Elizabeth

Elizabeth I of England

I think that in order to understand Queen Elizabeth’s situation it is important to mention the previous circumstances of her birth as well as the events that happened after it, since in a direct or indirect way, affected the Queen and her decisions for the rest of her life.
King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) was the second monarch of the House of Tudor,he was a very important figure in the history of England since his personal life and convictions led to separate England from the Roman Church. Henry VIII was very determined to have a son to inherit the English crown and become the next king, women during that time were not considered to be able to rule a kingdom since they were educated to be passive, women were perceived as weak and were alwaysunder men’s count. In order to accomplish his wish of having a male heir he married six times, however he always failed and blamed his wives as responsible of not being able to give birth a son, this situation led eventually the women to be beheaded.
Ann Boleyn (1501-1536) was the second wife of Henry VIII and had an important role in the history of England. She was supposed to marry hercousin James Butler, however it is unknown the reason why the marriage never happened and she became maid of honor of Queen Catherine of Aragon who was married to Henry VIII. The king was very attracted to Ann and he made several attempts to seduce her, she refused all the time since she did not want to become a mistress. This situation did not discourage the king, all the way around, he was highlyobsessed to her so Ann Boleyn became the object of Henry VII desires. The king did not want to keep being married to Catherine f Aragon and intended to annul his marriage so that he would be free to take Ann Boleyn as a wife. He appealed to the church to help him to finish his marriage, however, the Pope Clement VII denied king’s petition and with this decision, the differences and theintention of separating England from the Roman Catholic Church began.
The Boleyn family’s chaptain Tomas Cranmer was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry VII and Ann married on January 25th 1533 and Cranmer declared the marriage legitimate and valid. When the Pope found out about this, he stated the verdict of excommunication against Henry and Cranmer, which resulted in the first breakbetween the churches of England and Rome and made Henry VIII take the decision of putting the Church of England under his control (this situation made Elizabeth I to be considered an illegitimate child and therefore, not deserving to be a queen).
Ann Boleyn was crowned Queen of England on June 1st 1533 and during that same year, she gave birth to Elizabeth. King Henry VIII was not totallyhappy since he was expecting a male child, he thought that the next child would be a son, however, it never happened and after Elizabeth’s birth three miscarries followed. Before this situation, Henry VIII faced frustration for not having a male heir fro the throne of England yet and started to court whom later would become the next queen of England. The king started an investigation on Ann for hightreason, incest and adultery, faced a jury that found her guilty (without enough evidence) and she was beheaded on May 19th 1536.
During her earlier years and before she became queen of England, Elizabeth had several Lady Mistresses as well as different tutors that were responsible of her education, when Elizabeth was only 11 years old, she could write in English, Latin and Italian. Until1548 she would improve in French and Greek and by when she finished her education in 1550, she was considered to be the most educated woman of her generation (by that time neither common women nor queens had the same education level that she had).
Elizabeth’s half sister and Queen of England Mary I was a devoted catholic and wanted to finish with the Protestant Church in England, this...