ELIZABETH TUDOR,HER CHILHOOD YEARS

Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth 1, was born to Anne Boleyn on 7th September 1533 at her father King Henry VIII's favourite residence, Greenwich Palace, in southeast London.

The daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn, was destined to be the fifth and last monarch of The Tudors, a dynasty which had ruled England, Ireland and Wales since 1485, when Elizabeth's grandfather, King Henry VII had seized the crown by defeating King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth.

Young Elizabeth Tudor became motherless when Anne Boleyn was executed just barely two and a half years after Elizabeth was born, on top of which she was declared illegitimate.

When by the middle of the 1520's, Henry's first wife Catherine of Aragon had borne him eight children, with only their daughter Mary surviving infancy, Henry became increasingly concerned with providing a male heir to the throne.

As Catherine passed childbearing age, this concern turned into an obssession, referred to as part of the 'Kings Great Matter,' regarding issues political and religious.

He had by this time, become attracted to Anne Boleyn, a young lady of the court and was now completely out of love with Catherine. For these reasons he sought an annulment of their marriage, citing a controversial biblical passage in Leviticus, forbidding the marriage between a man and his brother's widow.

Henry interpreted this passage as meaning he had been living in sin with Catherine all those years, even though the previous Pope had granted him a dispensation to marry her.

It was also widely believed at the time, that the marriage between Catherine and Henry's brother Arthur had not been consummated. Catherine insisted throughout her life even to her deathbed, that she was still a virgin when she went to Henry's bed.

It was crystal clear from the very beginning that the Pope would not grant Henry his wish of an annulment and in January 1533 King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were secretly married.

In May 1533, the recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, at a court assembly in Dunstable, declared King Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be null and void and that his marriage to Anne Boleyn was a true marriage.

Anne Boleyn was then crowned Queen of England, with her daughter Elizabeth Tudor replacing her half sister Mary as the legitimate heir to the throne.

Both King Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer were excommunicated by the Pope. Catherine of Aragon was stripped of her title as Queen, Henry refusing her the right to any title except 'Dowager Princess of Wales' which recognised her as his brother Arthur's widow. Their daughter Mary was declared illegitimate, losing her position in the line of succession to the throne.

Paliament's Act of Appeals earlier that year, had effectively transferred the power of the Catholic Church away from Rome and into the hands of King Henry VIII and his advisors. He now declared himself the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England.

This declaration was made legal in the 1534 Act of Supremacy, followed by the Oath of Succession. This Oath transferred the primary sovereign right to the inheritance of Elizabeth Tudor, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, taking it away from Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon.

The Baptism of Elizabeth Tudor took place three days after her birth, on 10th September 1533 in a marvellous ceremony held at Greenwich Palace.

From here she was sent to the Royal Palace of Hatfield,near the town of Hatfield in Hertfordshire. It was her favourite residence when she became Queen Elizabeth 1.

Elizabeth and her brother, the future Edward VI spent their childhood at this palace and it was here that she was interrogated about her friendship with Thomas Seymour.

Shortly after Henry VIII's death in 1547, his last wife Catherine Parr, had married Thomas Seymour, Jane Seymour's brother and uncle to Edward VI.

Thomas who was Lord High Admiral of England was insanely jealous of his brother, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector to the young King Edward VI and wanted to displace him.

Elizabeth, whilst living with them at their house in Chelsea, was discovered by Catherine in an embrace with Thomas. She ended the state of affairs by sending Elizabeth back to Hatfield.

What transpired, was that Catherine Ashley, the governess to Elizabeth Tudor, and Thomas Parry her cofferer, on interrogation in the Tower of London, revealed details of Seymour's former behaviour towards the princess.

It appeared that he would enter her bedroom in his nightgown and would engage in romps and horseplay with Elizabeth, tickling her and slapping her on her buttocks.

This was unacceptable behaviour to Seymour's brother and the council. In January 1549, Seymour was arrested on suspicion of plotting to overthrow his brother and together with other charges made against, him was found guilty of High Treason and beheaded on 20th March 1549.

Under interrogation by Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, Elizabeth exasperated him by her stubborness, admitting to nothing. He reported "she hath a very good wit and nothing is to be gotten of her but by great policy.

"I do see it in her face that she is guilty.

As soon as Elizabeth Tudor became Queen Elizabeth 1, she knighted her cofferer Thomas Parry and made him treasurer of the household. Her governess, Catherine Ashley was treated with great consideration.

Sir Robert Tyrwhitt seems to imply that he believed there was a secret agreement between the three of them when he said,

"They all sing one song, and she hath set the note for them."

After Elizabeth's birth, her mother, Anne Boleyn failed to provide a male heir to the throne. She had two miscarriages, one in 1534 followed by another at the beginning of 1536.

The last miscarriage, Anne blamed on the King being unhorsed in a tournament, when he was knocked unconscious for two hours, a worrying incident for her, leading to her miscarriage.

According to the Imperial Ambassador Eustace Chapuys, she had borne the child for three and a half months and which

"seemed to be a male child."

For him, this personal loss was the beginning of the end of the marriage between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Anne's opposition to Cromwell's ruthless tactics in the dissolution of the monasteries, may well have acted as a catalyst in the resolve of both Henry VIII and Cromwell to bring an end to her power.

As Anne was recovering from her miscarriage, Henry declared that he had been seduced into the marriage by deception. She was then arrested on probably trumped up charges of adultery, incest and treason.

Several men including her brother were arrested, tried and executed on 17th May 1536, even though the evidence was unconvincing.

Anne Boleyn herself was executed on 19th May 1536.

With the death of her mother, Elizabeth Tudor was removed from the line of succession, meaning she now joined her half sister the future Queen Mary of England, by being cut off from the line of succession.

They were both restored to the line however, by the Act of Succession of 1544, which was reinforced by their Father King Henry VIII, under the terms laid out in his Will.

This did not prevent their half brother Edward VI, who was dead set against his half sister Mary from succeeding him, having her removed once again from the line of succession in his Will, bequeathing the crown to the fanatical Protestant, Lady Jane Grey instead.

Mary was a devout Catholic and Edward feared that she would try to return England to the Catholic faith after his death, thus undoing all the reforms both he and his Father, King Henry VIII had forced through during their reigns.

On the advice of the Council, (who in actual fact were ruling the country, because Edward was under age), he also removed his other sister Elizabeth Tudor from the line of succession in his Will, on the pretext that he could not remove one without the other.

Edward VI had a terminal illness and died at Greenwich Palace on the 6th July 1553. His Will was set aside, probably because it was illegal, allowing the older of his two sisters to be crowned.

The following year the newly crowned Queen Mary of England sanctioned the imprisonment in the Tower of London, of her sister Elizabeth Tudor, on suspicion of being involved with the popular, but unsuccessful Wyatt rebellion, an uprising which had taken place in support of Elizabeth.

Her freedom came about due to the pressure exerted by Queen Mary's new husband, Philip II of Spain. He wanted to be on favourable terms with Elizabeth Tudor, as he fully expected her to be the future monarch Queen Elizabeth 1, in the event of the possible death of his wife Mary.

In April 1555, Mary Queen of England recalled Elizabeth to court during the final stages of her apparent pregnancy. When it became obvious that Mary was not pregnant, it became clear that she could not have a child. Elizabeth's succession seemed a certainty.

Philip II of Spain, Mary's husband who the following year would become King of Spain,

As Mary's health deteriorated, Elizabeth started planning her government. Philip II of Spain redoubled his efforts to court Elizabeth, but instead would finish up as her enemy.

Eleven days after Mary recognised Elizabeth as her heir, she died. Queen Elizabeth 1 succeeded to the throne at St.James's Palace on 17th November 1558.

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