ELIZABETH I, daughter of Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn, against all odds became Queen of England. Her reign began in a very dangerous context. Courageous, cultured, politically talented and subtle, she was a Renaissance woman. While Europe was torn apart in religious and civil wars she created a peaceful, even a joyful (Merry England) and prosperous nation. She developed a national identity and made England a great country, by getting the English people’s adherence to the Anglican religion, by the victory over the Spanish Armada, by a new deal between the monarchy and the parliament open to rising classes, by the development of the marine for an audacious colonial enterprise.
© Alice Labrèque and Jean Routier, 2013