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Queen Wlizabeth I of Wngland proved that a woman could rule England as well as any man. When Elizabath Tudor was born at Greenwich Palace, just outside London, on 7 September 1533, her father King Henry VIII was very disappointed. Henry had wanted a son so much that he had divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She had only been able to give him a daughter, whose name was Mary. Elizabeth`s mother was a former lady-in-waiting called Anne Boleyn. Henry was very much in love with Anne but that love did not last. After three years Henry decided to get rid of her. Anne was accused, falsely, of adultery and treason and in May 1536 her head was chopped off. Henry then married another lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. She died a few weeks after giving birth to a son, Edward Henry married six times in all.

Elizabeth was brought up in the country, far away from the royal court in London. She had a good education, sharing in the lessons of her younger half-brother Edward. Their peaceful life together ended in 1547 when Henry died and Edward became king in his place. King Edward VI was a frail boy and reigned only six years before dying at the age of 15. Henry`s elder daughter, Mary, now became queen. She was a Roman Catholic and she returned the English Church to the control of the Pope in Rome. But there were those who still wanted a church separate from Rome - the protestants. Elizabeth was a Protestant, and next in line to the throne. Mary was very unpopular. She had some 300 Protestants burned at the stake because they would not convert to Catholicism. The people called her childless, so, after Mary`s death in 1558, Elizabath became the new queen. The Elizabethan age, which covered the second half of the 16th century, is one of the most exciting periods in English history. During her reign of nearly 45 years the English Renaissance saw the flowering of poetry, drama and music. William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe wrote some of the greatest plays in the English language. English seamen such as Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Matthew Frobisher, Humphrey Gilbert and Richard Grenville sought new lands. Although Elizabeth herself never even crossed the channel, she encouraged her sailors as much as her poets and playwrights.