Early life

Elizabeth was the only child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, who did not bear a male heir and was executed less than three years after Elizabeth's birth.

Elizabeth was born in Greenwich Palace in the Chamber of Virgins on Sunday 7 September 1533 between three and four o'clock in the afternoon, and was named after both her grandmothers, Elizabeth of York and Elizabeth Howard.^[6] She was the second child of Henry VIII of England to survive infancy born in wedlock; her mother was Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn. At birth, Elizabeth was the heiress presumptive to the throne of England. Her older half-sister, Mary, had lost her position as legitimate heir when Henry annulled his marriage to Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne.^[7][8] King Henry VIII had desperately wanted a legitimate son, to ensure the Tudor succession. Anne had been crowned with St. Edward's crown, unlike any other queen consort, while carrying Elizabeth. Historian Alice Hunt has suggested that this was done because Anne's pregnancy was visible at the moment of coronation and she was carrying an heir who was presumed to be male.^[9] Elizabeth was baptised on 10 September in a ceremony held at Greenwich Palace. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the Marquess of Exeter, Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, and Margaret Wotton, Marchioness of Dorset stood as her four godparents. After Elizabeth's birth, Queen Anne failed to provide a male heir. She suffered at least two miscarriages, one in 1534 and another at the beginning of 1536. On 2 May 1536, she was arrested and imprisoned. Hastily convicted on charges of adultery, incest and witchcraft, she was beheaded on 19 May 1536.^[10][11]
Elizabeth, who was two years and eight months old at the time, was declared illegitimate and deprived of the title of princess.^[12] Eleven days after Anne Boleyn's death, Henry married Jane Seymour,^[13] who died 12 days after the birth of their son, Prince Edward. Elizabeth was placed in Edward's household and carried the chrisom, or baptismal cloth, at his christening.^[14]

Elizabeth I, about 1546, by an unknown artist

Elizabeth's first Lady Mistress, Margaret, Lady Bryant, wrote that she was “as toward a child and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew any in my life”.^[15] By the autumn of 1537, Elizabeth was in the care of Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy who remained her Lady Mistress until her retirement in late 1545 or early 1546.^[16] Catherine Champernowne, better known by her later, married name of Catherine “Kat” Ashley, was appointed as Elizabeth's governess in 1537, and she remained Elizabeth’s friend until her death in 1565, when Blanche Parry succeeded her as Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber.^[17] She clearly made a good job of Elizabeth’s early education: by the time William Grindal became her tutor in 1544, Elizabeth could write English, Latin, and Italian. Under Grindal, a talented and skilful tutor, she also progressed in French and Greek.^[18] She is also reputed to have spoken Cornish.^[19] After Grindal died in 1548, Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham, a sympathetic teacher who believed that learning should be engaging.^[20] By the time her formal education ended in 1550, she was the best educated woman of her generation.^[21]