Elizabeth

Elizabeth I (1533-1603), queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603), daughter of Henry VIII, king of England, and of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. She was the last of the Tudor rulers of England. Although her legitimacy was questioned and never settled (because an act of Parliament [1536] invalidated the marriage of her parents and enabled Henry to marry his third wife, Jane Seymour), both Parliament and Henry named as heirs to this throne his children Edward, …

…at was led by Hugh O'Neill. The 2nd earl of Essex, Elizabeth's favorite, unsuccessfully led an army against the Irish. When he returned to England, he led a revolt against the queen and was executed in 1601. Following his death, Elizabeth was disconsolate. She spent the last years of her life unhappy and alone, having outlived a glorious age, the beginning of the history of what would become modern England. She died in London on March 23, 1603.