“I may not be a lion, but I am a lion’s cub and I have a lions heart” –Elizabeth I
This quote states that Elizabeth may not have been a man, but she is her father’s daughter, and she has his heart. signifying she can rule just as he or any man before her has.
Elizabeth was born on the 7th of September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. She was the daughter of King Henry the VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Her birth was much disappointed by her father as he wanted a son and heir to succeed him as he already had a daughter, Mary; to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. He had not divorced Katherine, and changed the religion of the country in the process, to have only another daughter. Elizabeth's early life was therefore troubled. Her mother failed to provide the King with a son and was executed on false charges of incest and adultery on 19 May 1536. Anne's marriage to the King was declared null and void, and Elizabeth, like her half-sister, Mary, was declared illegitimate and deprived of her place in the line of succession.
Despite this, on the 15th of January 1559, Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England and began her long and successful reign.
The Marriage game
From the moment Elizabeth became Queen, there was one question that everyone was asking - who will the Queen marry? It was assumed that one of the first things Elizabeth would do, would be to select a husband to help her govern the realm, and more importantly, to get her pregnant. Elizabeth was the last of her dynasty, and it was thought natural that her main concern would be to provide a child to continue the rule of the Tudors. Elizabeth was young, unlike her sister who was already into her late thirties when she became Queen, and there were high hopes that soon England would have a royal family again. Without an heir of the Queen’s body, the future would be uncertain, and many feared that the rival claims of