On Wednesday 10 September 1533, three days after her birth, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was christened at the Church of Observant Friars in Greenwich.
You can read a primary source account of her christening in may article from last year – Elizabeth I’s Christening at the Church of Observant Friars.
Also on this day in history…
- 1515 – Thomas Wolsey was made Cardinal.
- 1547 – The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, part of the War of the Rough Wooing between England and Scotland. It took place near Musselburgh, in Scotland, on the banks of the River Esk. The English forces, led by Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, defeated the Scots, killing thousands.
- 1549 – Death of Sir Anthony Denny, Henry VIII’s great friend and groom of the stool, at Cheshunt. He was buried in St Mary’s Church, Cheshunt.
My lasting impression of Elizabeth I is she moved the country forward in a modern direction. Unlike her father who seemed stuck in the past, she had no grandiose schemes of war. She was able to calm religious tensions. She was diligent in her spending. She avoided marriage that could possibly dilute her control. Anne Boleyn’s greatest gift to the realm.
So the wars in Ireland which meant that Elizabeth’s armies where bogged down in a war they could not win, meant stalemate after stalemate, led to costly defeats and bankruptcy are evidence of careful spending? Elizabeth may not have wanted war with Spain but her privateers attacks on Spanish ships caused one. Had she not raised money from the sales of franchises and monopolies, looked to raiding the riches of the American cities, as Spain did, then attacking them to steal more gold, the crown would have been seriously in debt, just as it was during the previous reigns. There was nothing careful about Elizabeth when it comes to spending on court entertainment. The only way she was careful was by not building any palaces. She just made sure every other person built a great house and then bankrupted them when she stayed for two weeks or more. Elizabeth had trunks full of treasure taken from other people.
what intrigues me is the amount of money that was spent (or just wasted)on court entertainment by most monarchs of that time,also Elizabeth did not hold back in a frugal manner on her own expenses ,ie clothing for instance ,I just cant get how they could waste so much money when the poor of England starved ,and as for their “progress tours” as I call them with possibly hundreds of hangers on trailing after the reigning monarch of the time ! this did bankrupt many nobles who had to put them up as far as I have read .
The ceremony does not show Henry or Anne were in any way disappointed that Elizabeth was a daughter and not a much needed son. It was just the same as a son would have been given. It sounds like a great and beautiful service, with the great statesmen of the realm a godparents, the nobles and court there, and Anne in the great bed of State to receive homage. Note that the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk plays a key role, despite not approving of Anne. Another I ironic thing…the chapel of the friars was where Henry married Katherine. The religious order connected to this chapel were severely repressed. It is also ironic that Norfolk and Suffolk would be Anne’s judges less than three years later.