Elizabeth I Inherits England

On this day, the 17th of November 1558, Queen Elizabeth I became the monarch of England, after quite a fraught childhood.

Her misfortune started with the beheading of her mother, Anne Boleyn, when she was just under 3 years old. Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and removed as the heir to the throne after her father Henry VIII remarried (for the second time of five).

10 years later, Henry died, forcing Lady Elizabeth to join the household of her father’s last wife, Catherine Parr. Her half-brother Edward VI becomes the King.

When Edward dies, Elizabeth’s older sister Mary Stuart becomes Queen. The very Catholic Mary doesn’t agree well with the mostly Protestant England, who after persecution by “Bloody Mary“, staged a rebellion. Poor Elizabeth is suspected to be involved, and imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Only after Mary herself dies does Elizabeth finally become the heir to the throne. She inherited a country split by religious turmoil at the age of 25, on this day 460 odd years ago.