Selina A. Bower

Queen Elizabeth, who was the second daughter of King Henry VIII., was born at Greenwich on the 7th of September, 1533, in a tapestry-covered chamber in the palace. This tapestry represented the parable of the Ten Virgins, and the half-unconscious eyes of the royal infant often rested upon the hazy blue dresses of the quaint maidens with their odd little lamps, as the days of early babyhood went softly by.

The King had his young daughter very magnificently christened by Archbishop Cranmer. It was Archbishop Cranmer who drew up the Church Catechism, and who was some years afterwards a Christian martyr, in the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth's eldest sister.

Besides the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, Henry VIII. had one son, Edward, who succeeded his father as King of England.

When Elizabeth was between two and three years old, her mother, whose maiden name was Anne Boleyn, the daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and niece of the Duke of Norfolk, was put to death by the King's wish, in a most unjust and wicked way. The poor little child probably knew nothing of this, for she was sent to reside, under the care of Lady Margaret Bryan, in the manor of Hunsdon. She appears to have been greatly neglected, as presently a petition went from Lady Margaret to Court requesting that suitable dresses and apparel for Elizabeth might be sent at once; for, wrote Lady Margaret, "She had neither gown nor kirtle, nor no manner of linen, nor foresmocks, nor kerchiefs, nor sleeves, nor veils, nor mufflers, nor biggins;" a funny list of juvenile attire for a young Princess! However, the little girl was well cared for by Lady Margaret, and soon learned to read, to write, and to sew beautifully, and could play "indifferent well" upon some musical instruments.

In 1537, Elizabeth's brother Edward was born, King Henry having married again, and at the christening of this Prince, Elizabeth seems to have appeared at Court for the first time. The tiny Princess was allowed to hold the chrism on the occasion, and afterwards presented her baby brother with a "shirt of cambric," which her own small fingers had industriously embroidered.

In the course of a few years, Elizabeth had acquired a fair knowledge of astronomy and geography, besides mathematics and architecture; and could speak five languages fluently, as well as her own native English.

For some time the Princess Mary also resided at Hunsdon, and was evidently kind to her younger sister. The two girls, whose lives were to be so distinguished, but so different, probably spent together the happiest portion of those lives in the comparative seclusion of Lady Margaret's home, busy, and occupied also with domestic employments, as they stored their minds with the literature of the period.

At that time, Elizabeth's vanity, which was a sad trait in her latter years, was not perceptible, for in a sketch of her when about twelve, she is spoken of as dressing with peculiarly "simple elegance," and almost despising personal adornment.

Being tall, she was commanding in person, and she was impetuous in her bearing. Her complexion was pale, her hair rather light, her face long and narrow, with an aquiline nose; and though her temper was hasty, she was usually so bright and cheerful that her companions scarcely heeded her fits of passion. She was also sensible and shrewd, and when very young, showed a disposition to rule and govern.

The grave faults of her latter days, her vanity, her strong epithets of abuse, her caprice, and her increasing warmth of temper, were probably the results of the personal disappointments of her strange life. And perhaps her dread of death, points us to the real source of these faults, for it seems to indicate that Queen Elizabeth had not been so earnest in seeking God's grace, and the influence of His Holy Spirit, as she ought to have been, to preserve her from evil in this life, as well as to prepare her for the future life where there will be no evil, in the kingdom of the "King of kings and Lord of lords," the happy realm of Jesus.

Elizabeth was fourteen when her father died, and then she wrote a celebrated letter in choice Latin to her young half-brother Edward, with whom she was always on excellent terms.

The two children were Protestants, Mary alone remaining attached to the Papal power, which Henry VIII. had so unflinchingly put down during the latter part of his reign. Elizabeth's cherished and noble Protestantism remained firm through all the changes of her eventful life; and when, after the reigns of her brother Edward VI., and her elder sister Mary, she herself was placed upon the throne of England, she finally established the Protestant religion in the country; and to her, under God, we owe a deep debt of gratitude, for the long and happy years which have intervened until the present time, and during which God's most Holy Word has been left to us, a free and open book, in which we may each read and learn for ourselves His will, and about that spiritual service which He requires, and which alone can fit us for His presence, when He calls us from His world below to His world above.

Queen Elizabeth died on March 24th, 1603, before the morning dawned, after a reign of nearly forty-five years, at the age of sixty-nine.