Drottning elizabeth 1 biography
Doing homework with my son and prepping him for a test in Swedish history this week, and that prompted this post. So, you may ask (or not), what place does Swedish history in a blog claiming to be about English medieval and renaissance history?
Ah! None of us exist in a vacuum, and neither did for example the Tudor monarchs. The subject of my son´s test is the House of Vasa, and the subject of this post is one of the more determined of Elizabeth´s suitors, the oldest son of Gustav Vasa, Erik, upon his father´s death to be crowned Erik XIV.
He was born in December 1533, in other words just a few months after the Queen whose refusal he would have quite a hard time to accept. The first proposal would come while she was still “just” a princess, and his envoy caused somewhat of a stir by breaching court protocol as he approached Princess Elizabeth before Queen Mary. Apparently Mary thought that an alliance between England and Sweden was not an altogether bad idea and sent a messenger to her sister to find out what she herself thought about, becoming – as that was what was on the table at the moment – the Queen of Sweden, but as we all know, Elizabeth´s response was that she had no wish to marry at all.
Erik was not one to be easily put off. His proposals was to become a recurring feature in Elizabeth´s life for a number of years. The second portrait of Erik in this post is most likely the one he sent to Elizabeth to persuade her to marry him, in any event it spent considerable time in England, and wasn´t returned to Sweden until the 20th century and can now be seen at Gripsholm Castle some miles outside Stockholm.
He was presumably assisted in his goal to marry Elizabeth by his own sister Cecilia Vasa, who early on started a correspondence with the English Queen, and seems to have formed a genuine friendship, to the extent where she expressed a desire to stay unmarried and join the English court instead, as a Lady-in-waiting of Elizabeth. Cecilia did however ge Queen of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952 Not to be confused with Elizabeth II.Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Elizabeth the Queen Mother (disambiguation) and The Queen Mother (disambiguation). Portrait by Richard Stone, 1986 King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle George VI Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) became Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was also the last Empress of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved on 15 August 1947. After her husband died, she was officially known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter Queen Elizabeth II. Born into a family of British nobility, Elizabeth came to prominence in 1923 when she married Prince Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance. In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpect After Henry VIII’s death in 1547, Elizabeth went to live with her stepmother, Katherine Parr, leading to a near-disaster. In 1547, Katherine Parr, Elizabeth's stepmother, married Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral and King Edward's younger Seymour uncle. Thomas was vain, handsome, ambitious and extremely jealous of his elder brother's power as Lord Protector to the young king. Thomas’s marriage to Katherine brought him into close contact with Elizabeth who was blossoming into an attractive young woman. He began making advances towards the princess and the ensuing scandal thrust Elizabeth abruptly into the harsh adult world. When Katherine died in 1548, shortly after giving birth, Seymour decided he could further his political ambitions by marrying Elizabeth and seizing control of the King. He was arrested in January 1549 and executed for treason by his brother, the Lord Protector, in March 1549. Elizabeth was interrogated about her part in the plans but skillfully denied the charges of treason and was eventually exonerated. Elizabeth's self-possession helped her survive the scandal and she demonstrated a remarkable maturity for a 15-year-old. The very public nature of the scandal made her acutely aware of the importance of protecting her sexual reputation. This brush with the accusation of treason was not to be her last. The collections at Royal Museums Greenwich offer a world-class resource for researching maritime history, astronomy and time. Find out how you can use our collections for researchQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Tenure 11 December 1936 – 6 February 1952 Coronation 12 May 1937 Tenure 11 December 1936 – 15 August 1947 Born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon
(1900-08-04)4 August 1900
Hitchin or London, EnglandDied 30 March 2002(2002-03-30) (aged 101)
Royal Lodge, Windsor, Berkshire, EnglandBurial 9 April 2002 Spouse Issue Noble family Bowes-Lyon Father Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne Mother Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck Signature Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain's Queen
One element that I appreciated about this book (and consequently likely not appreciated by the royals), is that it was not an official biography authorized by the royal family. This allows the author significant leeway to be more frank and divulge insight that otherwise might have been omitted from the text. For example, there is a long discussion about the Queen Mother's difficulty in combating jealousy when her daughter ascended the throne: "Apart from her grief at the loss of her husband, the Queen Mother could not help feeling jealous of her daughter, who had suddenly become the focus of all the attention and the possessor of all the power that had recently been her" (170). There wasn't even a hint of such a difficult adjustment in the Queen Mother's official biography written by William Shawcross, likely because the author in that instance was constrained by the fact that the royal family would review the manuscript before publication. Likewise, Bradford relates her opinion with sometimes brutal honesty, such as describing the Queen's daughter Princess Anne as having "rather horse-faced looks" (341). I appreciated the candor and felt that this was a deeper insight into the royal family than other accounts I have read.
At times, the author segued into spending large amounts of time discussing Elizabeth's close relatives rather than closely following her. While of course her uncle's abdication from the throne and later her famous daughter-in-law's Diana's public divorce from her son were key points in her life, they seemed to consume sections of this book, leaving Elizabeth very much in the shadows. Furtherm Young Elizabeth and the Seymour scandal
The Seymour scandal
Accused of treason
Using our collections for research