On this day in Tudor history, 17th November 1558, Queen Mary I, daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, died at the age of forty-two at St James’s Palace in London. She had been queen for just five years and four months.
Mary passsed the throne on to her twenty-five-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was at her estate of Hatfield when she was informed of her half-sister’s death and of her own accession. She was said to have recited part of Pslam 118: “A domino factum est istud, et est mirabile in oculis nostris”, this is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes.
Find out more about Elizabeth I’s accession in today’s “on this day in Tudor history” video:
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