Meet Queen Elizabeth I the Virgin Queen

Sunday, 13 May 2007 23:09

This past week, George Bush and people in America rolled out red carpets for England's Queen Elizabeth II.  Naturally, that made us want to revisit England's first Queen Elizabeth--the powerful, charismatic, never-married "Virgin Queen" who helped give birth to the British Empire and colonial America.  Fortunately, two great Elizabethans, explorer Sir Walter Raleigh and writer William Shakespeare, arranged an audience for us.  Elizabeth was born in 1533. Her father was King Henry VIII. Her mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn.  Henry had parted ways with the pope--and set England on the path to Protestantism--while parting ways with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.  Before Elizabeth turned three, Henry parted ways with Anne Boleyn, too--by having her beheaded, but not her brat Elizabeth.

When Henry's third wife gave birth to a male heir, the future Edward VI, Elizabeth looked destined for historical obscurity.  Still, she received an education fit for a future queen, studying Latin, Greek, and modern languages--plus history, philosophy, and Protestant theology--under some of the realm's top scholars.

The 9-year-old Edward succeeded Henry in 1547. He died six years later, having pushed the nation further down the Protestant path. Elizabeth's older half-sister Mary (a.k.a. "Bloody Mary") took the throne in 1553 and tried in vain to return the nation to Catholicism.  She died five years later.

Elizabeth, who had barely escaped beheading under Mary--and whom Catholics (and some Protestants) had declared illegitimate--became queen in 1558.  Many counselors advised a quick marriage to shore up her "womanly" position. But the ruler once derided as "Anne Boleyn's brat" had other plans.

"One Mistress and No Master"

Over the next 25 years, practically every eligible European prince and English peer came calling, but Elizabeth never married. Instead, she skillfully played the power-brokering bachelors off against each other, even as she strengthened her own "womanly" position.

Attractive, intelligent, and fiery, she alternately dazzled and dominated. When one suitor tried to insist on a favor, Elizabeth famously intoned, "I will have here but one mistress and no master."  Meanwhile, she cultivated her popular image as the "Virgin Queen," whose first love was her people.

Unmatched at courtly intrigue, she also had a flair for public gestures. In 1588, when the mighty Spanish Armada threatened England, Elizabeth rode out to the troops in a white gown and silver breastplate.  "I am come amongst you," she said, "not for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust."

When a combination of British naval skill and favorable winds wrecked most of the Armada, the nation rejoiced.  England was secure, the Spanish Empire was in retreat, and the once-weak Elizabeth had gone from "brat" to "Gloriana."

"Queene of the Fairies"

Of course, Elizabeth wasn't the only person in the realm who could deliver a killer line. Her reign was a golden age of English literature. The "Elizabethan" era produced both poetic masterpieces by Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser--whose epic, The Faerie Queene, allegorized Elizabeth--and dramatic classics by Christopher Marlowe and one William Shakespeare.

Her courtiers included Francis Bacon, who helped launch the scientific revolution, and Sir Walter Raleigh, who established the first English settlement in America (the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island, North Carolina).  Elizabeth also chartered the British East India Company, which helped establish the commercial footing for the British Empire.

Not all of her 44 years on the throne were good ones. Epidemic disease periodically laid the nation low.  Population growth strained the economy.  Spiraling inflation led to poverty and starvation.  Still, England began to assert itself as a major world player under Elizabeth. And, thanks in part to her own skill at political theater, it's looked back fondly on "Good Queen Bess" ever since.