From the Tower to the throne

In early 1554, a Protestant rebellion broke out against Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister, Queen Mary I. The rebels were crushed, and suspicion fell on Elizabeth, the obvious Protestant heir.

On 18 March she was taken by boat to the Tower of London, where her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been beheaded eighteen years earlier. According to the chronicler John Foxe, she refused at first to go in, sat down on the wet stones in the rain and declared that she came as a true subject, not a traitor.

She spent two months in the Tower and nearly a year under house arrest at Woodstock. Her interrogators never found proof that she had been involved. Elizabeth learned to say little, write carefully and trust almost no one, habits she kept for life.

On 17 November 1558, Mary died. Elizabeth, aged 25, was at Hatfield when the news came. She is said to have quoted a psalm in Latin: “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.” She would reign for 44 years.