Elizabeth I was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Although she entertained many marriage proposals and flirted incessantly, she never married or had children. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, died at seventy years of age after a very successful forty-four year reign.

Elizabeth inherited a tattered realm: dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society; the royal treasury had been bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary's loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many (mainly Catholics) doubted Elizabeth's claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to the problems - France had a strong footland in Scotland, and Spain, the strongest western nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of the realm. Elizabeth proved most calm and calculating (even though she had a horrendous temper) in her political acumen, employing capable and distinguished men to carrying out royal prerogative.

Her first order of business was to eliminate religious unrest. Elizabeth lacked the fanaticism of her siblings, Edward VI favored Protestant radicalism, Mary I, conservative Catholicism, which enabled her to devise a compromise that,basically, reinstated Henrician reforms. She was, however, compelled to take a stronger Protestant stance for two reasons: the machinations of Mary Queen of Scots and persecution of continental Protestants by the two strongholds of Orthodox Catholicism, Spain and France. The situation with Mary Queen of Scots was most vexing to Elizabeth. Mary, in Elizabeth's custody beginning in 1568 (for her own protection from radical Protestants and disgruntled Scots), gained the loyalty of Catholic factions and instituted several-failed assassination/overthrow plots against her cousin, Elizabeth. After irrefutable evidence of Mary's involvement in such plots came to light, Elizabeth sadly succumbed to the pressure from her advisors and had the Scottish princess executed in 1587.

The persecution of continental Protestants forced Elizabeth into war, a situation which she desperately tried to avoid. She sent an army to aid French Huguenots (Calvinists who had settled in France) after a 1572 massacre wherein over three thousand Huguenots lost their lives. She sent further assistance to Protestant factions on the continent and in Scotland following the emergence of radical Catholic groups and assisted Belgium in their bid to gain independence from Spain. The situation came to head after Elizabeth rejected a marriage proposal from Philip II of Spain; the indignant Spanish King, incensed by English piracy and forays in New World exploration, sent his much-feared Armada to raid England. However, the English won the naval battle handily, due as much to bad weather as to English naval prowess. England emerged as the world's strongest naval power, setting the stage for later English imperial designs.

Elizabeth was a master of political science. She inherited her father's supremacist view of the monarchy, but showed great wisdom by refusing to directly antagonize Parliament. She acquired undying devotion from her advisement council, who were constantly perplexed by her habit of waiting to the last minute to make decisions. She used the varying factions (instead of being used by them, as were her siblings), playing one off another until the exhausted combatants came to her for resolution of their grievances. Few English monarchs enjoyed such political power, while still maintaining the devotion of the whole of English society.

Elizabeth's reign was during one of the more constructive periods in English history. Literature bloomed through the works of Spenser, Marlowe and Shakespeare. Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh were instrumental in expanding English influence in the New World. Elizabeth's religious compromise laid many fears to rest. Fashion and education came to the fore because of Elizabeth's penchant for knowledge, courtly behavior and extravagant dress. Good Queen Bess, as she came to called, maintained a regal air until the day she died; a quote, from a letter by Paul Hentzen, reveals the aging queen's regal nature: "Next came the Queen in the sixty-fifth year of her age, as we were told, very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small yet black and pleasant; her nose a little hooked; her lips narrow... she had in her ear two pearls, with very rich drops... her air was stately; her manner of speaking mild and obliging." This regal figure surely had her faults, but the last Tudor excelled at rising to challenges and emerging victorious.

1561 Queen Elizabeth hammered silver three half penny(1 1/2 pence)

Pheon mint mark - 2nd issue

1567 Queen Elizabeth hammered silver 3 pence

Coronet mint mark - 3rd issue

1592-5 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver shilling (12 pence) Sixth issue Tun mintmark (exposed ear type)

31.21mm, 6.64g

Sixth issue Marlett mint mark - rarer large bust with pearls on bodice type

1560-1 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver shilling (12 pence) Martlett mintmark 2nd issue - 5.31g, 31.80mm

1561-5 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver shilling (12 pence) 3rd issue Pheon mintmark

31.21mm, 2.24g, 0.44mm T

1560-1 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver shilling (12 pence)

Sixth issue Marlett mint mark - rarer large bust with pearls on bodice type

As daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary's life was radically disrupted when Henry divorced Catherine to marry Anne Boleyn. He claimed that the marriage was incestuous and illegal, as Catherine had been married to his dead brother, Arthur. The Pope disagreed; in 1534, Henry broke with Rome and established the Church of England.

Henry's allegations of incest effectively bastardised Mary. After Anne Boleyn bore Henry another daughter, Elizabeth, she forbade Mary any access to her parents and stripped her of her title of princess. Mary never saw her mother again.

However, in time Anne also fell out of favour. Henry offered to pardon Mary if she would admit the illegality of his marriage to her mother. Reluctantly, she agreed and Henry rewarded her with a household suitable to her position. In 1544, although still considered illegitimate, she was granted succession to the throne after Edward.

Edward VI succeeded his father in 1547 and, under the protectorate of the Duke of Northumberland, zealously promoted Protestantism. Mary, however, was an equally devout Catholic. When it became clear that Edward was dying, Northumberland made plans for his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, to take the throne in Mary's place.

Upon Edward's death in 1553, Lady Jane Grey was briefly acclaimed queen. The country disagreed. Within days Mary made a triumphal entry into London. Once queen, she was determined to re-impose Catholicism and marry Philip II of Spain V. Neither was popular: Philip was foreign and distrusted and many in England had a vested interest in the Protestant church, having received church lands and money after Henry dissolved the monasteries.

In 1554 Mary crushed a rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt. Making the most of her advantage, she married Philip, restored Catholicism and revived the laws against heresy. Over the next three years, some 300 Protestants burned at the stake, earning her the nickname 'Bloody Mary'. Blamed personally for the slaughter, she and Philip grew increasingly hated. An unsuccessful war lost Calais, England's last toehold in France. Childless, sick and depressed, Mary died in November 1558. Her hopes for a Catholic England died with her.