THE LIFE OF ELIZABETH I (part 1) | A dangerous childhood | Tudor Monarchs’ Series | History Calling

hi history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel where i bring you new videos every friday today on history calling we've reached the 10th video in my tutor monarch series you can access the rest through the link on screen and in the description box and first dealing with the life of elizabeth the first it'll cover her birth her education and what turned out to be a dangerous childhood and adolescence as she went from princess of england to illegitimate offspring of henry viii thanks to the fallout from the death of her mother anne belin you'll hear how she got along with her many stepmothers especially catherine parr and about her scandalous and very inappropriate relationship with her stepfather thomas seymour stay tuned to hear about his morning visits to her bedroom the evidence the 15 year old elizabeth gave when she was interrogated about their dealings with each other and how the actions of both were interpreted by contemporaries and modern commentators including rumors that elizabeth was pregnant by him [Music] [Music] elizabeth was born on the afternoon of the 7th of september 1533 at greenwich palace the daughter of henry vii and his second wife ann berlin henry and dan had had a tumultuous few years to get to this point as henry had abandoned his first wife catherine of aragon declared their daughter princess mary illegitimate and broken with the catholic church in rome in order to marry anne and hopefully produce the long four meal heir that he and catherine didn't have elizabeth's gender was therefore a disappointment and she was considered the illegitimate product of a bigamist union by most of catholic europe she was baptized at three days old in the church of the observant friars with thomas cranmer archbishop of canterbury the man who had married her parents and declared the arrogant marriage void standing as one of her godfathers such was the hostility against this little princess however that when one attendee was asked if she had been christened in hot or cold water he replied hot but not hot enough in december she was given her own home at hatfield house outside london with a lady mistress named margaret brown to care for her and under the overall watch of anne boleyn's aunt and uncle sir john and liddy shelton her parents visited her there and at eltham where she also sometimes lived and anne took great delight in spoiling her little girl with expensive clothes and bedding for her crib supposedly the crib you see here she was also joined by her older half-sister mary who was sent to hatfield as little more than a servant in order to punish her for refusing to acknowledge her own and her mother's new positions this treatment so the beginnings of a difficult relationship between the two girls which would come to a head during mary's reign but if you can't wait for me to get to that next week you can check out my videos on mary's life to learn some more about it now elizabeth remained in henry's favor during these early years when catherine of aragon died in january 1536 the toddler was paraded around the court by her father to emphasize that he was delighted at the death of his former wife and that elizabeth was his heir the tutors were never much good at playing happy families however at least not for long and it was no different for elizabeth at the end of january her mother miscarried what should have been her little brother and by the start of may henry had fallen for one of anne's ladies in wedding gian seymour and had had the queen arrested on trumped-up charges of adultery treason and even incest with her brother george both berlins along with several others accused with them were executed in the middle of the month and dying at the tar of london on the 19th the berlin marriage was annulled and elizabeth just like her sister before her was declared illegitimate on the 30th of may henry married jean incidentally if you'd like to learn more about henry's wives including his entire relationship with anne and how jane supplanted her in his affections check out my six wives of henry viii playlist i'll leave a link to that on screen and below with her mother disgraced and killed the child henry had flaunted to his court just months earlier was now somewhat forgotten about in august lady bryan wrote to the king's main minister thomas cromwell requesting clarity about how she should now refer to the ex-princess and asking for more clothing for the growing elizabeth now as my lady elizabeth is put from that degree she was in and what degree she is at now i know not but by hearsay i know not how to order her or myself or her women or grooms i beg you to be good lord to her and hers and that she may have raiment for she has neither gone nor cartel nor petty coat nor linen for smocks nor kerchiefs sleeves reels body stitches handkerchiefs mufflers nor vegans elizabeth was never raised full time in her mother's household and it's easy to play down the effect that anne's death had on a two-year-old who would be unable to remember her but the former queen would never have let her daughter want for clothing in this way and elizabeth's sartorial problems are a poignant demonstration of one of the many ways in which losing her mother affected her she noticed her change in position too asking why one day she was referred to as a princess and the next simply as lady elizabeth life had to go on though and the next prominent appearance she made on the royal stage was in october 1537 when the four-year-old attended the baptism of her new half-brother prince edward edward's arrival caused other losses however elizabeth's stepmother jane seymour died soon after the birth from childbed complications and lady brian was removed from elizabeth's household to attend on the new baby one of her replacements was a woman by the name of catherine chapernan better known as cat astley astley being her married name she would become one of elizabeth's great favorites the girl's education was soon underway and she turned out to be incredibly bright and able she shared some of her tutors with her brother they often lived in the same household sometimes with their sister mary too and these tutors taught her latin french italian and greek her handwriting though it would deteriorate in later life was initially in a beautiful italic script and most importantly of all for future events she was raised a protestant david starkey whose book on elizabeth's youth is linked in the description box has written that there is no evidence that she met anne of cleves during her brief tenure as queen of england though she did know henry's fifth wife and anne boleyn's cousin catherine howard catherine was apparently kind to the girl and inventories of the queen's jewelry show that she gave her stepdaughter some inexpensive items as gifts including a string of beads of all her would-be mothers however elizabeth was closest to wife number six catherine parr the 31 year old twice widowed catherine married henry in july 1543 in elizabeth and mary's presence and the following year by the 1544 act of succession both girls were restored to the succession after edward though neither was re-legitimized there's some debate amongst historians as to how much of a role catherine played in henry's decision to take this step but whether she was involved or not she was certainly a good stepmother who took an interest in elizabeth's well-being and accomplishments and who shared many of them too in july 1544 henry set seal to go campaigning in france and during august and september elizabeth stayed at court with catherine who was now acting as queen regent it gave the girl the opportunity to see effective female rule in action and we might wonder if she drew on these experiences when she eventually became queen herself she also absorbed many of catherine's religious beliefs and her new year's gift to her father for january 1546 was this triple translation into latin french and italian of catherine's own book prayers and meditations because she just happened to be the first woman to publish in england in english and under her own name the introductory letter elizabeth sent with it also provides an insight into her relationship with the king she hoped that she would be not just an imitator of his virtues but an inheritor of them these final years of henry's life were therefore a happy time for his second daughter with a loving if slightly distant father a good stepmother and a positive relationship with her brother and sister mary having now softened towards her since they had both been declared illegitimate and displaced by edward in the line of succession the next major upheaval in elizabeth's life wouldn't come until the 28th of january 1547 when the king died the 13 year old was told the news alongside her nine-year-old brother now edward vi at her house at enfield she was now second in line to the throne after her sister mary and one of the wealthiest and most powerful landed magnets in the land henry left her an annual income of three thousand pounds prior to any marriage she might contract and a slew of lands and houses as she was still too young to manage her own establishment however she soon went to live with her stepmother catherine parr it was a decision which would have severe repercussions for them both catherine parr had long harbored feelings for edward the sixth younger maternal uncle thomas seymour and she now had the opportunity to act on them seymour for his part was initially keen to wed either elizabeth or mary however henry's will forbade both for marrying without the consent of the new king's council this was now headed by seymour's older brother edward duke of somerset who had taken control of england and his nephew as lord protector of the realm and governor of the king's person there was no way thomas was going to be allowed to marry one of the heiresses to the throne thwarted in his initial plan he married queen catherine instead in april barely three months after henry's death this made him elizabeth's stepfather and what happened next would be the first major scandal of her life her servants were later interrogated about the relationship between the pair and gave details of how it had unfolded cat astley admitted that at the queen and seymour's house at chelsea he would come many mornings into the sad lady elizabeth's chamber before she were ready and sometimes before she did rise and if she were up he would bid her good morrow and ask how she did and strike her upon the back or on the buttocks familiarly and if she were in bed he would pull open the curtains and bid her good morrow and make as though he would come at her it didn't stop there on one occasion thomas tried to kiss elizabeth in her bed which cat astley reproved him for and bit him go away for shame at another house seymour police he appeared in elizabeth's room quote in his nightgown bare-legged in his slippers at hanworth in middlesex catherine parr bizarrely joined in coming into elizabeth's chamber with seymour in the morning and tickling her in her bed on another day at the same house seymour quote cut her going in a hundred pieces being black cloth when astley told elizabeth off she responded that she could not do with all for the queen held her while the lord admiral which was thomas's title cut it astley reprimanded seymour for his behavior too telling him it was an unseemly sight to come so bearlegged to a maiden's chamber and that elizabeth's reputation was being damaged but he responded angrily that he would tell his brother the lord protector how he was slandered and refused to amend his behavior claiming he meant no evil despite her earlier connivance and her husband's protests of innocence it seems catherine was becoming uneasy with the situation too she told astley that she had seen elizabeth with her arms around a man's neck something her stepdaughter tearfully denied as did her servants astley for her part suspected that the queen had invented the story out of jealousy in order to make astley keep a closer watch on her charge and we have to consider that if catherine had truly seen elizabeth with her arms around some strange man's neck she would have intervened herself right away elizabeth's reactions to the situation were mixed sometimes she would try to avoid thomas advances shrinking away from him in her bed or on at least one occasion when she heard him coming into her room running out of the bed to her maidens and then went behind the curtains of the bed the maidens being there when seymour tried to persuade her to come out she wouldn't budge yet at other times she appeared to have an adolescent crush on him and seemed to welcome his attentions for cat astley's husband noted that the lady elizabeth did bear some affection to my lord admiral she seemed to be well pleased there with and sometimes she would blush when he were spoken of the breaking point came when a heavily pregnant catherine walked in on her husband and stepdaughter in each other's arms seymour's protests held no sway with her now she and elizabeth had an awkward interview during which elizabeth by her own admission said very little and the teenager was sent away the next day this might read as harsh to us but realistically i think it was the best option available to catherine and it removed elizabeth from seymour's grasp which can only have been a good thing she and her stepmother continue to communicate on friendly terms but tragically catherine died in childbed a few months later in early september 1548. seymour was now free to pursue elizabeth more openly and there were rumors that he kept catherine's large household of ladies together so that they could wait on her once she was his wife now that he was no longer married kat astley was much more favorable to the idea of a match with the 15 year old but elizabeth give very non-committal responses to the idea when askley said there was talk in london that elizabeth and seymour would be married elizabeth brushed it off as but a london news in other words just gossip that signified nothing when thomas parry who was her cofferer meaning he managed her money for her asked if she would marry seymour she said that when that comes to pass i will do as god shall put in my mind she expressed doubts that the council would allow such a marriage however and as time would show she was wise to keep thomas at arm's length always seeking more power than he had seymour caused a major rift with his brother the protector when it became obvious he was trying to usurp his position and the duke of summerset had thomas arrested on the 17th of january 1549. it was at that point that several of elizabeth's servants were placed in the tar 2 resulting in the prisoner statements we've just been looking at which described seymour's dealings with elizabeth when she herself was interviewed at hatfield and told of their evidence against her she refused to admit anything beyond what they had already said which was embarrassing but not treasonous she also refused to scapegoat them though her interrogator robert tarwight said that if she would confess to wrongdoing it would be blamed on them and her youth taken into account he found it difficult to get anything out of elizabeth however and he had to admit to the lord protector in a letter did at the 23rd of january that all i have gotten yet is by gentle persuasion whereby i do begin to agree with her in credit furthermore elizabeth had a very good wit and nothing is gotten off her but by great policy one can't help but get the impression that he begrudgingly admired this clever and cunning teenager who was managing to evade his accusations of improper behavior so well try as he might he couldn't get her to admit more elizabeth and i went on the defensive on the 28th of january she wrote to the duke of somerset exonerating kat astley and saying that she had always told elizabeth not to marry within or beyond england without the council's consent furthermore she insisted that she would never do so anyway she swore that she was not lying for i know i have a soul to save as well as other folks have and finished the letter by saying that she had been told that there go with rumors abroad which be greatly both against my honor and honesty which above all other things i steam which be these that i am in the tar and with child by my lord admiral my lord these are shameful slanders for the witch besides the great desire i have to see the king's majesty i shall most heartily desire your lordship that i may come to the court after your first determination that i may show myself there as i am in other words she wanted to provide visual evidence that she wasn't pregnant somerset didn't bring her to london but in the end elizabeth won and her servants were released and restored to her if thomas seymour had had even half her brains he might not have met the end he did as it was he was executed on the 20th of march when elizabeth heard the news she remarked that today died a man of much wit and very little judgment from an outsider's point of view elizabeth had come through the whole ordeal with only some bruising to her reputation but what might we make of the sordid teal well given elizabeth's age the position of trust seymour held as her stepfather and above all the wildly inappropriate behavior he displayed towards her we would call her the victim of grooming and assault and we might wonder if part of her future ambivalence towards the whole idea of marriage was rooted in this experience which was likely psychologically scarring even if that concept didn't exist in the mid 16th century at the time however it wasn't the age difference seymour was a quarter of a century her senior or elizabeth's youth which sparked outrage she was actually old enough to be married by the standards of the day but the fact that he was married and was taking liberties with someone who wasn't his wife as we've seen as soon as catherine was dead even elizabeth's own servant kat astley suddenly looked much more favorably on him now that a marriage was on the cards this seems horrific to our eyes but it demonstrates the gulf between 16th and 21st century mindsets we would consider seymour a dangerous predator but contemporaries thought of him as merely an opportunist and elizabeth who was only aged 13 to 15 during this whole period of time was the subject of what we would now call victim blaming for what had happened after the storm of the seymour scandal elizabeth got back to life as normal at hatfield and her other homes for she moved around just as modern world he does and she now had her own independent household the remainder of edward's rein was a relatively peaceful time for her he and mary were increasingly at loggerheads over their religious differences see my videos on them for more details but as elizabeth was a protestant like her brother they experienced no such problems edward called her his sweet sister temperance and she spent christmas with him in 1549 without mary a year later however all three siblings met for christmas 1550 and edward and mary had an all-out ride over her commitment to catholicism and his to protestantism mary went home early but elizabeth stayed and was the leading lady at edwards court for the remainder of the festivities she visited him again in march 1552 and her warm relations with him continued unfortunately by the spring of 1553 the now 15 year old king's health was feeling he died most likely of tuberculosis at the beginning of july and with his passing a much more dangerous chapter in elizabeth's life began to hear all about the trials tribulations and close call with the scaffold elizabeth would have during mary's reign make sure you're subscribed with notifications switched on so you don't miss next week's video which will look at the nightmarish five years elizabeth had as heir to the throne for her sister in the meantime if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and let me know in the comments below what you make of seymour's treatment of elizabeth and of the responses of her stepmother servants and even herself to it if you'd like to learn more about her life there are also links in the description box to books movies and tv shows which will tell you all about her until next time keep learning

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Keywords: the life of Elizabeth I, a dangerous childhood, Tudor monarchs’ series, History Calling, Scandal of Elizabeth I, Elizabeth I scandal, King Edward VI and his sister, the early life of Elizabeth I, the young queen Elizabeth I, the birth of Elizabeth I, Childhood of Elizabeth I, Princess of England, the young Elizabeth I, the story of Elizabeth I, Elizabeth I childhood, Catherine Parr, Katherine Parr, Thomas Seymour, Henry and Elizabeth Tudor, Elizabeth I documentary, Tudors

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Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Fri May 28 2021