Elizabeth I, one of England’s most famous monarchs, was brought up in complex and sometimes hard circumstances. Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth’s mother died when she was only two years old. Anne Boleyn was beheaded by order from her husband, because of questionable charges of adultery and conspiracy. Not long after that, Elizabeth and her older half-sister Mary were declared illegitimate. This helped Elizabeth’s father make a way for a male heir. Both Mary and Elizabeth were later reinstated as potential heirs. Their half-brother Edward was born in 1537 by Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife. Elizabeth was raised like any other royal child. She was tutored and was excellent …show more content…
She took on a number of problems that Mary had caused. The country was at war with France, also there was great tension between religious factions after Mary worked to restore England to Roman Catholicism by any means. She earned the nickname Bloody Mary after she order the execution of 300 Protestants as heretics. Elizabeth quickly addressed these two prominent issues. In the first session of Parliament in 1559, she called for the passage of the Act of Supremacy. This re-established the Church of England. She also called for the passage of the Act of Uniformity, which created a common prayer book. Elizabeth moderately approached the divisive religious conflict within her country. Surprisingly, Catholics did suffer some religious persecution and a few were executed under her reign. Elizabeth’s actions caused Pope Pius V to excommunicate her. With help from William Cecil, Elizabeth ended the war with France. Also she was able to avoid having a war with another superpower country, Spain, for much of her reign. In 1585, Elizabeth supported the Protestant rebellion against Spain in the Netherlands. Spain goes to war with England, but the English navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. Several reports state that the weather was the deciding factor in England’s