The Elizabethan Eras: The Lives and Legacies of England’s Two Most Famous Queens

Until the implementation of new legislation on March 26, 2015, men were given preference to women in the British royal line. This system of male primogeniture meant that women seldom inherited the throne, and even when they did, they were often dominated by male councillors. Those women who married British kings gained the title of Queen, but they were queen consorts, holding the title with no power. This meant only a select few women ruled in their own right.

When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, many commentators heralded the beginning of her reign as the second Elizabethan age. The first one, of course, concerned the reign of Henry VIII’s second surviving daughter and middle surviving child, Queen Elizabeth I, one of England’s most famous and influential rulers. It was an age when the arts, commerce and trade flourished. It was the epoch of gallantry and great, enduring literature. It was also an age of wars and military conflicts in which men were the primary drivers and women often were pawns.

Elizabeth I changed the rules of the game and indeed she herself was changed by the game. She was a female monarch of England, a kingdom that had unceremoniously broken with the Catholic Church, and the Vatican and the rest of Christendom was baying for her blood. She had had commercial and militaristic enemies galore. In the end, she helped change the entire structure of female leadership. 

Queen Elizabeth II has become so much a part of British society and culture that her presence is taken almost for granted, setting the standard people now expect of a British monarch. The longest lived and second longest reigning monarch in British history, Elizabeth II has overseen her country during a time of incredible turmoil and ever-accelerating change, providing a stable figure at the heart of a nation going through seemingly endless upheavals.