The first Queen Elizabeth, called Gloriana by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene, was born in 1533 to Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. At the time of her accession to the throne in 1558, England was a militarily weak, religiously divided backwater, outside the mainstream of continental culture. Elizabeths name has become a synonym for the era which she dominated with her deft political skills and strong personal character. Aided by her considerable personal abilities, she put England on the road to becoming a true world economic and political power and restoring the countrys lost sense of national pride.

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