of Commonwealth realms. And as head of the Commonwealth of Nations, she presided over a loose group of mostly former British colonies that had abandoned their colonial relationships with Britain.

After the coronation, Elizabeth and Philip embarked on an unprecedented tour of the Commonwealth. During the trip, the pair traveled more than 40,000 miles and visited 13 countries. It was the first time a reigning monarch had visited either Australia or New Zealand.

The Commonwealth would become one of Elizabeth’s most enduring projects. She embraced the association’s diversity and fostered close relationships with its leaders. The Commonwealth “bears no resemblance to the Empires of the past,” she said. “It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace. To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.”

Royal duties

A busy travel schedule made up just part of the queen’s royal duties. Though the British sovereign must remain externally neutral on matters of state, they retain the right to appoint prime ministers and call a general election. Although those duties are usually no more than ceremonial, they remain a key part of protocol. Monarchs can also advise—or be advised by—their prime ministers.

During her weekly visits with Prime Minister Winston Churchill in her first years as queen, Elizabeth received his tutelage and shared in his notorious sense of fun. Her private secretary recalled hearing “peals of laughter” during their audiences, and the queen wrote that she was “profoundly grateful” for his guidance during her first years as sovereign.

A “priggish schoolgirl”

Despite her outward neutrality, the queen had her detractors—and soon learned that, in times of national strife, the monarchy could be harshly criticized. The first gauntlet came after the Suez Crisis, Britain’s disastrous, short-lived invasion of Egypt in 1956. The brief fiasco resulted in a decline in the U.K.’s global status and fueled a political and economic crisis.

After Anthony Eden, the prime minister who had given the invasion the green light, resigned, Elizabeth came under fire for relying on the advice of an insular group of royal insiders in choosing Eden’s successor. In 1957, Lord Altrincham, the influential editor of the National and English Review, published sharp criticism of Elizabeth and her “tweedy” advisers. Then he launched into a personal attack on the queen herself, complaining about everything from her voice to her “priggish schoolgirl” demeanor.

The criticism—and the debate it generated—prompted the queen to make lasting changes. Though the queen kept the monarch’s prerogative to appoint prime ministers, she would defer to political parties’ choice of prime minister for the rest of her life. And, in a nod toward equality, the queen eventually did away with the custom of presenting upper-crust debutantes at court, a long-standing tradition seen by some as evidence of a privilege unfairly extended to an elite minority.

A troubled nation

British society was changing and so was the monarchy. During her reign, Elizabeth faced a seemingly endless parade of crises, from economic malaise in the 1970s and 1980s to the international woes of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic in the 21st century. But some events hit closer to home than others.

One such event was the Aberfan mine disaster in 1966, a landslide in which 144 people, many of them schoolchildren, were killed. After refusing to visit the Welsh community until more than a week after the incident, Elizabeth faced deep criticism for what some saw as leaving her subjects in the lurch. The queen reportedly considered her bungled response to the disaster to be the biggest regret of her reign.

The Troubles, a three-decades-long conflict between nationalists and unionists in Northern Ireland, was another crucible. The violence left more than 3,600 dead and more than 30,000 injured. The Troubles also touched Elizabeth personally: Her second cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1979. It would take until 2011 for Elizabeth to make an official state visit to the Republic of Ireland, where she offered her sympathy to the victims of the Troubles. Despite her words—the closest a member of the Royal Family ever came to apologizing for Britain’s reprisals during the conflict—tensions continued to simmer in Northern Ireland, especially in the throes of Brexit, which threatened trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Pomp and circumstance

As a mother of four—Prince Andrew was born in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964—the queen hewed carefully to her symbolic duties. Every year, she presided at the State Opening of Parliament, delivering a speech to the assembled members of the Houses of Commons and Lords. (During her reign she missed only three appearances; twice while pregnant with her younger sons and once in 2022 as concerns for her health increased.)

State events were filled with pitfalls of procedure and etiquette. But for the queen, there was a practical annoyance: the weight of her nearly five-pound Imperial State Crown. “You can’t look down to read the speech, you have to take the speech up. Because if you did, your neck would break—it would fall off,” she told the BBC in a 2018 documentary. “So there are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they’re quite important things.” As the queen aged, she began wearing a lighter-weight diadem to Parliament instead.

Another tradition was the royal Christmas message, a speech broadcast first by radio, then by television to a worldwide audience. During the annual messages, which her grandfather first instituted, Elizabeth offered thanks and encouragement to the people of the Commonwealth and commented on the most pressing issues of the time.

And then there were the jubilees—anniversary celebrations of the queen’s ever lengthening rule. The queen would often travel throughout the Commonwealth of Nations during jubilee years, and she used the jubilee celebrations as chances to greet her subjects and focus on the unity and progress of her nation and the Commonwealth.

You May Also Like

What happens now that Queen Elizabeth II has passed?

Decoded secret letters reveal royal plot against Queen Elizabeth I

Why Elizabeth II was modern Britain’s most unlikely queen

In 1969, she presided over a very personal ceremony: the investiture of her oldest son, Charles, as Prince of Wales. As her son knelt before her at Caernarfon Castle, she placed a jewel-studded coronet on his head and presented him to the Welsh people as their prince.

Family matters

Over the years, the queen survived multiple assassination attempts. But those were arguably less traumatic than the family conflicts that rocked her personal life and shook public confidence in the monarchy.

The queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, caused a furor when tabloids published photos of her cavorting with her lover in 1976. Though Margaret’s subsequent divorce scandalized the family, Elizabeth gave it her blessing. It was just a preview of the strife to come.

The fallout of the tempestuous marriage and separation of Charles III and Princess Diana led Elizabeth to refer to 1992 as her “annus horribilis,” a year that also included a catastrophic fire at Windsor Castle, the divorce of Princess Anne, and the separation of Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah.

When Diana died in a tragic car crash while being pursued by paparazzi in 1997, her former mother-in-law was condemned for her seeming lack of emotion. But in private, the queen expressed her grief, writing to a friend that Diana’s death was “dreadfully sad.” In the aftermath, she protected and cared for her grandsons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

A stiff upper lip

Elizabeth’s troubles didn’t end then. Her son Prince Andrew was linked to infamous American financier Jeffrey Epstein and accused of sexually assaulting a minor Epstein had allegedly trafficked. Under increasing public pressure and after a widely criticized television interview in which Prince Andrew downplayed Epstein’s actions and denied any wrongdoing, he stepped down from public life in November 2019 and returned his royal patronages and military titles to the queen in January 2022.

In January 2020, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, announced they would step back from the royal family and become financially independent. They also alleged that Meghan, who is biracial, had received racist treatment from members of the royal inner circle. Though the couple’s retreat to the United States reportedly came as a blow to the queen, the monarch retained a relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from afar and was said to have been “overjoyed” that the pair named their second child Lilibet.

Another blow came in 2021, when Philip, the longest-serving royal consort in British history, died at age 99. Images of the queen sitting alone at her husband’s funeral, which was kept small to conform with the British government’s coronavirus-era restrictions, vividly illustrated the queen’s loss. But through it all, she presented a placid face to the world.

Intensely private though she was, the queen was also known to be warm and witty. She doted on her corgis and relished her summer retreats to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she could go on long walks and picnics, drive her Range Rover, and visit with her royal ponies. A committed horsewoman, she was a fixture at horse shows and races and could be spotted in the saddle into her 90s.

But for the woman who committed to serving her country at the age of just 25, her country was never far from her thoughts. She remained active and involved in public events into her mid-90s and never turned away from her responsibilities as queen. “These are the things that, at her age, she shouldn’t be doing, yet she’s carrying on and doing them,” her grandson Prince Harry said in a 2012 interview. So, what did the resilient queen make of her own boundary-breaking life? She reportedly joked, “I have to be seen to be believed.”

Elizabeth could find the humor in her complicated destiny. And for those who loved her—her millions of subjects, her loving family, and her fans around the world—she was much more than a figurehead. “In the days when it was a man’s world, it was very difficult for her to . . . make a difference,” her grandson Prince William said in a 2019 interview. “And she’s done it. In her own very unique, distinct way.”

To the end, she retained the calm resolve of the young woman who accepted her royal fate so many years before—a life of duty and service, accomplished as no one but Elizabeth could.

Related Topics

How National Geographic photographed Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth I's rule set a golden legacy for Britain

Britain’s first Black queen? The real story of Queen Charlotte

Exclusive: See rare photos of Queen Elizabeth II from National Geographic's archives

Queen Elizabeth owns most of the U.K. seabed. That's slowing conservation work.

• Environment

History & Culture

• History & Culture
• History Magazine
• Gory Details
• Mind, Body, Wonder
• Paid Content
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

See what Shop TODAY editors are loving! 23 Amazon finds to shop — from $6

• TODAY Plaza
• Share this —

• Watch Full Episodes
• Read With Jenna
• Inspirational
• Relationships
• TODAY Table
• Newsletters
• Start TODAY
• Shop TODAY Awards
• Citi Concert Series
• Listen All Day

Follow today

More Brands

• On The Show

30 notable facts about Queen Elizabeth that celebrate her life and legacy

Family, friends and fans are remembering the life of Queen Elizabeth II on the first anniversary of her death through sweet tributes.

Queen Elizabeth died  on Sept. 8, 2022, at age 96, after reigning for more than 70 years. She lived a life guiding a nation through triumph and tragedy.

"Today we remember the extraordinary life and legacy of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth," William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, said on X Sept. 8. "We all miss you."

Rishi Sunak, prime minister of the United Kingdom, also shared a heartfelt tribute.

"With the perspective of a year, the scale of Her Late Majesty’s service only seems greater," he said, in part. "Her devotion to the nations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth only seems deeper."

Known as the "accidental queen," Elizabeth inherited the monarchy through a twist of fate after her father died suddenly at age 56.

Here are 30 facts about Queen Elizabeth you may not know yet, including just how many crowns she wore on her coronation day.

30 Queen Elizabeth facts that celebrate her life

• Queen Elizabeth II was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor at 2:40AM on April 21, 1926.
• Elizabeth's engagement to Prince Philip was announced on July 9, 1947.
• Queen Elizabeth, titled Princess Elizabeth at the time, married her husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on November 20, 1947 in Westminster Abbey.
• A full 2,000 guests were invited to their ceremony .
• The couple was gifted many items, including a Singer sewing machine.
• Her wedding dress was designed by British fashion designer Sir Norman Hartnell and was decorated with crystals and 10,000 seed pearls.

• Queen Elizabeth's coronation ceremony was June 2, 1953, more than a year after she became queen upon her father's death.
• On her coronation day, the queen wore two different crowns: the St Edward’s Crown and the Imperial State Crown.

• Norman Hartnell was also behind the Queen's coronation gown, which was put on display in a royal exhibit during her Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
• The queen's coronation ceremony was the first to be broadcast on television.
• 8,251 guests attended the queen’s coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
• Queen Elizabeth and Philip had four children :  King Charles III , Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
• Queen Elizabeth spoke fluent French.
• The queen visited more than 100 countries during her reign.
• Queen Elizabeth carried out more than 21,000 engagements during her reign.
• The first prime minister during the queen's reign was Winston Churchill.
• In 1997, under Queen Elizabeth's reign, Buckingham Palace launched their first website.
• There were 14 U.S. presidents during Queen Elizabeth's reign — and she met each one, except President Johnson.
• Queen Elizabeth was gifted her first pony, a Shetland named Peggy, by her grandfather, King George V.
• The queen's first corgi, Susan, was gifted to her on her 18th birthday in 1944.
• In total, the queen reportedly had more than 30 corgis throughout her reign, two of which she got in 2021.
• In 1969, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police gifted Queen Elizabeth a black mare named Burmese.
• Queen Elizabeth was the first British monarch to visit China. The visit happened in 1986.
• In 2014, Queen Elizabeth sent her first tweet on Twitter .
• In 2019, the queen shared her first Instagram post .
• On September 9, 2015, the queen became the longest-reigning monarch in British history.
• Queen Elizabeth has eight grandchildren and, at the time of her death, 12 great-grandchildren.
• When the queen died, she entrusted her two corgis, Sandy and Muick, to the care of Sarah, Duchess of York . The dogs are “thriving” one year after Queen Elizabeth’s death.
• Roughly 2,000 people attended the queen's funeral on Sept. 19, 2022.
• The funeral cost more than $200 million, according to CNBC .

Kait Hanson is a lifestyle reporter for TODAY. A graduate of Penn State University, she began her career in collegiate sports communications.

English History

Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Facts, Portraits & Information

Queen Elizabeth I – Tudor Queen

Elizabeth Tudor is considered by many to be the greatest monarch in English history. When she became queen in 1558, she was twenty-five years old, a survivor of scandal and danger, and considered illegitimate by most Europeans.

She inherited a bankrupt nation, torn by religious discord, a weakened pawn between the great powers of France and Spain. She was only the third queen to rule England in her own right; the other two examples, her cousin Lady Jane Grey and half-sister Mary I , were disastrous.

Even her supporters believed her position dangerous and uncertain. Her only hope, they counseled, was to marry quickly and lean upon her husband for support. But Elizabeth had other ideas. She ruled alone for nearly half a century, lending her name to a glorious epoch in world history. She dazzled even her greatest enemies. Her sense of duty was admirable, though it came at great personal cost. She was committed above all else to preserving English peace and stability; her genuine love for her subjects was legendary.

Only a few years after her death in 1603, they lamented her passing. In her greatest speech to Parliament, she told them, ‘I count the glory of my crown that I have reigned with your love.’ And five centuries later, the worldwide love affair with Elizabeth Tudor continues.

‘Proud and haughty, as although she knows she was born of such a mother, she nevertheless does not consider herself of inferior degree to the Queen, whom she equals in self-esteem; nor does she believe herself less legitimate than her Majesty, alleging in her own favour that her mother would never cohabit with the King unless by way of marriage, with the authority of the Church….

She prides herself on her father and glories in him; everybody saying that she also resembles him more than the Queen does and he therefore always liked her and had her brought up in the same way as the Queen.’ the Venetian ambassador Giovanni Michiel describes Elizabeth; spring 1557

Elizabeth Tudor was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn . Henry had defied the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor to marry Anne, spurred on by love and the need for a legitimate male heir. ( Queen Elizabeth’s Family Tree )

And so Elizabeth’s birth was one of the most exciting political events in 16th century European history; rarely had so much turmoil occurred on behalf of a mere infant. But the confident predictions of astrologers and physicians were wrong and the longed-for prince turned out to be a princess.

Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador and enemy of Anne Boleyn, described the birth to his master as ‘a portrait of Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn great disappointment and sorrow to the King, the Lady herself and to others of her party.’ But for the next two years, Henry VIII was willing to hope for a son to join this healthy daughter.

Immediately after Elizabeth’s birth, he wrote to his 17 year old daughter, Princess Mary, and demanded she relinquish her title Princess of Wales and acknowledge both the annulment of his marriage to her mother, Katharine of Aragon, and the validity of his new marriage.

Mary refused; she already blamed Anne Boleyn (and, by extension, Elizabeth) for the sad alteration of her own fortunes. In December, she was moved into her infant half-sister’s household. When told to pay her respects to the baby Princess, she replied that she knew of no Princess of England but herself, and burst into tears.

Henry already ignored Mary and Katharine’s constant pleas to meet; now he began a more aggressive campaign to secure Anne and Elizabeth’s position. For one mother and daughter to be secure, the other pair must necessarily suffer.

Most Europeans, and indeed Englishmen, still believed Katharine to be the king’s valid wife. Now old and sickly, imprisoned in one moldy castle after another, she remained a very popular figure. Anne Boleyn was dismissed in polite circles as the king’s ‘concubine’ and their marriage was recognized only by those of the new Protestant faith.

Henry attempted to legislate popular acceptance of his new queen and heiress. But the various acts and oaths only cost the lives of several prominent Catholics, among them Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. The English people never accepted ‘Nan Bullen’ as their queen.

But while she had the king’s personal favor, Elizabeth’s mother was secure. And she held that favor far longer than any had expected. It was only after she miscarried twice that Henry began to consider this second marriage as cursed as the first.

The last miscarriage occurred in January 1536; Katharine died that same month. With her death, the king’s Catholic critics considered him a widower, free to marry again. And this next marriage would not be tainted by the specter of bigamy. It was only necessary to get rid of Anne, and find a new wife – one who could hopefully deliver a son.

The king already had a candidate in mind; her name was Jane Seymour , a lady-in-waiting to both Katharine and Anne.

In the end, Henry VIII was not merely content to annul his marriage to Anne. She was arrested, charged with a variety of crimes which even her enemies discounted, and executed on 19 May 1536. Her little daughter was now in the same position as her half-sister, Princess Mary.

However, all of Europe and most Englishmen considered Mary to be Henry’s legitimate heir, despite legislation to the contrary. No one believed Elizabeth to be more than the illegitimate daughter of the king. Also, there were already disparaging rumors of her mother’s infidelities; perhaps the solemn, red-headed child was not the king’s after all? It was to Henry’s (small) credit that he always acknowledged Elizabeth as his own, and took pride in her intellectual accomplishments. As she grew older, even Catholic courtiers noted Elizabeth resembled her father more than Mary did.

Henry married Jane just twelve days after Anne’s execution and his long-awaited son, Prince Edward, was born in October 1537. Elizabeth participated in the christening, carried by Thomas Seymour, the handsome young brother of the queen.

Jane died shortly after the birth of childbed fever. Henry VIII married Anne of Cleves on Twelfth Night (6 January) 1540. The marriage was a disaster, and Henry quickly divorced Anne and married Catherine Howard. Catherine was a cousin of Anne Boleyn; they were both related to Thomas Howard, 3rd duke of Norfolk and perhaps Henry’s most nervous peer.

The king enjoyed a brief few months of happiness with his fifth wife. But Catherine was thirty years younger than Henry and soon enough resumed an affair with a former lover. She was executed in February 1542 and buried beside Anne Boleyn in the Tower of London.

For Elizabeth, these changes in her father’s marital fortunes did not pass unnoticed. She was part of her half-brother Edward’s household; her days were spent mostly at lessons, with the occasional visit from her father.

As a child, no one expected her to comment upon her various stepmothers. It was only when she reached adulthood and became queen that its psychological effects were revealed. Elizabeth had a dim view of romantic love and, given her father’s example, who can blame her?

It was Henry’s sixth and final wife, Katharine Parr, who had the greatest impact upon Elizabeth’s life. A kind woman who believed passionately inPrincess Elizabeth, c1546, attributed to William Scrots education and religious reform, Katharine was a devoted stepmother. Understandably, she had far more of an impact with the young Edward and Elizabeth than with Mary, who was just four years her junior. Katharine arranged for 10 year old Elizabeth to have the most distinguished tutors in England, foremost among them Roger Ascham.

As a result, Elizabeth was educated as well as any legitimate prince, and she displayed a genuine love and aptitude for her studies. ‘Her mind has no womanly weakness,’ Ascham would write approvingly, ‘her perseverance is equal to that of a man.’ And later, ‘She readeth more Greek every day, than some Prebendaries of this Church do in a whole week.’ And so she did; Elizabeth’s love of scholarship never faltered and, in an age when women were considered inferior to men, she was a glorious exception.

Along with such classical subjects as rhetoric, languages, philosophy, and history, Elizabeth also studied theology. Ascham and her other tutors were famous Cambridge humanists who supported the Protestant cause.

Likewise, Katharine Parr was devoted to the reformed faith. Unlike their half-sister Mary, both Edward and Elizabeth were raised Protestant during its most formative years.

Yet while Edward was known for his piety and didacticism, Elizabeth already displayed the pragmatic character which would make her reign successful. She studied theology and supported the Protestant cause; she had been raised to do so and knew only Protestants recognized her parents’ marriage.

But she was never openly passionate about religion, recognizing its divisive role in English politics.

Most people viewed the adolescent Elizabeth as a serious young woman who always carried a book with her, preternaturally composed. She encouraged this perception, which was as accurate as any, by dressing with a degree of severity virtually absent at the Tudor royal court. But she was not so serious that she avoided all the material trappings of her position.

Her household accounts, which came under the management of William Cecil (who later became her secretary of state), show evidence of a cultivated and lively mind, as well as a love of entertainment : fees for musicians, musical instruments, and a variety of books. As she grew older and her position more prominent, her household also expanded. During her brother Edward’s reign, she lived the life of a wealthy and privileged lady – and apparently enjoyed it immensely.

Elizabeth was thirteen years old when her father died. They were never particularly close though he treated her with affection on her few visits to his court. He even occasionally discussed the possibility of her marriage for, in the 16th century, royal bastards were common and often used to great advantage in diplomacy.

Under the 1536 ‘Second Act of Succession’, which declared both her and the 19 year old Mary illegitimate, Parliament gave Henry the ability to determine his children’s status, as well as the actual succession. Typically for Henry, he simply let both his daughters live as princesses and gave them precedence over everyone at court except his current wife. But they had no real claim to the title of ‘princess’ and were known as ‘the lady Elizabeth’ and ‘the lady Mary’.

This was often followed by the explanatory ‘the king’s daughter.’ It was an awkward situation which the king saw no reason to resolve. His will did recognize his daughters’ crucial place in the succession. If Edward died without heirs, Mary would inherit the throne; if Mary died without heirs, Elizabeth would become queen. He also left them the substantial income of 3000 pds a year, the same amount for each daughter.

Did Elizabeth mourn her father? Undoubtedly so, for at least under Henry VIII she was three steps from the throne and protected by his rough paternal affection. After his death, she had good cause to wish him alive again. Ten year old Edward was king in name only.

The rule of England was actually in the hands of his uncle, the Lord Protector Edward Seymour, soon titled duke of Somerset. Elizabeth was now separated from her brother’s household, moving to Katharine Parr’s home in Chelsea. This was perhaps the happiest time of her adolescence.

But Katharine married again quickly, to the man she had loved before Henry VIII had claimed her. Her new husband was Thomas Seymour, the younger brother of Lord Protector Somerset and uncle to the new King Edward. He was handsome, charming, and very ambitious.

He also had terrible political instincts. Seymour was not content to be husband of the Dowager Queen of England . He was jealous of his brother’s position and desperate to upstage him. And so he inadvertently played into the hands of the equally ambitious John Dudley, earl of Warwick. Dudley wished to destroy the Seymour protectorship and seize power for himself. He allowed the feuding brothers to destroy each other.

For Elizabeth, the main problem with Seymour was his inappropriate and very flirtatious behavior. As a teenaged girl with little experience of men, she was flattered by his attention and also a bit frightened. Certainly it placed great strain on Katharine Parr, who had become pregnant soon after her marriage. The queen originally participated in Seymour’s early morning raids into Elizabeth’s room, where he would tickle and wrestle with the girl in her nightdress.

But while Katharine considered this simple fun, her husband was more serious. He soon had keys made for every room in their house and started visiting Elizabeth while she was still asleep and he was clad in just his nightshirt. She soon developed the habit of rising early; when he appeared, her nose was safely in a book. Edward’s council heard rumors of these romps and investigated. Elizabeth proved herself circumspect and clever; she managed to admit nothing which would offend

She left the Seymour home for Hatfield House in May 1548, ostensibly because the queen was ‘undoubtful of health’. Elizabeth and Katharine exchanged affectionate letters, but they would not meet again. The queen died on 4 September 1548 of childbed fever.

After her death, Seymour’s position became more dangerous. It was rumored that he wished to marry Elizabeth and thus secure the throne of England in case Edward died young. He had already bought the wardship of Lady Jane Grey, a Tudor cousin and heir in Henry VIII’s will. He planned to marry Jane and Edward, thus securing primary influence with his nephew.

Eventually, his grandiose plans unraveled and he was arrested. Perhaps the most damning charge was his planned marriage to Elizabeth. Immediately, the council sent Sir Robert Tyrwhit to Hatfield with the mission to take control of Elizabeth’s household and gain her confession. He immediately arrested Elizabeth’s beloved governess Kat Ashley and her cofferer, Thomas Parry; they were sent to the Tower. Now, Tyrwhit told the princess, confess all; he wanted confirmation of the charge that Seymour and Elizabeth planned to wed. If she confessed, Tyrwhit said, she would be forgiven for she was young and foolish – her servants should have protected her.

Elizabeth did not hesitate to demonstrate her own wit and learning. Indeed, she drove Tyrwhit to exasperation; ‘in no way will she confess any practice by Mistress Ashley or the cofferer concerning my lord Admiral; and yet I do see it in her face that she is guilty and do perceive as yet she will abide more storms ere she accuse Mistress Ashley,’ he wrote to Somerset, ‘I do assure your Grace she hath a very good wit and nothing is gotten of her but by great policy.’

Elizabeth refused to scapegoat her loyal servants and defiantly asserted her complete innocence. She told Tyrwhit she cared nothing for the Admiral and when he had mentioned some vague possibility of marriage, she had referred him to the council.

She also secured permission to write to Somerset and, upon doing so, demanded a public apology be made regarding her innocence. She also demanded the return of her loyal servants for if they did not return, she said, her guilt would be assumed.

She read Ashley and Parry’s ‘confessions’ in which they described Seymour’s romps with her at Katharine Parr’s home. The details were undoubtedly embarrassing but she recognized their harmlessness. In short, she demonstrated every aspect of her formidable intelligence and determination. Poor Tyrwhit left for London with no damaging confession.

But the council didn’t need Elizabeth’s confession to execute Seymour. He was charged with thirty-three other crimes, and he answered only three of the charges. He was not given a trial; a messy execution was always best passed by a Bill of Attainder.

He was executed on 20 March 1549, dying ‘very dangerously, irksomely, horribly… a wicked man and the realm is well rid of him.’ Contrary to some biographies, Elizabeth did not say, ‘This day died a man with much wit, and very little judgment.’ The 17th century Italian novelist Leti invented this, as well as several forged letters long supposed to be hers.

Soon enough, Seymour’s brother followed him to the scaffold. Somerset was a kind man in private life and genuinely dedicated to economic and religious reform in England but, as a politician, he failed miserably. He lacked charisma and confidence; he preferred to bully and bluster his way through council meetings.

He simply did not understand how to manage the divisive personalities of Edward VI’s privy council. Meanwhile, John Dudley had been quietly manipulating other councilors and the young king to gain ascendancy. Upon Somerset’s execution, Dudley became Lord Protector; he was also titled duke of Northumberland. He was the first non-royal Englishman given that title.

For Elizabeth, these events were merely background noise at first. Dudley took pains to cultivate a friendship with her, which she wisely avoided. He sent her and Mary amiable letters. Since Mary was a Catholic, and Dudley a Protestant who had benefited materially from the Reformation, he was necessarily more friendly to Elizabeth. For example, Edward VI had given Dudley Hatfield House, which was currently Elizabeth’s residence.

Dudley graciously returned it to her in exchange for lesser lands in her possession. He also passed the patents to her lands, which allowed her more income. This, of course, should have been done at Henry VIII’s death. So Elizabeth at first benefited from Dudley’s rise to power. She was now a well-respected and popular princess, a landed lady in her own right with a large income and keen mind.

She was also an heir to the English throne, though still officially recognized as a bastard. But she was shown every respect, and a degree of affection from Edward VI completely lacking in his relations with their sister Mary.

Their mutual faith was an important connection with the increasingly devout Edward. Elizabeth visited Court occasionally, corresponded with her brother, and continued her studies mainly at Hatfield. She had always been excessively cautious and very intelligent, qualities she displayed to great effect during the Seymour crisis. The only time in her life when she demonstrated any recklessness had been during the Seymour debacle; she had learned its lesson well.

She also cultivated the image of a sober Protestant young lady. When queen, she became known for her love of beautiful gowns and jewels. But before 1558, she took care to dress soberly, the image of chastity and modesty.

This was perhaps a conscious attempt to distance herself from Mary, a typical Catholic princess who dressed in all the glittering and garish finery she could afford. It is an ironic note on Mary’s character that she has become known as a dour, plain woman; she was as fond of clothes and jewelry as her sister would become.

It was Elizabeth who dressed plainly, most often in severely cut black or white gowns. She wore each color to great effect. She had matured into a tall, slender and striking girl, with a fair, unblemished complexion and the famous Tudor red hair. She wore her hair loose and did not use cosmetics. When she traveled about the countryside, crowds gathered to see her, a Protestant princess renowned for her virtue and learning, her appearance modest and pleasing.

In this respect, she was emulated by her cousin Jane Grey. When Jane was invited to a reception for Mary of Guise, the regent of Scotland, Mary Tudor sent her ‘some goodly apparel of tinsel cloth of gold and velvet laid on with parchment lace of gold.’ Jane, a devout Protestant, was offended; such apparel reflected the material trappings of Catholicism. When her parents insisted she wear it, Jane replied, ‘Nay, that were a shame to follow my Lady Mary against God’s word, and leave my Lady Elizabeth, which followeth God’s word.’

Elizabeth was honorably and extravagantly received at her brother’s court. For example, on 17 March 1552, she arrived at St James’s Palace with ‘a great company of lords, knights and gentlemen’ along with over 200 ladies and a company of yeomen. Two days later she left St James for Whitehall Palace, her procession accompanied by a grand collection of nobles.

The visit was a marked success for Edward was open in his affection. She was his ‘sweet sister Temperance,’ unlike Mary who continued to defy his religious policy. The Primary Sources section of this site contains an excerpt from Edward VI’s journal in which he records a religious argument with Mary. In that matter, Elizabeth remained distant, preferring to let her siblings argue without her.

Edward’s ministers, especially after the Seymour affair, were careful with her. Dudley recognized Elizabeth’s formidable intelligence. When Edward VI became ill in 1553 and it was clear he would not survive, Dudley had a desperate plan to save himself from Mary I’s Catholic rule – place Henry VIII’s niece, Lady Jane Grey on the throne. (This is discussed in great length at the Lady Jane Grey site.)

Simply put, Dudley believed he would be supported because Jane was Protestant and the English would not want the Catholic Mary on the throne. Of course, the question arises – Elizabeth was Protestant, so why not put her on the throne instead of Jane?

The main reason is that Dudley was well aware that Elizabeth Tudor would not be his puppet, unlike Jane Grey whom he had married to his son Guildford.

As for Edward VI, he went along with the plan because of two main reasons: Elizabeth was illegitimate so there might be resistance to her rule and, as a princess, she might be persuaded to marry a foreign prince and England would fall under foreign control. Jane was already safely wed to an Englishman.

Edward VI’s decision should not indicate any great dislike of Elizabeth. He was primarily determined to preserve the Protestant regime in England. He believed this was necessary for his personal and political salvation.

He was also practical. He disinherited Mary because of her Catholicism; however, it was officially sanctioned because of her illegitimacy. Like Elizabeth, Mary had her illegitimacy established by an act of Parliament during Henry VIII’s reign. Since he had ostensibly disinherited Mary because of this act, he couldn’t let Elizabeth inherit – it simply wasn’t logical.

So the throne would pass to the legitimate – and Protestant – Lady Jane Grey. As most know, she ruled for just nine days before Mary became queen of England. It should be noted that Edward originally told Dudley that, though he didn’t want Mary to succeed him, he saw no logical reason for Elizabeth to be disowned. It was Dudley who pointed out the logical inconsistency – that Mary ‘could not be put by unless the Lady Elizabeth were put by also.’

Dudley attempted to place Mary and Elizabeth in his power while Edward was dying. He knew that if he imprisoned the two princesses, they would be unable to rouse popular support against his plan. But if that failed, he was determined to prevent them from seeing Edward, especially Elizabeth.

Dudley feared that Edward’s affection for his sister, and Elizabeth’s cleverness, might persuade Edward to rewrite his will in her favor. Like her sister, Elizabeth would undoubtedly destroy Dudley, making him the scapegoat for Edward’s ineffectual regime. In fact, Elizabeth had suspected her brother was ill and set out from Hatfield to visit him just a few weeks before Edward died, but Dudley’s men intercepted her and sent her home. She then wrote her brother a number of letters, inquiring about his health and asking permission to come to Court. These were intercepted as well.

But as Edward’s health continued to deteriorate and death was imminent, Dudley sent a message to Hatfield, ordering Elizabeth to Greenwich Palace. She may have been warned of his intentions – more likely she guessed them.

She refused the summons, taking to her bed with a sudden illness. As a further precaution, her doctor sent a letter to the council certifying she was too ill for travel. As for Mary, Dudley had told her that Edward desired her presence; it would be a comfort to him during his illness.

She was torn – though Dudley hid the true extent of the king’s illness, the Imperial ambassador had kept Mary informed. He was the agent of her cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V; Mary’s mother had been his aunt. Conscious of her sisterly duty, Mary set out for Greenwich from Hunsdon the day before Edward died.

Dudley was enraged by Elizabeth’s refusal but he could do nothing. Soon enough, events moved too quickly for the princess to be his primary concern. It was being whispered that Dudley had poisoned the king to place his daughter-in-law on the throne. Of course, this was untrue since Dudley needed Edward to live as long as possible for his plan to work.

To this end, he had engaged a female ‘witch’ to help prolong the king’s life. She concocted a mix of arsenic and other drugs; they worked, at least for Dudley’s purpose. The young king lived for a few more weeks though he suffered terribly. Finally, on 6 July 1553, Edward VI died. Immediately, Dudley had Jane Grey proclaimed queen, an honor she had not sought and did not want. It was only Dudley’s appeal to her religious convictions which convinced her to accept the throne.

Meanwhile, Jane’s cousin, Mary Tudor, was still on her way to Greenwich to see her brother, until a sympathizer (sent by Nicholas Throckmorton or William Cecil) rode out to meet her; the summons was a trap, he told her, and Dudley intended to imprison her.

Mary rode to East Anglia, the conservative section of England where her support would be strongest. Eventually she would realize the true extent of her support. Protestants and Catholics alike rallied to her cause since she was Henry VIII’s daughter and the true heir under his will. As she left for East Anglia, she didn’t know her brother was already dead but she sent a note to the Imperial ambassador Simon Renard; once she knew of Edward’s death, she said, she would declare herself queen. She sent another note to Dudley, telling him she was too ill to travel.

The failure of Dudley’s ambitions is discussed at the Lady Jane Grey site. Suffice to say, he was overthrown and executed and Mary Tudor, at the age of thirty-seven, was declared queen of England in her own right. During the nine days of Jane’s reign, Elizabeth had continued her pretense of illness. It was rumored that Dudley had sent councilors to her, offering a large bribe if she would just renounce her claim to the throne.

Elizabeth refused, remarking, ‘You must first make this agreement with my elder sister, during whose lifetime I have no claim or title to resign.’ So she remained at her beloved Hatfield, deliberately avoiding a commitment one way or another. When word reached her that Mary was finally queen, she sent a letter of congratulation to her sister and set off for London.

On 29 July, she entered the capital with 2000 mounted men wearing the green and white Tudor colors. There she awaited Mary’s official arrival into the city. On 31 July, Elizabeth rode with her attendant nobles along the Strand and through the City to Colchester, the same path her sister would take. It was here she would receive her sister as queen. They had not seen each other for about five years.

Mary had always disliked her half-sister for many reasons, not least because she sensed an innate shiftiness in Elizabeth’s character. Elizabeth, Mary believed, was never to be trusted. Originally, this dislike was because of Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn. Mary had long blamed Anne for her own mother’s tragic end as well as the alienation of her father’s affections.

After Anne died and Elizabeth, too, was declared illegitimate, Mary found other reasons to hate Elizabeth, chief among them religion. Like her mother, Mary was a devout Catholic; she recognized Elizabeth’s lack of religious zeal. But at her accession, the moment of her great triumph, she was prepared to be conciliatory.

Mary ordered that Elizabeth share her triumphal march through London. Their processions met at Wanstead on 2 August. There, Elizabeth dismounted and knelt in the road before her sister.

Mary dismounted and raised her sister, embracing and kissing her with affection. She even held her hand as they spoke. Their two parties entered London together, the sisters riding side by side.

The contrast between their physical appearances could not have been more striking. Mary, at thirty-seven, was old beyond her years.

An adulthood passed in anxiety and tribulation had marred her health and appearance. She was small like her mother and thin, with Katharine’s deep, almost gruff voice. Elizabeth was nineteen years old, taller than her sister and slender.

While Mary was richly attired in velvets covered in jewels and gold, Elizabeth was dressed in her usual strikingly severe style. Neither sister was conventionally beautiful but onlookers commented upon Mary’s open compassion and kindness and Elizabeth’s innate majesty.

And since Mary was thirty-seven, quite old to have a child, Elizabeth was viewed as her probable heir. As such, she was cheered as much as the new queen.

On 1 October, Elizabeth rode to Mary’s coronation with Henry VIII’s discarded fourth wife, Anne of Cleves . She was once again accorded a place of honor amongst the English ladies, though not the highest position as was her due.

The Imperial ambassador Renard reported that she spoke often with the French ambassador de Noailles. For his part, de Noailles reported that Elizabeth complained her coronet was too heavy and made her head ache. He replied to her that, God willing, she would soon wear a heavier crown.

This was dangerous talk, as Elizabeth soon discovered. Mary’s mood was fickle regarding her clever half-sister. For every kind word or gesture, there were public statements dismissing Henry VIII as Elizabeth’s father, or allowing distant cousins precedent at court. It was simply impossible for Mary to forget the past, etched so acutely upon her spirit.

She could not like Elizabeth, nor trust her. Elizabeth responded to this emotional hostility by retreating to Hatfield. There she continued her studies and attempted to remain safe in the morass of English politics.

But however much she might wish for peace, she was not to have it. She was destined to be the focal point for all discontent over Mary’s reign. And there was soon much reason for discontent. Edward VI’s council had left the economy in shambles; currency was debased and near worthless. There was a series of bad harvests. Prices rose and discontent spread. And worst of all, Mary soon decided to marry King Philip II of Spain, son and heir of Charles V.

This was yet another example of her inability to forget the past. Philip represented the homeland of her beloved mother, and a chance to bring all the weight of the Holy Roman Empire to bear upon the heretics of England. Mary was determined to turn back the clock on twenty years of religious reform and make England a Catholic nation again.

Understandably, her subjects were less than thrilled. Even English Catholics did not want their country to become a powerless appendage of the Hapsburg empire. Certainly a queen had to marry, but not the emperor’s son! In this climate of rebellion and repression, Elizabeth’s life was in great danger. It could not be otherwise; she was the only alternative to Mary’s rule.

Elizabeth conformed outwardly to the Catholic faith. But she could not distance herself too much from her Protestant supporters. When Sir Thomas Wyatt, the son of her mother’s great poetic admirer , led a rebellion in January 1554, matters came to an unpleasant impasse. Wyatt had written to Elizabeth that he intended to overthrow Mary but his letter was intercepted, as was a letter from de Noailles to the king of France.

His letter implied that Elizabeth knew of the revolt in advance, and repeated rumors that she was off gathering armed supporters. The government was able to suppress the rebellion before it spread very far and Wyatt was arrested. Mary’s council could find no real proof that de Noailles’s suppositions were true but they decided to summon Elizabeth back to London for questioning.

She was understandably frightened and ill; she sent word that she could not travel. Two of Mary’s personal physicians were sent to evaluate her condition. They diagnosed ‘watery humors’ and perhaps an inflammation of the kidneys.

She was ill, they reported, but not too ill to travel the 30 miles to London in the queen’s own litter. Three of the queen’s councilors – Howard, Hastings, and Cornwallis, all of whom were friendly with Elizabeth – escorted her back to London. They traveled quite slowly, covering just six miles a day.

Elizabeth kept the curtains of the litter pulled back as she entered the city, and the citizens were able to see her pale, frightened face. She had good cause for her fear; the heads and corpses of Wyatt and his supporters were thrust upon spikes and gibbets throughout the city. The queen waited for her at Whitehall but they did not meet immediately.

First, Elizabeth’s household was dismissed and she was told that she must undergo close interrogation about her activities. She was questioned by the unfriendly bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, but she was not intimidated. She denied any involvement in the rebellion and repeatedly asked to see the queen.

But she was told that Mary was leaving for Oxford where she would hold a Parliament. Elizabeth would be leaving Whitehall as well, though at first the council could not decide where to send her. No councilor wanted the responsibility of keeping her in close confinement at their homes; it was too unpleasant and potentially dangerous. And so Gardiner and Renard had their way and she went to the Tower of London. The earl of Sussex and the marquess of Winchester were sent to escort her from Whitehall.

Elizabeth was terrified. The mere mention of the Tower was enough to shatter her already fragile nerves. She begged to be allowed to write to her sister, and the men agreed. The letter was long, rambling, and repetitious – proof of her fear and trepidation:

I have heard in my time of many cast away for want of coming to the presence of their Prince…. Therefore once again kneeling with humbleness of my heart, because I am not suffered to bow the knees of my body, I humbly crave to speak with your Highness, which I would not be so bold to desire if I knew not myself most clear as I know myself most true.

And as for the traitor Wyatt, he might peradventure write me a letter but on my faith I never received any from him; and as for the copy of my letter sent to the French king, I pray God confound me eternally if ever I sent him word, message, token or letter by any means, and to this truth I will stand it to my death.

….Let conscience move your Highness to take some better way with me than to make me be condemned in all men’s sight afore my desert know.

After finishing, she carefully drew lines throughout the rest of the blank sheet so no forgeries could be added, and she signed it ‘I humbly crave but one word of answer from yourself. Your Highness’s most faithful subject that hath been from the beginning and will be to my end, Elizabeth’.

The letter had taken too long to write; they had missed the tide. They could wait a few hours and take her to the Tower in the darkest part of night, but the council disagreed. There could be an attempt to rescue her under cover of darkness.

They decided to wait until the next morning, Palm Sunday, when the streets would be nearly deserted since everyone would be in church. Meanwhile, her letter was sent to Mary who received it angrily and refused to read it through. She had not given permission for it to be written or sent, and she rebuked her councilors fiercely.

The next morning, 17 March 1554, arrived cold and grey; there was a steady rain. At 9 o’clock in the morning, Elizabeth was taken from her rooms and through the garden to where the barge waited. She was accompanied by six of her ladies and two gentleman-attendants. She waited under a canopy until the barge began to slow; she then saw that they would enter beneath Traitor’s Gate, beneath St Thomas’s Tower.

This was the traditional entrance for prisoners returned to their cells after trial at Westminster. The sight terrified her and she begged to be allowed entry by any other gate. Her request was refused. She was offered a cloak to protect her from the rain but she pushed it aside angrily. Upon stepping onto the landing, she declared, ‘Here landeth as true a subject, being prisoner, as ever landed at these stairs. Before Thee, O God, do I speak it, having no other friend but Thee alone.’

She then noticed the yeoman warders gathered to receive her beyond the gate. ‘Oh Lord,’ she said loudly, ‘I never thought to have come in here as a prisoner, and I pray you all bear me witness that I come in as no traitor but as true a woman to the Queen’s Majesty as any as is now living.’ Several of the warders stepped forward and bowed before her, and one called out, ‘God preserve your Grace.’

She still refused to enter the Tower. After the warder’s declaration, she sat upon a stone and would not move. The Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Brydges, said to her, ‘You had best come in, Madame, for here you sit unwholesomely.’ Elizabeth replied with feeling, ‘Better sit here, than in a worse place, for God knoweth where you will bring me.’

And so she sat until one of her attendants burst into tears. She was taken to the Bell Tower, a small corner tower beside Brydges’s own lodgings. Her room was on the first floor, and had a large fireplace with three small windows. Down the passageway from the door were three latrines which hung over the moat. It was not as destitute or uncomfortable as she had feared, but it was still the Tower of London and she was a prisoner.

This was the beginning of one of the most trying times of her life.

Elizabeth spent just two months in the Tower of London, but she had no idea that her stay would be so brief – and it did not feel particularly brief. She truly believed some harm would come to her and she dwelt most upon the possibility of poison. She knew Mary hated her and that many of her councilors constantly spoke ill of her, encouraging either her imprisonment or execution.

However, Elizabeth had enough popular support that she would not face death at her sister’s orders. But Lady Jane Grey, the unfortunate Nine Days’ Queen, and her husband were neither so popular or lucky. They, too, had lived in the Tower under threat of execution; both had been convicted of treason.

But Mary had always been fond of Jane and was close friends with her mother Frances; she allowed her cousin to live very comfortably in the Tower while her fate remained undecided. Mary probably intended to release Jane as soon as the country settled under her own rule. But Renard wanted both Jane and her husband executed.

He warned Mary that the emperor would not allow Philip to enter England as long as Jane lived. She was a traitor, and it was only a matter of time before the Protestants tried to place either Jane or Elizabeth upon the throne. Mary was not persuaded by Renard’s arguments, but his threat carried greater force – she wanted to marry Philip and he would not come to England until it was safe. The small rebellion led by Jane’s father clearly did not help matters.

And so Jane and the equally unfortunate Guildford Dudley were executed. Elizabeth herself arrived at the Tower just six weeks later, and her cousin’s fate must have weighed heavily on her mind. After all, she and Jane had lived and studied together briefly under Katharine Parr’s tutelage, and Jane’s admiration of Elizabeth had been open and obvious.

It was abundantly clear to Elizabeth that her position was precarious and dangerous. During the first weeks of her imprisonment, she was allowed to take exercise along the Tower walls but when a small child began to give her flowers and other gifts, Brydges was told to keep her indoors. Elizabeth had always been active, both physically and mentally.

She chafed at her confinement and its boring routine. She was occasionally interrogated by members of Mary’s council, but she held firm to her innocence. She had faced such interrogations during Thomas Seymour’s fall from grace, and could not be easily intimidated. Still, the stress – which she handled with outward aplomb – took its toll on her physical health. She lost weight, and became prone to headaches and stomach problems.

Ironically enough, it was the impending arrival of Philip of Spain which led to her freedom. Renard had urged Mary to execute Jane and imprison Elizabeth so that Philip would be safe in England. Philip, however, was far more sensitive to the political implications of such an act.

He knew the English were acutely sensitive to any shift in Mary’s policies simply because she had chosen to marry a foreigner. If she made an unpopular decision, it would be blamed upon his influence. He knew, too, that the Protestant faith was still popular in the country, and that Elizabeth embodied its greatest hope. If she were harmed in any way, his arrival in England would be even more unpopular and dangerous.

And the Wyatt rebellion had merely reinforced Philip’s natural inclination to tread lightly. His intention was to wed Mary, be crowned king of England, and find a suitable husband for Elizabeth, preferably one of his Hapsburg relations. Then, if Mary died without bearing a child, England would remain within the Hapsburg sphere of influence, a willing and useful adjunct of the empire.

Accordingly, Philip wrote to Mary and advised that Elizabeth be set at liberty. This conciliatory gesture was not appreciated by Mary, always inclined to believe the worst in her half-sister, but – once again – her eagerness for Philip’s arrival made her desperate to please him.

She dispensed with Renard’s advice and on Saturday 19 May at one o’clock in the afternoon, Elizabeth was finally released from the Tower; incidentally, her mother had been executed on the same day eighteen years earlier.

She spent one night at Richmond Palace, but it was clear that her release had not lifted Elizabeth’s spirits. That night she summoned her few servants and asked them to pray for her, ‘For this night,’ Elizabeth said, ‘I think to die.’

She did not die, of course, but she was still frightened and lonely. She had been released into the care of Sir Henry Bedingfield, a Catholic supporter of Queen Mary whose father had guarded Katharine of Aragon during her last years at Kimbolton Castle.

He had come to the Tower on 5 May as the new Constable, replacing Sir John Gage, and his arrival had caused Elizabeth no end of terror. She believed he was sent to secretly murder her for, not long before, a credible rumor had reached her; it was said that the Catholic elements of Mary’s council had sent a warrant for her execution to the Tower but that Sir John Brydges, the strict but honest Lieutenant, had not acted upon it because it lacked the queen’s signature.

With Bedingfield’s arrival, Elizabeth lost her almost preternatural self-control and she asked her guards ‘whether the Lady Jane’s scaffold was taken away or no?’ When told it was gone, she asked about Bedingfield, and if ‘her murdering were secretly committed to his charge, he would see the execution thereof?’

From Richmond, Bedingfield took his cowed charge to Woodstock, a hunting-lodge miles from London and once favored by her Plantagenet grandfather, Edward IV. She was neither officially under arrest nor free, a nebulous position which confused nearly everyone. She could not be received at court, but she could not be set at liberty in the countryside.

And so Bedingfield was essentially her jailer, but not referred to as such; and Woodstock was her prison, but also not called such. The journey to Woodstock certainly raised her spirit. She was greeted by throngs of people shouting ‘God save your grace!’ and other messages of support.

Flowers, sweets, cakes and other small gifts were given to her. At times, the reception was so enthusiastic that Elizabeth was openly overwhelmed. It was now clear to her that the English people loved her, perhaps as much as they did Queen Mary.

But the love of the people was small comfort when faced with the dilapidation of Woodstock. The main house was in such disrepair that Elizabeth was lodged in the gatehouse. The queen had ordered that her sister be treated honorably and given limited freedom; Elizabeth was allowed to walk in the orchard and gardens. She also requested numerous books.

After a few weeks, her initial fear of Bedingfield had settled into a bemused appraisal of her jailer. She now recognized him for what he was – a conscientious, unimaginative civil servant with a difficult assignment. They got on tolerably well, and Bedingfield even forwarded her numerous letters to the Council and the queen.

Elizabeth was concerned that her imprisonment in the countryside would remove her too much from the public eye and her ceaseless letter-writing was an attempt to reassert her position as princess of England. Mary did not read the letters and angrily order Bedingfield to stop sending them along.

At the end of June, Elizabeth fell ill and asked that the queen’s physician Dr Owen be sent to her. But Dr Owen was busy tending to Queen Mary and told Bedingfield that his charge must be patient. He recommended the services of Drs Barnes and Walbeck.

Elizabeth refused to allow their examination; she preferred to commit her body to God rather than to the eyes of strangers, she told Bedingfield. Finally, on 7 July, Mary finally sent permission to Woodstock for Elizabeth to write to her and the Council about her various concerns. Elizabeth was petulant and took her time with the composition of this most important letter.

When it was finally sent, written in Bedingfield’s hand from her dictation, it was a typically shrewd and pointed document. Elizabeth wanted the Council to consider ‘her long imprisonment and restraint of liberty, either to charge her with special matter to be answered unto and tried, or to grant her liberty to come unto her highness’s presence, which she sayeth she would not desire were it not that she knoweth herself to be clear even before God, for her allegiance.’

Elizabeth specifically requested that the members of the queen’s council who were executors of ‘the Will of the King’s majesty her father’ read the letter and be allowed to visit with her. It was a pointed reminder that despite her deprived circumstances, she was still next in line to the English throne. The Council heard the document uneasily.

Mary, however, had other matters on her mind. Finally, on 20 July, even as Elizabeth mulled over her letter, Philip II of Spain finally landed at Southampton. The handsome, fair-haired 27 year old King was already a widow with a male heir; his first wife Maria of Portugal had died in childbirth in 1545 after two years of a marriage.

He was a conscientious and pious man who impressed all who met him with his discipline and work ethic. But he also had a tendency toward religious asceticism which worsened as he grew older.

As a child, he had accompanied his father to the inquisition in Spain, watching impassively as heretics were burned alive. But his marriage to Mary was one of political necessity and Philip had no intention of threatening its success with unpopular religious policies.

He was willing to move England slowly back into the Catholic fold; faced with Mary’s impatience, it was Philip who advised moderation. He wed his cousin at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July in a splendid ceremony.

On 18 August they finally entered London in triumph, its citizens plied with enough free drinks and entertainment to greet Philip enthusiastically. But there were already signs of trouble; the anonymous pamphlets condemning foreigners and the queen’s marriage circulated, and Philip’s Spanish entourage were unhappy over a number of petty slights and insults from their English hosts.

Elizabeth had hoped the marriage would result in some change in her circumstances. But she was sadly mistaken. Instead she passed the months needling Bedingfield for more books, scribbling more letters, and listening to the occasional rumor from her servants.

The rumors were hardly comforting. The queen was reportedly pregnant and she and Philip would open Parliament together on 12 November. From then on, the reunion between England and the papacy could begin in force. Mary was the happiest she had been since childhood, but the problem of Elizabeth remained.

Gardiner wanted her executed; he argued that Protestantism could not be completely eradicated until its great hope, Elizabeth herself, was gone. But Philip and most other councilors were more pragmatic. Parliament had already agreed that if Mary died in childbirth, Philip would be regent of England during their child’s minority.

However, if both mother and child died, then Elizabeth once again assumed prominence. Philip, always prudent, preferred to know his sister-in-law before making an enemy of her. With his encouragement, and flush with happiness at her marriage and pregnancy, Mary finally invited Elizabeth to court.

In the third week of April 1555, almost a year since she was sent to Woodstock, Elizabeth was brought to Hampton Court Palace. Mary had gone there to prepare for her lying-in. They did not meet immediately. Elizabeth was brought into the palace through a side entrance, still closely guarded. According to the French ambassador, Philip visited her three days later but Mary never came.

Two weeks later, the most powerful members of the council appeared to chide her for not submitting to the queen’s authority; she was told to admit her past wrongdoing and seek the queen’s forgiveness. Elizabeth replied that she had done nothing wrong in the past and wanted no mercy from her sister ‘but rather desired the law’.

She told Gardiner she would rather remain in prison forever than admit to crimes she had never committed. He went off immediately to tell Mary of her sister’s continued stubbornness. The queen was not pleased. The next day, Gardiner told Elizabeth that the queen marveled that ‘she would so stoutly use herself, not confessing that she had offended’.

Did Elizabeth really believe she was wrongfully imprisoned? Gardiner asked. Elizabeth refused the bait. She did not criticize her sister explicitly, telling him only that the queen must do with her as her conscience dictated.

Gardiner replied that if she wanted her liberty and former position, she must tell a different story; only by admitting her past faults, confessing all sins, could she hope for forgiveness. It was a stalemate. Elizabeth again told him she would rather be unjustly imprisoned than gain freedom with lies.

The next week passed with no word from anyone. And then, around 10 o’clock one evening, a message arrived that the queen would see her. Elizabeth had begged for an interview for more than a year but now that the moment had at last arrived, she was understandably nervous. She was accompanied into Mary’s apartments by one of her own ladies-in-waiting and Mary’s close friend and Mistress of the Robes Susan Clarencieux.

The queen’s bedroom was lit with flickering candlelight; the queen herself was half-hidden in shadow. Without asking permission, Elizabeth immediately prostrated herself and declared her innocence. And though she and Mary sparred for a short while, the queen was willing to be generous at her own moment of triumph. It was rumored that Philip watched the sisters from behind a curtain; whether or not he was there, Mary was content to make peace of sorts.

She sent Elizabeth away amicably enough and a week later poor Bedingfield was relieved of his duties. Elizabeth would remain at Hampton Court, still under light guard but with her own household and permission to receive certain guests. It was the end of over a year of tiresome captivity and she was delighted.

While she enjoyed her newfound liberty, the burning of Protestant heretics began in earnest. These killings have earned Mary the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ and blighted her reputation. In truth, the roughly 300 people killed (about 60 women) was not considered excessive by Mary’s European contemporaries; and in the government’s mind, Protestantism had become dangerously linked with treason, sedition, and other secular crimes.

For Mary, who was perhaps the most personally kind and gentle of the Tudor rulers , the killings were necessary to save the heretics’ souls as well. It is a telling feature of her character that she could often forgive treason against herself, but would not countenance treason against God.

The burnings, coupled with the Spanish marriage, caused enough resentment; but, unfortunately for Mary, famine and poverty added to her list of woes. But the greatest tragedy of all for the queen was the humiliating and heartbreaking realization that her pregnancy was not real. Mary had truly believed she was pregnant; her stomach had become swollen and she had felt the child quicken. But she had always suffered from digestive and menstrual troubles.

It is probable that she developed a tumor in her stomach which, combined with the lack of a cycle and her own fervent prayers, made her believe she was pregnant. All of April was spent in a state of readiness. Dozens of nurses and midwives crowded into Hampton Court, joined by a throng of noble ladies who would assist in the delivery.

On 30 April a rumor reached London that a male child had been born and celebrations ensued. But it was a false alarm; the next three months were spent in a state of suspended disbelief. Finally, on 3 August, the queen’s household departed to Oatlands and the pregnancy was not mentioned again.

Mary’s heartache was soon worsened by the impending departure of Philip. He had spent over a year in a country he disliked, married to a woman he pitied but did not love. He used the excuse of pressing business in the Low Countries to leave England. Mary protested passionately, begging him to stay; it was clear to everyone that she truly loved her husband.

But Philip was equally determined to go. It was perhaps clear to him that Mary was seriously ill and would never have children. If that was the case, he had no reason to remain in England. He left explicit instructions that she treat her sister well.

Elizabeth was sent to a small manor house a few miles from Oatlands where she played another waiting game, only this time with some measure of freedom and hope. But it was to be another three years before she would become queen of England.

‘Some have fallen from being Princes of this land to be prisoners in this place; I am raised from being prisoner in this place to be Prince of this land. That dejection was a work of God’s justice; this advancement is a work of His mercy.’ Elizabeth I at the Tower of London, during her coronation ceremonies, 1559

Elizabeth Accession to the Throne

There is an apocryphal story about Elizabeth’s accession. In it, she was out in the meadows surrounding Hatfield when the courtiers approached. They bowed before her, and presented Mary’s signet ring. Elizabeth supposedly fell upon her knees and exclaimed, most aptly, ‘A Domino factum est illud et est mirabile in oculis nostris.’ (‘This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in Our eyes.’)

The citizens of London undoubtedly felt the same; upon receiving word of Mary’s death, bonfires were lit and tables were set in the streets for a grand celebratory feast.

A glorious accession, then, and much celebrated. A contemporary observer, however, commented wryly upon the state of affairs in England in 1558: ‘The Queen poor; the realm exhausted; the nobility poor and decayed; want of good captains and soldiers; the people out of order; justice not executed; justices of peace unmeet for office; all things dear; excess of meat and drink, and apparel; division among ourselves; war with France and Scotland; the French King, having one foot in Calais and the other in Scotland; steadfast enmity, but no steadfast friendship abroad.’

Elizabeth was well aware of the dire situation she faced. She herself had been the victim of the religious and political confusion of Mary’s reign. And even the weather had been uncooperative for Queen Mary ; the droughts which had plagued farmers led to high prices and much poverty.

Most of the poor flocked to London where they crowded into ever-expanding slums. Mary’s attempts to reform the debased currency of Henry VIII and Edward VI ‘s reign had been somewhat successful, but England was still considered a poor credit risk on the Continent.

And so the new queen, though popular and much-admired, did not inherit a stable and prosperous country – and the quest for stability and prosperity became the guiding force of her reign.

To that end, she came to eschew foreign entanglements and religious extremism. Practical and pragmatic, Elizabeth chose as her motto ‘Semper Eadem’ (‘Always the Same’), and it was highly appropriate.

Her succession was assured and untroubled. But Elizabeth knew that when the celebrations ended, the real work would begin. Almost immediately, she would be forced to consider a rival claim to the throne by her cousin, Mary Stuart. Queen of Scotland since infancy, and now the wife of the French dauphin (and crowned queen of France in 1559), Mary was denied a place in the Tudor succession by Henry VIII’s will.

But she was a Catholic and had the French monarchy behind her. For her part, she was content to stay in France. But she did – with spirit and not much sense, as was her wont – choose to quarter the royal arms of England, Wales and Ireland upon her heraldry, thus openly laying claim to the throne of England. Even this symbolic act was fraught with political danger for the queenly cousins.

From her accession on, Elizabeth knew her Scottish ‘sister’ was a serious concern; and while Mary was safely in France, it was all for the better. Scotland was already turning Protestant and England could continue to support its religious dissension and political upheaval. If their northern neighbor was kept busy with its own troubles, it was less likely to clash with England.

As for her English subjects, even the Catholics were largely against Mary Stuart’s claims. In this case, nationalism trumped religion. There were other English claimants, of course; the younger sisters of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. But of the two, Catherine was flighty and foolish and Mary was barely four feet tall. Neither was a popular choice to be queen.

Her smooth accession was further assured by the Lord Chancellor, Nicholas Heath. Parliament had been in session while Mary lay dying and, on 17 November, Heath announced her death to the assembled lords and commons.

He then said, ‘Which hap as it is most heavy and grievous unto us, so have we no less cause another way to rejoice with praise to Almighty God for that He hath left unto us a true, lawful and right inheritrice to the crown of this realm, which is the Lady Elizabeth, of whose lawful right and title we need not to doubt. Wherefore the lords of this house have determined with your assents and consents, to pass from hence into the palace, and there to proclaim the said Lady Elizabeth Queen of this realm without further tract of time.’

There was no dissension at Heath’s words. Traditionally, Parliament dissolved upon the death of the reigning monarch – but Heath’s prompt actions ensured Elizabeth’s lawful recognition as queen before the lords and commons dispersed. And, as a leading Catholic, Heath also secured the loyalty of his religious party for the new queen.

Elizabeth held court at Hatfield for about a week, assembling statesmen and studying English affairs more acutely. Nicholas Throckmorton wrote to her immediately; he advised her to be wary and careful, so that neither ‘the old or the new should wholly understand what you mean.’ She did not need such advice; it was already central to her character. How else had she survived the reigns of Edward and Mary?

On 20 November, she held her first council meeting and appointed the loyal William Cecil as her Principal Secretary of State. They had been friends for a long while, since his appointment as her accountant many years ago. And, for the next forty years, they were to rule England as a virtually inseparable team.

Elizabeth’s words to Cecil have become justly famous: ‘I give you this charge, that you shall be of my Privy Council and content to take pains for me and my realm. This judgment I have of you that you will not be corrupted by any manner of gift and that you will be faithful to the state; and that without respect of my private will you will give me that counsel which you think best and if you shall know anything necessary to be declared to me of secrecy, you shall show it to myself only. And assure yourself I will not fail to keep taciturnity therein and therefore herewith I charge you.’

All monarchs use such appointments to reward loyalty and friendship; Cecil’s was also a reward for ability. On a more personal note, Elizabeth rewarded the faithful servants who had been her companions since childhood, among them Thomas Parry and Kat Ashley. The handsome Robert Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse; he was the son of the late Lord Protector and had been imprisoned in the Tower with Elizabeth during Mary’s reign.

Not coincidentally, this position required close contact with the queen. Thus from the very beginning, a source of rivalry was established amongst Elizabeth’s closest councilors. Cecil and Dudley disliked one another, each man viewing the other as his main rival for the queen’s attention. But even this potentially untenable situation benefited the young queen; it meant that she alone dominated her government while two rival factions developed, each centered around Cecil and Dudley.

‘Everything depends upon the husband this woman takes.’ the Spanish ambassador De Feria, 1560

‘If I were a milkmaid with a pail on my arm, whereby my private person might be little set by, I would not forsake that poor and single state to match with the greatest monarch.’ Elizabeth I to Parliament, regarding marriage

Elizabeth well understood the importance of public relations and knew her entry into London must be a lavish spectacle; the coronation which would follow must be even more impressive. Dudley was placed in charge of the coronation plans. He was well-suited to the task. Elizabeth’s favorite astronomer, Dr John Dee, was consulted and Sunday, 15 January 1559 was selected as the perfect date.

On 23 November, Elizabeth left Hatfield for London; she stayed at the Charterhouse, and for the next five days she made regular appearances before adoring crowds. On Monday 28 November, she left the Charterhouse to ride through London and to the Tower. She wore a purple velvet gown and had a scarf tied loosely around her neck.

Dudley rode closely behind her. When they neared the Tower, both the queen and her Master of the Horse appreciated the irony of the moment. Elizabeth said simply, and wittily: ‘Some have fallen from being Princes of this land to be prisoners in this place; I am raised from being prisoner in this place to be Prince of this land. That dejection was a work of God’s justice; this advancement is a work of His mercy.’

She spent the next ten days at the Tower, holding council meetings and slowly but steadily learning how to rule. She had been welcomed to the throne with great celebration, but few monarchs have inherited such a dire predicament. Religious turmoil was inevitable; though the Protestants regarded Elizabeth as their savior, many Marian exiles believed she would maintain her sister’s religious changes.

She had to tread carefully – and fortunately for both Elizabeth and her nation, she was uniquely suited to do so. She made it clear to her councilors that she wanted no windows into men’s souls. Also, she would not be dominated by one religious party at the expense of another. For Elizabeth, her citizens were Englishmen first; their religious loyalties – whether Catholic or Protestant – were to remain subservient to their loyalty to her as queen of England.

This explains her later disregard for Puritanism. She characteristically remarked that she preferred loyal Catholics to Puritans; this may have confused some of her subjects since she was a Protestant queen, and the Puritans were simply Protestant extremists. However, Elizabeth recognized that, by the end of her reign, most of her Catholic subjects were loyal to her instead of the pope (despite her excommunication) and accepted royal prerogative.

Her Puritan subjects, however, did not recognize the sanctity of the crown, and their presence in Parliament ensured a steady erosion of royal power. The end result of this conflict occurred during the reign of Charles I, when a powerful Puritan populace revolted against their Catholic king and beheaded him.

Luckily, most of Elizabeth’s councilors were of the same mind as the queen. Their first priority was the stability of the realm, and they wanted to negotiate a truce of sorts between the two factions. Of course, the more extreme members of both parties could not be satisfied.

Also, Philip II of Spain and Henri II of France had recently ended their near-constant warfare, and now England remained outside Continental affairs; perhaps it would become the prey of both powers. When Elizabeth’s court moved to Whitehall for Christmas, the Spanish ambassador De Feria tried to secure a possible marriage between Elizabeth and one of Philip’s innumerable relatives. Already her expected marriage dominated European politics. No one expected her to rule alone.

The Christmas festivities at Whitehall were quite extravagant. The English court had not had cause for much celebration in years; Mary’s reign had been increasingly insular and solemn. But Elizabeth, young and beautiful, was determined to celebrate her near-miraculous triumph. And yet Christmas would pale in comparison to her coronation festivities.

On the 12th of January, she set out once again to the Tower, traveling by river from Whitehall. Two days later, at two o’clock in the afternoon, she rode in an open litter for her recognition procession throughout London. She wore a gown of crimson velvet and cloth of gold with an ermine cape for warmth, and was surrounded by richly-dressed lords and ladies.

Crowds of Londoners thronged the streets, to the queen’s open delight. It was a cold and wet Saturday with snow flurries settling upon the brocade canopy of the queen’s litter, but the weather could not distract from the spectacle.

The entire route through the city was marked by pageants, plays, and orations; even Anne Boleyn appeared in a tableau beside Henry VIII. Elizabeth’s replies to each presentation were memorable and kind; to the Recorder of London, she memorably said, ‘Whereas your request is that I should continue your good lady and Queen, be ye assured that I will be as good unto you as ever Queen was to her people. No will in me can lack, neither do I trust shall there lack any power.

And persuade yourselves, that for the safety and quietness of you all, I will not spare if need be to spare my blood.’ These words were not merely facile endearments. Long ago, during the dark days of Mary’s reign, she had realized the importance of public relations and popular support.

The next day she was crowned queen of England. She entered Westminster on foot, walking upon a long blue carpet which the crowd promptly cut up for souvenirs. The great Abbey was crowded full of both rural and urban dignitaries, and their ladies.

They watched as the queen marched slowly forward, the long red velvet train of her gown carried by the duchess of Norfolk. Hundreds of candles and lamps burned, and the boys’ choir sang beautifully while a medley of pipes, drums, and the church organ played.) She was crowned by Owen Oglethorpe, the bishop of Carlisle.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Reginald Pole, had died the same day as Queen Mary; the archbishop of York asked to be excused on grounds of conscience; the bishop of Durham said he was too old to perform the ceremony. And so it fell to Dr Oglethorpe, who was as good as anyone else in Elizabeth’s eyes.

The ceremony itself was a mish-mash of Catholic and Protestant rituals – the Mass was said in Latin but the celebrant did not elevate the Host; the epistle and gospel were read in Latin and English; and the coronation oath itself was read from an English Bible. In other words, it was a ceremony which accurately reflected the religious confusion of mid-16th century England.

Oglethorpe placed the heavy Crown of St Edward on her head, but it was quickly removed after the oath was administered. Then, wearing a lighter crown, the new queen was presented to the congregation. There was an explosion of noise (the Venetian ambassador said it sounded like the end of the world) as bells were rung, trumpets were blown, and every other musical instrument played with such force that spectators winced.

The coronation banquet was held at Westminster Hall at three o’clock and lasted until one o’clock Monday morning. The new queen, who now wore a becoming gown of purple velvet, sat beneath the great window on a raised dais. There were eight hundred guests, and the queen was served by the Lord Chamberlain and the Chief Steward. She spoke little during the banquet, and was so tired when it ended that a tournament planned for Monday afternoon was canceled.

She had also caught a cold; the opening of Parliament was thus delayed from the 23rd of January to the 25th. Her arrival at Parliament, however, was another moment of triumph for Elizabeth. She wore a crimson gown and a cap decorated with pearls and was quite lovely and energetic despite her recent cold. When the crowd called out, ‘God save and maintain thee!’, she responded with enthusiasm, ‘God a’ mercy, good people!’

All things considered, these first two months on the throne had gone very smoothly. But most European powers were convinced she wouldn’t last a year as queen. If she did, it would only be due to a quick marriage. And so, over the next several years, the dominant issue of her reign would be one which she personally detested – who would the queen marry, and when? For Elizabeth, treading carefully and conscious of the novelty of her position, the issue was a personal and political threat – and one which she handled with exquisite care.

‘She [Elizabeth] is incomparably more feared than her sister, and gives her orders and has her way as absolutely as her father did.’ the Spanish ambassador De Feria, 1559

Elizabeth’s seeming obliviousness to marriage, her refusal to discuss it, or her occasional witty but vague comments – all these infuriated her councilors. They seemed incapable of appreciating the impact marriage would have upon her life, while its impact was distressingly clear to Elizabeth.

The councilors wanted a king, and an heir, a natural enough desire since her throne could not be completely secure without them. But Elizabeth knew herself to be intellectually superior to most men and she relished her independence.

And, of course, her father’s marital history – as well as her sister’s – made her question both the personal and political cost of marriage. The new queen always had a low opinion of marital happiness, and saw little reason to change her mind.

Even in her own lifetime, rumors abounded that Elizabeth was physically deformed, incapable of pleasing a husband or bearing a child. It was also whispered that she was a sexual deviant whose appetites could not be satisfied by marriage. However, it is clear enough that Elizabeth’s character – pragmatic, rational, and calculating – was not overly romantic; she was openly fond of many courtiers, particularly Robert Dudley.

But she never wed Dudley, and a healthy flirtation does not indicate sexual deviancy. Rather, it shows Elizabeth to be a normal young woman who enjoyed the company of a handsome man. If she had not flirted with Dudley, or her other courtiers, then speculation about her character would be understandable. In truth, she was no less flirtatious than her father, but the simple, unavoidable fact of her gender made her flirtations far more politically charged.

Furthermore, any sexual activity would have been immediately reported. ‘I do not live in a corner,’ the queen once commented. ‘A thousand eyes see all I do, and calumny will not fasten on me for ever.’ A foreign ambassador was caught paying one of her laundresses for proof of the queen’s regular menstrual cycle; everyone at court gossiped about her relationships with the handsome courtiers who soon flocked to London.

The queen herself preferred to rise above such discussion. If she fulfilled her royal duties with care and diligence, and if she brought prosperity and peace to her country, then she was successful. And since she had great faith in her own talents, she saw no reason to share her throne with a husband.

And so, out of love of independence and power, and a native distrust of marriage, Elizabeth was determined to remain single. Her councilors, for their part, pretended to believe otherwise for quite a long time. Despite her repeated vows to ‘live and die a virgin’, they embarked upon countless rounds of diplomatic negotiations searching for a husband.

They visited her in private, they openly begged her; they eventually forced a parliamentary showdown upon her. William Cecil prayed that ‘God would send our mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession.’ Despite their close friendship, and mutual respect, even Cecil succumbed to the sexism of their age – he rebuked a messenger for talking to the queen of something that ‘was too much for woman’s knowledge.’

But over the years, her councilor’s discomfort lessened. Mary Stuart bore a son, James, in 1566 and was imprisoned in England shortly afterwards. James was raised as a Protestant and was soon the only Tudor relative with a viable claim. His religion allowed most Englishmen to look favorably upon him as Elizabeth’s eventual heir.

The queen wisely dangled its possibility before him and thus ensured Scottish political cooperation throughout the later years of her reign. Also, as the years passed, so did the possibility that Elizabeth would bear a child. And why marry, if not for an heir?

It is also worth noting the endless difficulties in selecting a suitable husband. A foreign match would have dragged England into the morass of European politics, with possibly the same disastrous results of Mary’s marriage. But marriage to an Englishman would have given too much power to one political faction or the other.

And so Elizabeth’s personal dislike of marriage turned out to be a shrewd political decision, though it confounded everyone for several years.

From the earliest days of her reign, one of Elizabeth’s greatest political attributes was her endless prevarication. Many historians have described it less as an attribute, and more as her greatest failing. They mention her inability to decide upon marriage, or – most famously – her refusal to execute Mary queen of Scots.

They argue that these incidents prove she was hesitant and indecisive. But it actually reveals a formidable political talent, and one which greatly benefited her nation. The new queen was not one to whole-heartedly plunge into any scheme, personal or political; thus, she refused to become involved in foreign entanglements which would have bankrupted her country and produced strife and discontent.

She sent money and a few troops to continental Protestants, but no more. In terms of religion, she sought to strike a balance between two extremes through careful thought and debate. In doing so, she negotiated a truce of sorts which lasted through most of her reign – in contrast to the religious turmoil which marked the reigns before and after her own.

One could label her indecisive since she did not strike a definitive stance on either issue. But she preserved the peace and prosperity of her nation; she put England, and the welfare of its citizens, first. Thus, the ability to prevaricate was an essential tool of her political success, however much it frustrated those who wanted her to take sides. In Elizabeth’s case, one could argue that she took only the English side.

‘She is a very vain and clever woman. She must have been thoroughly schooled in the manner in which her father conducted his affairs. She is determined to be governed by no one.’ the Spanish ambassador De Feria, 1559

This understandably caused strife within her council. It was clear from the beginning that Robert Dudley was the queen’s favorite courtier. They were openly affectionate and Dudley enjoyed flaunting the queen’s favor.

Cecil was often terrified that Elizabeth would wed Dudley, but that fear at least was soon put to rest. At the start of Elizabeth’s reign, Dudley was still married to an heiress called Amy Robsart; she was safely tucked away in the country while her husband flirted at court.

Elizabeth knew of the match; she had attended the wedding. But the marriage, which had begun happily, was soon torn apart by Dudley’s ambition. But whatever he planned for the future, it was soon impossible for him to dream of becoming king.

Amy was living in secluded and deprived circumstances at Cumnor Place, the Oxfordshire manor of Anthony Forster, an MP and close friend of Dudley’s. She had been ill for some time. On Sunday the 8th of September 1560, roughly nine months after Elizabeth’s coronation, she gave her few servants permission to visit a fair. When they returned, they found her lying dead at the bottom of the staircase with a broken neck.

There had been other ladies in the home; they reported playing backgammon with Amy until, suddenly and without explanation, she left the room and fell to her death. Dudley was informed of the news while at Windsor Castle with the queen. He immediately ordered a thorough investigation. Why? His close relationship with the queen was already a minor scandal; Amy’s suspicious death could make it explosive.

Amy had been ill for some months, with a ‘canker in her breast’, as the doctors said. They had assured Dudley that his wife would not live much longer. So the immediate supposition after her death – that Dudley had murdered Amy so he could marry the queen – does not make sense.

There were only three other conclusions to draw – first, that Amy, knowing her own condition, was depressed and angry at her husband; she therefore took her own life in an attempt to end her suffering and Dudley’s hopes to be king.

Second, that one of Dudley’s enemies had murdered Amy in an attempt to discredit him and make marriage with the queen impossible. Or third, that nothing so nefarious occurred and her death was completely accidental; she simply fell while walking down the stairs.

But everyone enjoyed gossip and scandal too much to let it pass. And Amy’s maid told a jury that her mistress had often ‘prayed to God to deliver her from desperation’, and many courtiers remembered Dudley’s public speculation about divorcing his wife. Elizabeth was forced to send Dudley from court until the funeral, but he did not attend the service.

The queen sent Lady Norton as her representative, and it was known that other ladies had been asked but refused to go because of the scandal. But Elizabeth’s affection for Dudley was at its greatest during these early years and could not be denied. Soon enough he was back at court and in as much favor as always.

Once, during a boating party on the Thames, he asked the ambassador de Quadra, who was also Bishop of Avila, to marry he and Elizabeth immediately. The ambassador remarked that he would do so as soon as the queen dismissed her Protestant councilors from service.

In light of Amy Robsart’s death, it is worth considering Elizabeth’s own feelings on the matter. Her closest advisors thought she had good cause to dread the woman’s death, though not because of any scandal.

The queen, they realized, enjoyed flirting with Dudley and occasionally encouraged his fantasies, but she did not want to be given the opportunity to marry him. When Amy Robsart died, Elizabeth had no ready excuse for denying Dudley’s proposals.

But the queen had other, far more appropriate suitors. Cecil’s natural inclination was to make peace with England’s traditional enemy, France. He urged a match with one of Queen Catherine d’Medici and King Henry II’s sons. These Francophile maneuvers began seriously after Mary Stuart’s French husband died in 1560 and she returned to Scotland.

To thwart Cecil, other councilors pressed a Spanish marriage, perhaps even to her former brother-in-law Philip. The queen expertly considered all options but never committed to any. This routine would continue until advancing age made childbirth impossible.

Only then was Elizabeth truly free of parliamentary meddling in her private affairs, a situation which had inspired several famously bitter outbursts in 1566. After insisting that the succession was too weighty an issue for such “a knot of harebrains” as the House of Commons, she later invoked her own arrest during Wyatt’s rebellion as the reason for her refusal to name a successor (if she would not marry): “I did differ from her [Mary I] in religion and I was sought for divers ways.

And so shall never be my successor.” And, she warned them, “as your Prince and head”, it was up to her to judge such weighty political issues without parliamentary interference, “For it is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.”

In other words, they could discuss and debate and suggest – but only Elizabeth could rule.

‘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.’ Elizabeth I to Parliament, 1559

Elizabeth was content to ignore potential suitors; she considered religion to be the most pressing and divisive issue in England. Having lived through years of spiritual upheaval, she well understood her subjects’ need for peace. But it would not be easy to find.

Both Protestants and Catholics had suffered throughout the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I. Henry’s religious policies had been muddled and disarming; no one, even the king, knew the definition of heresy. Or rather, they knew heresy was whatever the king commanded, and that changed from year to year.

Edward had been a devout Protestant, as had his councilors. The six years of his rule witnessed its political and social triumph, primarily through southern England. The independent north remained conservative and Catholic. Mary had been an equally devout Catholic, imbued with genuine religious fervor. She brought papal privilege back to England after a twenty-year absence. And now Elizabeth came to the throne, having been Protestant and Catholic, for she had tacked to the treacherous winds of her siblings’ courts.

Each faith harbored grievances against the other. Her Protestant councilors increasingly felt that Catholics were political traitors, as if their very faith implied a lack of patriotism. They warned Elizabeth that the pope commanded her Catholic subjects, not she; only a swift and strong blow could ensure their fear and forced loyalty.

But for the queen, her Catholic subjects were also, quite simply, subjects. If they recognized her rule, she had no qualms about their private worship. Let them go publicly to Protestant services and then do as they wished at home. So long as they did not rebel, she was content not to pry.

This generosity, echoed in Mary Stuart’s behavior in Scotland, was considered a weakness by many. And many Catholics did not trust the queen’s promises.

Elizabeth’s first parliament met from January to April 1559. The new queen did not bother to revoke her illegitimacy, as Mary had. This was indicative of Elizabeth’s self-confidence and her ability to let the past go. She even welcomed her former jailer Bedingfield to court, though with a caustic wit.

Religious turmoil was soon the subject of impassioned debate. The royal supremacy – the royal title of Supreme Head of the Church of England – was reinstated, though altered to ‘Supreme Governor’. In the House of Lords, many bishops resisted the changes but they were quickly replaced by others, led by Matthew Parker as archbishop of Canterbury.

Elizabeth pressed for a restoration of the 1549 Prayer Book, which she felt would be acceptable to Protestants and most complacent Catholics. But the new bishops preferred the 1552 Prayer Book; it was rather vague about most controversial maters and thus less offensive to Catholics. Elizabeth assented and the Act of Uniformity was passed.

She was particularly successful in making religious dissension a political matter, rather than a troublesome question of doctrine. In the Oath of Supremacy, in which her authority as Supreme Governor was recognized, the queen’s powers were explicitly outlined. It was a simple matter to remove Marian stalwarts from positions of authority, and about 300 clergy were dismissed. In total, one third of parish clergy were replaced.

Most Englishmen were content with this settlement, though extremists on both sides felt it inadequate. Elizabeth effectively placed the church under control of the crown, thus merging religious and political power in her person.

‘From the very beginning of her reign she has treated all religious questions with so much caution and incredible prudence that she seems both to protect the Catholic religion and at the same time not entirely to condemn or outwardly reject the new Reformation….

In my opinion, a very prudent action, intended to keep the adherents of both creeds in subjection, for the less she ruffles them at the beginning of her reign the more easily she will enthrall them later on.’ the Imperial envoy Count con Helffstein, March 1559

This balance was maintained successfully through most of her reign. However, in later years, two great problems emerged. The first was the growing popularity of the Puritan movement. This extreme form of Protestantism was a direct attack upon the royal supremacy.

In England, the Puritans were directly influenced by continental Presbyterians. They believed passionately in one rule only, that of Holy Scripture. They also believed in a fellowship of ministers; parishes would elect their own religious leaders, under the supervision of a group of elders. In other words, the parishes would usurp the power of the queen.

For the Puritans, it became distressingly clear that the Church of England was more dedicated to England and its ruler than to God.

Elizabeth’s government was able to keep the Puritan movement underground. John Whitgift, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1583, attempted to neutralize their cause by adopting some needed reforms.

But he did not wish to create Puritan martyrs, as Mary I had created Protestant ones. He was also more interested in establishing a uniform clergy rather than debating doctrine. A few Puritans were executed and many others banished under Whitgift; his use of the church courts robbed the new doctrine of its momentum.

It remained troublesome to the queen, but never a real threat. Elizabeth’s rule was preferable to any other; she had become, however unwillingly, the champion of the Protestant cause. Puritan attempts to check the royal prerogative would only succeed in the next generation.

The Catholics, however, became a genuine threat to the queen’s very life. While the Puritans used words against the queen, the Catholic extremists were eventually prepared to kill her.

The first decade of Elizabeth’s reign found the Catholics relatively quiet and content. They were settled mainly in the north and west of England, and accepted the 1559 religious settlement. They believed Elizabeth to be illegitimate and thus ineligible to be queen, but neither Pope Paul IV or his successor, Pius IV, seriously challenged her title.

She was not even excommunicated until 1570. The two greatest European powers, Spain (the Hapsburg Empire) and France, were cautious but friendly. England had long been a balance between their competing interests. And as mentioned earlier, Philip II of Spain had even sought to marry Elizabeth. For her part, the queen took care not to disturb calm waters.

But calm can be deceptive and misleading. In 1568, ten years into her reign, Elizabeth was forced to abandon her studied disinterest and choose sides.

Europe was caught in bloody religious turmoil. There was a Protestant rebellion in the Netherlands and Philip II sent the duke of Alva to crush it. There was now a massive military power directly across the Channel from England. Elizabeth’s council could only wonder – once Alva’s force completed its bloody business there, would he then look to England?

And that same year, Mary Stuart fled her disastrous reign in Scotland to seek Elizabeth’s help. She needed an army to recover her throne from Protestant rebels who had forced her abdication and imprisoned her. Elizabeth and her councilors were aghast. Mary was the true queen of England in the eyes of Catholic Europe, as well as some Catholic Englishmen.

And she was now in England, on her way to becoming the greatest quandary of Elizabeth’s reign. Just as Elizabeth had been the inevitable focus of conspiracies and plots against Mary I’s rule, Mary queen of Scots would be the focus of discontent against Elizabeth. And if Elizabeth should die, naturally or otherwise, Mary had the strongest claim to the English throne. All of the Protestant councilors were terrified; what should they do with Mary Stuart?

Also, a Catholic missionary college was founded at Douai in Flanders by the Englishman William Allen. He planned to take a proactive role in reasserting his faith in England, and he attracted many dedicated followers. Douai was soon a flourishing center for anti-Elizabethan plots and propaganda.

For the queen, her cherished and precarious balance, successfully maintained for a decade, was falling to pieces. She took the precaution of imprisoning Mary queen of Scots in a variety of secure castles. At first, this ‘imprisonment’ was little more than an inconvenience since Mary wished to return home. She sincerely believed Elizabeth would help her, as a fellow queen and cousin.

She never recognized the political danger she brought to bear upon her ‘sweet sister’. Elizabeth was told by the Protestant lords in Scotland that Mary was unwelcome; she faced certain death if she returned. Her infant son (whose birth caused Elizabeth to exclaim, ‘Alack, the Queen of Scots is lighter of a bonny son, and I am but of barren stock!’) was now king.

The Scots also plied Elizabeth’s council with evidence of Mary’s complicity in her second husband’s murder. Would the queen of England lend her support to such a woman? It was indeed a vexing problem. Elizabeth settled upon appointing a commission to investigate the charges against Mary.

And soon enough, she had even more pressing concerns.

‘The common people are ignorant, superstitious, and altogether blinded with the old popish doctrine.’ Sir Ralph Sadler to Sir William Cecil, 1569

The conservative north had never been friendly to the Tudor dynasty. The last Plantagenet king, Richard III, had been their lord; they led rebellions against his killer and successor, Henry VII . The first Tudor king succeeded in establishing nominal authority over the fractious northern earls. His son, Henry VIII, was equally troubled.

His Reformation led to the great northern rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 . Henry dealt brutally with the rebels and made only one northern progress afterwards, taking his fifth queen, Catherine Howard , to York soon after their marriage. Edward VI’s Protestant council was also troubled by the north while the Catholic Mary I gained her greatest support there. She rode north after Dudley seized control of London and had Lady Jane Grey crowned queen.

Elizabeth had long recognized its intransigence. She was never particularly close to the great northern lords of her reign, the earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, and the only duke in England, her Howard cousin Thomas, 4th duke of Norfolk. She showed Norfolk some degree of personal affection, as she did all of her maternal relatives. But she recognized his ambition and their religious differences. As a duke, he was one of the wealthiest men in England and thus had great influence. Yet he was never a close advisor to the queen.

The arrival of Mary Stuart was the great at Elizabeth’s court in 1569. What would the queen do? Some of her councilors, including Dudley and Throckmorton, thought Mary should wed the premier peer in England. This was, of course, the queen’s cousin Norfolk. Cecil was vehemently opposed; he disliked Norfolk and his opposition only strengthened Dudley’s support.

Two problems could possibly be solved by the marriage – Mary Stuart would be safely settled in England and the succession would be assured. Elizabeth recognized this short-sighted solution for the mirage it was, for how long would she live after the marriage? Her realm would be bitterly divided and torn, with rival factions centered upon herself and Norfolk.

As future king of England, he might dare to rebel against her. And what support would she gain, a ‘Virgin Queen’ with only her subjects’ love to sustain her? And despite her pragmatism, Elizabeth was Protestant and the Norfolk marriage would be a Catholic triumph.

The queen soon let both Dudley and Norfolk know of her displeasure. Dudley was roundly chastised and Norfolk left court for his country estate Kenninghall. He refused a summons to appear before Elizabeth at Windsor Castle. Her anger was further roused. There were whispers of a rebellion, that Norfolk and his supporters would free Mary and march on London.

The northern earls were less keen on the marriage; as Northumberland put it, he did not plan ‘to hazard myself for the marriage.’ He and Westmorland and Lord Dacre had local grievances against the queen, mainly religious but also including the erosion of their local authority. As hereditary nobles, they felt pushed aside at court and not given the proper respect. This had been a common aristocratic complaint during her father’s reign as well.

But they had also heard stories of Mary Stuart’s behavior in Scotland and distrusted her character. It is also not certain they wished for Norfolk to be king. Their primary purpose was to undo the 1559 Act of Uniformity and crush the ‘new found religion and heresy.’ As their proclamation asserted:

Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles, Earl of Westmorland, the queen’s most true and lawful subjects and to all her highness’s people sendeth greeting: Whereas divers new set up nobles about the Queen’s Majesty have and do daily, not only go about to overthrow and put down the ancient nobility of this realm but have also misused the Queen’s own person and have also by the space of twelve years now past set up and maintained a new found religion and heresy contrary to God’s word.

For the amending and redressing thereof divers foreign powers do purpose shortly to invade this realm which will be to our utter destruction if we do not speedily forfend the same …..we will and require each and every of you as your duty to God for the setting forth of his true and Catholic religion ….come and resort unto us with all speed with all the armour and furniture as you or any of you have.

And throughout the north, they found ready adherents for their cause. The rebellion made clear to Elizabeth that a quiet decade had not eased religious change upon all her subjects. The Catholic appeal was so strong that the earl of Sussex, sent to crush the rebellion, did not fully trust his own forces.

It began in 1569, but the queen was fortunate in her enemies. Norfolk was indecisive; should he risk his grand title and privileges for the possibility of becoming king? While he hesitated, the earl of Sussex led his troops on a steady course north.

The rebels themselves were often conflicted in their duties to the queen and their church. When faced with the queen’s army, they returned home. The noble leaders escaped abroad or bought their freedom by giving their property to the crown.

The Northern Rebellion was a frightening experience, but it ended satisfactorily enough. It was clear, however, that northern England must be more carefully watched and controlled. And as a result of the rebellion, Regnans in excelsis was issued by the papacy in March 1570. This was the official excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I; she was formally deposed and her Catholic subjects absolved of all loyalty and obedience to her office.

The Catholic powers of Europe were also ordered to act against the unlawful queen. She was a heretic and enemy of the true faith. This moment had been long expected in England. And it brought fresh impetus to the Protestant councilors to protect Elizabeth’s life.

A papal bull could be a powerful document. It could be used by any Catholic prince, though Elizabeth’s mind turned immediately to her former brother-in-law Philip II, to justify an invasion. In 1571, parliament took action. It was now treason to declare Elizabeth a heretic or impugn her claim to the throne. The fines for recusants, those who did not attend Protestant church services, were increased dramatically, from a shilling a week to 20 pds a month.

Many noble Catholic families would not compromise their faith and paid the fines; they were driven into poverty. In later years, it would become treason to convert to Catholicism and all Catholic priests were ordered to leave England. This happened only after Catholic plots against Elizabeth’s life had been discovered. Many of these plots were led by agents from Douai, dozens of whom had secretly returned to England.

Elizabeth had reason to hope these measures would be successful. Mary Stuart’s son was growing up safely Protestant in Scotland and Elizabeth was friendly with his ministers. English Catholics were deprived of priests, unable to attend universities, and support from European allies was slowly being cut off.

This support was particularly troubling; the first Catholic martyr of her reign, Cuthbert Mayne, was executed in 1577, but only because he had committed political treason. There was no need to make martyrs, the council thought, and it should be remembered that the Catholic problem coincided with the rise in Puritanism. Elizabeth often wondered aloud at her subjects’ ingratitude. She had kept them safe and secure at home, thought only of their welfare, and yet it seemed plots against her abounded.

Perhaps the most confused subjects were those Catholics loyal to the queen but now deemed traitors because of their faith. They were condemned to political limbo because of extremist actions.

The insularity of Elizabeth’s reign was thus broken in 1568, and she was forced into continental affairs. This was not of her choosing. But the papal bull could not be ignored, nor the brutal actions of Alva in the Netherlands. Perhaps she didn’t seek the role, or relish it, but Elizabeth was regarded as the champion of Protestantism in Europe.

At first, Spanish hostility was tempered by Philip’s conflict with France. He wanted Elizabeth’s support and she encouraged him by considering a possible marriage. Of course, she had no intention of accepting his proposal but it was a useful diplomatic tool.

But then Alva’s 50,000 troops arrived in the Netherlands, and began to systematically attack its Protestant population. They in turn sought Elizabeth’s aid. Also, the Huguenots (French Protestants) were under attack, most famously in the gruesome St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572.

Cecil urged support; after all, where would Alva’s army go once it finished with the Netherlands? They would have a secure base for either destroying English trade or invasion. Dudley and Norfolk (tentatively pardoned by the queen after he promised to never contact Mary Stuart) urged caution.

The queen must abandon the Dutch and the Huguenots, or she faced wars with France and Spain. She would save her precious treasury as well; Elizabeth had inherited an empty treasury and hence loathed to part with money.

She prevaricated as much as possible. She allowed English ships under Drake and Hawkins to harass and seize Spanish ships returning from the New World; she did not officially approve of their actions but she gladly accepted stolen Spanish bullion. She sent small contingents of troops to the Netherlands, though the situation deteriorated steadily over the next several years. Philip retaliated by supporting insurrection in Ireland.

This conflict with Spain and the problem of Mary queen of Scots continued to vex Elizabeth for many years.

‘I cannot but deplore my evil fortune, seeing you have been pleased not only to refuse me your presence, causing me to be declared unworthy of it by your nobles; but also suffered me to be torn in pieces by my rebels…. not allowing me to have copies of their false accusations, or affording me any liberty to accuse them.’ Mary, queen of Scots to Elizabeth I after the Northern Rebellion

There were three main plots concerning Mary, queen of Scots – the duke of Norfolk’s scheme of 1569, the Throckmorton Plot of 1583, and the Babington Plot of 1586 . For as long as Mary lived, she was a potential threat to Elizabeth. And since she was now imprisoned on English soil, she was an even greater menace.

Domestic enemies of the queen made no secret of their admiration for Mary Stuart. And foreign ambassadors often communicated secretly with her, particularly the French and Spanish ambassadors. As a former queen of France, Mary had many friends in that country. And as a Catholic queen, she was friendly with the increasingly pious Philip II of Spain.

Elizabeth was always of two minds regarding her cousin. She recognized the danger which Mary represented, but she was acutely conscious of Mary’s status as a sovereign queen unlawfully deposed by her subjects. She could not impugn her cousin’s dignity without risking damage to the ideal of royal prerogative.

The trick was to deprive Mary of her standing as a sovereign. Mary’s own behavior, in Scotland and England, gave Elizabeth a distinct advantage. Even staunch Catholic allies were troubled by Mary’s reported crimes. Perhaps she was innocent of complicity in her second husband’s murder, but she had married James Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell in a Protestant ceremony.

And the evidence of the ‘Casket Letters’ (now believed to be false) supported the theory that Mary and Bothwell had an adulterous affair and then plotted Darnley’s murder. This erosion of Mary’s reputation necessarily alienated her moderate supporters. But for the extremists, such flaws could be overlooked for the greater good of overthrowing the heretic Elizabeth.

At first, Mary was content to avoid plotting against her cousin. But when it became clear that Elizabeth would not help her return to Scotland, she was forced into a corner. She wrote constantly to the English queen, begging for a personal meeting, much as Elizabeth had requested an audience with Mary I. Elizabeth refused.

Mary was originally placed in the care of the wealthy earl of Shrewsbury and his formidable wife, Bess of Hardwick. She was kept in comfortable quarters, with a large retinue of servants and accorded respect as a sovereign queen; she even ate beneath a cloth of estate. But she was essentially a prisoner and no material comforts could obscure that essential fact.

Those early years in England were spent in various hearings and meetings, with Mary proclaiming her innocence of Darnley’s murder and the duplicity of her Scottish nobles. When these ended with her freedom still denied, she became understandably bitter. She had been condemned to prison without a fair hearing, with no end in sight.

For a lively young woman who had always lived openly and passionately, with as great a love of the outdoors as Elizabeth, used to being her own mistress and the former queen of two countries, the situation was intolerable. She was only 25 years old when she arrived in England and all of her natural energy and enthusiasm became fixed upon one goal – freedom.

She was essentially powerless. And so she turned to subterfuge, relying upon a small network of Catholic and foreign allies. This was surprisingly successful. She gained important news from the continent and Elizabeth’s court. But Shrewsbury complained incessantly about the expense of Mary’s imprisonment and Elizabeth’s councilors complained about her ceaseless correspondence with Catholics. And so she was eventually removed from Shrewsbury’s care into less comfortable quarters.

This had the paradoxical effect of encouraging more plotting on Mary’s part.

After the plot to marry Norfolk and the Northern Rebellion failed in 1569, Mary increasingly turned to her foreign supporters. They were able to provide crucial encouragement as well as the names of trusted English sympathizers. In 1583, the second serious plan to free Mary and kill Elizabeth was discovered. It is known as the ‘Throckmorton Plot’, after its leader Sir Francis Throckmorton.

A well-born Catholic Englishman, Throckmorton was given money and guidance by the French prince, the duc de Guise. De Guise wished to invade Scotland and England simultaneously, murder Elizabeth with the assistance of English Catholics, and then place Mary on the throne. Elizabeth’s great spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham was notoriously suspicious, a trait which most (including Elizabeth) often condemned. But in this case, his prudence, and an agent named Fagot, foiled the plot.

The 30 year old Throckmorton was arrested and tortured on the rack before confessing everything. He was executed at Tyburn on 10 July 1584. Based upon his confession, the complicity of the Spanish ambassador Bernadino de Mendoza was discovered; he was expelled from England in January 1584. In June 1584, even as Throckmorton awaited execution, the Protestant leader William of Orange was assassinated at Delft by a Catholic.

Elizabeth’s councilors became even more terrified for her safety. It did not help matters that France was in the midst of terrible religious turmoil. Catherine de Medici had sought to placate both parties by tolerating Protestant services; she also married her daughter Marguerite to the Protestant prince Henri of Navarre in 1572.

The St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was the result. Henri had saved his own life by renouncing Protestantism, but in 1576 he was able to escape imprisonment and publicly embraced his faith again. In 1584, King Henri III of France named Henri of Navarre his heir presumptive. None of Catherine de Medici’s sons had produced a male heir and so the throne would pass to a Protestant king.

This decision led to ‘The War of the Three Henrys’ and, indirectly, Henri III’s assassination in 1589 by a Catholic fanatic, Jacques Clement. Henri of Navarre was then crowned king of France, but was forced to fight against the Catholic League.

He could not enter Paris until 1594, after once again renouncing his faith with the famous remark, ‘Paris is well worth a Mass.’ But he continued at war with Spain for several more years and embarked upon a policy of religious toleration which culminated in the Edict of Nantes in 1598.

Elizabeth and her council carefully considered the events in France. There were three great Protestant leaders in Europe – Elizabeth I (however unwilling she was to accept the role), William of Orange, and Henri of Navarre. Of the three, William was assassinated in 1584 and Navarre was once again forced to convert. Elizabeth survived unscathed, but the Throckmorton plot was a very troubling development. It meant that foreign powers were determined to destroy her; there would be no more marriage proposals, only a shadowy network of plots.

In October, Cecil and Walsingham were concerned enough to draft the ‘Bond of Association’, a document which pledged protection of the queen and destruction of her enemies. Walsingham was now secretary of state, having assumed the more onerous duties of that office from Cecil in 1568; his focus was primarily on diplomacy and espionage.

In January 1585, he arranged for Mary, queen of Scots to be moved to Tutbury Castle. Her personal papers were minutely examined during the process, without her knowledge. Walsingham wished to know all, but without rousing Mary’s suspicions.

Elizabeth approved of these plans. She was personally courageous and refused to alter her many public appearances for fear of an assassin. This caused her councilors many sleepless nights. But they could not help but admire her bravery.

She also took to keeping a small sword beneath her pillow in case of an attack. It was her only sign of distress and perfectly in keeping with her pragmatic approach to life. The assassins might come, but she would be armed and ready to fight

In February 1585, Parliament banished Catholic priests and ordered the return of all Englishmen studying at seminaries abroad.

The ‘Bond of Association’ was also given legal force, which meant that noncompliance with its terms would be a treasonable offense. It would be officially ratified by Parliament in July 1586. And in May, relations with Spain deteriorated further when Philip II ordered the seizure of English ships in Atlantic ports.

Three months later, England signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of Alliance at Nonsuch Palace, in which Elizabeth pledged military assistance to the Protestant Dutch rebellion against Spain. Almost 7000 English soldiers under the command of Robert Dudley immediately left for the Netherlands.

It was clear to everyone that conflict between England and Spain was fast becoming inevitable. As much as she preferred to prevaricate and remain neutral, Elizabeth was being forced to choose sides. The problem of Mary, queen of Scots only encouraged Elizabeth’s support for the Protestant cause.

In December 1585, Mary was moved to Chartley Manor. Walsingham knew she was plotting again, this time with increasing desperation. Throckmorton’s failure had shaken her badly, though she professed innocence. Her exact role in that conspiracy remains unclear; it is possible she only knew of it, but did not actively encourage it. But she did enthusiastically support the treason of another English Catholic, a young man named Sir Anthony Babington .

Another well-born Englishman, Babington had served as a page in Shrewsbury’s household during the early years of Mary’s imprisonment. His romanticized memories of the queen, as well as his passionate Catholicism, made him susceptible to the plans of Thomas Morgan, one of Mary’s trusted agents. In 1580, the 19 year old Babington was traveling in France when he met Morgan.

After he returned to England, he became increasingly associated with Mary’s admirers, eventually smuggling letters from the French embassy to the imprisoned queen. Babington was only a half-hearted conspirator, but Walsingham was content to use him to lure Mary into a final trap. When Babington learned the Catholic priest Ballard planned to murder Elizabeth, he tried to escape abroad but Walsingham refused him a passport.

Babington was frantic and turned to a friend for advice, confessing everything. His friend then ran to Walsingham with the information. But the queen’s secretary of state did not act at once. He sensed this was his best opportunity to catch Mary in the act, so to speak, and with enough evidence to finally convince Elizabeth of her cousin’s complicity. The queen’s refusal to condemn Mary was no longer a benevolent quirk; for her councilors, it was a matter of life and death.

Walsingham had soon collected a number of letters between Morgan, Mary, and Babington. And in one of those, Mary explicitly approved the murder of Elizabeth. It was this letter that Walsingham needed. When confronted with it, Elizabeth was at first disbelieving and then angry. She approved of moving Mary to Fotheringhay Castle and sending a commission of statesmen there to investigate the Babington Plot. She also sent along a letter to be delivered to her captive cousin. It read:

You have in various ways and manners attempted to take my life and to bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never proceeded so harshly against you, but have, on the contrary, protected and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you and all made manifest. Yet it is my will, that you answer the nobles and peers of the kingdom as if I were myself present. I therefore require, charge, and command that you make answer for I have been well informed of your arrogance. Act plainly without reserve, and you will sooner be able to obtain favour of me. Elizabeth.

Mary defended herself at the resulting trial; her most potent argument was that she was a sovereign queen and thus not liable to the laws of England. She also denied ever plotting the death of Elizabeth. But it was too late. She was condemned to death. Elizabeth at first refused to sign the warrant for execution, much as she had earlier with Norfolk. It was an agonizing decision.

There is a possibility she was tricked into signing it. Mary was finally beheaded on 8 February 1587. On the 14th, Elizabeth sent the following letter to Mary’s son, King James VI of Scotland:

My dear Brother, I would you knew (though not felt) the extreme dolor that overwhelms my mind, for that miserable accident which (far contrary to my meaning) hath befallen. I have now sent this kinsman of mine, whom ere now it hath pleased you to favour, to instruct you truly of that which is too irksome for my pen to tell you. I beseech you that as God and many more know, how innocent I am in this case : so you will believe me, that if I had bid aught I would have bid by it. I am not so base minded that fear of any living creature or Prince should make me so afraid to do that were just; or done, to deny the same. I am not of so base a lineage, nor carry so vile a mind. But, as not to disguise, fits not a King, so will I never dissemble my actions, but cause them show even as I meant them. Thus assuring yourself of me, that as I know this was deserved, yet if I had meant it I would never lay it on others’ shoulders; no more will I not damnify myself that thought it not. The circumstance it may please you to have of this bearer. And for your part, think you have not in the world a more loving kinswoman, nor a more dear friend than myself; nor any that will watch more carefully to preserve you and your estate. And who shall otherwise persuade you, judge them more partial to others than you. And thus in haste I leave to trouble you: beseeching God to send you a long reign. Your most assured loving sister and cousin, Elizabeth R.

Elizabeth had been queen for almost thirty years, surviving numerous obstacles and conspiracies. Her councilors now believed the greatest threat to her reign was over. But they were wrong, as the momentous events of 1588 would soon prove.

When and where was Queen Elizabeth I born?

u003cmeta charset=u0022utf-8u0022u003eShe was born on 7 September 1533 at Greenwich Palace.

When did Elizabeth I become Queen?

Elizabeth became queen on her sister’s death on 17 November 1558. Her coronation was on u003cmeta charset=u0022utf-8u0022u003eSunday, 15 January 1559.

How tall was Queen Elizabeth I?

She was quite tall for a woman of that time and modern estimates are she was around 5ft 3in to 5ft 5in.

Who was Queen Elizabeth I mother?

Her mother was Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII.

Link/cite this page

If you use any of the content on this page in your own work, please use the code below to cite this page as the source of the content.

Link will appear as Hanson, Marilee. "Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Facts, Portraits & Information" https://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/queen-elizabeth-i/ , January 31, 2015