In 1554, during the reign of her half-sister, Mary I, Elizabeth was accused of being involved in Wyatt’s Rebellion, a Protestant uprising against Mary’s marriage to Philip II of Spain. On Palm Sunday, the twenty-year-old princess was sent to the Tower of London.
Legend has it that she refused to enter through the “Traitors’ Gate” initially, protesting her innocence in the pouring rain. She spent two terrifying months in the Tower, where she was interrogated relentlessly. While many of Mary’s advisors pushed for Elizabeth’s execution, no definitive proof of treason was found, and she was eventually moved to house arrest at Woodstock.
Elizabeth’s fortune changed on November 17, 1558. Mary I died at St. James’s Palace after a period of ill health and a series of “false pregnancies.” According to popular tradition, Elizabeth was sitting under an oak tree at Hatfield House when she received the news of her sister’s death and her own accession.
Upon hearing she was Queen, she reportedly quoted the Psalms in Latin: “A Domino factum est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris” (“This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes”). Her coronation took place on January 15, 1559, marking the beginning of the Elizabethan Era, a 45-year reign that would see England transform into a world power.
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