September 4th, 2020

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 290

Elizabeth l

 

Hello Everyone

 

 

Quite a few blog posts ago, l told you the story about Henry Vlll’s life.

 

Children are often fascinated with Henry Vlll because he had six wives.

 

lt is not usual for anyone to be married six times!

 

Of course, he wasn’t married to them all at the same time.

 

The first three of his wives had a child that would become a monarch.

 

When his second wife had a baby daughter, Henry was really disappointed.

 

He was disappointed because he really wanted a son instead.

 

This daughter grew up to be one of the greatest monarchs in English history.

 

Her name was Elizabeth.  Fate decreed that she would become Queen Elizabeth and we now know her as Queen Elizabeth l.

 

Let me tell you her story…

 

She was born on 7^th September, 1533 in Greenwich.

 

Her mother was beheaded on her father’s instructions in 1536.

 

This is not an easy way for a child to start her life.  She wasn’t even three years old.

 

When Henry died, she went to live with her stepmother away from the Royal Court.  Her stepmother was Henry’s sixth wife, Katherine Parr.

 

Elizabeth was well-educated and could speak several languages.

 

Her younger brother, Edward, became King Edward Vl at nine years old. 

 

He was too young to become a ruling king, so his uncle Edward – the brother of his mother, Jane Seymour, (who was Henry’s third wife), became Lord Protector of England until Edward was old enough to rule properly.

 

Edward died in 1553 of a lung infection when he was only 15.  He was ill for a time before he died and bequeathed his throne to Lady Jane Grey rather than his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.

 

More than one person wanted to take the throne.

 

Lady Jane Grey, who was a descendant of Henry Vlll’s sister, was proclaimed queen by her father Henry Grey and her husband John Dudley and the armies that supported them.  They did not want Mary, the daughter of Henry’s first wife, to become queen because she was a Catholic.

 

But Lady Jane Grey’s reign was a nine day wonder.

 

More people supported Mary.  She rode into London with her half-sister Elizabeth and imprisoned Jane and her husband in the Tower of London.

 

Jane and her husband were executed.

 

Shortly after becoming queen, Mary was married to Prince Phillip of Spain.  This was not a popular decision with the people.

 

lt made the persecuted Protestants unhappy and they hoped Elizabeth would become queen instead.

 

(Henry had divorced Mary’s mother in order to marry the woman who became Elizabeth’s mother – and he divorced England from the Roman Catholic Church at the same time.)

 

Mary worried about the disquiet of the Protestants and was so scared about the situation that she locked Elizabeth up in the Tower of London to get her out of the way. 

 

And Elizabeth was terrified to go to the Tower because she thought it would be the end for her.  After all, this was the place where her mother had been executed.  

 

But the truth was that Mary just wanted to keep Elizabeth away from any Protestants who might band together and start plotting to take the throne away from her.

 

After a few months of imprisonment, Elizabeth was released and sent to live in Woodstock where she was kept under house arrest, and then later to Hatfield House just north of London. 

 

lt was here, sitting under an oak tree in the park, that Elizabeth heard of Mary’s death in 1558.  Mary had pronounced Elizabeth as her heir.

 

She was now queen of England at the age of 25 and she was very happy.

 

On 15^th January, 1559, Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey amongst widespread national celebration.  She walked all the way from the Tower of London to the Abbey on a blue carpet.

 

Afterwards she went across to Westminster Hall for a coronation banquet.

 

She was to become a much more popular monarch than her father was.

 

Elizabeth never married, although lots of men wanted her hand in marriage, and so did not leave an heir when she died in 1603. 

 

There were other heirs to the throne that Henry had put in his will, but for various reasons they could not take the throne when Elizabeth died.  lt was the end of the Tudor Dynasty and the beginning of the era of the Stuart Kings.

 

Elizabeth had many problems during her reign that she had to deal with, but tried to do it with intelligence and courage: there were plots to depose her and there were threats of invasion from other countries.

 

She surrounded herself with trusted advisers who helped her rule.  She was keen for them to always tell her the truth.  This was a very wise thing to do.

 

One of the first things she did was to set up an English Protestant Church of which she was to become the Supreme Governor.  Today, it is known as the Church of England and the current monarch is still at its head.

 

Elizabeth was kinder to people of other religions that her family before her.  She thought it didn’t really matter whether her subjects were of different faiths just as long as they were loyal to her.  She wanted to be tolerant.

 

However, later in her reign she became uneasy about some of the Catholic opposition against her and the more radical Puritans pushing for extreme reforms and changes.

 

At this time, the country was suffering from poor harvests and the financial burden of wars with Spain and lreland.  This caused her popularity to fall – but mostly she was a popular queen who managed to keep a calm balance between the Crown, Parliament and the Church.

 

Religious tolerance was an enlightened viewpoint for the time, and she avoided the type of systematic persecutions employed by her father, Edward and Mary. 

 

She understood how her position would always be more secure if her people were happy with her policies.  But she was careful to put down any rebellions that threatened the crown before they became too much of a problem.

 

She was careful in her foreign affairs, not happily wishing to engage in waging war in Europe, even though this didn’t always make her military leaders very happy.  

 

But when war with Spain became inevitable, the Spanish Armada was decisively defeated by a strong English navy in 1588.

 

The Elizabethan Era was famous for its flamboyant costumes, its beautiful architecture and inspired literature of writers like William Shakespeare, John Donne and Christopher Marlowe.

 

lt was also a time when explorers like Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were finding new parts of the world.

 

Because of this, the Elizabethan Era is thought of, on the whole, as a golden age of progress.

 

A lot of historians now say that Elizabeth was more lucky than clever. 

 

She thought she had been successful though, because on the whole, her reign had been a stable and peaceful one.

 

But one thing is for sure, we look back on the Elizabethan Age as being very glamorous.

 

You can still visit many Elizabethan buildings today if you really want to get a feel of the era.  Many of them are open to the public – your school might even be situated in one!

 

 

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

 

lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.

 

Thank you!

 

And see you again next Fun Friday!

 

Love and kisses

 

 

Salty Sam

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

 

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

 

Bob:  Have you seen my library book anywhere Bill?

 

Bill:  l don’t think so.  What is it called?

 

Bob:  lt is called, Exploring Foreign Lands by Mandy Parted.

 

 

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Picture Gallery

 

The execution of Lady Jane Grey

You can see this painting in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

 

Mary Tudor

 

Hatfield House

 

The young Elizabeth

 

This portrait shows Elizabeth as a powerful monarch reigning over her kingdom

 

 

 

     THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

 

 

This week we have another of Bill and Bob’s tree identification quizzes.

They picked these berries out in the park.

 

 

They might look good enough to eat but you must not eat anything you pick out in the wild – unless an adult says it is alright to do so!

 

 

After that they went home and washed their hands.

Then they put on their chef’s outfits and cooked the whole family some pastries for supper.

They took a sheet of puff pastry from a box in the fridge covered half of it in marmite and grated cheese.  Then they rolled the pastry up tightly and cut it into eight even slices.

They spread the slices out on a baking tray and baked their creation in the oven at a medium heat for half an hour.

You must ask permission before you decide that you want to do any cooking in your kitchen.

 

 

 

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Quick Quiz

 

What do these idioms mean?

 

1. To blow one’s top
2. At the top of their voices
3. Over the top
4. To feel on top of the world
5. To live on top of each other

 

 

 

 

lt’s the Weekend!

 

 

HOW TO MAKE A PLASTlC CANVAS RlNG HOLDER

This box is worked in grey, lemon yellow and white yarn.

It has a cool, muted colour scheme.  If you used pink, grey and white, the colour scheme would be warmer.  If you used white, red and black the design would pop.

You will probably choose a colour scheme to match in with your bedroom.

 

 

You will need 1 sheet of 7 mesh 10.5 by 13.5 inches/26.7 by 34.3cm

And two flannels 28cm – 30cm square (about 12 inches)

Three colours of yarn

Cut the following panels:-

Outer bottom                           29 x 21 holes                   1 panel

Outer sides                              29 x 15 holes                   2 panels

Outer ends                               21 x 15 holes                   2 panels

 

Inner bottom                            27 x 19 holes                   1 panel

Inner sides                               27 x 14 holes                   2 panels

Inner ends                                19 x 14 holes                   2 panels

 

RING BOX

1. Sew the side panels to the top on the inner skin but do not sew up the corners – using white yarn will make the stitching less noticeable than a darker colour
2. Put these two pieces to one side and work canvas work stitches onto the other five panels using any colours you like, but this box is made in grey, yellow and white
3. Work a border of white tent stitches around the outer edge
4. Then a border of grey crosses, each cross is worked over nine holes, inside that
5. Put two rows of white tent stitches inside that
6. Put a row of alternate grey and yellow cross stitches inside that and fill in the core panel with white tent stitches
7. Work yellow crosses over the grey diagonal ones

 

This is the design but you can put your canvas work stitches onto the plastic canvas in any order you wish.

 

Starting the panel

 

The base

 

The sides and ends

 

TO MAKE UP

1. Sew the sides to the base and then sew up the corners
2. Push the inner skin into the box to make it more rigid
3. Push the inner skin into place and sew around the rim of the box – you will sew into only one layer through one hole at each end of each side.
4. Fold two flannels up to put inside the holder in the following way

 

Put the flannel on a flat surface face down

Fold the sides of the flannel in so that the flannel is now a third of the original width

Fold the ends up to the centre

Turn the flannel over and fold the ends to the centre again so that you have a shape that looks like an ‘M’ from the side

 

Fold both the flannels this way and push them into the box

The box will hold about 12 rings or sets of earrings.

 

When your ring box gets dusty you can just wash the flannels and reinsert them.

 

You can keep the box on its base or one of its sides.

 

 

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.

©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015

 

 

Answers to the News Desk Quiz

 

Hawthorn

Rowan

Crabapple

Laurel

Whitebeam

 

Whitebeam

 

 

 

Quick Quiz Answers

 

1. To blow one’s top – get angry
2. At the top of one’s voice – shout as loudly as one can
3. Over the top – too much
4. To feel on top of the world – really happy
5. To live on top of each other – over-crowded living accommodation