Queen Elizabeth I

      Queen Elizabeth I was born in 1533 and became queen in 1558.  She was also know as good Queen Bess.  She ate far too many sweets and her teeth became black so you won't find a portrait of  her smiling.  Elizabeth wore very fashionable clothes and had over 3000 dresses.  She wore long gloves to show off her long, slim fingers.

      Elizabeth's religion was protestant.  Her father was Henry VIII and her brother became Edward VI when he was nine but died when he was 15.  Her elder sister, Mary, was worried that people wanted Princess Elizabeth to be queen instead of her so she had her imprisoned in the tower of London.  Elizabeth was very frightened.  All the time she thought about her own mother (Anne Boleyn) who  had been executed in the tower.  She was very afraid that she might be next.

      Queen Elizabeth never got married because she did not want anybody to share her power over the country.  She had no children to succeed her. 

Spanish galleon on fire during the Armada battle -  Picture by Mathew Cleary

The English sea captains often fought battles with the Spanish ships and this made the King of Spain very angry so he gathered up a huge collection of ships and called them the Armada.  As soon as the English saw the Armada coming the guns came out of the English ships' side.  They fought battles for a week until most of the Spanish ships were wrecked.  The ships that were not ruined returned to Spain and Britain had won the war.

      In Tudor times people didn't know as much as they do today about the different countries.  Explorers brought back tobacco, potatoes and coconuts to England, Wales and Scotland from America.

    Queen Elizabeth died of a cold.  Nobody thought it was serious.  She was 70 years old and had ruled for 45 years.  In Queen Elizabeth's last speech she told everyone how much she loved them  Everyone called this her Golden Speech.

                                Michael and Daryl  Bl. 4