69 Fun Facts About Elizabeth I

Who was Elizabeth I's mother?

Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII broke with Rome to marry her in hope of a son, yet before their daughter turned three he had her executed on charges of adultery and treason.

Elizabeth I shared her first name with both grandmothers; which one was the mother of Henry VIII?

Elizabeth of York. Her marriage to Henry VII joined the rival houses of York and Lancaster after the Wars of the Roses, so their granddaughter carried the blood of both sides.

Which wife of Henry VIII gave Elizabeth I a half-brother, the future Edward VI, and died days after the birth?

Jane Seymour. Henry married her eleven days after the execution of Elizabeth's mother, and the arrival of her son pushed Elizabeth, already declared illegitimate, still further from the throne.

Which governess, at Elizabeth I's side from early childhood, served as her chief gentlewoman until dying in 1565?

Kat Ashley. Sent to the Tower in 1549 over the Lord Admiral's pursuit of the princess, she was cleared of treason and back in Elizabeth's household within months.

At 12, Elizabeth I translated whose Prayers or Meditations into Italian, Latin and French as a gift for her father?

Catherine Parr's. Henry VIII's sixth wife had taken her stepchildren's schooling in hand, and her own small book of prayers sold so well that it ran through edition after edition.

Which Cambridge scholar, Elizabeth I's tutor in Greek and Latin from 1548, went on to serve as her Latin secretary?

Roger Ascham. He argued that pupils learn through gentleness rather than beatings, the case he made in The Scholemaster, and the queen kept up her Greek reading with him until he died.

Which stepfather engaged in romps with the teenage Elizabeth I, entering her bedroom in his nightgown?

Thomas Seymour. Once widowed, he schemed to marry Elizabeth and control the boy king, and was executed for treason in 1549; some historians think the episode put her off marriage.

How long did Lady Jane Grey reign before being deposed in favour of Mary in 1553?

Nine days. Edward VI's will had passed over his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth for their Protestant cousin, but the country rallied to Mary and even Jane's own father ended up proclaiming her queen.

After which 1554 rising was Elizabeth I imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity?

Wyatt's rebellion. The rebels marched on London to stop Mary's Spanish marriage and may have meant to crown Elizabeth, but two months of questioning turned up no proof that she had joined them.

Where did Elizabeth I spend almost a year under house arrest after her release from the Tower in May 1554?

Woodstock Palace. She was called back to court in 1555 to attend the birth of Mary's heir, but no child ever came, and Elizabeth was left next in line for the throne.

Where was Elizabeth I living when she learned she had become queen in November 1558?

Hatfield. She held her first council in the great hall there, and many of the household who had shared her years of waiting at the Hertfordshire house were given posts at the new court.

Which king, Mary I's widower, courted Elizabeth I?

Philip II of Spain. She turned him down early in 1559, and three decades later the rejected suitor sent the Armada to conquer her kingdom.

Which court astrologer and mathematician picked the day for Elizabeth I's coronation in January 1559?

John Dee. He judged the stars most favourable on 15 January, and in later life he spent years trying to talk with angels through a medium who may have been duping him.

Aboard which ship did Elizabeth I knight its captain in 1581, after his three-year voyage around the world?

Golden Hind. It had set out as the Pelican and was renamed mid-voyage after the golden deer on the coat of arms of the expedition's patron, the courtier Christopher Hatton.

What title did Elizabeth I take over the English church in 1559, in place of the one her father had used?

Supreme Governor. Many thought 'Supreme Head' unfit for a woman to bear, and the gentler wording also spared her the charge of claiming Christ's place at the head of the church.

What does Elizabeth I's Latin motto 'Video et taceo' mean?

I see and keep silent. She lived by it: for decades she refused to name an heir, reasoning that a known successor would become the centre of plots against her.

At which castle did Leicester entertain Elizabeth I for almost three weeks of pageants and fireworks in 1575?

Kenilworth Castle. It was the longest stay she ever made with a courtier, and he laid out a private garden for her in a last attempt to win her hand, yet she left unmarried.

How did Amy Dudley, wife of Elizabeth I's favourite, die in September 1560?

A fall down a flight of stairs. The inquest ruled it an accident, but talk that her husband had arranged it killed any chance of the queen marrying him.

Whom did Leicester marry in 1578, earning the lifelong hatred of Elizabeth I?

Lettice Knollys. She was the queen's own cousin, and Elizabeth banished her from court for good while the bridegroom kept his place at the royal side.

Elizabeth I's last serious suitor, 22 years her junior, was which youngest son of Catherine de' Medici?

Francis, Duke of Anjou. The match was so unpopular that a pamphleteer who attacked it in print, John Stubbs, had his right hand cut off for sedition.

What pet name did Elizabeth I give her last serious suitor, a prince half her age who courted her in person?

Her frog. He was the only foreign suitor to woo her face to face, and the nickname fitted a habit: Leicester was her 'eyes' and Christopher Hatton her 'mutton'.

Which Scandinavian king's proposal did Elizabeth I entertain for several years early in her reign?

Eric XIV of Sweden. She wrote, with every show of regret, telling him not to come, yet months later he was about to sail for England to woo her when his father died.

Which tsar wrote to Elizabeth I for years and asked her to promise him refuge in England if he lost his throne?

Ivan the Terrible. He grumbled that she cared more for trade than for a military alliance, and after sounding her out about marriage he tried for her kinswoman Mary Hastings instead.

In 1563 Elizabeth I told an envoy that, if she followed her own nature, she would rather be what?

A beggar-woman and single. 'Far rather than queen and married,' she told an envoy who had come to discuss a husband, in the year Parliament begged her to wed or name an heir and she did neither.

Before the 1601 rising against Elizabeth I, the plotters paid Shakespeare's company to stage which play about a deposed king?

Richard II. The actors took 40 shillings over their usual fee, were questioned and let off, and the queen is reported to have said months later, 'I am Richard II, know ye not that?'

Which 1560 agreement removed the French threat from Scotland after Elizabeth I aided Protestant rebels there?

The Treaty of Edinburgh. The French garrisons went home, but Mary, Queen of Scots, in whose name it was made, refused for years to ratify it, however hard England pressed her.

Whom did Elizabeth I propose as a husband for Mary, Queen of Scots in 1563, without asking either party?

Robert Dudley. Offering her own favourite was meant to give Mary a husband England could trust, but neither of the pair was keen and Mary chose Darnley instead.

How was Mary, Queen of Scots, long held captive in England, related to Elizabeth I?

Cousins. Mary was the granddaughter of Henry VIII's elder sister Margaret, which gave her a claim to the English throne and made her the focus of one Catholic plot after another.

Which pope's 1570 bull Regnans in Excelsis excommunicated Elizabeth I and released her subjects from allegiance?

Pius V. He had no means to enforce it, and the bull rebounded on the people it was meant to help: Parliament answered with harsher laws against English Catholics, now suspected of treason.

Who ran the secret service that uncovered the Catholic conspiracies against Elizabeth I?

Francis Walsingham. His double agents had Mary, Queen of Scots smuggle her coded letters out in beer barrels, so each one crossed his codebreaker's desk before it was delivered.

Which 1586 conspiracy provided the letters used to convict Mary, Queen of Scots?

The Babington Plot. Anthony Babington wrote to the captive Mary of a plan to free her and kill Elizabeth, and her coded reply approving it was the proof that sent her to trial.

Where was Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded on 8 February 1587?

Fotheringhay Castle. Elizabeth had signed the warrant a week earlier, and her councillors, meeting behind her back, sent it north at once before she could think again.

Which French port did Elizabeth I's troops occupy in 1562, hoping to swap it for Calais?

Le Havre. Her Huguenot allies made their peace with the French crown and then joined the Catholics to drive the English out, and England never got Calais back.

Which sea captain did Elizabeth I knight after his circumnavigation of the globe in 1577–80?

Francis Drake. To the fury of Spain's ambassador, who called him a pirate, the queen had him knighted on his own deck, having pocketed a fortune as her share of his plunder.

Which 1585 treaty, named for a palace, pledged Elizabeth I's troops to the Dutch rebels?

The Treaty of Nonsuch. It helped convince Spain's king that he had to invade England, and three years later he sent the Armada; the palace itself, Henry VIII's showpiece in Surrey, has long since vanished.

What post did Leicester accept from the Dutch States in 1586, enraging Elizabeth I?

Governor-General. Elizabeth took it for a Dutch ploy to make her their sovereign, and she had her letter of rebuke read out before the Dutch leaders while he stood by.

After fire ships drove the Spanish Armada from its anchorage at Calais in 1588, the decisive battle was fought off which port?

Gravelines. English guns battered the scattered fleet at close range, and the wind then carried the survivors north, forcing them home the long way round Scotland and Ireland.

Where did Elizabeth I address her troops in August 1588 in a silver breastplate?

Tilbury. 'I have the heart and stomach of a king,' she told them, though the danger had passed: the Armada had been beaten in the Channel over a week before and was already heading home.

How did the English Counter Armada that Elizabeth I sent to Spain in 1589 fare?

It was a catastrophic defeat. The fleet failed to destroy Spain's surviving warships, failed to take Lisbon and limped home ravaged by disease, throwing away the advantage won the year before.

English privateers seized a great treasure ship in 1592 that was carrying Asian spices home to which country?

Portugal. The Madre de Deus was packed with pepper, jewels and pearls, but when she docked at Dartmouth thieves stripped much of the cargo before order was restored.

Which favourite of Elizabeth I led the troops that sacked Cádiz in 1596?

Robert Devereux. The Earl of Essex came home a hero, at the height of his fortunes, yet the spectacular raid settled nothing in the long war with Spain.

Which Spanish-backed Irish rebel leader fought the Nine Years' War against Elizabeth I from 1593?

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Fostered by the English as a boy, he turned on them, and when he at last surrendered he was not told that the queen had died six days earlier.

At which town did the Spanish land in Ireland in 1601 and hold out for three months before surrendering?

Kinsale. The rebel army marched the length of Ireland in midwinter to relieve them, only to be routed outside the walls; the Spanish then gave up, and the rebellion never recovered.

Which territory in North America did Walter Raleigh claim and name, perhaps in honour of Elizabeth I?

Virginia. The name first covered the whole coast claimed for England, not just today's state, and the first colony planted there, on Roanoke Island, had vanished when ships returned in 1590.

Which company did Elizabeth I charter on 31 December 1600 with a monopoly on English trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope?

The East India Company. London merchants wanted to break their rivals' grip on the spice trade; the company they founded ended up ruling much of India with a private army of its own.

With which Muslim empire did Elizabeth I discuss joint military action against Spain?

The Ottoman Empire. England sent its first ambassador to Sultan Murad III and sold him tin and lead for casting cannon.

With which North African state did Elizabeth I trade arms and timber for sugar, in defiance of a papal ban?

Morocco. In 1600 its ambassador came to London to propose a joint attack on Spain, but the talks led nowhere and both rulers died before anything came of it.

Which illness nearly killed Elizabeth I in 1562, alarming Parliament into pressing her to marry or name an heir?

Smallpox. She recovered, but the disease is said to have left the scars and bald patches that she hid for the rest of her life under white make-up and a wardrobe of wigs.

What did a French ambassador report in 1597 made the ageing Elizabeth I hard to understand when she spoke quickly?

Her missing teeth. She had a notoriously sweet tooth and sugar had ruined them, yet the same envoy found her tall, graceful and dignified in everything she did.

Under what name did Edmund Spenser celebrate Elizabeth I as the queen of his poem The Faerie Queene?

Gloriana. The poem won Spenser a pension of £50 a year for life, a rare reward from a queen who gave little to poets, and after the Armada the name clung to Elizabeth herself.

Roderigo Lopes, Elizabeth I's physician of Jewish descent, executed in 1594, is said by some to have inspired which Shakespeare character?

Shylock. Lopes was convicted of plotting to poison the queen, who seems to have doubted it: she held back his death warrant for three months, and The Merchant of Venice followed within four years.

By what name is Elizabeth I's 1601 address to the Commons, which calmed their anger over monopolies, remembered?

The Golden Speech. Facing fury at the monopolies she had granted to courtiers, she promised to end the abuses and told the members that the glory of her crown was to have reigned with their loves.

What was the fate of Elizabeth I's favourite Essex after he tried to raise London in rebellion in February 1601?

Beheading. He had counted on London rising with him and almost no one came, and the queen who had forgiven him so much let the sentence be carried out within three weeks.

Which word did the dying Elizabeth I tell Robert Cecil 'is not a word to use to princes'?

Must. He had told her she must go to bed after she had sat motionless on cushions for hours; she called him 'little man' and said his father would never have dared.

Where did Elizabeth I die on 24 March 1603?

Richmond Palace. A month later her coffin, topped with a painted effigy, was drawn through London past crowds whose weeping, a chronicler wrote, was like nothing in living memory.

Elizabeth I's last portraits showed her how?

Forever young. Court painters copied the idealised face the miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard gave her, known as the Mask of Youth, so on canvas the queen stayed ageless while she herself reached her late sixties.

Which relative succeeded Elizabeth I on the throne?

James VI of Scotland. He was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, whom Elizabeth had sent to the block, and her own chief minister had been secretly coaching him by letter on how to please her.

In 1606 Elizabeth I's coffin was moved to lie on top of whose, under one monument in Westminster Abbey?

Her half-sister Mary I's. The monument bears only Elizabeth's effigy; the Catholic queen who once sent her to the Tower is recalled in a line of Latin calling the sisters partners in throne and grave.

Elizabeth I was the last monarch of which royal house?

Tudor. Her grandfather Henry VII won the crown in battle at Bosworth, and the line he founded ended with her because she never married and left no child.

Pope Sixtus V marvelled that Elizabeth I, feared by Spain and France, was 'only a woman, only mistress of' what?

Half an island was his phrase for England, which shared Britain with Scotland, yet Sixtus V, who had promised money for Spain's Armada, said she made herself feared 'by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all'.

In Francis Bacon's phrase, Elizabeth I had no wish to do what to her subjects?

Make windows into men's hearts and secret thoughts was Bacon's full phrase for prying into private belief: so long as her subjects behaved and conformed to her 1559 church settlement, she left their consciences alone.

How did the mid-20th-century historians Neale and Rowse interpret Elizabeth I's reign?

A golden age of progress was the verdict of Neale in 1934 and Rowse in 1950, who idealised the queen herself; later historians have drawn a more complicated picture.

What was Walter Raleigh's verdict on how Elizabeth I fought the war with Spain?

She did all by halves, Raleigh wrote after her death: her petty invasions 'taught the Spaniard how to defend himself', when trusting her men of war over her scribes could have beaten Spain's empire in pieces.

At which palace was Elizabeth born on 7 September 1533?

Greenwich Palace was also the birthplace of her father, Henry VIII; it fell into disrepair during the Civil War and was later demolished, and a naval hospital rose on its site.

By an 18th-century tradition, Elizabeth I asked Shakespeare for which play showing Falstaff in love?

The Merry Wives of Windsor is said to have been written at her command after she enjoyed Falstaff in Henry IV, but the story first surfaced a century later and scholars doubt it.

Which two earls led the 1569 Catholic rising that aimed to free Mary, Queen of Scots?

Northumberland and Westmorland, the great Catholic earls of the north, occupied Durham and had Mass celebrated in its cathedral, but they retreated as the queen's army advanced and the rising collapsed within weeks.

Which two famous sea captains both died on a disastrous 1595 expedition to the Caribbean?

Drake and Hawkins never came home from the failed raid: Drake, dying off Panama, is said to have asked to be dressed in his armour, and was buried at sea, reputedly in a lead coffin.

Which actress played the queen in the 1998 film Elizabeth, earning an Oscar nomination?

Cate Blanchett lost that Best Actress race, yet an Elizabeth I still won on the night: Judi Dench took Best Supporting Actress for playing the older queen in Shakespeare in Love.

In the Armada Portrait, painted to mark the 1588 victory over Spain, what does Elizabeth I's hand rest on?

A globe lies under her fingers, which cover the Americas to signal England's ambitions overseas, while behind her the Spanish ships founder in stormy seas.