Queen ElizabethQueen ElizabethElizabeth the first was the most successful monarch ever to reign on the English throne. The reason for her success is most likely because of luck and skill.
Elizabeth began her life at Grenwich Palace on the Thames with her father, King Henry VIII, and her mother, Anne Boleyn. Since Elizabeth's mother did not have a boy, King Henry was very disappointed. King Henry had divorced his first wife, but Elizabeth's mother was sentenced to execution. Elizabeth was two years old when her mother was beheaded in May of 1536.
Elizabeth was taught by a team of Cambridge humanists led by Roger Ascham. She studied the basics. She learned classical and modern languages. she also read historical and theological works. Elizabeth gained her intelligence and wit by studying all of these subjects. In her household, there were more than sixty musicians. In her youth, she was expected to be able to speak six languages, not including her own.
When King Henry VIII died in 1547, her half-brother became King Edward VI. During King Edward's reign, Elizabeth began to be romantically involved with Thomas Seymour. Thomas Seymour was the Lord High Admiral. It ended up with Seymour being executed.
In 1533, Edward VI died. Elizabeth's half-sister, Mary Tudor, came to the throne. she married Phillip of Spain, who was soon to be Phillip II. Parliament stopped him from coming to the English throne. Mary was Catholic and that triggered some Protestant people to lead a series of plots and plans against Mary's government. Protestant leaders found out that Elizabeth could be a possible Protestant replacement. When the Queen, who's nickname was Bloody Mary, found out about all of this business, she had her half-sister, Elizabeth, sent to the Tower of London and then, later on, to Woodstock. Elizabeth was forced to live by her wits and caution.
Five years later, Mary became aware that she was very near death, so she named her half-sister, Elizabeth, to be her sucessor. On March 17,1558, the last Tudor monarch of Enland, which was Elizabeth, came to the throne. Elizabeth greatly enjoyed an appreciated the support she received from the residents of London and most English Protestants. Although she had support from the majority, her reign would be threatened by others. The two main things that dominated her long stay in power was the execution of Mary Queen of Scots and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. These two events occured within two years, the final settlement in each one was definitely a long time in coming.
Religion Under Queen ElizabethThe Acts of Settlement was started by Parliament in 1559. This had two main sections, the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity. The Act of Supremacy was where all church and government officials had to swear complete loyalty to Queen Elizabeth as Supreme Govenor of the church. Practically all of the bishops who had been under Mary remained loyal to the Pope. They would not take the oath and were banned from their offices. The priests did accept the settlement. Only two hundred out of six thousand completely refused to do so.
The Act of Uniformity was where all the church services throughout the entire country would be the same. The Queen wanted complete control over the service so that it would not be extreme Catholic or Protestant, that way it would appeal to the majority of the people. They had a prayer book that was written during Edward VI's reign. It was appealing to almost all of Queen Elizabeth's subjects. Only the Puritans and uncompromising Catholics objected. This Act also had rules on what priests could wear. It also let priests get married, unlike in the Catholic church. Everyone was supposed to go to church, the ones who did not go were fined.
Queen Elizabeth basically wanted to have services that would appeal to everyone. This way, everbody would attend church. She needed people to like the things that she was doing because she wanted everyone to support her reign.
Elizabethan Times
King Henry VIII was the King of England. He also secretly married Anne Boleyn (Elizabeth's mother).Suleinann the magnificent signed a treaty with Ferdinand of Hungary that caused the Persian Empire to end.Sir Walter Raleigh was very seriously tried for treason in the plot to dethrone James the first.The Black Death, or Bubonic Plague, had killed over 33,000 people in London.Japan's Kabuki Theater started in Kyoto.The late 1400's through 1660 was known as the Renaissance.1517 through 1648, the Protestant Reformation took place.Michelangelo was an Intalian sculptor,painter, and poet - 1475 through 1564.Thomas Crammer was the Archbishop of Canterbury - 1484 through 1556.Mary the first was Queen of Scotland and Ireland - 1519 through 1558.Catherine de Medici was the Queen of France - 1519 through 1589.William Shakespeare was an English dramatist and poet - 1564 through 1616.Samuel de Camplain was a French explorer and the Govenor of Canada - 1567-1635.In 1534 King Henry VIII was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.In 1554 the Council of Trent undertook the reform of the Catholic Church.In 1546 Ivan IV, Ivan the Terrible, received the title of Tsar of Russia.In 1563 the Angelican Church was established.In 1580 Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world.In 1588 the Spanish Armada was defeated.Important Dates
|
Fun Facts|
Queen Elizabeth's nickname was "Good Queen Bess." |
Queen Elizabeth established Wednesday as fish eating day. The reason for this was so that the employment was increased in the fishing industry. |
The Statute of Apprentices in 1563 said that every unemployed and unskilled man was required to work on a farm. |
|
One of the people's favorite things to watch in the Elizabethan Era was something called bear baiting. This was a sport where they would tie up a bear and sic a pack of starved dogs on it. The people would sit there and watch the bear (or the dogs) get torn to shreds. |
The saying "room and board" came from the Elizabethan Era. This was where you would go and work for a person if they gave you room and a board. The room was where you slept, and the board was what you ate off of. It was a square wooden board. they would put your meal on one side and you would have to completely eat it all because you would turn the board over to put your dessert on the other side. |
William Shakespeare was Queen Elizabeth's favorite dramatist. She loved the theatre and his plays, but she never went to the theatre. You're probably saying, "How can someone love the theatre when they never even went?" Well, the entire theatre was brought to her. She never had to so much as leave her palace to see a really famous play! |
|
When Queen Elizabeth got older, she went a little psycho. She refused to lay down and sleep. She would always sleep sitting up. In 1603, when she died, she was sleeping in a chair. She had several inches of make-up on her face. (Nasty!) |
In this time, only boys went to school. Their school hours were from 6:00AM all the way until 5:00PM, except for Sunday. |
In the winter, when it was realy cold, many times women would wear extra petticoats to keep them warm. Sometimes they wore ones that had deep pockets. In these pockets they would put rodents. By doing this, they stayed warm from the body heat of the rodents.
|
