The life of Elizabeth I of England should be required reading for all women. It cannot be said that she was perfect; she was vain, stubborn, selfish, self-righteous, arrogant, and sometimes quite cruel. Those traits were, however, pretty much expected of a European monarch of the time and had she quailed on any of them, her power would have been compromised. She fashioned herself as a "Prince" of England and her more unsavory traits are easier to understand when one of her best outbursts of temper is remembered:
"Were I not cloven where you are crested, my lord, you would not speak to me so."
She lived in an era more infused with patriarchy than we can even imagine today, and her ministers only begrudgingly came to appreciate her abilities as a ruler. From the first, she was surrounded by men who felt her sole purpose was to marry an able prince and bear the future heirs of the kingdom. To reign in that world she had to play the part to the fullest, in a way that had not really ever been done by a woman ruler before.
She was uniquely suited to the challenge. Everyone knows her for the dresses she wore and the films that have been made about her supposed romances, but what those fail to convey is her absolute brilliance. Classically educated, Elizabeth could read and speak five languages, including Latin and Greek, and her discourses on the theological traumas of the era were (and are) considered incredibly literate to the topic. She also wrote poetry, which survives, and was a gifted horseback rider (side saddle, no less!) and bow hunter. Her skill at politics and diplomacy, in the era of the newly Protestant England and the Catholic Wars on the Continent, turned England from a backward island into the United Kingdom. She oversaw the birth of the East India Company and that, if nothing else, should tell you something. The British Empire would have been still-born had Elizabeth never come to the throne.
Her virginity is still, five hundred years later, a subject of gossip. My opinion is, who cares? The salient fact is that she stylized herself as "The Virgin Queen" and ran her own PR campaign as ably as any military commander ever took to the battlefield. She knew full well that her image and reputation were her armour against the prejudices of the era and she never let down her guard.
Elizabeth I is an icon of female power; studying her political dexterity is akin to earning an MBA in the art and she is the acme example of self discipline, strenght of character, and fortitude. She was a creature of her times and there is much we can look back on now with disdain or even horror, but that does not distract from her power, her fame, and her legacy.
Read more at Wikipedia: Elizabeth_I
