Queen Elizabeth I

My Last Words in These My Last Lines by Sir Walter Raleigh

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Sir Walter Raleigh A secret marriage with one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies, caused the disfavor of his queen. Their marriage appears from the outside as an amazing love story - Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton. Unchanged: A secret marriage with one of Queen Elizabeth's ladies, caused the disfavor of his queen. Their marriage appears from the outside as an amazing love story - Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth "Bess" Throckmorton. A love child, a secret [More]

The Unvirgin Queen

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Okay, okay, before you start throwing things at your screen hear me out a minute. For centuries, there have been rumors regarding Queen Elizabeth I of England (the Virgin Queen) having illegitimate children. These rumors began as early as 1549, when Elizabeth was just a teenager, during the reign of her brother King Edward VI. The After Effects of Henry VIII's Death At some point after the death of her father, Elizabeth moved in with her step-mother, Kateryn Parr at Chelsea [More]

Queen Elizabeth: Prospects & Marriage

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If you'd prefer to listen to the supplemental podcast that goes with this article you can find it here: She was the most eligible woman in all of England  - Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of the great King Henry VIII and his ill-fated second wife, Anne Boleyn. So I’ve been researching Thomas Seymour off and on for the last two years, but have really focused on him in the last year. To many of you I’ll sound like a broken record, but those who are new here: [More]

The Secret Lives of Elizabeth’s Ladies (Guest Post)

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Guest Post by Sarah Clement If the ladies of the Elizabethan court thought her accession would provide them with rare opportunities to involve themselves politically, they would be disappointed. Whereas, while male courtiers had traditionally found themselves at the centre of political life, it was now the ladies who controlled access to the monarch and naturally surrounded her. In theory, they could put across their opinions on the state of the realm, advise the Queen on [More]

Elizabeth, Queen of England (Part Two)

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Love this website and podcast and want to show your support? Become a Patron! In the last article of this series we ended with the death of Thomas Seymour in 1549, but before we move forward I’d like to step back a bit to get a bigger picture of what was to come in Elizabeth’s future.   Listen to Part One Here: Read Part One Here: Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England - Part One When King Henry VIII died on the 28th of January 1547, Elizabeth and her brot [More]

Queen Elizabeth’s Rotten Teeth

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Recently I read somewhere that Queen Elizabeth had horrible teeth. The reason her teeth were bad - Sugar! Early on in the Tudor England sugar wasn't as readily available, but during the reign of Elizabeth the importation of sugar from places like the West and East Indies, Morocco and Barbary led the way to the blackening of England nobility's formerly "pearly whites". When I first read about the Queen's teeth I heard that Elizabeth brushed her teeth with honey - yes, you [More]

Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester

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As the Queen's favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester had petitioned to be sent to the Netherlands to assist in protecting the Protestants in the country. King Philip of Spain had recently taken control of the country after the abdication of Charles V. King Philip was shocked at the number of Protestants in the country and how fast the movement was growing - he wished to stop the movement and return the Netherlands to Catholicism. As a Protestant herself Elizabeth [More]

Book Review: “The Heretic Heir” by G. Lawrence

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As a follow-up to "The Bastard Princess", author G. Lawrence out-does herself in the second book of the Elizabeth of England Chronicles - "The Heretic Heir". If you enjoyed the first book, "The Bastard Princess" you will definitely enjoy this book. The writing is superb and leaves you rooting for Elizabeth through the reign of her sister, Queen Mary I of England. As the sister of the queen, Elizabeth finds herself in trouble more than once throughout her years under the [More]

Elizabeth’s Ladies

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Let's take a look at the women who surrounded Queen Elizabeth and see what their lives were like. As we know already when you were a Lady-in-Waiting or Maid-of-Honour to the Queen that it meant she was responsible for you and your reputation. One would not dare marry without her consent, or be without virtue. As you'll see from this list there were a few of her ladies that stepped outside the rules and disobeyed their Queen. While this is by no means ALL of Elizabeth's [More]

Book Review: “Best Served Cold” by Martha D. Jones

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The Tudor Court, a vibrant testosterone-fuelled maze of manners, duty, politics and sex. To be a woman in such an environment requires guile, luck and loyal friends - a princess needs these even more. To her father she was a disappointment, a bastard, a whore, to her sister a threat and to her stepmother she was Beth. The girl who became Elizabeth I, the woman with the heart of a lion, her heart beat like a woman's nonetheless and her desires were no different. Martha D. [More]