The Other Elizabeth
Emulating her godmother, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart captured hearts and minds as Europe burned.
In August 1596 Queen Anna of Denmark provided her two-year-old son Henry with a sister. The proud father, King James VI of Scotland, immediately roped the bairn into his grand strategy to win himself the crown of England. He named her after the ageing English queen, Elizabeth I, who became the child’s godmother. James’ machinations bore fruit and he was crowned James I of England in 1603. But this was no time for his daughter to abandon her identification with the late queen. To make the succession appear all the more natural, the child’s appearance was not-so-subtly adjusted – her hairline plucked, for example – creating a striking resemblance to her godmother.
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