better place, where friendships were happy.

On February 11 Jane watched from a window as her husband walked to Tower

Hill to be executed; later she saw his headless body being brought back to

the Tower, at which she cried, "Oh Guildford! Guildford! Oh, the bitterness

of death!"

About an hour later, Jane too made the walk to Tower Hill. On the scaffold

she knelt and recited the 51st Psalm, then blindfolded herself and asked

the executioner to kill her quickly. Unable to find the block, she

exclaimed, "What shall I do? Where is it?" A bystander helped her to the

block. She put her head on it and said, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my

spirit." The executioner killer her with one blow and held up her head,

saying, "So perish all the queen's enemies! Behold the head of a traitor!"

MARY I

From Princess to bastard

"Bloody Mary" Tudor was born on February 18, 1516. She was the only

surviving child of King Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Henry

doted on Princess Mary when she was little, calling her "the greatest pearl

in the kingdom." The princess received an excellent education, and was

carefully sheltered.

In 1522 Henry arranged Mary's betrothal to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Charles was an adult, and Mary was just six years old; the marriage would

take place when she was twelve. Mary had met Charles and liked the idea of

marrying him. But in 1525 Charles broke off the engagement so that he could

marry Princess Isabella of Portugal. That same year Henry sent Princess

Mary to live in Wales, as was traditional for the king's heir.

The year 1527 started off well for Princess Mary. She returned to live at

her father's court and celebrated her engagement to a son of the king of

France. But Henry VIII's attitude toward Mary and her mother had started to

change. He had decided that God disapproved of his marriage to Catherine;

why else had the queen failed to produce healthy male children? And he was

in love with the woman who was to become his second wife: Anne Boleyn.

Soon Mary learned that Henry wanted to annul his marriage to her mother.

For this, the king needed the pope's permission. While he waited, he

continued to treat Catherine as his queen and Mary as his heir. But Mary's

legitimacy was now in doubt, making her less valuable on the marriage

market. The French engagement was broken off and no other match was

arranged for her, although her father's advisors considered marrying her to

King Henry's illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. (Fitzroy married someone

else. He died young and without heirs.)

Henry grew increasingly angry with Catherine for resisting his attempt to

end their marriage. Finally, in 1531, he sent Catherine away from court.

After being shuffled between various castles and palaces, the queen ended

up a prisoner at Kimbolton Castle, near Huntingdon. Realizing that the pope

would never grant his divorce, Henry split from the Catholic church,

established the Church of England, had his marriage declared invalid, and

married Anne Boleyn. Anne gave birth to a daughter, Princess Elizabeth, in

1533.

Mary was now officially a bastard, called "the lady Mary," but, like her

mother, she refused to accept her change in status. Henry was infuriated by

his daughter's defiance and threatened to have her executed if she did not

stop referring to herself as a princess. When Mary was eighteen, her

household was disbanded and she was sent to live in Princess Elizabeth's

household, where she was treated badly. Henry refused to see her, but he

was not completely indifferent to Mary. Once, glimpsing her at a window, he

nodded and touched his hat politely.

Catherine and Mary were not permitted to visit each other, and Catherine

died in 1536 without seeing her daughter again. Now Mary was alone. Four

months after Catherine's death, however, Mary's greatest enemy toppled from

power when Anne Boleyn was arrested on false charges of adultery and

executed. Anne had hated Mary and stated that she wanted her dead. With

Anne gone, Henry treated his eldest daughter somewhat more kindly. His

third, fourth, and sixth wives were all well-disposed toward Mary. (She got

along less well with his teenaged fifth wife, Katherine Howard.) Although

she never regained her former status or her father's affection, she was

once again part of the royal family.

At first she got along well with the king's other children. As Elizabeth

and Edward grew up, however, up their Protestant views put them at odds

with Mary, who never swayed from her devout Catholicism. After Henry's

death in 1547, Mary's nine-year-old half-brother became King Edward VI. As

king, Edward scolded and bullied Mary about her beliefs. On his deathbed he

disinherited her in favor of their teenaged cousin Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey did not want to be queen, but that didn't stop her father

and his supporters from trying to seize the throne for her after King

Edward's death in 1553. Few people supported "Queen Jane," however. In the

end even Jane's ambitious father abandoned her, and Mary was proclaimed

queen. After a lifetime of sorrow and danger, the 37-year-old Mary Tudor

was now the most powerful person in England.

The unhappy Queen

Soon after her accession, Mary began considering the possibility of

marrying Prince Philip of Spain, the son of her former fiancй, Emperor

Charles V. It worried her that Philip was 11 years her junior because he

was "likely to be disposed to be amorous, and such is not my desire, not at

my time of life, and never having harbored thoughts of love." With

difficulty the emperor's envoy convinced her that Philip was a stable,

mature adult who would help protect her kingdom.

Mary's subjects were alarmed to learn of her engagement to the Spanish

prince, fearing that England would become part of Spain. The queen,

however, had no intention of turning the country over to Philip. He arrived

in England on July 20, 1554, and met Mary for the first time on July 23.

Mary liked Philip from the start, and he treated her kindly, although he

probably found her unattractive. (The men who had accompanied him to

England later described Mary as old, badly dressed, and almost toothless.)

The wedding took place two days later. Two months later, Mary's doctors

told her that she was pregnant.

In December a law was passed that allowed bishops of the Church of England

to convict heretics and sentence them to death by burning. Almost 300

people were burned alive during Mary's reign with Mary's full approval,

earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary."

By the summer of 1555 it became obvious that Mary was no longer pregnant,

if she had ever been. Mary was bitterly disappointed. Philip left England

that August, promising Mary that he would soon return. Mary missed him

desperately. Philip didn't return to England until March of 1557. During

his absence he had become the king of Spain. After a few months in England

he left to go to war; Mary never saw him again. She became depressed and

paranoid. Tortured by loneliness and unhappiness, Queen Mary fell ill. She

died on November 17, 1558 and was succeeded by her half-sister, Queen

Elizabeth I.

ELISABETH I

The unwanted Princess

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.

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 behaviour, 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

supposedly 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, "Oh 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.

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 rumours 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

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