The Elizabeth Files » The Execution of Thomas Seymour The Execution of Thomas Seymour Posted By claire on March 20, 2010 Thomas Seymour On this day in history, 20th March 1549, Thomas Seymour the 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley, was beheaded after being found guilty of treason. Thomas Seymour was a very dissatisfied man. Although he was Lord High Admiral and had been the husband of Katherine Parr, the dowager queen, his brother Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, had been made Lord High Protector of England and was ruling the country on behalf of the boy king, Edward VI – his brother had all the power. Thomas had seen his wife snubbed by Somerset’s wife and she had even had her jewels seized by the Lord Protector, this angered Thomas and even after Katherine had died he was still battling his brother for Katherine’s jewels, it was as if they stood for everything in his life that he thought his brother had taken from him. Seymour’s Undoing Without Katherine’s steadying influence, Thomas Seymour began a campaign to undermine his brother and loosen his hold on their nephew, Edward VI.

An informant told Seymour that the young King often complained about his lack of pocket money, so Seymour wormed his way into Edward’s affections by smuggling money to him. He also set out to damage his brother’s reputation by voicing his concerns over the way that Somerset was running the country and he undermined his brother’s control by using his position as Lord High Admiral of the English Navy to encourage piracy, something he was meant to stamp out. But that was not all. Seymour was also bribing Sir William Sharington, the Vice-treasurer of the Bristol Mint, who Seymour learned had been fiddling the books. This was the perfect opportunity for Seymour to get financing for a coup against his brother’s protectorship, but it all went pear-shaped when the Privy Council learned of Seymours plans at the end of 1548. Seymour was called to appear before the Privy Council to explain himself but in desperation he hatched a plot to kidnap Edward VI. Edward VI On the 16th January 1549, it is said that Thomas Seymour broke into the King’s residence at Hampton Court Palace by entering through the privy garden.

As he entered the King’s apartments, the King’s spaniel woke up and barked and it is said that Seymour shot the King’s beloved pet. The shot alerted a guard who confronted Seymour and Seymour was arrested and taken to the Tower of London. Not only was Seymour accused of trying to kidnap the King, he was also accused of plotting to marry the King’s half-sister, Elizabeth, and attempting to put her on the throne. He was accused of 33 separate accounts of treason and it could be said that his shooting of the King’s beloved dog led to Edward VI signing his uncle’s death warrant when Seymour’s brother, Somerset, couldn’t bring himself to. Elizabeth Implicated In January 1549, just after Seymour’s arrest, Seymour’s stepdaughter, Elizabeth, was interrogated about her relationship with Seymour and her servants, Thomas Parry and Katherine (Kat) Ashley were detained at the Tower. Sir Robert Tyrwhitt was the man in charge of questioning Elizabeth, Parry and Ashley and he had no sympathy for Thomas Seymour.

It was Tyrwhitt’s wife, Lady Tyrwhitt, who had been friends with Katherine Parr, and who had listened to Katherine lash out at Seymour when she was dying, claiming that she was “not well-handled”. Tyrwhitt, like everyone else, had heard rumours of some kind of relationship between Seymour and Elizabeth and was looking for confirmation, surely he could break this 15 year old girl, couldn’t he? Fortunately for Elizabeth, she had her father’s intelligence (and perhaps her mother’s also) and she kept her cool. All Tyrwhitt could get out of the teenager was confirmation that there was indeed gossip circulating that Seymour was looking to marry her and that he had been asking about her finances and estates. Despite the threats that were almost certainly used against her and the fact that she was told that Parry had told everything, Elizabeth insisted that she would “never…marry, neither in England nor out of England, without the consent of the king’s majesty, your grace’s [Somerset], and the council’s”, according to the terms of her father’s will. She was no fool.

Tyrwhitt had no evidence against Elizabeth and although her servants continued to be detained until shortly before Seymour’s execution in March 1549 , Elizabeth was in the clear. Edward Seymour, Lord Protector Thomas Seymour’s Execution On the 20th March 1549 was executed. Linda Porter, in “Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr”, writes of how he died bravely and that it took two blows of the axe to cut off his head. Porter quotes words that Seymour wrote in the Tower as he came to terms with his downfall and attempted to make peace with his Maker:- “Forgetting God As in his bliss he may have place.” David Starkey writes of how unpopular Seymour’s execution was and how the Council had to get the preacher Hugh Latimer to speak out in an attempt to calm the situation. His job? To blacken Seymour’s name. Latimer accused Seymour of being an atheist, a traitor and debaucher of women: “He was, I heard say, a covetous man:…I would there were no more in England. He was, I heard say, a covetous man, a contemner of common prayer.

I would there were no more in England. Well he is gone. I would he had left none behind him.” Porter also writes that:- “Not content with executing him, the council now took pains to ensure that the assault on his reputation continued with a viciousness that matched the manner of his despatch.” and that the Council spread gossip that Seymour had written to Elizabeth and Mary to encourage them to rise up against Somerset and that Latimer also said “surely he was a wicked man and the realm is well rid of him.” But was Seymour really so bad? Thomas Seymour's wife, Katherine Parr Seymour – Evil or Maligned? History and historical fiction has painted Thomas Seymour as a sociopath, a power hungry man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, a paedophile, a criminal, a potential kidnapper, a dog killer and even a murderer, but was the real Seymour really like that. Linda Porter writes of Seymour’s popularity – how he was popular with the people of London, the court, his servants and with his nephew, Edward VI, until 1549. Seymour had also been loved by the women in his life.

He had fallen in love with Katherine Parr when she was just Lady Latimer and that love was rekindled when she was free after Henry VIII’s death. Katherine and Seymour got married in secret shortly after the King’s death and they seem to have adored each other and he was devastated by her death. It is so easy to think of Seymour using Katherine to try and get power and money but he first fell in love with her when she was a lady of the court and not the King’s widow. He was an attractive and intelligent man, a good “catch”, and Linda Porter writes that it is not “unreasonable to believe that he was genuinely attracted to her, a slim, elegant and accomplished woman with hair the colour of burnished gold, a warm personality and exemplary private life masking hidden depths of sensuality that a man with his experience of the world might have detected even while she was still married.” They were close in age and both attractive, intelligent and available so why can’t we accept their relationship at face value? Elizabeth too loved Seymour.

Although we can now look back on Seymour’s treatment of Elizabeth as sexual abuse, Elizabeth didn’t treat it as such and Starkey points out that “almost all of the men that she subsequently loved, or pretended to love, resembled Seymour”. Porter writes:- “He liked the admiration and the company of women. Elizabeth and her giggling maids were the perfect audience for his exuberance and his ego. Still smarting at his relative political insignificance, this half-play, half-serious pursuit of Henry VIII’s younger daughter was an amusing diversion. Her reactions, and the occasional scolding of Katherine Ashley (who was more than a little sweet on him herself) doubtless encouraged him still more.” Yes, his behaviour was completely inappropriate and we would call it sexual abuse today, but I’m sure that Seymour would be horrified to be labelled as a paedophile. Also, although his behaviour led to Elizabeth being sent away, there was no public outrage at his behaviour and when the Duchess of Somerset heard the rumours she was more concerned with the fact that Elizabeth had been allowed unchaperoned at night in a barge in the Thames.

The Dorsets, Lady Jane Grey’s family, were also unconcerned and were happy that Seymour, although ambitious, was a good guardian to their daughter. It is hard to look back on the events of 1547 and make a judgement on what was going on but Elizabeth did not seem to lose her respect or love for Seymour. I realise that victims of abuse tend to carry on loving their abuser and I’m in no way justifying Seymour’s behaviour, I’m just saying that we don’t know the full story. Thomas Seymour had an unblemished reputation before his “dalliance” with Elizabeth and his plots against his brother’s administration and although history had blackened his name, Linda Porter points out that there is no evidence of him being a cad or womaniser. He may well have had flirtations and relationships but there is no record of any illegitimate children and his name has not been linked with any ladies. If we think of Seymour as an evil sociopath then we do Elizabeth and Katherine Parr a real disservice. They loved him and they were highly intelligent women.

As far as murder is concerned, although it has been suggested (in fiction) that Seymour “did away” with his wife, and that was why she lashed out at him on her deathbed and that was why her will was not witnessed properly, there is no evidence for this theory and Katherine was probably lashing out at Seymour for the heartbreak he had caused her with his behaviour towards Elizabeth. When he lay next to her on the bed, Katherine calmed down, she had her beloved husband beside her. But what about the kidnap plot and the killing of Edward VI’s beloved pet spaniel? All we know from historical sources is that Seymour was found late at night in the King’s palace and that the dog was found dead. Many stories were circulated about this event but neither the reports of Van der Delft or William Paget state that Seymour was armed or that he killed the dog and Linda Porter als points out that the accusations levied against Seymour did not relate to this incident. It may well be that the stories of a bungled kidnap plot and killing of the dog were attempts to blacken Seymour’s name.

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Nicholas Throckmorton, cousin of Katherine Parr, wrote of Seymour’s end:- “Off went his head, they made a quick despatch, But ever since I thought him sure a beast Who causeless laboured to defile his nest Though guiltless, he, through malice, went to pot Not answering for himself nor knowing cause.” (quoted in Porter) suggesting that Seymour’s downfall was caused by other men’s ambitions just as much as Seymour’s. John Harington, Seymour’s servant, described Seymour as a “Friend to God’s truth, and foe to Rome’s deceit… Yet against nature, reason and just laws His blood was spilt, guiltless, without just cause.” (quoted in Porter) Seymour may have had many faults but he was loved and respected by his friends, wife, stepdaughter, ward (Lady Jane Grey), the court and people. Perhaps the attempts to blacken his name before and after his execution were successful in that he is still painted as a scoundrel today, but perhaps we do him an injustice, perhaps we should trust in Katherine Parr and Elizabeth I and come to the conclusion that there must have been something to admire in Thomas Seymour.

I think I might just give him the benefit of the doubt. Queen Elizabeth I Quotes - Quotes of Queen Elizabeth I Poem Hunter Queen Elizabeth I Quotes - Quotes of Queen Elizabeth I Poem Hunter Search in the quotations of Queen Elizabeth I : Page : 6 ''I find that I sent wolves not shepherds to govern Ireland, for they have left me nothing but ashes and carcasses to reign over!'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 23, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). Said to her court after the brutal response of her troops to rebellion by the Irish. ''This day died a man with much wit and very little judgment.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 1, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923).

Said in 1549, when she was still Princess Elizabeth, on the execution day of Admiral Thomas Seymour (1508?-1549), who had been convicted of high treason. A schemer, he had had marital designs on Elizabeth and had been the cause of unfounded scandal that was very painful to her. Seymourwhose sister was the third wife of Elizabeth's father, King Henry VIII; whose twelve-year-old nephew was the current King, Edward VI; and whose brother was serving as protector of the realmhad married Henry's widow, Catherine, within a month of his death. The following year, Catherine died, and Seymour began the pursuit of Elizabeth that led to his execution. ''Kings were wont to honour philosophers; but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such purity in them that they would not seek when they are the second to be the first, and when they are third to be the second.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch.

12, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). To a committee of both Houses of Parliament, which had demanded that she marry and name a successor. ''The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 18, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). To Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), who had been helping enemies of Elizabeth's. Elizabeth was a daughter of King Henry VIII; after Henry's offspring, Mary had the strongest claim to the throne and schemed to win it. Eventually, and with great sorrow, Elizabeth had Mary executed. ''I would gladly chastise those who represent things as different from what they are. Those who steal property or make counterfeit money are punished, and those ought to be still more severely dealt with who steal away or falsify the good name of a prince.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch.

13, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). To Fenelon, the French Ambassador. ''Let the good service of well-deservers be never rewarded with loss. Let their thanks be such as may encourage more strivers for the like.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 11, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). To Sir Henry Sidney, governor of Ireland. ''Though I am not imperial, and though Elizabeth may not deserve it, the Queen of England will easily deserve to have an emperor's son to marry.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 7, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). Said in 1564 to the Ambassador of the Duke of Wurtemberg. Elizabeth never married and died leaving no heir.

''The end crowneth the work.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 11, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). ''It seems incredible, and I love them no less; and I can say that I would rather die than see any diminution of it on one side or the other.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 2, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). Said to the French ambassador in the latter 1500s about her subjects' devotion to her. ''I regret the unhappiness of princes who are slaves to forms and fettered by caution.'' Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 23, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923).

Said in 1601 to King Henry IV of France. Page : Queen Elizabeth I :: England Queen Elizabeth First Essays Papers Elizabeth I was born on September 7, 1533 at Greenwich Palace near London. Her father was England's King Henry VIII; her mother was the king's second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth had an older half-sister, Mary, who was the daughter of the king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. King Henry had moved heaven and earth to marry Anne Boleyn . He had parted from the Catholic church, established the Church of England, and annulled his twenty-four year marriage to Queen Catherine - partly because he loved Anne, and partly because he wanted the male heir Catherine could not give him. Henry and Anne were convinced that their first child would be a boy. The new queen even had a document drawn up ahead of time that announced the birth of a prince. When the prince turned out to be a princess, her parents were dismayed. Over the next few years Anne had three miscarriages, and Henry - who had become disenchanted with her even before Elizabeth's birth - decided to be rid of her.

In 1536 he had Anne arrested on false charges of adultery. The Archbishop of Canterbury bowed to the king's will by declaring that Henry's marriage to Anne had never been valid. Like her half-sister Mary, two-year-old Elizabeth was now considered illegitimate. Anne was executed, and two weeks later the king married Jane Seymour. In 1537 Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Elizabeth and Mary participated in his christening ceremony. As Edward grew older, he and Elizabeth became close; although they lived in separate households, they wrote to each other often. When Elizabeth was four, Katherine Champernowne became her governess. The well-educated Champernowne - known as Kat Ashley after her marriage in 1545 - began teaching Elizabeth astronomy, geography, history, math, French, Flemish, Italian , Spanish, and other subjects. Elizabeth was an excellent student. Her tutor Roger Ascham later wrote, "She talks French and Italian as well as she does English. When she writes Greek and Latin, nothing is more beautiful than her handwriting." In 1540 Elizabeth's father married Anne of Cleves.

Repelled by what he perceived as his bride's ugliness, Henry quickly had the marriage annulled and instead married Anne Boleyn's first cousin Katherine Howard. Katherine was very young - about fifteen - and something of a featherbrain, but she was kind to Elizabeth, who was surely appalled when, in a repetition of the past, the queen was arrested and charged with adultery. This time the charges were true. Queen Katherine was beheaded in 1542, when Elizabeth was seven years old. How to Cite this Page MLA Citation: Katherine Howard's violent death seems to have had a lasting impact on Elizabeth. At the age of eight she met one of Prince Edward's classmates, Robert Dudley, and told him of an important decision she had made. "I will never marry," she said. It was a decision that would shape her life. Thomas Seymour In 1543 Elizabeth gained yet another stepmother when Henry married his sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr. Four years later Henry VIII died, leaving his crown to Edward. According to Henry's will, if Edward died without heirs he would be succeeded by Mary. If Mary died without heirs, Elizabeth would become queen.

Soon after Henry's death, Elizabeth received a marriage proposal from handsome Thomas Seymour, who was England's Lord Admiral and the brother of the late Queen Jane. Knowing that Seymour was simply seeking the power that marriage to the king's sister could bring him, Elizabeth turned him down. So Seymour proposed to the widowed Queen Katherine, who had been in love with him before her marriage to Henry VIII. Unaware of Seymour's previous proposal to her stepdaughter, Katherine happily accepted. They were quickly married, and the following year Elizabeth went to live with them at the royal Old Manor House in Chelsea. Thomas Seymour still had designs on pretty red-haired Elizabeth. He took to visiting her bedroom in the morning before she was dressed. During these visits he sometimes tickled her or slapped her bottom; once he tried to kiss her. Elizabeth giggled and seemed to enjoy his attention, but Kat Ashley was disturbed by the Lord Admiral's behavior, and the servants began to gossip. Queen Katherine was aware of what was going on, but saw it all as innocent romping. Once she even joined in the "joke," holding Elizabeth in the garden while her husband cut off Elizabeth's dress.

Hoping to further deceive his wife, Seymour told her that he had seen Elizabeth with her arms around a man's neck. Concerned, the queen questioned Elizabeth, who cried and insisted it wasn't true. Now Katherine began to suspect that her husband, not some mystery man, had been making advances to her stepdaughter. She started watching the Lord Admiral more carefully. One day Katherine went looking for him and Elizabeth and, according to one account, "came suddenly upon them, where they were all alone, he having her in his arms." Understandably upset, Katherine banished Elizabeth from the Old Manor House. A few months later Katherine died after childbirth and Seymour resumed plotting to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth knew that she could not legally marry without the permission of the king's council, and she refused to be drawn into the Lord Admiral's schemes. In 1549 Seymour was arrested on charges of conspiring to marry Elizabeth and take over the government. Kat Ashley was also arrested, along with another of Elizabeth's employees, and Elizabeth herself was closely interrogated. She kept her wits about her and denied any involvement in Seymour's treasonous activities. In the end she convinced the Council of her innocence, and her servants were released from prison.

When Elizabeth heard that Seymour had been beheaded for his crimes she said only, "This day died a man of much wit and very little judgement." She had learned that she must keep her feelings to herself if she hoped to survive. Perilous Years Elizabeth continued to get along well with her brother, King Edward, but in 1553 Edward died. On his deathbed he was persuaded by the duke of Northumberland to name Lady Jane Grey to succeed him. Lady Jane tried to refuse the crown, but Northumberland (who was her father-in-law) proclaimed her to be the new queen. Meanwhile, Henry VIII's daughter Mary was proclaimed queen by her supporters. Northumberland surrendered to Mary's forces. He and Jane Grey were imprisoned and later executed. Queen Mary was determined to restore Catholicism as the country's official religion. She pressured Elizabeth to convert. Elizabeth obediently attended one Mass, but complained the whole time of feeling ill. Because this and Elizabeth's popularity with the English people, Mary grew wary of her half sister. When Sir Thomas Wyatt led an uprising against Mary, the queen suspected that Elizabeth was involved. Elizabeth was taken to London and confined at Whitehall Palace.

Eventually, although no evidence against her could be found, she was sent to the Tower, where Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, Jane Grey and so many others had awaited execution. When Elizabeth saw that she was being brought into the Tower via the Traitor's Gate, she panicked and begged to be brought through some other gate. Told that she must enter this way, she cried, "O Lord, I never throught to come in here as a prisoner . . . I come in as no traitor but as true a woman to the Queen's Majesty as any as is now living; and thereon will I take my death." She sat down on the stairs and refused to move. When told that it wasn't healthy to sit in the rain, she replied tearfully, "It is better sitting here than in a worse place!" One of her servants started to sob and Elizabeth told him angrily that he shouldn't cry, saying, "I thank God that I know my truth to be such that no man can have cause to weep for me!" With that she continued into the Tower. Despite her very reasonable fears, she was released from the Tower two months later, on the eighteenth anniversary of her mother's death.

She remained a prisoner, however. In 1555 she was moved under heavy guard to Hampton Court, where the queen was staying. Mary refused to see her, but Mary's new husband Philip of Spain met with Elizabeth and fell under her spell. At his encouragement Mary finally reconciled with Elizabeth. The following years were fraught with peril for Elizabeth. Over 250 Protestants were burned at the stake during the reign of "Bloody Mary," and Elizabeth's failure to truly convert to the Catholic faith put her in constant danger, as did other people's conspiracies to overthrow Mary and place Elizabeth on the throne. Finally, on November 17, 1558, Mary died and Elizabeth's years of peril came to an end. She was now the queen of England. Gloriana Elizabeth's advisors urged the twenty-five-year old queen to quickly marry some foreign prince and produce heirs so that the throne would not pass to Henry VIII's great-niece, Mary Stuart, the queen of Scotland. Elizabeth stood by her early decision never to marry.

(One of the many proposals she rejected was from Mary's widower, Philip of Spain.) Elizabeth had a romantic nature, and may already have been in love her childhood friend, Robert Dudley, whom she later made the Earl of Leicester. Although Elizabeth was a hard-working monarch, like her father she had a great appetite for entertainment. She enjoyed archery, dancing, hunting, riding, and tennis. Whatever she did, Leicester was usually nearby. He was given a bedroom near hers, and rumors about the nature of their relationship were rampant. Leicester had a wife named Amy. In 1559, while Leicester was at court, Amy fell down the staircase of her country home, broke her neck, and died. She had been alone in the house at the time of her accident, and it was whispered that she had been murdered so that Elizabeth and Leicester could marry. But Elizabeth did not marry Leicester. Twenty years later he infuriated the queen by secretly marrying her cousin Lettice Knollys, but Elizabeth forgave him, and he remained her favorite until his death. Elizabeth made conservative Sir William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, her chief minister and relied on his advice for forty years.

Early in her reign she reformed English currency, encouraged foreign trade, and signed treaties with France and Scotland. She used her single state to her diplomatic advantage, often pretending to consider marriage to one foreign royal or another. Although she returned the Church of England to power, she showed tolerance toward Catholics at first. Despite Catholic conspiracies to overthrow her and place Mary Stuart on the English throne, Elizabeth hesitated to execute her fellow queen. Mary became Elizabeth's prisoner in 1568, but it was not until 1587 that Elizabeth, confronted with evidence of Mary's participation in the Babington Plot to assassinate Elizabeth, signed Mary's death warrant. By this time Elizabeth had become more brutal in suppressing Catholics, although she continued to believe, in her words, "There is only one Christ Jesus and one faith; the rest is a dispute about trifles." In 1588 Spain's King Philip II, Elizabeth's brother-in-law and one-time suitor, assembled a great fleet of ships, the Armada, and tried to invade England. The ensuing battle between the Spanish and English fleets lasted nine days. At last the English routed their enemy, and most of the fleeing Spanish ships were destroyed by a storm.

The defeat of the Armada was one of the greatest triumphs of Elizabeth's reign. Elizabeth was glorified by poets and artists as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. With the help of fine clothes, jewels and cosmetics, the vain queen maintained a glamorous image despite her advancing age. In her mid-fifties she fell in love with Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, son of Lettice Knollys. Essex was in his early twenties, good-looking, and extremely arrogant. Although he reigned as the queen's favorite for many years, he did not always show Elizabeth the deference she demanded. Once, when Elizabeth slapped him during an argument, Essex threatened to draw his sword on her. Elizabeth sent him to Ireland to quell a rebellion; while there, Essex ignored the queen's orders and pursued his own agenda. When he defied her by returning to England without permission, Elizabeth placed him under house arrest. After his release Essex attempted to lead an uprising against the queen, and the heartbroken Elizabeth had no choice but to sentence him to death. Essex was executed in 1601. Two years later Elizabeth became very ill.

Perhaps she did not want to live without Essex; when her doctors offered her medicine, she refused to take it. She died on March 24, 1603 at the age of 69. Elizabeth once told Parliament, "Though God has raised me high, yet this I account the glory of my crown, that I have reigned with your loves." She is regarded by many as the greatest monarch in English history. Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, returned England to Protestantism while still managing to secure order. She refused to marry or name her successor as marriage could have created foreign alliance difficulties or encouraged factionalism at home. Her rightful heir was her cousin, , who, threatened by rebellion in Scotland, fled to England. Imprisoned by Elizabeth in 1567, Mary plotted with English Roman Catholics and with Spain, France and the Pope. The threat to the English throne which this posed resulted in Mary's execution in 1587 and led to outright war with Spain. In 1588 , the 'Armada', was defeated.

There were two further Armadas in the 1590s, and an Irish revolt in 1595, assisted by Spain, which was eventually put down in 1601. The financial strains caused by the war against Spain (made worse by poor harvests) meant that Elizabeth did not try to put the Crown on a permanently solvent basis. In addition to sharp debates over revenue-raising measures such as monopolies, Parliament continued its pressure on the Queen to deal with the question of the succession. However, Elizabeth died in 1603 still refusing to name her successor. 1603 Death of Elizabeth On 24 March 1603, at Richmond Palace, Elizabeth I died. To the end, she had resolutely refused to name her heir. The administrators around her, however, were in no doubt as to her intended successor and James VI, King of Scots, was proclaimed as James I, King of England. 1584 Elizabeth and the Low Countries From 1584, Elizabeth played an active role in assisting the Protestant Dutch rebels of the Low Countries (modern Netherlands and Belgium) to oppose their monarch, Philip II of Spain.

A treaty of alliance with the Dutch, under William of Orange, had been signed as early as 1579, but it was not until 1584 that English troops were dispatched. In 1585, Elizabeth formally took the Netherlands under her protection (following the assassination in July 1584 of Protestant leader, William of Orange), ten years after she had refused an offer of full sovereignty. Beside the official English troops under leaders such as the Earl of Leicester, there were also a number of English, Irish and Scottish mercenaries who fought in the Dutch wars both on the Protestant side and the Catholic side (and when the situation merited, both sides!). Although Elizabeth was the last of the Tudor monarchs, she was occasionally under threat from dissident factions who sought to depose her and place an alternative monarch (usually, Mary, Queen of Scots), in her place.

In 1569, the Duke of Norfolk was imprisoned in the Tower for plotting to marry himself to Mary, Queen of Scots, and thus provide a strong Catholic phalanx within England; a month later, Durham was seized by the Catholic earls of Westmorland and Northumberland, thus giving substance to the idea of Catholic plotting; in September 1571, the Ridolfi plot - to depose Elizabeth, replace her with Mary and restore Catholicism - was revealed; in 1583, the Throckmorton plot (with similar aims but the backing of the King of Spain and the Duke of Guise) was exposed; and, in 1586, the Babington Plot, which ultimately led to the execution of Mary, was 'discovered' by Walsingham, only a matter of weeks after the Scots had signed the Treaty of Berwick. 1558 Accession of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), the Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn, acceded to the throne on Mary's death in 1558.

After she was crowned, her first task was to bring about a broad religious settlement, accepting those aspects of Protestant doctrine which were consistent with order, and rejecting those which were not. It was not until the 1580s that the Reformation gained general acceptance. Elizabeth did not condemn the contemporary stereotype of women as inferior to men - in 1558, John Knox (a Scottish minister) had published the wonderfully titled 'First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women' (Monstrous Regiment meaning unnatural rule) - but instead claimed that she was an exceptional woman, chosen by God as his instrument. Lesson VIII: Elizabeth I - The Real Tudors The Real Tudors Lesson VIII: Elizabeth I The Last Tudor Elizabeth was only a toddler when her mother was beheaded. After that, she went from being a pampered royal princess to being mostly ignored. Henry VIII never formally denied that he was her father, but she was still officially illegitimate. Her position was both awkward and uncertain for much of her childhood. Her situation improved a good deal when Edward VI took the throne. The siblings looked a lot alike, got along well, and were close in age, Elizabeth being only four years older.

She was welcomed at court, and obviously favored over her stubbornly Catholic sister, Mary. But scandal touched Elizabeth at a young age. While living with her stepmother, Catherine Parr, Catherine's husband Thomas Seymour began to show an interest in Elizabeth, who was then about fifteen. Seymour's only real interest was in power, but Elizabeth was flattered and seemed smitten with him. Catherine finally put an abrupt end to the flirtation by sending Elizabeth away, but not soon enough to prevent rumors from flying over the relationship. When Catherine died, it was commonly believed that Seymour intended to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth, however, may have already decided that marriage was not for her, and nothing came of whatever plans Seymour may have had. Marrying a member of the royal family -- even an illegitimate one, as Elizabeth then was -- without the sovereign's permission was treason. This put Elizabeth in a very awkward position that might easily have led to her own execution. She was interrogated quite harshly, but stood up bravely to her questioners and managed to clear her name. Eventually, Seymour was executed for his schemes to seize power, which were both unwise and poorly planned.

It is said that upon hearing of Seymour's death, she said, "This day died a man of much wit but very little judgement." Elizabeth would never be so careless with her reputation again. She was 25 when she took the throne, and immediately showed herself to be much more moderate and forgiving than her sister, though she never spoke against Mary. Her reign was long and sometimes very eventful. The English navy's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, for example, was utterly unexpected and was considered a miracle at the time, for until then Spain had been the acknowledged ruler of the seas. Phillip II of Spain, once her brother-in-law, had actually proposed marriage to her in 1559, which she flatly refused. In fact, despite her advisors urging her to marry, she refused all such proposals, with a combination of wit, diplomacy, and a little luck. Considering what had happened when Mary had married a Spaniard, a foreign ruler would not do for England, Elizabeth said, and since there were no Englishmen to match her rank, she could not marry at all.

Rumor had it that she had a close relationship with Robert Dudley, son of the infamous John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who had been executed for treason by Mary I for his involvement in placing Lady Jane on the throne. Robert had fought for Jane and barely escaped execution himself. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the same time that Elizabeth was held there, having fallen under suspicion of aiding a rebellion in protest of Mary's plans to marry Phillip of Spain. While Dudley was handsome and Elizabeth clearly enjoyed his company, there is no evidence that it was anything more than a flirtation. Still, she gave him many honors, including making him the first Earl of Leicester. She told her subjects that she was married to her country and her people, and would always put their welfare above all. This helped her inspire great loyalty in both nobles and commoners. Sir George Bowes, after fighting for the queen during an uprising in the north of England, had lost his crops and cattle, and had his house vandalized and looted.

"I have nothing but my horse, armor, and weapons," he wrote to Elizabeth, "which I more esteem than twenty times as much of other things, because thereby I am enabled to serve my good queen." And Elizabeth was equally fond of her subjects. She loved to go out on royal progresses, when she would travel around the country with her courtiers and be seen by the people, calling out her thanks and blessings to them as they cheered. In 1601, the last time she addressed Parliament in what is now called her Golden Speech, she said, "And though God has raised me high, this do I account the glory of my crown, that I have reigned with your loves." Like her father, she cared little for someone's birth, preferring to judge by skill, and often gave titles and lands to those who were good advisers and councilors to her. William Cecil, for example, was from a respectable though untitled family, but he showed such skill in handling Elizabeth's lands and estates when she was a girl that she made him her Privy Secretary (Secretary of State today) when she became queen, and later made him a baron.

Unlike her father, Elizabeth threw herself into the day to day business of ruling, often working late into the night. Thanks in large part to Catherine Parr, who had helped arrange Elizabeth's education, she was perhaps the best educated of the Tudor rulers, speaking six languages well and two or three others less fluently. She was proud of her ability to greet most ambassadors with at least a few sentences of their native languages. Perhaps remembering what had happened when her sister Mary was dying childless, Elizabeth always refused to name a successor, something which caused many problems. Her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, was the most obvious choice, as she was the granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Margaret. But England still had no love for Scotland, and as she was a Catholic, English Protestants in particular did not want her on the throne. Some English Catholics, however, believed that Elizabeth was illegitimate and that Mary should be Queen. Mary made several political mistakes, however, and the schemes of her nobles eventually forced her to flee Scotland, leaving the throne to her one-year-old son James VI. She went to England seeking safety but was not as welcome as she had expected, for her presence was a serious political embarrassment.

After years of imprisonment, she was finally executed for plotting against Elizabeth. Later, her son would become James I of England, beginning the Stuart line, but Elizabeth probably never did name a successor, despite claims that she had agreed to the choice of James on her deathbed. She was 69 when she died, after ruling for 44 years, the longest reigning Tudor monarch and the fifth longest reign for any English ruler up to that point. It may have been partly her own image that killed her -- she had a habit of wearing very pale makeup, which in those days would have contained lead, and it is possible this slowly poisoned her. But after her death, for the first time since Henry VII and Elizabeth of York welcomed their second son in 1491, England found itself with a young king on the throne who had two sons to ensure the succession. The country had come full circle. Elizabeth I Myths Contents | Citing | Sources | FAQ | Shop | About | Sponsor | Contact QUIZ: ELIZABETH I MYTHS By the time of her death in 1603, Queen Elizabeth had become a legend. Over the next four centuries, that legend grew as her reign receded further and further into history.

Many stories about this great Queen have been told, but not all of them are true. Some of them have been accepted as true for generations, some perhaps we would want to be true. Try and guess for yourself which legends are true and which are merely myth! Baby Elizabeth was so neglected by her father, the king, that she had to wear clothes that were too small.

Question: Which British monarch said of Thomas Seymour ‘This day died a man of much wit and very little judgement’?
Answer: Queen Elizabeth I