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Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), ruler of England and Ireland, joins her father Henry VIII in being amongst the most well-known and influential rulers in all of British history. She was supposed to be the son that Henry wanted desperately enough to separate England from Rome and annul his 24 year marriage to his first wife. She ended up being the Queen who brought forth the Golden Age, defeated the Spanish Armada and cemented the Protestant reformation that her father started.

Elizabeth was born to King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn on September 7, 1533. Upon her birth Henry made her the heiress presumptive and proclaimed her older half-sister Mary a bastard. When Anne couldn't give Henry the son she promised him he grew tired of her and sought to get rid of her. Four months before Elizabeth's third birthday Anne was beheaded, Henry remarried and Elizabeth was no longer a Princess. When her younger brother Edward was born to Henry and his third wife Jane, Elizabeth was placed in his household.

Elizabeth was provided with excellent tutors and given a first rate education. She was able to write in French, Greek, English, Italian and Latin, and when her formal education was completed she was the most intelligent woman of the age. Her father would go on to marry three more wives. His sixth and last wife, Katherine Parr, was very close with Henry's children and managed to bring Mary and Elizabeth back into the king's favor. The Third Act of Succession before Henry VIII's death put Mary, then Elizabeth in line behind Edward for the throne, to be followed by his younger sister Mary's descendants. His older sister Margaret, which is where the succession would have naturally gone, was purposely left out because she had been married to the King of Scotland and Henry did not want Scotland in control of England.

Henry VIII died in 1447 when Elizabeth was 13 years old. Her younger brother became Edward VI, however as a boy of only 9 the country was ruled by a set of regents Henry had put in place. Elizabeth went to live in her stepmother Katherine's home. Katherine married Thomas Seymour after Henry's death and when it was suspected the Thomas was making sexual advances toward the young Elizabeth she was removed from Katherine's care and sent to live at Hatfield House.

When Edward VI died 4 years later in 1552 he had dismissed his father's Third Act of Succession and made his own plans. The country was still in the process of Protestant reform. While Elizabeth and

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