‘I’m a royal expert – this is the best King or Queen Britain’s had’ | Royal | News

The question of who is the ‘best’ monarch is never going to be one which can be comprehensively answered. It entirely boils down to personal preference.

If you judge success on military achievements, then it’s likely that William I or Henry V will sit high on your list. However, if you measure a King or Queen’s legacy on general notoriety or religious advancements, Henry VIII has likely captured your interest. And, equally, if bravery in the face of immense challenges is the hallmark of a great King or Queen in your eyes, George VI would rank near the top after he was thrust into the spotlight as a wartime leader after the scandalous abdication of his elder brother.

But in terms of overall greatness, when everything is balanced? There is only one name that rises to the top.

Born with no certain expectation of the crown, Queen Elizabeth I has gone down in history for many reasons, whether it is her longevity, the fact that she refused to marry, the role she played in the defeat of the Spanish Armada or how she ordered the execution of some of the days most influential figures.

As the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, it was clear to Elizabeth from very early on that women were viewed as inferior, weak and entirely disposable – her own mother lost her head at the Tower of London when Elizabeth was two years old.

So, how did this fiery-haired young princess go from being excluded from the line of succession by her own father to being a successful wartime leader in a time when women had very little to no power?

In short, the answer is she was highly intelligent, flaunted her femininity when it suited her and used her diplomatic power to manipulate and enthral in equal measure.

Despite facing pressure to find a husband, the Virgin Queen found that remaining unmarried was her most useful weapon, particularly when playing the rivals France and Spain against each other. She would declare: “I will have but one mistress here, and no master”, much to the chagrin of her ministers.

With many suitors vying for her hand, Elizabeth skillfully kept negotiations going for months, even years, as long as it was to her and England’s advantage. She echoed the sentiments of the time that women were subservient to men and would describe herself as a ‘prince’ who led her people with just as much authority as her formidable father had done.

Take a speech she made to troops – dressed in a white gown and silver breastplate – in 1588 before the Spanish Armada sailed into the English Channel: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.”

But in the same breath, this skilled diplomat also knew when it was in her best interest to call upon her feminine sensibilities or ‘weaknesses’, as she saw them.

When under intense pressure to sign the death warrant of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, she told a delegation that “my sex doth not permit it.” Her feminine traits had enabled her to stand out in a world dominated by men – and to dominate these men in turn.

There’s no point in pretending that she didn’t have her less popular traits, though, as she famously had around 800 people executed during her reign – be it seeing them hanged, drawn and quartered or burned at the stake.

But at a time when it was truly kill or be killed, she had already seen her mother accused of adultery and incest, then beheaded. Her father then married four more women in the next eight years, and she was nearly executed twice herself, by her own sister, so who can blame her for doing all she could to protect herself from any threat?

So, after the Tudor dynasty had been in power for 118 years since Henry VII triumphed over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, it all came to an end when Elizabeth I died in 1603 after 44 years on the throne.

Her legacy is immeasurable as she made the country fall in love with the idea of having a Queen, something that was only further ingrained after her successor, James I, largely alienated his English subjects.

She achieved military greatness, established an English church that helped to shape national identity, and supported the arts at a time when William Shakespeare was just beginning his glorious career.

She had grown up with an understanding of emotional toughness that was essential to her own survival and used it to her own advantage – allowing her not just to survive, but thrive.