Queen Elizabeth 1. The first Queen Elizabeth, whose name has become a synonym for the era which she dominated (1558-1603), was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
Called "Gloriana" by Edmund Spenser in "The Faerie Queene", Elizabeth's deft politicalskills and strong personal character were directly responsible for putting England (at the time of her accession in 1558 a weak, divided backwater far outside the mainstream of European power and cultural development) on the road to becoming a true world economic and political power and restoring the country's lost sense of national pride. Although she entertained many marriage proposals and flirted incessantly (her closest brush with marriage came with Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester), she never married or had children. Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest. The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. As they say, the rest is history.
Elizabeth was a master of political science. Elizabeth I.farland. Elizabeth I: An Overview (BBC) Life in Elizabethan England. Written and edited by Maggie Secara 11th Edition Spring 2011 Newly expanded incorporating all previous editions & appendices Designed for the World Wide Web by Paula Kate Marmor.
An Audience with Queen Elizabeth I, 1597. An Audience with Queen Elizabeth I, 1597 Queen Elizabeth I was sixty-five years old in 1597 and had reigned for 39 years.
In December of that year Andre Hurault-Sieur de Maisse, the French ambassador to Elizabeth's court, was granted an audience that he had been seeking for some time. His report of the encounter provides an insight into the private Queen that stands in stark contrast to Elizabeth's public persona projected through her official portraits. The French ambassador describes an aging, wrinkled, almost toothless woman wearing a red wig and revealingly dressed. The French emissary was pleasantly surprised when his request was suddenly granted.
After some time the ambassador is approached by the Lord Chamberlain and led to the Queen. She was strangely attired in a dress of silver cloth, white and crimson, or silver 'gauze', as they call it. As for her face, it is and appears to be very aged. References: The Ambassador's eyewitness account appears in: Maisse, Andre Hurualt, (G.B. NPG D21059; Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabethan Costuming Page. Elizabethan England. Elizabethan exploration & foreign policy. Elizabethan era. This "golden age"[2] represented the apogee of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of poetry, music and literature.
The era is most famous for theatre, as William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repulsed. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland. The Elizabethan Age is viewed so highly largely because of the periods before and after.
It was a brief period of largely internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics and the battles between parliament and the monarchy that engulfed the seventeenth century. England was also well-off compared to the other nations of Europe. Romance and reality Elizabeth ushers in Peace and Plenty. Elizabethan era. Elizabeth i. Elizabeth 1 & the Politics of the Elizabethan Era. Elizabethan Language.