Elizabeth I of England

Student Name Professor Name Course Date Elizabeth I of England Born in September 1533, Elizabeth I was a queen of Ireland and England. She ruled the two countries from November 1558 until her death in March 1603. She is also remembered with the names of Good Queen Bess, Gloriana and The Virgin Queen. Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. She was born to Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII; Anne was Henry’s second wife, and their marriage was declared invalid. For many years, Elizabeth could not get her identity as she was called illegitimate. After the death of her step-brother, Edward VI, the crown was shifted to Lady Jane Grey, ignoring The Roman Catholic Mary and Elizabeth. Later on, the will of Edward was set aside, and The Roman Catholic Mary got a chance to become the queen (Duckett 65). During her reign, Elizabeth was put behind bars for several months due to the suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. Her ascension to the throne required a great deal of good luck. It was after the death of Mary in 1558 when Elizabeth was allowed to wear the crown and to rule England and Ireland. Prior to this, the crown was given to her step-siblings, and Elizabeth had to wait for many years for her turn to become the Queen of Ireland, Wales, and England. In simple words, it can be said that Elizabeth was kept in a long queue before she could get a chance to dominate certain parts of Europe (Scott 25). Before she could become a queen, Elizabeth was a political prisoner, as she was imprisoned in 1554. In those days, it was considered that Elizabeth was trying to go against Queen Mary I, which is why she was given the punishment for nearly one year, and it was not easy for Elizabeth to spend her days in the jail. It’s safe to say that Elizabeth is remembered for her high-end outfits and gorgeous personality. It would be surprising to know that her wardrobe was one of the most expensive in the world. According to Victoria Duckett, Elizabeth owned clothes worth $200 million. In addition, she had up to two thousand pairs of gloves and nearly five thousand pairs of socks (Duckett 12). It is a common observation that actors and actresses these days spend thousands of dollars on a single outfit. All of them seem to have a craze for being fashionable and for looking prominent and best. However, in the past, only a few people had the sense to spend this much on their outfits, footwear and beauty products, Elizabeth being one of them. She was habitual of buying new clothes almost daily, and she always wanted to look better than others. There are only a handful of rulers in the history who believed in astrology. Queen Elizabeth was one of those very few individuals who trusted luck blindly. She had kept a personal astrologer called John Dee. He was not only an astrologer but also a chemist and mathematician. John Dee was basically responsible for telling the queen what to do, where to go, and how to take the decisions. It is said that Elizabeth had increased her dependence on Dee’s advice and counsel in the scheduling of urgent events, and some say that she was in regular touch with her astrologist when she decided to defeat death. There was a cult surrounding Elizabeth right after her claim of the throne. A team of advisors encouraged Elizabeth to wear glittering outfits. With time, her depictions in both written and visual media started incorporating likenesses of classical goddesses. For example, she was compared to Diana (the Greek deity), Astraea and Venus. Today, a significant number of paintings and written works can be seen in which Elizabeth is discussed, and her photographs are present in almost all art galleries and museums in the world. This trend of work is called the Cult of the Virgin Queen or the Cult of Elizabeth. There is no information on whether she had an interest in getting herself painted by an artist or she was urged to do so by her legal advisors, in order to build the people’s confidence in the way she ruled England and Ireland. Queen Elizabeth I is one of those very few female rulers who paid utmost attention to providing the poor with healthy food and proper medical assistance. For this purpose, she pioneered legislation and implemented certain strategies that were meant to facilitate both the rich and the poor, especially low-income families. Amazingly, none of her policies caused propaganda; in fact, Elizabeth’s administration did a lot of good things for the people. For instance, she oversaw the nation’s attempt at poverty relief: a gradual accumulation of rulings such as essential taxation towards the end, which had culminated with the Elizabethan Poor Law in 1601. It’s true that Elizabeth was born and raised in the Western environment and she could speak English fluently. However, only a few people know that she knew how to speak Latin, Italian and French. In fact, Elizabeth had translated collections of texts into these languages. The queen could also speak Welsh, Spanish, Flemish, Greek, Irish, and the now tongue of Cornish. In the past, several rumors tied Elizabeth to Shakespeare. She was a woman with a creativ...