Elizabeth I Part I

Elizabeth is considered one of the most famous and successful British Monarchs.. Her reign was a long one.. 45 years.. and was a period of expansion for England. She was highly intelligent and had profited from a very good education.

She was born in Greenwich in 1533.. Her birth was considered illegitimate by some, because not everyone recognised the divorce between Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Anne Boleyn had become pregnant by Henry before they went through a marriage ceremony, which was kept secret.  Anne was proclaimed queen and crowned in 1533, in the summer....when she was already some months pregnant.

Elizabeth’s birth was a disappointment to her parents, because they had hoped for a son and Henry had convinced himself that his first marriage had not been lawful and that one of the signs of its being wrong was that God had not given him a living son…

However, Henry and Anne were still in love and hoped that the next child would be a boy.  Elizabeth had a splendid christening and Thomas Cranmer was one of her godfathers.

Elizabeth was cared for in her own household away from court… and was announced to be heir presumptive until a son was born.  Her older half sister Mary was declared illegitimate and stripped of her rank…

But when her parents’ marriage failed, and ended with the execution of Anne and her disgrace, Elizabeth’s status abruptly declined.  She was somewhat neglected.. No one provided her with new clothes and she was declared illegitimate.  Henry had married Jane Seymour within a few days of Anne’s death and soon a son was born…who was of course heir to the throne.. 

 In 1537, Elizabeth was placed in the care of a new governess, Katherine Champernowne, who later married a Mr Ashley.  Katherine was devoted to Elizabeth and a second mother to her. Kat gave Elizabeth her first lessons and the child showed a gift for languages.  She then became a pupil of William Grindal…

She learned Latin and Greek and also was able to speak French and Italian.

Later she became the pupil of Roger Ascham.. who was a famous educationalist.

Elizabeth was never particularly close to her sister Mary, partly because of religious differences, but she loved her brother Edward, who shared her intellectual interests and cleverness.