Abstract
Declared illegitimate at the age of three, judged for treason at the age of twenty-one but crowned queen when twenty-five, it is in 1558 that the City of London recognized Elizabeth Tudor, Henry VIII's second child and sister to Edward VI and Mary I, as Elizabeth I, the true monarch of England. Elizabeth was a true child of the Renaissance. She spoke several foreign languages and knew Greek and Latin. She could play musical instruments, such as the virginal, and she was also fond of parties and all forms of pageantry. It was under her reign that flourished the greatest poets and playwrights, namely Edmund Spenser and his 'Faerie Queen', an honour to Elizabeth, Christopher Marlowe and his 'Doctor Faustus' and of course William Shakespeare and his numerous plays and poems. In 1558, the most urgent problem was the issue of religion. She regarded religion as a branch of politics and behaved in accordance to what was expedient. If Elizabeth declared herself a Protestant, it was not that obvious. Numerous plots were attempted against her and her 'heretic religion'.
