Queen Elizabeth I is regularly associated with her father, Henry VIII. The least likely heir became the most successful of his children and the longest-reigning Tudor monarch. Elizabeth is described as resembling her royal father, perhaps more than his other two children. And Elizabeth’s fiery temper certainly matched the historic temper of Henry VIII.
Elizabeth I and Henry VIII are certainly the most famous Tudor monarchs, and two of the most famous monarchs of all time. Elizabeth is reported to have linked herself firmly to her father: “I may not be a lion, but I am a lion’s cub and have a lion’s heart.”
But what of her mother?
Anne Boleyn died in disgrace, by the order of her father, before Elizabeth turned three years old. As a result, Elizabeth was “demoted” from her position as Princess. She went from a cherished daughter, showed off by the King to his court, to an outcast whose governess had to beg for her clothing. All of this was associated with the fall of Anne Boleyn. After the execution of her mother, it seemed Elizabeth’s chance of inheriting the throne was gone.
But Elizabeth did inherit. Was the royal daughter, so publicly connected to her father, also less publicly connected to the mother she barely knew? I think she was.
By turning a 35-year old King into a lovesick schoolboy, refusing to be used and cast aside as a mistress, convincing Henry VIII that new ideas about religion were interesting instead of dangerous, championed religious reform, and giving the world not the expected son but a daughter who would put England on the world’s stage, Anne Boleyn created the world her daughter would inherit. I think she left not only a changed England but elements of herself that would guide Elizabeth throughout her reign.
History shows us what's possible.
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