Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.
The Darnley Portrait, c. 1575
Elizabeth's parents, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Anne was executed within three years of Elizabeth's birth.
A rare portrait of a teenage Elizabeth prior to her accession, attributed to William Scrots. It was painted for her father in c. 1546.
Elizabeth's guardian Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, may have sexually abused her.
The House of Tudor was an English and Welsh dynasty that held the throne of England from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd, a Welsh noble family, and Catherine of Valois. The Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and the Lordship of Ireland for 118 years with five monarchs: Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. The Tudors succeeded the House of Plantagenet as rulers of the Kingdom of England, and were succeeded by the Scottish House of Stuart. The first Tudor monarch, Henry VII, descended through his mother from the House of Beaufort, a legitimised branch of the English royal House of Lancaster, a cadet house of the Plantagenets. The Tudor family rose to power and started the Tudor period in the wake of the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), which left the main House of Lancaster extinct in the male line.
King Henry VII, the founder of the royal house of Tudor
Catherine of Aragon: the Church of England annulled her marriage after she failed to produce a male heir to the Tudor dynasty
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, Henry VIII's chief minister responsible for the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Henry VIII of England: Henry's quarrels with the Pope led to the creation of the Church of England
