page_title: House of Tudor
section_title: Elizabeth I: Age of intrigues and plots
hierarchical_section_title: House of Tudor / Elizabeth I: Age of intrigues and plots
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Elizabeth I of England in her coronation robes, patterned with Tudor roses and trimmed with ermine. She wears her hair loose, as traditional for the coronation of a queen, perhaps also as a symbol of virginity. The painting, by an unknown artist, dates to the first decade of the seventeenth century (NPG gives c.1600) and is based on a lost original also by an unknown artist. Français&#160;: La reine Élisabeth Ire d'Angleterre dans sa robe de couronnement, à motifs de roses de Tudor et ourlée d'hermine. Ses cheveux sont libres sur ses épaules, comme de tradition pour le couronnement des reines, et peut être aussi comme symbole de virginité. La peinture, d'un auteur inconnu, date de la première décennie du XVIIe siècle. C'est une copie d'un original lui aussi d'auteur inconnu, et perdu.
context_page_description: The House of Tudor was an English royal house, descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including their ancestral Wales and the Lordship of Ireland from 1485 until 1603, with six monarchs in that period: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII of England, descended through his mother from a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster. The Tudor family rose to power in the wake of the Wars of the Roses, which left the House of Lancaster, with which the Tudors were aligned, extinct in the male line.
  Henry VII succeeded in presenting himself as a candidate not only for traditional Lancastrian supporters, but also for discontented supporters of their rival House of York, and he took the throne by right of conquest.
context_section_description: Elizabeth I, who was staying at Hatfield House at the time of her accession, rode to London to the cheers of both the ruling class and the common people.
  When Elizabeth came to the throne, there was much apprehension among members of the council appointed by Mary, because many of them (as noted by the Spanish ambassador) had participated in several plots against Elizabeth, such as her imprisonment in the Tower, trying to force her to marry a foreign prince and thereby sending her out of the realm, and even pushing for her death. In response to their fear, she chose as her chief minister Sir William Cecil, a Protestant, and former secretary to Lord Protector the Duke of Somerset and then to the Duke of Northumberland. Under Mary, he had been spared, and often visited Elizabeth, ostensibly to review her accounts and expenditure. Elizabeth also appointed her personal favourite, the son of the Duke of Northumberland Lord Robert Dudley, her Master of the Horse, giving him constant personal access to the queen.
caption: Elizabeth I at her coronation on 15 January 1559
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