Elizabeth

Elizabeth, name of 2 queens of England. Elizabeth I (1533–1603) was queen of England and Ireland (1558–1603) and the last Tudor monarch. A daughter of Henry VIII, who had broken with the Catholic Church to marry Anne Boleyn, her mother, her initial task as queen was to reestablish her supremacy over the English Church after the reign of her Catholic sister, Mary I. The defeat by her navy of the Spanish Armada (1588) established England as a major European power. At home, industry, agriculture, and the arts (especially literature) throve under conditions of relative peace and financial stability, and colonization of the New World was encouraged. The reign was plagued by the question of the Protestant succession as Elizabeth was unmarried and childless. After the execution of her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, a possible heir, Elizabeth finally acknowledged the succession of James VI of Scotland, Mary's son, thus securing the peaceful union of England and Scotland. Elizabeth II (1926– ) is queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1952) and head of the Commonwealth of Nations. One of the world's few remaining monarchs, she is extremely popular at home and abroad and has traveled extensively as her country's representative. She married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947 and has 4 children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward.