Queen Elizabeth
On September 7, 1533 Elizabeth was born on the outskirts of London, England. The child's father was King Henry VIII, mistakenly known as "Bluff King Hal." The child's mother was Anne Boleyn, the second of King Henry's eight wives. Henry's first wife was Catherine of Aragon. She had one surviving child, which she named Mary. Henry wanted a male heir to the throne, so he pleaded with the pope to annul the marriage. Because the pope refused, Henry left the Roman Catholic Church and made himself the head of the Church of England. Right after this decision, he married Anne. However, when Elizabeth was the age of three, Henry had her beheaded. Elizabeth spent most of her childhood away from the court. Her father gave Elizabeth a house of her own. Because of this, he paid very little attention to her. Even though her father was not around her, she showed a love for learning. Henry provided excellent tutoring for her. One of her tutors was Roger Ascham, who influenced Elizabeth greatly. He said, " Her (Elizabeth) perseverance is equal to that of a man, and her memory long keeps what is quickly picks up. She talks French and Italian as well as she does English. When she writes Greek and Latin, noting is more beautiful than he
Both Elizabeth and Edward were brought up in Henry's new church. However, their half-sister Mary was brought up in the Roman Catholic Church. When Edward died in 1553, Mary came to the throne. She made Catholicism a state religion. Elizabeth became a partisan of her sister Mary, refusing to support the revolt led by the English soldier Sir Thomas Wyatts. Since Mary was a devout Roman and Catholic and her sister was a devout Protestant, she was afraid that Elizabeth would become a potential menace as an heir to the throne. Because of this, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months. Her charge (which was false) was of having been implicated in Wyatts' rebellion. When she was released, she superficially professed Roman Catholicism, and regained Mary's favor. Elizabeth's initial problem as queen was religion. She reverted to Catholicism immediately after Mary's death, but retained many features of Catholicism including bishops and archbishops. She optimized that this would bring unity to the state, but the Catholics were not reconciled. The Catholics would plot from time to time with Spain or France to have a revolution so Mary Stuart would become queen. Since Spain and France were rivals though, Elizabeth was usually able to play one against the other. With years of preparation, Phillip constructed of his best warships, called by the Spanish the Armada. In 1588 the Armada invaded the English Channel. However the English were waiting for them. In a nine-day battle, the Spanish Armada suffered an inglorious loss to the English. When Mary Stuart returned to Scotland in 1561 after the death of her husband, King Francis, she was compelled to flee across the English border and ask for Elizabeth
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1165
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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