Advice to Elizabeth
In November 1558 the young Elizabeth became queen of England. Norman Jones looks at evidence from the state papers to show how those close to her viewed the challenges faced in the early days by Elizabethan England.
Mary Tudor, the last Catholic monarch of England, died early on the morning of November 17th, 1558, at St James’s Palace in London. Several miles away at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, her half-sister Elizabeth was expecting word of Mary’s death but she could not be sure of her passing until her own servant brought her the ring Philip II had given his wife, removed from the late queen’s finger.
As soon as Elizabeth was certain that she had inherited the kingdom, a carefully prepared succession plan swept into action.
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