Elizabeth I

Mary, Queen of Scots. 14 December 1542.

Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, was six days old when her father died and she acceded to the throne. She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents. King Henry VIII of England took the opportunity of the regency to propose marriage between Mary and his own son and heir, Edward, hoping for a union of Scotland and England. On 1 July 1543, when Mary was six months old, the Treaty of Greenwich was signed, which promised that at the age of ten Mary would marry Edward and move to England, where Henry could control her movements. The treaty provided that the two countries would remain legally separate and that if the couple should fail to have children the temporary union would dissolve. However, Cardinal Beaton rose to power again ...

The Invincible Armada – September 15, 1588 AD

Philip II of Spain co-ruled England with his wife, Mary I, after the death of Mary’s half-brother, Edward VI, a Protestant. Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and a devout Roman Catholic. Philip and Mary ruled from 1553-1558, persecuting and burning at the stake Protestants and religious dissenters in the name of restoring Roman Catholicism in England, earning her the title “Bloody Mary”. Upon Mary’s death in 1558, Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was crowned Queen of England. Elizabeth had been imprisoned for almost a year under Mary’s reign, on suspicion of supporting the Protestant rebels. Upon ascending the throne, Elizabeth went about reversing the Roman Catholic spread under Philip and Mary, and established an English Protestant church wit...

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