13 February, 1547
Today they remove the coffin to convey it to Windsor. It shall take at least two days. The coffin itself reaches nine stories high when put on the hearse and weighs more than a tonne. The road is icy and rutted. I am not to attend the funeral. Nor is Mary.
16 February, 1547
The funeral is today. We children remain here at Whitehall. Edward, of course, is busy as he shall be crowned in exactly four days. Westminster Abbey is made ready. Robes are being made. Edward is given lessons on how to walk, how to hold the sceptre, how to hold his head so it will not tire from the weight of the crown. Princess Mary plays cards ceaselessly. I wonder about my little swallow back at Enfield.
28 February, 1547
Enfield
I have returned to Enfield. Edward is now crowned King, sovereign of the realm. He performed magnificently throughout the whole long ceremony. Everyone commented on his great dignity. His head never wobbled as the Archbishop set on the crown. Edward looked like an angel dressed in cloth of silver with diamonds and rubies. But an angel, I noticed, with a slightly drippy nose. Edward always seems to have a little sniffle, and it is very hard to fetch one’s handkerchief and wipe one’s nose when holding swords, sceptres, and maces and bearing a crown. I pray now every evening and morning for my brother’s health. May his nose stop running. May he grow lean and strong. For verily my life depends on it.
3 March, 1547
The eggs have begun to hatch. I have watched all morning. Suddenly within the last few minutes, I spy a naked pink little thing. Its beak poking up. In a few minutes it is hatched. The baby bird looks no bigger than a fat worm. I feel such joy swell within me as I witness this. I remember when I first discovered the swallow and marvelled at a creature of such poverty that it needed to pluck from its own body to make its shelter. And yet now I look at this mother swallow and her baby no bigger than a fat worm, and I think, I am a princess, often a forgotten one, yet there but for the grace of God go I. In other words why was I born a princess and not a bird? And for one sliver of a second I think perhaps I would trade places with this creature and then be free to wheel through the skies and be forever rich in ways I cannot imagine. I shall not lie, dear Diary, never again. It is more than a sliver of a thought. And I know I shall return to it again and again and again. Would I trade my title for a bird’s life, a palace for a nest, a realm for the sky?
Epilogue
Elizabeth’s belief in her destiny to become queen was to be fulfilled, but not for another eleven years after the death of her father. However, at no time in her life were her courage and wits put to a more severe test than in those next eleven years.
Shortly after King Henry VIII’s death, Catherine Parr married Thomas Seymour, whose brother, Edward Seymour, was the regent for Edward, who was now the king of England. Catherine Parr died in 1548 and Thomas Seymour was arrested almost immediately for treason and for plotting to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth was questioned harshly by members of the Privy Council, as were her servants. Kat Ashley was even imprisoned in the Tower for a short time. When Elizabeth was informed of the beheading of Thomas Seymour, she betrayed no emotion whatsoever, if indeed she had ever been in love with him. However, this ordeal was nothing in comparison to what would follow.
In 1553, Edward the VI, always a frail and sickly boy, died. Now Princess Mary became queen, and never was Elizabeth’s life in more danger than during Mary’s reign. Within a short time after being crowned queen, Mary became known as Bloody Mary, for she was bent on making England Catholic and burned many at the stake who were not. Elizabeth pretended to be a Catholic in order to save her own life. But at this time, there were many Protestants plotting against the Catholic queen. Mary, fearing that Princess Elizabeth would become the focus of an attempt to remove her from her throne, had Elizabeth arrested and sent to the Tower. Elizabeth was only in the Tower for a short time. Soon after, she was put under house arrest at her father’s old hunting lodge, Woodstock. Mary died childless five years later. So in 1558, at the age of twenty-five, Elizabeth became queen.
England was jubilant about their pretty and lively new queen. She was both majestic and modest. She assured the people that under her rule there would be no more burnings because of religious beliefs. Still, people wanted Protestantism to be officially restored. In 1559 the Act of Supremacy passed by Parliament declared the Queen the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, while the Act of Uniformity established a version of an older prayer book as the one to be used in church services. Even after the passage of these acts, Elizabeth stated clearly that she would not “open windows in men’s souls”, meaning that she did not care to peer into the private beliefs that individual people might have about God.
Elizabeth remained good friends with Robin Dudley. Her councillors were constantly trying to get her to marry. King Philip II of Spain, Queen Mary’s widower husband, proposed, as did the son of the French king, but Elizabeth would have none of them. She finally said to one of her councillors, who was insisting on her marrying, “I will have here but one mistress and no master.” She indeed became known as the Virgin Queen, who was wedded only to her kingdom, England.
Elizabeth was a very good politician. She was not only able to deal with rival factions within her own country but for years played a delicate game of balancing England’s interests against those of France and Spain. Perhaps the greatest moment in her long reign was England’s defeat of the supposedly invincible Spanish Armada in 1588.
At the time that Elizabeth lived and was Queen, women were expected to marry. They were not permitted to speak out on issues in public, nor were they educated. Elizabeth was a woman who as queen lived in defiance of what the world expected or considered to be proper for a woman. She never married, she spoke out and made policy, she wrote and translated poetry, and she published those writings.
Her reign of nearly forty-five years was a glorious one in which she continued to play politics, make brilliant speeches, flirt with her admirers, and parry with her councillors. She encouraged the arts, and within her court, a playwright named William Shakespeare presented some of his first plays. Elizabeth I ruled with a blend of craft, grace, shrewdness, and majesty. She became the glittering emblem of an age that was stamped so indelibly by her personality that it became known as the Elizabethan Age. Good Queen Bess became the ultimate image of majestic and powerful female authority. She died in her seventieth year on 24 March, 1603.
Historical note
Princess Elizabeth’s grandfather – Henry VII, who founded the House of Tudor – reigned during a time of amazing changes in Europe, 1509–1547. In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered a new world – America. Soon European ships, with Spain and Portugal in the lead, were sailing regularly around the globe. They brought back wondrous goods: silk, cotton, porcelain, rugs, gold, silver, sugar, and spices. Meanwhile the widespread production of muskets and cannon transformed warfare. Armoured knights on horseback had no defence against gunpowder. They became relics of the past who appeared in stories and games. Printing presses with movable type made books widely available. Until then, only the clergy and the wealthy knew how to read or could afford to buy a single book. By 1530, about sixty percent of all English people could read.
Henry VII died in 1509. Some historians say he had an unpleasant personality and a miserly character, but he gave England a precious gift: a more stable future. He left the royal treasury full of money, and he provided the House of Tudor with a male heir – his son Henry.
Henry VIII ascended the throne when he was just eighteen years old. He was handsome – tall with red hair and a red beard. Henry not only supported the work of artists, he wrote poetry and music himself. He set up a brilliant and luxurious court where he entertained and governed. He had inherited sixteen palaces in and around London. He bought and built others.
Unlike his father, Henry VIII spent money easily, too easil
y. His high living and ill-fated wars with France drained the royal treasury. He had to devalue the coinage twice. This meant he created more coins by adding copper to the available silver. Each new coin had less real value than an old one. An image of the king’s face was stamped on the coins. When the reddish copper showed through the silver, the people called Henry “old copper nose” and said he was blushing for shame.
During Henry’s reign, a religious upheaval called the Reformation spread across Europe. Until then, the overwhelming majority of Europeans belonged to the Catholic Church. Its supreme authority was the Pope in Rome. The Catholic Church had great power and wealth. It owned vast lands and thousands of magnificent buildings – palaces as well as churches – filled with art treasures. Many high church officials lived in luxury like kings. Many were corrupt.
In order to create a pure church, various reform movements sprang up. Each group had its own philosophy. Each believed it had the one and only religious truth. Yet they all considered themselves “Protestants”– they protested the moral decline of the Catholic Church. These Protestants rejected the authority of the Pope. They believed in a direct relationship between Christians and their god. They rejected Latin, the language of the Catholic Mass. Instead, they wanted worshipers to pray in whatever language they normally spoke.
Such reforms did not come about peacefully. The Catholic Church condemned Protestants as heretics and was willing to burn them at the stake. Fighting, even civil wars, broke out.
In England, the conflict between Catholics and Protestants had a unique twist: Henry VIII severed all ties to the Pope and the Catholic Church because he wanted to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, who had not given him a male heir. Catholics were not allowed to divorce, so Henry asked the Pope for special permission. When the Pope refused, Henry declared himself the supreme head of an independent national church of England. In 1534, the English Parliament confirmed Henry’s declaration.
Free to divorce and remarry, Henry had a total of six wives who produced a total of three children: Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, and Edward, the son of Jane Seymour. The break with the Pope also gave Henry the opportunity to seize the immense property of the Catholic Church. He gave parcels of land to noble followers in order to create a landed aristocracy loyal to the House of Tudor. He put the rest of the wealth into the royal treasury and spent it.
The creation of a national church did not prevent religious conflict in England. On the contrary, it launched a period of confusion and bloodshed. When Henry died in 1547, nine-year-old Edward VI took the throne. Edward and the men who helped him rule pushed England towards a more radical Protestantism. When Edward died just six years later, Mary Tudor, a devout Catholic, became queen.
Mary’s reign lasted only five years. When she died in 1558, twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth took the throne. She faced great dangers. England was almost bankrupt. Rising prices made life miserable for the poor. One great enemy, Spain, controlled the Netherlands just across the English Channel. Another great enemy, France, controlled Scotland, just north of England. Spain, France, and the English Catholics plotted constantly to get rid of Elizabeth. They wanted to put the young Catholic Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, on the English throne. Few people expected Elizabeth to survive this situation.
Elizabeth did survive. She proved herself intelligent and skillful in the art of politics. She was the leader of the Church of England, but she made church teachings loose enough so that most of the population felt comfortable. Elizabeth chose talented advisers who served her well for decades. She put finances on a more solid basis.
In foreign policy, Elizabeth dealt with the French menace early on. In 1559, she sent her army and fleet to help the Protestants in Scotland drive out the French for good. Spain continued to threaten England until the great Spanish Armada, a fleet of 130 ships carrying 30,000 men and 2,400 guns, sailed into the English Channel in 1588. The Spanish planned to invade England, get rid of Elizabeth, and reestablish the Catholic Church. Instead, 200 smaller but faster English ships battered the Spanish until a huge storm blew the Armada north and around Scotland where more than half the ships sank.
Although the war with Spain dragged on, England no longer felt threatened. Confidence and national pride soared. The population adored Queen Elizabeth, who had successfully steered England past one difficulty after another. For her subjects, Elizabeth symbolized England. She embodied the best of their beloved island nation.
After defeating the Armada, England was freer to explore the seas, regulate trade with distant lands, and even begin planning a first colony in America. This time of exuberant national spirit coincided with an upsurge in artistic creativity. Great writers, including William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, and John Donne, worked during the later years of Elizabeth’s reign. Musicians gave England her greatest prominence ever in this field. Elizabeth spent little money on palaces, but she loved jewellery and clothes. Her interest spurred craftspeople to develop their arts.
Elizabeth never married, but she used the possibility of marriage as a political tool. She would hint at her willingness to marry into a foreign royal family, yet she never followed through on these hints. She believed her independence gave her greater strength and actually allowed her to rule.
Elizabeth reigned for nearly forty-five years. She refused to name an heir to the throne, but when she died in 1603, her advisers managed a peaceful transition. The Protestant son of Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned King James I of England. He was the first king of a new dynasty – the House of Stuart.
Elizabeth left her successor some serious problems: inadequate tax revenues, no army for national defence, and weak local governments. She also left a legacy of political stability, economic expansion, a successful religious reformation, the elimination of Spain and France as threats to England, and the unification of the English nation. Most people believed that young Princess Elizabeth would never be queen. She proved them wrong and gave her name to a crucial period in English history – the Elizabethan Age.
The Tudor Family Tree
The British Tudor dyansty began with Henry Tudor, crowned Henry VII in 1485. Henry Vii married Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, in 1486. Their union produced four children who survived childhood: Arthur, Herny VIII, Margaret Tudor, and Mary Tudor.
The chart on the next page illustrates the growth of the dynasty through till 1625. The crown symbol indicates those who reigned over England. Double lines represent marriages; single lines indicate parentage. Dates of births and deaths (where available) are noted.
HENRY VIII: Henry became King of England in 1509 at age seventeen. He died in 1547 after a thirty-eight year reign.
Henry VIII’s children
MARY I: The daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary I was Queen of England from 1553 to 1558.
ELIZABETH I: The only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England in 1558 and ruled until 1603.
EDWARD VI: The only heir of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward VI ruled England from 1547 to 1553.
Henry VIII’s wives
CATHERINE OF ARAGON: She was the widow of Henry’s older brother, Arthur. Her parents, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, consented to her marrying Henry in 1509. They had one child, Mary Tudor.
ANNE BOLEYN: Henry married Anne in 1533, though his marriage to Catherine was not yet annulled. Anne gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth, on September 7, 1533. Falsely accused of adultery, Anne was beheaded.
JANE SEYMOUR: She married Henry on May 30, 1536, only eleven days after Anne Boleyn was executed. On October 12, 1537, she gave birth to Henry’s only male heir, Edward VI. She died a few days after Edward’s birth.
ANNE OF CLEVES: The daughter of Germany’s Duke of Cleves, she married Henry on 6 January, 1540. I
t was a marriage of political convenience for Henry, and the marriage was annulled six months later.
CATHERINE HOWARD: Catherine, Anne Boleyn’s first cousin, became Henry’s wife in 1540, shortly after the annulment of his previous marriage. Found guilty of adultery, Catherine was imprisoned in the Tower of London and beheaded.
CATHERINE PARR: She was a widow of four months when Henry became her third husband on 12 July 1543. They remained wed until Henry’s death on 28 January, 1547.
While this book is based on a real character and actual historical events, some situations and people are fictional, created by the author.
Scholastic Children’s Books,
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First published in the US by Scholastic Inc, 2002
(as The Royal Diaries: Elizabeth I – Red Rose of the House of Tudor)
This electronic edition published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2014
Text copyright © Kathryn Lasky, 2002
Cover illustration © Richard Jones, 2010
All rights reserved.
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