Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. King Henry had moved heaven and earth to marry Anne Boleyn. He had parted from the Catholic church, established the Church of England, and annulled his twenty-four year marriage to …

…those which were not. It was not until the 1580s that the Reformation gained general acceptance. Elizabeth did not condemn the contemporary stereotype of women as inferior to men - in 1558, John Knox (a Scottish minister) had published the wonderfully titled 'First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women' (Monstrous Regiment meaning unnatural rule) - but instead claimed that she was an exceptional woman, chosen by God as his instrument. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**