Elizabeth I (1558 1603 AD)Elizabeth I was born in1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Although she entertained many marriageproposals and flirted incessantly, she never married or had children. Elizabeth, the last ofthe Tudors, died at seventy years of age after a very successful forty-fouryear reign.Elizabeth inherited a tatteredrealm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundationof society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors,Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for thefirst time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics)doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to theproblems - Francehad a strong footland in Scotland,and Spain,the strongest western nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of therealm. Elizabethproved most calm and calculating (even though she had a horrendous temper) inher political acumen, employing capable and distinguished men to carrying outroyal prerogative. Her first order of business was toeliminate religious unrest. Elizabethlacked the fanaticism of her siblings, Edward VI favored Protestant radicalism,Mary I, conservative Catholicism, which enabled her to devise a compromisethat,basically, reinstated Henrician reforms. She was, however, compelled totake a stronger Protestant stance for two reasons: the machinations of MaryQueen of Scots and persecution of continental Protestants by the twostrongholds of Orthodox Catholicism, Spain and France. Thesituation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. Mary, in Elizabeth's custody beginning in 1568 (forher own protection from radical Protestants and disgruntled Scots), gained theloyalty of Catholic factions and instituted several-failedassassination/overthrow plots against her cousin, Elizabeth. After irrefutableevidence of Mary's involvement in such plots came to light, Elizabeth sadly succumbed to the pressurefrom her advisors and had the Scottish princess executed in 1587. Thepersecution of continental Protestants forced Elizabeth into war, a situation which shedesperately tried to avoid. She sent an army to aid French Huguenots(Calvinists who had settled in France)after a 1572 massacre wherein over three thousand Huguenots lost their lives.She sent further assistance to Protestant factions on the continent and in Scotlandfollowing the emergence of radical Catholic groups and assisted Belgium intheir bid to gain independence from Spain. The situation came to headafter Elizabethrejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain; the indignant Spanish King,incensed by English piracy and forays in New Worldexploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England. However, the English wonthe naval battle handily, due as much to bad weather as to English navalprowess. Englandemerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for laterEnglish imperial designs. Elizabeth was a masterof political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of themonarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonizeParliament. She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council, who wereconstantly perplexed by her habit of waiting to the last minute to makedecisions. She used the varying factions (instead of being used by them, aswere her siblings), playing one off another until the exhausted combatants cameto her for resolution of their grievances. Few English monarchs enjoyed suchpolitical power, while still maintaining the devotion of the whole of Englishsociety. Elizabeth's reign wasduring one of the more