ST AUSTELL, ENGLAND Next Wednesday will mark the 450th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth I, greatest of English rulers, certainly the one who has imposed herself longest upon that living memory of peoples that is history. She was born at Greenwich September 3, 1533, the daughter of Henry III and his Queen, Anne Boleyn, who were both disappointed at the birth of a girl instead of the male heir that they so badly wanted.
But they had done better than they knew. In the circumstances of the time, it was an advantage to have a woman on the throne, directing affairs from several points of view. A King would have been more aggressive, wasting the little country's resources on foreign adventures, as Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, had done with his unnecessary, extravagant wars in France.
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