Inspirational Quotes by Queen Elizabeth I (British Monarch)

Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603,) bynames the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, was the Queen of England and Ireland 1558–1603. She succeeded her Catholic sister Mary I and steered a middle course between Catholicism and Puritanism and re-established Protestantism as the state religion.

Elizabeth was the last of the five sovereigns of the House of Tudor, which ruled England for 118 years. Her 45-year reign is regarded as one of the great eras in English history. It coincided with the emergence of England as a world power and the flowering of the English Renaissance.

Born in Greenwich, near London, Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII. He had broken with the Catholic Church to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn (her mother) to produce a male heir. But, when Elizabeth was born, he had Anne Boleyn beheaded and declared Elizabeth an illegitimate child.

When Elizabeth’s half-sister, Mary Tudor, came to power as Mary I, England almost broke out in a civil war. Mary tried to turn England back into Catholicism and started a series of bloody purges of Protestants. Elizabeth was confined in the Tower of London and later put under house arrest in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Mary died only five years after becoming queen and left behind a debt-ridden, torn country. Elizabeth took the throne in 1558 at age 25. Immediately she restored England to Protestantism and became an earnest advocate of religious tolerance.

During her time in power, often called the Elizabethan Age, England asserted itself vigorously as a significant European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. Her reign was overshadowed by the threat of a Catholic restoration and by war with Spain, ending in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

England enjoyed relative peace and prosperity, in which people had the luxury to read books and go to the theater. Elizabeth eased the restrictions on the legal operation of theaters. Such writers as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, and the composers Thomas Tallis and William Byrd flourished.

Elizabeth never married and was childless until the end. She preserved England’s sovereignty by rejecting foreign suitors, including King Philip II of Spain, who later sent an armada in the hopes of conquering England and restoring Catholic rule. By repelling that fleet, England emerged as a significant power, capable of competing with the mighty Spanish Empire.

Elizabeth was succeeded to the throne of England by Stuart James I, king of Scotland (as James VI) 1567–1625, and of England and Ireland 1603–25.

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