Narrator: Queen Elizabeth the First was born in 1533. Her father, King Henry the Eighth, was disappointed that his second wife Anne Boleyn had not produced a son and he had Anne’s head cut off when Elizabeth was only two years old. Elizabeth received the same education that a son would have and studied classical and modern languages, history and religion. Narrator: When Henry died in 1547, Elizabeth’s younger brother Edward briefly became king, but on his death in 1553, her older sister Mary took over. Mary was a Catholic and wanted to bring England back into the Catholic faith after her father had broken with the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome. She tried to achieve this by force and had 300 Protestants burnt at the stake. When “Bloody Mary” died childless in 1558, Elizabeth became queen. Narrator: The first challenge Elizabeth faced was to bring the country together after the religious conflicts it had experienced during Mary’s rule. The Church of England that she set up occupied a middle ground between the Catholic and Protestant faiths and allowed some freedom in people’s personal beliefs as long as they attended church regularly. This saved England from further violence, although there were constant threats from both sides. Narrator: Elizabeth was very skilled at presenting an image. She had many pictures of herself painted wearing expensive clothes and jewelry as well as makeup to make her face look pale, sometimes showing herself as a goddess or other figure from classical myths. She traveled around the country regularly on horseback so she could see and be seen by her people, who were very loyal to her. Narrator: Elizabeth never married. Many men both at home and abroad wanted to marry her, but she played them off against each other. This meant she could avoid taking sides in various domestic and foreign political and religious conflicts, but it also meant that when she died, there would be no clear heir. She saw herself as married to the country...