Most people in the world today are familiar with Queen Elizabeth II, who has been Queen
of England for 70 years as of 2022.
So by now we know a fair amount about the second Queen Elizabeth, but what was the first
one like?
It turns out, she was a pretty powerful woman, especially for someone who was never supposed
to rule in the first place.
Here’s why Queen Elizabeth I was the most badass ruler England has ever seen.
First off, she rallied her troops to repel one of the only near-successful invasions
England has ever seen since the Norman Conquest of 1066.
At the time, Spain was Catholic and England was Protestant, and people back then cared
a lotabout these things, so a lot of rivalry had built up among the two nations.
In 1588, the Spanish Armada headed towards England with the purpose of invading the country.
Facing 130 ships of one of the most feared fleets in the world, Queen Elizabeth I didn’t
hide or lock herself up in her palace.
Instead, she called on the finest members of her navy to ward off the advance, and went
to rally her troops in Tilbury in person.
Then, she proceeded to give one of the best and most famous wartime speeches ever recorded,
Mel Gibson from “Braveheart” be damned.
“I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but
being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to
lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honor and blood, even in the
dust.
kKnow I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of
a king, and of a king of England too.”
Second, before ever getting near the throne, Elizabeth survived two months in the infamous
Tower of London at the tender young age of 21.
In March of 1554, her older half-sister Mary locked her up after a failed rebellion against
Mary’s rule.
She felt Princess Elizabeth’s mere presence and position as a devout Protestant - Mary
was Catholic - threatened her reign.
For two months, the princess was held in the same cells in which her mom Anne Boleyn was
imprisoned, before eventually being executed when Elizabeth was just two years old.
Though Mary eventually decided not to condemn Elizabeth to death - how generous - spending
time locked up where her mother’s last days had been spent, wondering if she would be
executed or not, must have been akin to psychological torture for the young princess.
On May 19, 1554, the anniversary of her mother’s execution, Elizabeth was released into house
arrest.
This imprisonment highlights another way in which Elizabeth beat the odds: the woman we
now know as Queen Elizabeth I was never supposed to ascend to the throne in the first place.
After Anne Boleyn was beheaded, thanks to King Henry VIII not understanding what a healthy
break up looks like, her daughter Elizabeth fell out of favor in the royal court.
Elizabeth also had an older sister - Mary I, born to Catherine of Aragon - and a younger
brother - Edward VI, born to Jane Seymour.
Thanks to a preference for older children and good old sexism in leadership, this meant
both were in line for the throne ahead of Elizabeth.
After Henry VIII died, no doubt to the great relief of his sixth, current, and still breathing
wife, Edward VI became king in February of 1547.
He was nine years old, and about as competent a ruler as you’d imagine, which is why his
uncle handled most state affairs.
He died just six years later in 1553 at age 15, possibly from tuberculosis, possibly from
one of the many other diseases floating around before modern medicine and hygiene were invented
in Europe.
Before his death, Edward VI decided he would uphold his father’s Reformation of England
from Catholicism to Protestantism, and thus disowned his sisters, passing the reins to
his cousin, Lady Jane Grey.
The people of England loved her so much that she ruled for all of nine days before being
forced to relinquish her position to Mary - who at the age of 37, was finally now Queen
Mary I.
She made it her priority to reverse the Reformation and bring back Catholicism.
Queen Mary then proceeded to set a great spiritual example by beheading the aforementioned Jane
Grey and burning over 280 religious dissenters, giving her the loving nickname, “Bloody
Mary”.
Her Lord and Savior thanked her for all her work by ensuring she died of yet another unknown
illness five years later at the age of 42.
On November 17, 1558, with everyone in line before her now dead due to disease or decapitation,
Elizabeth I finally - finally - became queen at the age of 25.
Her reign would signal a marked shift towards business as usual in England.
People were tired of the tug of war between Protestant and Catholic leaders, tired of
the never ending changing of the guard.
Though Elizabeth was Protestant, she was - in most cases - more moderate, tolerating Catholics
as long as they accepted her as Queen.
Elizabeth also oversaw one of the most prosperous eras in England, during which the arts and
literature flourished.
This should come as no surprise since she was one of the most educated and intelligent
women of her time.
After being taught history, philosophy, and rhetoric in her younger years, Queen Elizabeth
I also became fluent in six languages other than English - Latin, French, Greek, Spanish,
Italian, and Welsh.
However, she wasn’t some kind of homebound nerd.
In fact, Elizabeth was a skilled hunter and horsewoman.
In addition, her court was known for dancing and partying the whole night long, while Elizabeth
herself entertained many suitors throughout her life.
Since it’s apparent that Elizabeth was quite a catch, and men were flocking around her,
some male royal must have snapped her up at some point, right?
Wrong.
And that was one hundred percent Elizabeth’s choice.
See, Elizabeth had grown up with an understandably horrible idea of what marriage did for royals.
Her father broke with the Catholic Church and caused a major schism in England thanks
to his marriages, while her sister Mary was hated by Protestants partly thanks to her
wedding to the staunchly Catholic King Philip II of Spain.
But also because she was awful, let’s be real.
Furthermore, Elizabeth knew that plenty of people still doubted her ability as a woman
to rule, and some of them would push for any potential husband of hers to take over more
leadership responsibilities.
But as a true badass who knows her worth, Queen Elizabeth also knew that there were
few, if any men, who would do nearly as good a job as her on the throne.
So she decided to sidestep this tricky issue and any potential domestic and foreign complications
marriage might cause, by rejecting marriage entirely.
This allowed her to retain total power, and honestly, England was probably better for
it.
She still enjoyed many suitors and flirtations throughout the years, though she engaged in
most of them for political ends.
Elizabeth knew her country was weaker than some of her neighbors, and alliances were
important.
She tempted many royals of other countries, from Swedish kings to Austrian archdukes,
with the possibility of marriage in order to keep their countries closely aligned.
One time she strung along Francois, Duke of Anjou, for a full decade before rejecting
him, which must have been incredibly embarrassing when he discovered the court gossip was all
about what a doormat he was.
Her single status led to her dubbing herself, “The Virgin Queen”, though given her close
intimate relationships with many suitors over years and even decades, historians believe
her virginal status was more…to put it delicately, symbolic rather than true.
The most serious of these suitors was Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.
Dudley and Elizabeth had known each other since they were children, and bonded even
more when they realized Queen Mary wanted both of them dead.
In fact, when Elizabeth was crowned Queen, Dudley rode to her immediately on a white
horse, proving rom-com cliches existed several centuries before Netflix ever did.
Dudley was already married, which seems to have been an afterthought in his life at best,
but after his wife died, he pressed Elizabeth for marriage.
When he became too persistent, Queen Elizabeth famously responded, “I will have here but
one mistress and no master…Beggarwoman and single far rather than Queen and married.”
As if this retort wasn’t badass enough, as the years went by, Queen Elizabeth may
have gotten older, but her suitors stayed the same age.
That’s right, she may have been one of the first confirmed cougars in history.
In her later years, perhaps after she noticed Dudley was looking a little too old for her
taste, she started flirting with his stepson instead: Robert Devereux.
Flattered and looking to attain some royal appointments, the handsome Devereux flirted
and courted his way up the royal ladder.
Their relationship was a source of constant gossip due to their age difference, since
Elizabeth was 33 years older than Devereux!
That being said, Elizabeth was no fool, and as turns out to be the case with many young,
privileged, attractive, but not incredibly bright men, Devereux was a little too full
of himself and not smart enough for his own good.
Thanks to his vanity and frequent “disloyal conduct”, including unseemly jealousy and
impatience with being ruled by a woman, he fell out of favor with Queen Elizabeth.
This resulted in him attempting to revolt against the queen.
Elizabeth calmly responded by ordering the separation of his head from his body.
The news of Devereux’s death by beheading reached Queen Elizabeth as she was playing
the virginals, a popular keyboard instrument of the time.
She paused for a second to hear the news, digested it for a few seconds, then resumed
playing.
Like a stone cold killer.
England’s prosperity during her reign shows that she may have made the right choice to
rule the country alone.
Thanks to the peace Queen Elizabeth brought to England, the arts and literature flourished
during her years on the throne.
She created a literary court and surrounded herself with poets.
Literary giants like William Shakespeare and poet Edmund Spenser created most of their
famous works during this time.
England had hardly been a bastion of arts in Europe before this.
Queen Elizabeth was the innovator that put her country on the artistic map, with works
that have thrived almost 500 years after they were created.
While creativity reigned at home, Queen Elizabeth sought adventure and explorations abroad.
The Queen almost single handedly started England’s Age of Exploration, in response to her countrymen’s
demand for spices - anything to make the English food they faced every day tolerable.
After seeing her rival nations, primarily Spain, gain footholds in the New World, Elizabeth
knew she needed to join this race between the European powers.
In 1572 she commissioned Sir Francis Drake to sail to the Americas.
Since the Spaniards were already there, and conditions were hot and difficult, Drake figured
he could just raid Spanish gold and goods from where they were stored in Nombre de Dios,
Panama instead of finding some himself.
After all, those goods were stolen from the indigenous population in the first place,
so at that point, what did it matter who had stolen from whom?
See, depending on who you asked, or even on the day of the week, Sir Francis Drake was
either a brave explorer or a ruthless pirate.
Queen Elizabeth didn’t really chastise so much as encourage him on his plunders, as
long as they were to the detriment of Spain.
As might have been evident when Spain sent dozens of their ships to invade and burn England
to the ground, the two countries had…issues.
Issues that the Age of Exploration exacerbated.
Furthermore, English galleons were built with limited storage space, but the ability to
move rapidly.
This meant most of them couldn’t travel long distances, but could outmaneuver other
ships in a confrontation.
As written by historian Nicholas A.M.
Rodger in “The Safeguard of the Sea”: “these ships were better fitted for predatory
warfare than for peaceful trade; for stealing the products of other people’s colonial
empires, rather than developing one themselves.”
Drake, along with Sir Walter Raleigh, regularly ransacked Spanish ships and stole their goods.
Queen Elizabeth frequently rewarded these efforts, essentially making herself a bit
of a pirate queen in the process.
The Queen, being the ambitious, tough ruler she was, protected her pirate explorers - or
as they were called at the time, “privateers” - because she needed them to prove England’s
strength on the seas.
In 1577, she eventually picked Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the globe in a ship
built for such a mission.
He became the second man in the world to do so after Portugal’s Ferdinand Magellan.
Queen Elizabeth jump started the Age of Exploration which eventually led to England amassing one
of the largest empires in the world.
She fully - and correctly - believed that operations in the New World and across the
globe would bring England unlimited wealth and power.
This queen who spoke seven languages, could hunt and ride with any man, and cultivated
one of the most important creative eras that would become her country’s cultural legacy
for centuries, put England on track to evolve into the power it would become.
This is in addition to her surviving one of the most infamous historic prisons in the
world, rallying and leading English troops against the Spanish Armada, and enjoying an
endless string of royal males’ attention while she did so.
There have been few rulers who have sat on the throne as long or made as big an impact
as Queen Elizabeth I. Almost 500 years after her ascension, people all over the world recognize
her name and image even today, with movies and books continuing to be made about her
life.
What is more badass than that?
Now that you’ve learned about Queen Elizabeth I’s incredible life, how about checking
out another video to give you all the dirt on revered historical figures?
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