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    8 .Female Sovereigns ofEngland ivhen you...

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    The Accession Of Queen To The Throne Ayo...

    and sovereign mistress even of th € > favourites who touched her heart , and who could bring tears into her proud eyes , Elizabeth , when she came to

    t _& e throne , was not older than we and twenty , and what would now be familiarly called " a fine girl . " She is thus described , just before that event , by the Venetian Ambassador above-mentioned : —

    " My Lady Elizabeth , the daughter of Henry VHIth and Ann Boleyne , was born in the year 1533 . She is a lady of great elegance both of body and mind ,

    although her face may rather be called pleasing than beautiful ; she is tali and well made ; her complexion fine , though rather sallow ;* her eyes , but above all her hands , which she takes care not to

    conceal , are of superior beauty . In her knowledge of the Greek and Italian languages she surpasses the Queen . Her spirits and understanding are admirable , as she has proved by her conduct in the midst

    of suspicion and danger , when she concealed her religion and comported herself like a good Catholic . She is proud and dignified in her manners ; for though her mother ' s condition is well known to her , she is also aware that this mother of

    hers was united to the King in wedlock , with the sanction of the holy church , and the concurrence of the primate of the realm ; and though misled with regard to her religion , she is conscious of having acted with good faith : nor can this latter circumstance reflect upon her

    The Accession Of Queen To The Throne Ayo...

    birth , since she was born in the same faith with that professed by the Queen . Her father ' s affection she shared at least in equal measure with her sister , and the King considered them equally in his will ,

    settling on both of them 10 , 000 scudi per annum . Moreover the Queen , though she hates her most sincerely , yet treats her in public with every outward sign of affection and regard , and never converses with her but on pleasing and

    agreeable subjects . She has also contrived to ingratiate herself with the King of Spain , through whose influence the Queen is prevented from bastardising her , as she certainly has it in her power to do by means of an act of parliament , and which would exclude her from the

    throne . It is believed that , but for this interference of the King , the Queen would , without remorse , chastise her in the severest manner ; for whatever plots against the

    Queen are discovered , my Lady Elizabeth , or some of her people , may always be sure to be mentioned among the persons concerned in them . "

    It may be added , as a matter not without its interest at the present moment , that Elizabeth and Victoria are the only Queens who have come to the throne young . Mary was thirty-seven years of age , and Anne thirty-eight .

    Anne was more the daughter of her mother Anne Hyde , Clarendon's daughter , than of her father James the Second . In the portrait of her sister

    # Bella carne _, ancorche _olivastra * " But " sallow ? and why should not olivastro mean " _swarthish , olive-coloured , " as a good old Italian dictionary ' of that period lias it ? We should thus recognize a clear brown complexion , quite compatible with how can a fi ne complexion be thought the epithet " fine _.

    8 .Female Sovereigns Ofengland Ivhen You...

    8 . Female Sovereigns ofEngland ivhen young .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/6/