In nearly forty-five years, only nine peerage dignities, one earldom and seven baronies in the Peerage of England, and one barony in the Peerage of Ireland, were created. She granted Royal Charters to several famous organisations, including Trinity College, Dublin (its official name is the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Elizabeth near Dublin) in 1592 and the British East India Company (1600). Like her father Henry VIII, she was a writer and poet. This last quality, viewed with impatience by her counsellors, often saved her from political and marital misalliances. A favourite motto for her was video et taceo ('I see and keep silent'). Elizabeth was a short-tempered and sometimes indecisive ruler. Playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson all flourished during this era Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circumnavigate (travel around) the globe Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views and English colonisation of North America took place under Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. She reigned for 45 years, during a period marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide and great religious turmoil within England.Įlizabeth's reign is referred to as the Elizabethan era or the Golden Age of Elizabeth. Elizabeth I was the sixth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty ( Henry VII, Henry VIII, her half-brother Edward VI, her cousin Jane, and her half-sister Mary I).

She is sometimes referred to as The Virgin Queen, as she never married, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, and was immortalized by Edmund Spenser as the Faerie Queene. King James I, also known as King James VI of ScotlandĮlizabeth I ( 7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England, Queen of France ( in name only), and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death.

Puritan Wife by Elizabeth De Guise