Elizabeth ruled England for forty-five years as “The Virgin Queen,” hailed as “Good Queen Bess” and “Gloriana.”
In spite of having numerous suitors, and her grand passion for Robert Dudley, she never married.
Anne Boleyn’s daughter, “the princess who should have been a prince,” became the greatest monarch England has ever known, surpassing the deeds of even her own great father. She turned England into a power to be reckoned with, defeated Philip’s bid to conquer and enslave England with his Spanish Armada, and ushered in a golden age of prosperity that gave the world such immortal talents as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
She never lost her people’s love or loyalty and died peacefully in her bed in 1603 at the age of seventy.
Mary and Elizabeth both lie splendidly entombed in marble in Westminster Abbey under the epitaph:
CONSORTS IN BOTH THRONE AND GRAVE, HERE REST WE TWO SISTERS, ELIZABETH AND MARY, IN THE HOPE OF ONE RESURRECTION.