My lifetime study of history has taught me many things, and one thing I hold on tight to in my life: there has never been a true victory over the human spirit. It wins out even over death. Elizabeth Tudor - despite her many human failings - will forever remain 'hero' in my mind because her life story is a perfect example of how the human spirit can prevail over almost impossible odds.
The story of Elizabeth's early years is not a new one. But in our present times we should comfort ourselves with good, inspirational stories, and the best stories are those illuminating our history as if lit within by the sun. Thus, here I turn to the past, where I light my candle of faith to the future.
Elizabeth's journey to the throne was indeed one that could have defeated a lesser spirit. Unwanted daughter. Mother executed by her father before Elizabeth is three. Neglected and forgotten while her father sires his prince on his new Queen.
Elizabeth's parental neglect forced her governess to write to Cromwell, the King's Secretary, after her charge had outgrown all her old clothes,
"I have driven it off the best I can that by troth I can drive it off no longer; beseeching you, my Lord, that ye will see that her Grace hath that which is needful of her." (i)
But it didn't end there. Not long after this, Elizabeth was made a bastard. She asked at three,
"How haps it, Governor, yesterday my Lady Princess and today but my Lady Elizabeth?" (ii)
A bright child such as this probably couldn't escape from the knowledge that some claimed her as a bastard of a whore. Others went even further and called her the daughter of a whore and witch. Until she was ten, and her father's marriage with Catherine Parr, her life was marked with a constant change of stepmothers. Watching her father's relationships with the women in his life probably taught her many things. One hard lesson she learnt at eight: what her father professed to love one day he could simply destroy the next. What damage it did to her, to be aware that her nineteen-year-old cousin, the fifth wife of the King, was executed by her father's command, we can only guess. But it's not surprising that Elizabeth said, not long after Katherine Howard's execution, 'I shall never marry. '
Elizabeth's relationship with her father had its share of grim moments. At twelve, Elizabeth said or did something that displeased the King, so much so he banished her from his presence for a year. Perhaps she simply lifted her gaze and he saw her mother's eyes. Even so, only three months after her thirteenth birthday, her father's death still hit her hard. Henry VIII was not much of a father, but he was the King, and a strong one at that. His death left her to face her teenage years not only without a father's protection but also a King's.
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