Elizabeth I in her coronation robes, patterned with Tudor roses and trimmed with ermine; painted about 1600-10 after a lost original of about 1559.Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domainElizabeth I is crowned in Westminster Abbey
Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, came to the throne in November 1558 on the death of her Catholic half-sister, Mary I. The country was divided over religion, and many Catholics doubted her right to rule. After a grand procession through the City of London the day before, she was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 15 January 1559, a date said to have been chosen by her astrologer, John Dee. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s post was vacant, so the Bishop of Carlisle crowned her, in a service partly in Latin and partly in English. She reigned for 44 years, and it was the last coronation in the Abbey to follow the Catholic rite.
Source: Westminster Abbey: Elizabeth I ↗
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