Queen Elizabeth I

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Standard Name: Elizabeth I, Queen
Birth Name: Elizabeth Tudor
Royal Name: Elizabeth I
QEI was a scholar by training and inclination (who wrote translations both as learning exercises and for recreation), as well as a writer in many genres and several languages. As monarch she wrote speeches, and all her life she wrote letters, poems, and prayers. (Some of these categories occasionally overlap.) Once her writing moved beyond the dutifulness of her youth, she had a pungent and forceful style both in prose and poetry.
Full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by the school of Nicholas Hilliard, 1590. Behind her two hovering angels prepare to crown her. She wears formal and elaborate clothes: tight blonde curls, a ruff, a stiff bodice, petticoat and over-skirt in intricate brocade patterns, deep lace cuffs, strings of pearls and several rings. A lengthy Latin inscription calls her an invincible virgin, mistress of all sciences, founder of Jesus College, Oxford, where the painting hangs.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Birth Lady Arbella Stuart
LAS was born, under the displeasure of Queen Elizabeth . Her most likely birthplace is Lennox House in Hackney (now part of London).
Stuart, Lady Arbella. “Introduction and Textual Introduction”. The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart, edited by Sara Jayne Steen et al., Oxford University Press, pp. 1-113.
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Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Cultural formation Vita Sackville-West
She was born into the noble Sackville family, one of the oldest-established in England. Her father, the third Baron Sackville, inherited Knole, the estate given to Thomas Sackville by Elizabeth I in 1566. Vita herself...
Cultural formation Aemilia Lanyer
She belonged to the closely-defined group of artists and performers dependent first on Henry 's, then Elizabeth 's, court. She and her family were probably Protestant in sympathies.
Woods, Susanne. Lanyer: A Renaissance Woman Poet. Oxford University Press.
4-8
Dedications Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , presented a fine copy of the psalms written by herself and her brother to Queen Elizabeth , with a dedication to her.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, http://U of A HSS.
95
Education Lady Anne Clifford
LAC was educated first by a governess, Anne Taylor . Between the ages of nine and twelve she was tutored by the poet Samuel Daniel , whom her mother engaged for that purpose. But she...
Education Lady Mary Wroth
LMW and her siblings were well educated, in learning . . . fit for their birth and condition.
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
8
A report to her father called her very forward in her learning.
Roberts, Josephine A., and Lady Mary Wroth. “Introduction and Notes”. The Poems of Lady Mary Wroth, Louisiana State University Press, pp. 3 - 75, 219.
8
She danced well...
Education Mary Basset
Mary Roper (later MB ) was taught as a child to read Greek and Latin. Her mother tried to get Roger Ascham to teach her, but found him unwilling to leave Cambridge University. (He did...
Employer Christopher Marlowe
Meanwhile records from summer 1587 indicate that Marlowe was already performing valuable secret services for the queen : that is, he was employed as an intelligence agent or spy, perhaps in the network which Sir Francis Walsingham
Employer Lady Arbella Stuart
LAS became a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth in 1588, but with unspoken restrictions on her conduct. She was quite soon dismissed for infringing them.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Employer Sir Philip Sidney
On his first return from his travels SPS became a courtier to Elizabeth I , for whom he subsequently conducted diplomatic business with monarchs and others abroad. He also gave the queen gifts, appeared at...
Family and Intimate relationships Grace, Lady Mildmay
After the wedding Anthony was active in royal service and often away from home: for the first twenty years of the marriage he was elsewhere for about half of the time. He was knighted in...
Family and Intimate relationships Margaret Roper
The family of Thomas More were merchants and lawyers of London's bourgeois ruling class: Thomas duly became a lawyer and out of personal passion became a scholar of the new humanist learning. He married again...
Family and Intimate relationships Anne Locke
She was then courted by Edward Dering , a rising, charismatic, and controversial Protestant preacher who was about ten years her junior. He had recently been so bold as to reprove Queen Elizabeth from the...
Family and Intimate relationships Virginia Woolf
She noted in her diary: All the centuries seemed lit up, the past expressive, articulate . . . & so we reach the days of Elizabeth quite easily.
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Editors Bell, Anne Olivier and Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press.
3: 125
Family and Intimate relationships Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Mary Sidney's famous uncle, the Earl of Leicester , was one of Elizabeth 's leading courtiers during Mary's youth, and a patron of actors. Of her mother's other two brothers, one became an earl as...

Timeline

889-899: King Alfred's last decade was a kind of renaissance...

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889-899

King Alfred 's last decade was a kind of renaissance of learning in his kingdom of Wessex.

12 April 1533: Anne Boleyn, already secretly married to...

National or international item

12 April 1533

Anne Boleyn , already secretly married to Henry VIII , was publicly recognised as his consort in the public celebrations of the end of Lent.

19 May 1536: Anne Boleyn, mother of the future Queen Elizabeth,...

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19 May 1536

Anne Boleyn , mother of the future Queen Elizabeth , was executed in London for alleged high treason.

1538: Royal Injunctions appeared: a radical, Erasmian...

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1538

Royal Injunctions appeared: a radical, Erasmian document whose first provision was that an English bible should be made available in every parish church.

June 1554: An eighteen-year-old servant, Elizabeth Croft,...

Building item

June 1554

An eighteen-year-old servant, Elizabeth Croft , confessed in front of a crowd gathered at St Paul's Cross in London that she had taken part in a hoax, playing a supernatural voice that spoke from a...

17 November 1558: Queen Mary I died, and Elizabeth I assumed...

National or international item

17 November 1558

Queen Mary I died, and Elizabeth I assumed the throne of England and Wales.

1559: Negotiating between opposing factions, Elizabeth...

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1559

Negotiating between opposing factions, Elizabeth I sought to establish the English Church under her headship; Thomas Cranmer 's Prayer Book of 1552 became the official Book of Common Prayer.

1560: The complete Geneva Bible appeared, translated...

Writing climate item

1560

The complete GenevaBible appeared, translated by English Protestant exiles from the reign of Mary : the first accessible or mass-circulation edition of the Bible in English, with small format and roman (not gothic) print.

18 July 1564: The Merchant Adventurers' Company received...

National or international item

18 July 1564

The Merchant Adventurers' Company received a new charter from Elizabeth I that, among other things, incorporated the company in London, extended the geographical range of its dealings, and solified its status as a national...

May 1568: Mary Queen of Scots fled from Scotland to...

National or international item

May 1568

Mary Queen of Scots fled from Scotland to England; she was imprisoned by Elizabeth I after standing trial in October that year.

1570: The Scholemaster was published, by Roger...

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1570

The Scholemaster was published, by Roger Ascham , who had been tutor to Princess Elizabeth .

25 February 1570: Pope Pius V issued his papal bull Regnans...

National or international item

25 February 1570

Pope Pius V issued his papal bull Regnans in excelsis, excommunicating Elizabeth I and releasing her subjects from their allegiance to her.

9-27 July 1575: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favourite...

National or international item

9-27 July 1575

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester , favourite of Queen Elizabeth , threw a particularly magnificent entertainment for her at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.

August 1578: Three female wax figures were found in a...

Building item

August 1578

Three female wax figures were found in a London dunghill with bristles through the chest; the Spanish ambassador reported a widespread assumption that this was a witchcraft threat to the queen 's life.

1579: For the first time in Elizabeth's reign,...

Building item

1579

For the first time in Elizabeth 's reign, the Jesuits were expelled from England.

Texts

Marguerite de Navarre,. A Godly Medytacyon of the Cristen Sowle. Translator Elizabeth I, Queen, Wesel D. van der Straten, 1548.
Elizabeth I, Queen. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Editors Marcus, Leah S. et al., University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Shell, Marc et al. Elizabeth’s Glass. Translator Elizabeth I, Queen, University of Nebraska, 1993.
Marguerite de Navarre, and Marguerite de Navarre. The Mirrour or Glasse of the Sinful Soul. Translator Elizabeth I, Queen, 1544.
Elizabeth I, Queen. The Poems of Queen Elizabeth I. Editor Bradner, Leicester, Brown University Press, 1964.