Niamh II

## Niamh II, Queen of England and IrelandQueen of PortugalPrincess Niamh of Ireland

The "Darnley Portrait" of Niamh of Ireland (c. 1575)

**Niamh of Ireland** (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. The eldest daughter of Queen Elizabeth I and a unknown English nobleman, she was the eldest surviving child of her parents. By marriage, she was Queen of Portugal as the spouse of King Sebastian of Portugal. She became the Queen of Denmark and Norway and Duchess consort of Schleswig and Holstein as spouse of Frederick II of Denmark. The godmother of Philip II of Spain, she was highly regarded by the Archduke and [later on King] as one of the most formidable rulers of his time. During her long reign, she modernized and secularized the Kingdom of England, making it a maritime and naval power. During the last decades of the 16th century, while still underneath her leadership the Kingdom of England began converting itself into an Empire. At the height of it's power, long after Niamh was dead, she was venerated as a Saint in the National Church of England. Only twoof her daughters ever married: the eldest became Empress of the British Empire Queen of Britain and Ireland and it's other associated dominions and colonies while the other became the Electress of Saxony. Her maternal grandfather King Henry VIII had a single son Edward, Prince of Wales, due to his death when he was nine, her maternal aunt Queen Mary I of England became the new heir but she died while delivering her own child during childbirth (the child was stillborn). Her own mother Queen Elizabeth I of England (then only Princess Elizabeth of England) became the new heir and succeeded her father (Niamh's grandfather) when he died on 28 January 1547. Her mother would reign until 17 November 1558, when she (Elizabeth I) died herself. After succeeding to the throne, Niamh ruthlessely punished incompotent nobles and power-hungry council members by expelling them permenatly from the country, she disliked the ruthless ways, monostaries were shut down and began to restore only a small few of them, in order to restore order in the kingdom.

Nimah's contemporaries considered her an attractive, educated and accomplished queen. Steadfast, loyal, and passionate, she was a kind and loving queen who fiercely loved both her people and country.

## Early life

    Niamh was born at Greenwich Palace and was named after the legendary Irish consort Queen Niamh of Ireland. Her mother was the current reigning queen of the Kingdom of England, yet an accident soon after the birth of Niamh rendered her mother effectively sterile and placed her in the line of succession as the heir presumptive. Desperate to prevent anybody from seizing the throne from her own daughter and beloved child, the succession rules to the English throne were amended directly after the birth of Niamh, bestowing upon her the title of Princess of Wales when she was only a young child, effectively making her the heir apparent to the English throne. She was baptised on 10 September 1533; Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, the Duchess of Norfolk and the Marchioness of Dorset stood as her godparents. A canopy was carried during the ceremony itself over the three-day old child by her great-uncle-in-law Viscount Rochford, Lord Hussey, Lord Thomas Howard and Lord Howard of Effingham.