The year is 1554. The place: London, England. The scene: a beautiful young woman, red-haired and fiery is dragged into the Tower of London. She angrily denies wrong-doing, for a time defying the armed men around her and refusing to go further. She is not a traitor, she declares. She is loyal to her half-sister Mary, the Queen of England, and played no part in the recent plot to overthrow her. She is eloquent and compelling, as always, but the guards orders leave them no discretion. Eventually she is forced inside and locked away to await her fate.
The young woman was Princess Elizabeth, second child of Henry VIII and, at the time, first in line of succession for the throne. Far from providing her any protection, her position put her in great danger. The Queen, and the Queen’s advisors, saw her as a threat and potential rival. Things must have looked bleak to the young woman, sitting in her cell. She was only 21, but she lived in an age of violence, where justice was arbitrary and political. She knew what she faced. She had been under 3 when her own mother, Ann Bolyn, was beheaded, essentially for the crime of giving birth to Elizabeth rather than the son her father wanted. Though she’d been too young to understand at the time, Elizabeth had grown up with the knowledge of it; grown up understanding that life was very cheap.
It must have seemed very unfair. She’d worked so hard, impressing every tutor she ever had with her quick mind and limitless appetite for knowledge. All her tutors agreed that she was their brightest pupil. Already, she spoke seven languages and understood the political, economic, and military situation in Europe better than all but a few statesmen. She had big ideas for her country.
And all for nothing it must have seemed. Try to put yourself in her shoes, pacing her chambers, looking out on the city she could no longer visit, wondering when the Guards would come for her as they come for her mother. Picture her in your mind, her light eyes distant, wondering at her fate.
. . .
For more, listen to the Podcast episode and check out my book, History Stories for Everyone, where I dive deeper into this and some of history’s other most fascinating and relatable human stories:
