ELIZABETH I - Life and times, 450 years later

ST AUSTELL, ENGLAND Next Wednesday will mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth I, greatest of English rulers, certainly the one who has imposed herself longest upon that living memory of peoples that is history. She was born at Greenwich September 3, 1533, the daughter of Henry III and his Queen, Anne Boleyn, who were both disappointed at the birth of a girl instead of the male heir that they so badly wanted. But they …

…other words, of North America. And when Shakespeare, in "Henry VIII" summed up the age that we rightly call by her name, he paid retrospective tribute to her achievement: "She shall be loved and feared: her own shall bless her; her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, and hang their heads with sorrow. Good grows with her; in her days every man shall eat in safety under his own vine what he plants."