Elizabeth I Became Queen of England
On this day · 17 November 1558
When her half-sister died one grey November morning in 1558, a 25-year-old half-prisoner suddenly became one of England's most consequential monarchs.
On 17 November 1558, Queen Mary I died and her half-sister Elizabeth Tudor became Queen of England. The new monarch was just 25 and had spent years under suspicion, even briefly imprisoned in the Tower during Mary’s reign. According to tradition she received the news at Hatfield in Hertfordshire, with the future statesman William Cecil at her side.
Elizabeth’s team moved fast. Within three days the old regime was dismantled and a new government installed, with the bloated Privy Council cut sharply from around fifty members to roughly nineteen. The speed signalled a reign that would prize control and careful counsel.
Mary died on 17 November 1558 and Elizabeth became Queen.
Her 45-year reign, lasting until 1603, came to be seen as a golden age of English power and culture. The Church of England took shape under the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, the navy famously repelled the Spanish Armada in 1588, and writers such as Shakespeare flourished. Accession Day, 17 November, was celebrated as a national holiday for some two hundred years.
Sources & references
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