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At 25 she was crowned Queen of England. Her reign brought the likes of Shakespeare and the explorer, Sir Francis Drake. She spoke six languages. She defeated the Spanish Armada. She forsook marriage to her true love in order to be free to rule her country as she sought fit. For 45 years she ruled one of the most powerful nations of her day. Queen Elizabeth I is my mentor, idol and hero.

I became obsessed with Queen Elizabeth after seeing Cate Blanchett’s performance of her in the 1998 movie, Elizabeth. Admittedly, I am a bit of an anglophile, so it wasn’t a stretch for me to be taken with Elizabeth’s story. The daughter of Anne Boleyn, King Henry’s 2nd wife (see The Other Boleyn Girl for the Hollywood spin on that whole story), Princess Elizabeth was motherless by the age of three. She oulived both her sickly brother Edward, and her sister, the Catholic Queen known as Bloody Mary (who once imprisoned her over allegations of treason, nearly committing her to the same fate as her mother — beheading). When Elizabeth became Queen she poured her love of country and duty into her reign. She continued her father’s separation from Rome by establishing Protestantism as the national religion, and brought her kingdom to a hightened level of prosperity, ushering in the Renaissance.

It’s difficult to summarize such an accomplished woman in a blog, but I find her confidence, courage, intelligence and passion truly inspiring. Perhaps the time is finally near when America will support such a woman to lead us to a new level of prosperity and enlightenment.

Posted by Tami in Inspiring Women |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Inspiring Women. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.