shewolfofengland:

Today In History | September 7, 1533: Birth of Elizabeth I

Less than two weeks after taking to her chamber, at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of the 7th September in 1533, Anne Boleyn gave birth to a baby girl: Elizabeth Tudor, named after her paternal grandmother Elizabeth of York, and possibly also her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Howard. The little girl had her father’s red hair and long nose, and her mother’s coal black eyes.

The birth was straightforward, the baby was healthy and so was Anne, but something was very wrong – the baby was a girl and not the promised son and heir promised by Anne, astrologers and doctors. A celebratory tournament had been organized and a letter announcing the birth of a prince had been written, with the intentions of naming the prince either Henry of Edward. The joust was cancelled and the word “prince” had an “s” added in the birth announcement letter. The celebratory jousts were cancelled in 1516 too, when Mary was born, and it was traditional for the celebrations of the birth of a princess to be low-key. Although the joust was cancelled, “a herald immediately proclaimed this first of Henry’s ‘legitimate’ children, while the choristers of the Chapel Royal sang the Te Deum”and preparations were already underway for a lavish christening. 

Henry and Anne both grieved that Elizabeth was not a boy, but little did they know that she would go on to be one of the greatest monarchs in British history - the Virgin Queen, Gloriana; that she would give her name to an age. Long live Good Queen Bess. {1}{2}