Elizabeth I Is Crowned Queen of England, January 15, 1559

“This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes” was the psalmic response of twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Tudor when, knelt under the old oak at her childhood home Hatfield House, a messenger informed her that by the ordinances of Providence and the death of her last living relative, she had become monarch of the great nation of England. She was crowned on January 15, 1559 and reigned until her death in 1603—a total of forty-four years and one hundred twenty-seven days.


Hatfield House, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England

The sixteenth century saw bitter upheaval in custom and religion throughout Europe as well as many thrilling expansions in science and exploration. Wars of religion unseated old monarchies, the invention of mass publishing spread the word of God like wildfire amongst average men and women, and the Biblical tenants of the Reformation infused a boldness in prince and commoner alike to sever all loyalty to the Pope in Rome and his corrupted prelates. In such momentous times, when the inherency of God’s authority and the sacred availability of His precious Scriptures were under attack—when by almost wholesale agreement all other kings and princes of Europe committed themselves to stamp out those who testified of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone—there was raised up a woman, of all unlikely candidates, to be chief Defender of the Faith. Isolated, underestimated, and repeatedly assailed like her nation, Elizabeth Tudor would prove not only a bastion of Protestantism for the believers of Europe to rally behind, but a formidable adversary for any who would dare test her resolve.


Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation—This Elizabethan work depicts the handing over of power from Henry VIII, who lies dying in bed, to Edward VI, seated beneath a cloth of state with a slumping pope at his feet. In the top right of the picture is an image of men pulling down and smashing idols. At Edward’s side are his uncle the Lord Protector Edward Seymour and members of the Privy Council.

She would prove to be the last Tudor monarch, dying unmarried and childless by choice with her throne passing to her Scottish cousin, but her ascendancy to the throne in the first place was wonderment indeed, as she herself testified.


A rare portrait of a young Elizabeth prior to her accession, painted for her father in c. 1546 when she was around 13

She was born the second living child and daughter of the notorious Henry VIII and his second wife, the famously beheaded Anne Boleyn. Herself a champion of Protestantism and William Tyndale’s new English translation of the Scriptures, Anne Boleyn had fallen out of favor with her husband the king after failing to provide him with a male heir. She was given a mock trial on fabricated evidence of incest and summarily executed, leaving behind her daughter, little Elizabeth, who would face a childhood replete with repeated instances of disinheritance and fickle favor from her father the king and his many subsequent wives.


A heavily illuminated Tyndale Bible


Elizabeth’s parents, King Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Anne Boleyn (c. 1501 or 1507-1536)—Anne was executed within three years of Elizabeth’s birth

Upon her father’s death, Elizabeth’s brother—the boy king Edward VI—ruled for a time until he died of illness. The crown then passed to Elizabeth’s elder sister—the staunchly Catholic Mary Tudor—whose zeal to undo their father’s break with Rome and his establishment of the independent Church of England resulted in the public burnings of over 400 English Protestants, including the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and the bishops Latimer and Ridley, thus earning her the moniker “Bloody Mary”. Bishop Latimer’s last words as the flames licked at the stake to which he and Ridley were tied are unforgettable: “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley…we shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as shall never be put out.”


King Edward VI of England (1537-1553), Elizabeth’s Protestant half-brother and predecessor to the throne


Queen Mary Tudor or “Bloody Mary” (1516-1558), Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister and predecessor to the throne

That candle was given the security to blaze into a beacon on a hill upon the death of Bloody Mary and the crowning of the last living Tudor: Elizabeth I. Amongst the many achievements of her rule was great economic growth, religious tolerance and the flourishing of the arts and sciences. She oversaw the establishment of a Protestant Church of England in a form that lasted for centuries, the colony of Virginia was settled in her name and England’s dominion of the New World thus bravely begun, and the providential defeat of the Spanish Armada by her navy would firmly establish Elizabeth alongside England’s most celebrated wartime monarchs.


Elizabeth I in her coronation robes

Preparing for the great invasion which this unprecedented Armada threatened, Elizabeth famously rode out to where the River Thames meets the Strait of Dover at Tilbury, and there reviewed her troops who were readying to defend their homeland against a Catholic invader. She gave a speech there, written down many years later along with reports of her dressed in armor and astride a white warhorse, which has since through the ages become emblematic of a stand, not just by England but by Christendom, against those who seek to invade, impose and destroy.


One of three versions of the famous “Armada Portrait” of Elizabeth I, commemorating the defeat of the Spanish Armada, depicted in the background; Elizabeth’s hand rests on the globe, symbolising her international power

“My loving people,
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery. But I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.

Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore 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 honour and my blood, even in the dust.

I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your conduct in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”


Elizabeth I was interred in Westminster Abbey, in a tomb shared with her half-sister, Mary I. The Latin inscription on their tomb, Regno consortes & urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis, translates to “Consorts in realm and tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of resurrection”.