Princess Elizabeth Elizabeth, Princess Author Chun To Mok Supervising Editor Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England Encyclopedia EMEE

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.

 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globablink Research Internship

Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a

 University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Chun To Mok, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines

This document uses Canadian English spelling

 Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Born-digital Born-digital documents are anything other than primary texts Critical Critical material, such as a general introduction or a textual introduction. Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Editor A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by revising or elucidating the content, e.g., adding an introduction, notes, or other critical matter. An editor may also prepare a resource for production, publication, or distribution. For major revisions, adaptations, etc., that substantially change the nature and content of the original work, resulting in a new work, see author. LEMDO uses the general term editor only in edition metadata and only to indicate when a person is responsible for editing all parts of an edition. Otherwise, use the more granular terms to describe the precise nature of the editorial role. Supervising Editor An editor who supervises the work of a student editor. Copy Editor LEMDO uses the term owner for the person who checks facts, quotations, and citations; may make formatting changes; may convert from one citation style to another; may suggest wording changes; and enforces conformity with the project style guide. Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Copyright Holder A person or organization to whom copy and legal rights have been granted or transferred for the intellectual content of a work. The copyright holder, although not necessarily the creator of the work, usually has the exclusive right to benefit financially from the sale and use of the work to which the associated copyright protection applies. Normally the editor is the copyright holder for an LEMDO edition. EMEE Keywords Culture Learn about the customs, beliefs, and daily lives of people in early modern England. Daily Life Courtiers Education Illegitimacy Trials Education Greek Latin Published file. Updated metadata proofed Review of article finished. updated author respStmt. swapped the desc and figDescs to be correct. added image citation and figure. Created File. Michael Best Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

 Leah Hamby Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

 Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

 Kate McPherson Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

 Chun To Mok Chun To Mok

Chun To Mok was a student at Utah Valley University.

 LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/
A miniature portrait by Lucas Horenbout or Levina Teerlinc, c. 1550 potentially identified as Elizabeth Tudor. Courtesy of Wikimedia and Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain.
Early Life

Princess Elizabeth Tudor was born September 7, 1533, at Greenwich Palace, England to King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth’s gender was a disappointment to the King. He wanted a son and heir. King Henry VIII had recently divorced his first wife Catherine of Aragon, because she had not given him a suitable heir. Henry married Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother, after years of courtship during the divorce proceedings. Anne may have already been with child at the time of the formal wedding on January 25, 1533, which followed a secret wedding in France the previous November. However, Boleyn also failed to provide the king with an heir. Later in 1536, Boleyn was accused of adultery and treason. She was executed when Elizabeth was only two years old.

After her mother’s execution, Elizabeth’s position was precarious. She was declared illegitimate and thus unable to inherit the throne. Her title changed from Princess Elizabeth to Lady Elizabeth. In her childhood, she lived at various country estates under guardianship rather than at the king’s court.

Education

Lady Margaret Bryan, Elizabeth’s great-aunt and sister of Anne Boleyn’s mother, was given full charge of raising Elizabeth. Two other women, Kat Ashley and Blanche Parry, served Elizabeth, with Ashley as governess and nurse. When Elizabeth was seven years old, her formal schooling began, likley under the direction of Katherine Champernowne.

When Elizabeth’s half-brother Edward was born in 1537, they shared the same nursery and many of the same tutors. Unusually, Elizabeth learned from male tutors as she was taught jointly with her younger brother. Some of the tutors included Sir Anthony Cooke, Sir John Cheke, William Grindal, and Roger Ascham. Ascham used a humanist curriculum for his students, which were published as a book called The Schoolmaster, which appeared in 1570 after his death. Over time, Elizabeth became fluent in Latin, French, and Italian, with competant skills in Greek and Spanish.

Katherine Parr

When her father married his sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr in 1543, Elizabeth’s life improved. At Parr’s urging, the ten-year old Elizabeth was brought back to the court and, through the Act of Succession in 1544, was retitled as Princess. Parr was also an enthusiastic Protestant and may have help shape Elizabeth’s strong commitment to the Church of England.

Thomas Seymour

In 1547, Henry VIII died and was succeeded by Edward VI, Elizabeth’s nine-year-old younger brother. Elizabeth continued living with her stepmother Katherine Parr. The King’s will had left Elizabeth rich, so she became a target for men seeking a high advantageous marriage. Thomas Seymour took aim at Elizabeth. Seymour was the brother of Edward Seymour, the Duke of Somerset, Edward VI’s Lord Protector. Thomas Seymour intended to marry one of Henry VIII’s daughters, either Mary or Elizabeth, to strengthen his political power. However, his suit was rejected by the Royal Council. He married the widowed queen Katherine Parr instead.

Princess Elizabeth lived with Katherine Parr, and the hitorical record indicates Thomas Seymour took liberties with Elizabeth. Seymour entered Elizabeth’s bedchamber before she rose, teasing and tickling her as Elizabeth retreated under the bedclothes. Parr enjoyed her husband’s mischief, and one time she held Elizabeth down in the garden while Seymour used scissors to cut Elizabeth’s gown in pieces. When Parr found out Thomas Seymour’s flirtation was causing scandal, Elizabeth was sent away to stay with Kat Ashley’s sister in Hertfordshire.

In 1549, Seymour was imprisoned due to the suspicion of attempting to marry Princess Elizabeth, encouraging pirates, receiving stolen goods, and plotting to obtain control of the king’s person. Due to the potentially intimate relationship between Seymour and Princess Elizabeth, she was put under interrogation but was publicly exonerated. Seymour was executed later that year.

Imprisonment and Accession

When Edward VI died in 1553, Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister Mary Tudor inherited the throne. Elizabeth was in a precarious position again. In 1554, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London under suspicion of involvement in Protestant insurrection. Later she was moved to a royal property in Oxfordshire, Woodstock Palace, where she spent almost a year under house arrest. In 1558, Mary I died, and the accession of the throne came to Princess Elizabeth. She became Queen Elizabeth I, the last monarch of the Tudor period.

Key Print Sources Loades, D. M. Elizabeth I. Hambledon and London, 2003. Meyer, Carolyn. Beware, Princess Elizabeth. Harcourt, 2001. Stump, Donald V., and Susan M. Felch. Elizabeth I and Her Age : Authoritative Texts, Commentary and Criticism. W.W. Norton and Company, 2009.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Princess Elizabeth. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/elizabeth/childhood.html. Accessed 16 Oct. 2018. Henry VIII’s Children. Historic Royal Palaces. Historic Royal Palaces, 2018, https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/history-and-stories/henry-viiis-children/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2018. Prisoner of the Tower. Tower of London. Historic Royal Palaces, 2018, https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/tower-of-london-prison/. Accessed 17 Jun. 2023. Queen Elizabeth I Facts and Myths. Royal Museums at Greenwich. https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/royal-history/queen-elizabeth-i-facts-myths. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.
Image Source Horenbout, Lucas. Portrait of an Unknown Lady. c. 1535. Gouach paint on thin card. Yale Center for British Art. Wikimedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tudor-era_portrait_of_a_lady_in_her_18th_year_B1974.2.59.jpg.