INTRODUCTION K ing Henry VIII of England thought men made the best rulers He wanted a son to take his place as king The English ruler tried almost everything to have a male heir Henry VIII’s quest began at the age of seventeen when he married twenty-three-year-old Catherine of Ara gon Catherine was the widow of Henry’s brother Arthur In those days people married very young At the time of Catherine’s first wedding she was only fifteen years old and Henry’s brother was fourteen While Catherine’s first marriage lasted only one year she and Henry VIII were married for twenty-four years During this time Catherine was pregnant six times in nine years She only had one surviving child a girl named Mary Des perate for a son Henry ended his marriage to Catherine and married a woman named Anne Boleyn When Anne was pregnant letters were sent out announcing the arrival of a boy But Anne had a girl instead The baby was named Eliz abeth after both of her parents grandmothers When Elizabeth was only two years old Henry had Anne killed by beheading Days after the execution Henry married again He chose Jane Seymour as his wife Because Jane had six brothers Henry thought she would be more likely to have a son After eighteen months of marriage Jane gave birth to a son named Edward but she died shortly after childbirth Henry then married three more times but he did not have any more sons Upon Henry VIII’s death Edward became king at the age of nine but he died six years later 6
INTRODUCTION 7 Painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger this portrait of Elizabeth was commissioned by Sir Henry Lee Elizabeth stands on the world with her feet on Oxfordshire where Lee resided
8 ELIZABETH I At the time Henry and Catherine were married England was a Roman Catholic country The Roman Catholic Church did not recognize divorces To end his marriage Henry went against the church breaking away from it to establish an independent Church of England Henry’s actions resulted in great religious battles within the country Catherine refused to accept both the annulment that canceled their marriage and Henry’s later marriage to Anne Catherine reported ly proclaimed I am Queen and Queen I will die Henry VIII responded by no longer allowing Catherine to see their daughter Mary Henry VIII caused great suffering to his six wives and their children in his quest for a male heir His actions also brought about tremendous religious and political upheaval in England Like many of his time Henry believed that men were better rulers Yet it was Henry and Catherine’s daugh ter Elizabeth who is remembered as one of England’s great est monarchs She rose to power at a time when men domi nated the political scene and her reign was one of England’s most prosperous periods Despite her father’s obsession with a male heir it was a woman who became one of England’s greatest rulers
A QUEEN IS BORN O n September 7 1533 Anne Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth in Greenwich England The new princess had fair skin wavy red hair and dark brown eyes Her full name was Elizabeth Tudor Her grandfather Henry VII was the first Tudor king having defeated King Richard III in war At birth Elizabeth was next in line to become the ruler of England But all that changed when Eliza beth’s mother was killed in 1536 and her father Henry VIII declared Elizabeth illegitimate her parents marriage was no longer recognized as legal 9 Several paintings of Anne Boleyn hang in London’s National Portrait Gallery Many were painted in the 1500s by unknown artists CHAPTER ONE
