Queen Elizabeth

MP3 Audio CD. Queen Elizabeth

CHAPTER I

EARLY LIFE: 1533-1558


I have to deal, under strict limitations of space, with a long life,
almost the whole of its adult period passed in the exercise of
sovereignty--a life which is in effect the history of England during
forty-five years, abounding at the same time in personal interest, and
the subject, both in its public and private aspects, of fierce and
probably interminable controversies. Evidently a bird’s-eye view is all
that can be attempted: and the most important episodes alone can be
selected for consideration.

The daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn was born on September 6,
1533. Anne was niece of Thomas, third Duke of Norfolk, and all the great
Howard kinsmen attended at the baptism four days afterwards. Elizabeth
was two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded, and she
herself was declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. It is not
recorded that in after years she expressed any opinion about her mother
or ever mentioned her name. She never took any steps to get the Act of
attainder repealed; but perhaps she indirectly showed her belief in
Anne’s innocence by raising the son of Norris, her alleged paramour, to
the peerage, and by the great favour she always showed to his family.