How did Elizabeth ‘become’ Elizabeth I?



What made Elizabeth the woman and queen she was?
I’ll be exploring the events and influences that shaped Elizabeth in her youth and pre-accession years.

Register for my Elizabeth I event at https://claireridgway.com/events/elizabeth-i-the-life-of-gloriana-the-virgin-queen-online-event-7-16-september-2022/

source

26 thoughts on “How did Elizabeth ‘become’ Elizabeth I?”

  1. I think not having a mother from such a young age shaped Elizabeth,my mother died when I was 5yrs of age and it affected my whole childhood in so many ways.
    I grew up telling myself a mum means safety and bad thing’s don’t happen to children with mum’s (I know it’s not true) not having a mother’s love really does affect you in so many ways and I don’t think being a queen would be any different

    Reply
  2. I’d have to say that her father’s neglect paired with what her sister put her through and basically anyone who looked down on her for being Anne Boleyn’s daughter. She had her dad’s determination and drive to prove something. She knew it would take being courageous to survive all of that

    Reply
  3. Life just wasn’t cutting this poor girl a break. When she spoke about her sister, she probably was saying “it was really complicated. My sister wanted to kill me and then she didn’t. It was both a relief and really weird”

    Reply
  4. The fact that these individuals caused the horrendous suffering and death of hundreds of men, women and children… ie: burning and by other forms of execution totally negates them as human beings….. they cannot be re- habilitated…..if they had lived and done this today they would be decried as the worst criminals and calls for them to be tried in a court of law and given the death sentence…. and that sentence actually be carried out. They and their actions are indefensible….. it's akin to offering support to a child abuser by saying ' but they were good to their mother'…….end of……😢

    Reply
  5. Hi Claire, Nice to seeing you again doing what you love so much. I enjoyed this video about Queen Elizabeth I, very much. But, I do not think Elizabeth I, was never ever a man! I don't understand Bram Stoker's stupid book! I just think Bram Stoker just wanted to sell his book, and he was hoping for a lot of books to sell. Just like some tabloid
    Newspapers who wanted to sell lies!!!

    Reply
  6. My partner's eyes glaze over when he hears me watching your videos–not because he's not passionate about history. It's more because his mind is overflowing with history from all eras (and everything else he's interested in, like computers and geography and politics and chess and crypto currency and ADHD and the list goes on. Did I mention cats?) that he has trouble focusing the way I do. See why I say King Henry had a type? It matches my own preference!

    Reply
  7. Claire, I think you missed 2 quite important points. 1. Elizabeth and her faith under the reign of Mary: under pressure to attend the mass with Mary Elizabeth at first went ahead with it and showed compliance, yet later tried to wriggle out of it saying she was unwell. It showed her as willing to save herself and not be a martyr, yet her true religious feelings were strong enough to want to avoid attending catholic mass. 2. Elizabeth and Wyatt's rebellion, how much she was involved: later, when her councillors were pestering her with naming her successor which she was reluctant to do and chose the same avoidance tactic, she said openly, in the presence of a lot of her men, along the lines of "If I were less honourable person, I would now name those of you present here who were plotting against my sister to put me on the throne" – and this argument was to show that having a successor, i.e. competitor/alternative to a ruling monarch as she was to Mary, is always dangerous for the ruling one. As she was seen as danger by Mary, so she will see her successor, if named now during her life, as a "winding sheet", i.e. a threat, if not death. But in this phrase she also showed that she was fully aware of what exactly was going on during Wyatt's rebellion. She was clever enough during the rebellion not to put any communication with conspirators in writing.That, and the fact that the rebels loyal to her didn't betray her during their torture, that's what saved her. I was trying to find the book where I read this, to see the source it quotes for these instances but couldn't.

    Reply

Leave a Comment