Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Elizabeth the Great

Students in European History are learning about the life of Elizabeth I---or the queen who should be termed Elizabeth the Great.

As the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who was executed by her father, she sought to maintain order in a kingdom that was undergoing great tension with the reformation/counter reformation.

When she died in 1603, England was wealthy, prosperous, and powerful....

The figure who surrounded her are themselves legends, and have numerous books written about their lives, too...

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Walter Raleigh
Sir Francis Drake
Lord Cecil
The Earl of Essex

All are part of the glorious Elizabethan Age.  Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey, and her coronation portrait is an iconic portrait of the English Renaissance.