ELIZABETH, Queen of England, was the daughter of Henry VIII. and the unfortu nate Anne Boleyn, and was b. 7th Sept., 1533. While she was yet in her third year, her mother was beheaded. After her mother's execution, she was sent to the country, where, in comparative poverty and seclusion, under the care of ladies who leaned to the " new learning," and sometimes, though seldom, with the companionship of her brother Edward, or her sister Mary, the greater part of her early youth was spent. When Catharine Parr became queen, E., who was a favorite with her, was more seen at court; but from some unknown cause, she incurred her father's displeasure, and was again sent to the country. Her father died when she was 13 years old. During the reign of her brother Edward, her life passed quietly and peacefully. She was then remarkable for a great demureness and sobriety of manner, discoursing with her elders with all the gravity of advanced years. Edward used to speak of her as his "sweet sister Temperance." During her sister's reign, this demureness was exaggerated into prudery, and the vanity which, in after years, with ampler means at its command, dis played itself in the utmost profusion of personal decoration, then sought for distinction by excess of plainness. Her Protestantism, and the way in which court was paid to her by the Protestant nobility, caused uneasiness to Mary and her council. On her sister's command, she conformed to papacy, but the insincerity of the conformity imposed upon no one. Upon the pretext of having been concerned in Wyatt's rebellion, she was sent in 1554 to the Tower. She entered it with all the gloomy forebodings which the fate of so many royal ladies who had been recently within its walls, could suggest. In daily fear for her life, many months passed. Indeed, the warrant for her execution was at one time prepared; and it is unquestionable that the stern bigotry of Mary and her coun cilors, Gardiner and Bonner, would have sacrificed E., but for the fear of popular com motion. The people, however, regarded E. with great favor, and many already looked forward to the time when the death of Mary should free the court from foreign influ ence, and give room for a milder government. Thus the life of E. was saved, but for
some time longer she was kept a prisoner at Woodstock. During the remainder of Mary's reign, E., though occasionally at court, resided chiefly at her residence of Hat field house, in Hertfordshire, where she occupied herself with feminine amusements, and the study of classical literature, under the learned Roger Ascham.
When Mary died (17th Nov., 1558), E. was 25 years of age. Her accession was welcomed alike by Catholic and Protestant. The former were, outwardly at least, the majority in Mary's reign ; but among them were few who really cared for the peculiar doctrines of the Roman church, and there were many who were weary of priestly inter ference, foreign dictation, and cruel persecution. Like E. herself, there were many who had conformed merely to save themselves from trouble. They had obeyed the Six Arti cles in Henry's time; had agreed to the Protestant settlement of Edward; had turned with queen Mary, and were now ready to turn again with queen Elizabeth. The Prot estants, of course, who had never believed the sincerity of E.'s conformity, welcomed her to the throne. E. then began, amidst dangers and difficulties, a reign which, con trary to the expectation of all, was of unexampled length and prosperity. It would be wrong not to attribute to her influence some effect in producing the great changes which, during the next 44 years, took place in England; but so far as these changes were not produced in the natural course of the development of the nation's powers, and so far as they bear the mark of an individual mind, they bear much more the impress of the bold yet cautious judgment and clear intellect of the great minister, Cecil, than of the sovereign's will. It is to the highest praise of E. that her first act on succeeding was to consult with such a man, and that to the very last she could bend her capricious temper to his control.