Explanation Elizabeth I was born at Greenwich Palace on September 7, 1533. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn the second of his six wives. Before Elizabeth reached her third birthday her mother was beheaded on charges of adultery and treason. King Henry paid little attention to her and moved Elizabeth to a house in the country. However, Elizabeth was raised much like any other royal child. She received tutoring and excelled at languages and music. After her father's death in 1547, Elizabeth spent some time under the care of her stepmother Catherine Parr. Parr hired tutors on Elizabeth's behalf, including William Grindal and Roger Ascham. She began to show signs of remarkable intelligence from a young age, helping her future …show more content…
While Elizabeth was still very young, her father killed her mother. Her childhood was always filled with court intrigue, danger, and risk. Although these events somewhat traumatized the Princess, they also moulded her into a strong, independent personality, thus helping her with her future and her choices as a ruler. However, after Ann's death Elizabeth was marginalized for a long time, sent to one of the unimportant royal properties, where she received hardly any new clothes at all. This deprivation as a child may also explain Elizabeth's adult obsession with fine clothing and jewellery, as well as her fiscal prudence. She also became close to William Cecil, an English statesman whom became the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign then twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572. …show more content…
But in the final years of her reign, she became very unpredictable and, in this sense, dangerous. Many theories have been forwarded for this behaviour. One is that she put so much white ‘paint’ onto her face, that she suffered from lead poisoning to the brain and this hindered her ability to think rationally. Certainly, her death in 1603 was not greeted with nationwide mourning. Her subjects were sorry but the ‘spark’ that had existed in the earlier years of her reign had gone. However, the 45 years of her reign are considered by some to be an era of