Elizabeth I Crowned

November 17, 1558

After her half-sister Mary died in November, the twenty-five-year-old Protestant Elizabeth Tudor became queen of a divided, insolvent England. She entered London to cheers. Her long balancing act between Protestant hardliners, Catholic neighbors, and her own unmarried ambition was about to begin. Her coronation procession was choreographed to present her as Protestant champion and virgin queen, establishing the persona she maintained for forty-five years.