ORANGE Textbook - Revolution, Industry, and Empire:

• On 7 September 1533, Princess Elizabeth Tudor was born.
• Elizabeth was two years old when her mother was executed.

  She never lived with her father who had four wives after Anne, but was sent to live with her half-sister Mary. The girls had three houses: Hatfield and Eltham, near London, and Hunsdon House in Hertfordshire.
• By the time Elizabeth was sixteen, she could speak five languages - English, French, Italian, Greek and Latin.
• Elizabeth was 13 in 1547 when her father died and her younger half-brother, Edward, became king (aged 9). Although she was quite close to Edward, many people suspected she might be plotting against him during his short reign (he died aged 15 in 1553). However, nothing could ever be proved against her.

  When her older half-sister, Mary, became queen in 1553, Elizabeth was again suspected of plotting against the monarch - and again nothing could be proved.

  Five years later, in 1558, Elizabeth received word that her sister Queen Mary, was dead. Aged 25 Elizabeth was now Queen of England.
• When Elizabeth's brother (Edward VI) was king, England became a strict Protestant country. When he died, his half-sister Mary, who was a strict Catholic, became queen. England became a Catholic country once more under Mary - and she was very harsh on any Protestants who refused to become Catholics.
• Elizabeth was a Protestant - and she decided to return the country to Protestant faith once more.

  Elizabeth was deeply religious, but wanted to avoid some of the extreme events that had happened during the reign of her Protestant half-brother Edward and her Catholic half-sister Mary.

  Her ideas were known as her Religious Settlement. It is also known as her 'middle way' - in other words, it was a course of action that avoided being totally Catholic or totally Protestant.
• Did the 'middle way' work?

  Although it pleased many people, extremists on both sides were left deeply unhappy by Elizabeth's ideas. Very strict Protestants, known as Puritans, didn't want to compromise with Catholics. The Catholic Pope (Pius V) called Elizabeth a 'pretend' queen, and excommunicated her. This made it very difficult for Elizabeth to trust Catholics, as any one of them could be plotting her death. As a result she decided to make life harder for Catholics.
• Elizabeth's chief spy, Sir Francis Walsingham, used secret agents to keep a close eye on important Catholics. In the 1580s, new laws were passed that meant that Catholic priests could now be executed. In 1581, the fine recusants had to pay was heavily increased to force them to leave the country, but instead many ran out of money and were thrown in prison.
• Elizabeth's long reign of 44 years meant that there was no Catholic comeback and the Protestant faith was firmly established. The UK still remains officially a Protestant country.
• By 1568, Elizabeth had been queen for ten years. She hadn't married and had no children. This meant that if she died, her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scotland, would become Queen of England and Wales too.