[Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, second queen-regnant of England, born 1533, crowned 1558, died 1603. As princess during the reign of her sister, Queen Mary, she was subjected to many perils on account of her devotion to Protestantism. Shortly after her accession to the throne she was declared illegitimate by the pope and the Catholic kings of Europe, and a claim of the English succession set up for Mary, Queen of Scots. Threatened on all sides, Queen Elizabeth bore herself with consummate skill and prudence, and even managed to make herself felt aggressively in continental affairs. The more striking events of her reign were the defeat of the great Spanish Armada, probably the most brilliant and complete sea-victory recorded in history, and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, her rival and captive. Queen Elizabeth’s reign shines as probably the most remarkable known for its intellectual flowering in every branch of human energy.] England’s one hope lay in the character of her queen. Elizabeth was now in her twenty-fifth year. Personally she had more than her mother’s beauty; her figure was commanding, her face long but queenly and intelligent, her eyes quick and fine. She had grown up amid the liberal culture of Henry’s court a bold horsewoman, a good shot, a graceful dancer, a skilled musician, and an accomplished scholar. She studied every morning the Greek Testament, and followed this by the tragedies of Sophocles or orations of Demosthenes, and could “rub up her rusty Greek” at need to bandy pedantry with a vice-chancellor. But she was far from being a mere pedant. The new literature which was springing up around her found constant welcome in her court. She spoke Italian and French as fluently as her mother-tongue. She was familiar with Ariosto and Tasso. Even amid the affectation and love of anagrams and puerilities which sullied her later years, she listened with delight to the “Faery Queen,” and found a smile for “Master Spenser” when he appeared in her presence. Her moral temper recalled in its strange contrasts the mixed blood within her veins.