The Birth of a New Era!

The past week has been rather lax. Maxing and relaxing. Chilling and willing. I have been getting some of my marks back, and I am doing better in school than I had ever done before. Something both puzzling and shocking, but I feel satisfied. Sigh. I feel like perhaps, I had found something that I am interested in. A new era has commenced.....and so did the Elizabethan era on this day 454 years ago in 1558.

Elizabeth was born on September 7,1533 to Henry VIII and his second wife, the Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, Elizabeth was not the desired boy that Henry VIII fought tooth and nail to divorce his aging wife, the formidable Catherine of Aragon, to conceive. But she was every bit a Tudor, and Henry's daughter. She was a red haired, fiery tempered, pompous and vain woman, exactly like Henry.

But like I said, she wasn't born with the desired appendage. After the execution of her mother when she was not quite three years ago, she fell out of favour and bastardized by her own father. Though, he still maintained that he loved his little princess, hard to believe but true enough. Henry almost immediately married the blonde, demure Jane Seymour after Anne's execution. Jane Seymour died of childbed fever after giving Henry the desired boy, Edward VI. 

Elizabeth and Mary both cared for their brother, but had some resentment between each other. The family didn't really reunite until Henry married his sixth wife, Catherine Parr and through her gentle guidance, Elizabeth and Mary were added to the line of succession should Edward die young. It would be Mary first, followed by Elizabeth.

Henry died in 1547, leaving Edward VI to take the throne at the tender age of nine. His council/Lord Protector effectively ruled the kingdom on behalf, and would do so until the age of majority. However, Edward VI died at the age of fifteen in 1553 and changed the line of succession to disbar his sisters and include his cousin Lady Jane Grey, a granddaughter of Henry's sister Mary. Jane was literally dragged kicking and screaming to the throne, as she did not want any part of it, but through the machinations of her greedy in-laws, the Dudleys, she was forced to claim the throne. Her "reign" lasted a total of nine days, when Mary triumphantly entered London and claimed the throne in her name and Elizabeth was at her side.

Much to the chagrin of Elizabeth, and Edwards fears founded, Mary attempted to turn the newly turned Protestant kingdom back to the old Catholic ways. She did in such a way, that earned her the unfair cognomen of Bloody Mary. A purported 300 heretics died from as a result of her religious edicts, but to be fair Henry and Elizabeth were no angels in this regard, it was almost de rigueur to root out heresy in one's kingdom. Mary became Queen in 1553, and after a series of phantom pregnancies and disappointing infertility, she did not reproduce an heir and died in 1558, declaring Elizabeth I, the Queen of England and one of the most well-known queens in history and thus beginning an era of the flourishing of art, literature, and science.