Queen Elizabeth I was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, who ruled England between 1558 and 1603. The daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth became Queen aged 25, at a time of political crisis. The 'Virgin Queen' never married, but instead pledged her body to England itself.
Elizabeth’s path to the throne was by no means smooth. After her mother was executed at the Tower of London, the young Princess was declared illegitimate. The reigns of her brother, Edward VI and her older sister Mary I, saw England beset by religious conflict and impoverished by war.
Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and held under house arrest at Hampton Court Palace, on suspicion of plotting against Mary: this was a Tudor dynasty at war with itself. What would happen next?

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