ELISABETH I / QUEEN OF ENGLAND

As we’re going to see the film ELISABETH I starring Cate Blanchet, Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen, I would like to write a short summary about this important Queen of England. Here is the link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meCoQ2u_oV0

Elisabeth I was born in 1533 and was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn As Elisabeth’s mother was executed approximately two and a half year after her birth, Elisabeth was declared illegitimate. Despite this she became queen after her half-sister Mary I,  during whose reign she had been imprisoned, because of supporting protestant rebels.

Although she had many suitors, among them Henry II of Spain, she managed to remain unmarried and was sometimes called the Virgin Queen. Elisabeth feared that the French planned to invade England and put Mary, Queen of Scots, who many considered to be the heir to the English crown, on the throne. Mary made some mistakes. First she married Lord Darnley, who also claimed the English throne and who became unpopular in Scotland.  After Darnley’s murder Mary married Bothwell, who was one of the conspirators of Darnely’s murder. In this way she aroused suspicions of having been party to the murder of her late husband. After Sir Francis Drake had destroyed the Spanish fleet of war ships in Cadiz, Henry II decided to take war to England at last.

On 12 July 1588 the Spanish Armada, set sail for the channel, planning to invade England. A combination of errors, misfortune and an attack of English fire ships, dispersed the Spanish ships and defeated the Armada. The shattered remnants of the big fleet had to return home to Spain.

Here a link to an exercise about Elisabeth and her surrounding which you can correct online: http://www.langedi49.ch/QUEENELISABETHI.htm

These words are in connection with the above mentioned film.

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