Perhaps I am not a lion – but I am the daughter of a lion, and I have a lion’s heart.
These are the words of Queen Elizabeth, i daughter of King Henry VIII, and queen of England from 1558 to 1603.
Elizabeth’s father wanted a son very badly. He married six times, ad hi had a son, Edward, but Edward died in 1553. After that, Henry’s other daughter, Mary, was queen for a few years, and then it was her sister’s turn. Elizabeth I, aged 25, became a great queen.
In 1558. England was in a bad state. People were hungry, and France and Spain wanted to control England. Elizabeth had a good education and was very good at languages. This helped her when she talked to the ambassadors from other countries.
She was a very clever woman. She made good decisions, and made England a great country. Her perod as queed is called ‘The Elizabeth age’. It was a great time gor adventure and for literature – Sir Francis Drake sailed around world, and Shakespeare wrote many famous plays and became one of the great writers in history.
Elizabeth never married. When she died in 1603, her cousin James VI of Scotland became king. The next Queen Elizabeth became queen in 1953-350 years later.