By the Quene. Where as the Quenes maiestie, hath in his present laste session of parliament [...] to repeale sondrye actes of parliament made in the time of the late Queene her maisties sister, and to reuyue and make good certaine other necessarie and godly lawes [...] amongst the whiche one godlye acte there is reuiued, entituled: an acte against such persons as shal vnreuerently speake against the Sacrament of the bodie and bloude of Christ [...]... . . . by Elizabeth I
This month’s featured text is Where as the Quenes maiestie, hath in his present laste session of parliament [...] to repeale sondrye actes of parliament made in the time of the late Queene her maisties sister. . . by Elizabeth I (1533-1603, reigned 1558-1603). Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Anne Boleyn was beheaded three years later in 1536 on charges of incest and treason. Elizabeth was sent away from court and Henry VIII finally had his longed for son with his third wife, Jane Seymour the next year. Elizabeth returned to court when Henry married his sixth and final wife Katherine Parr. Upon Henry VIII's death in 1547, Katherine Parr married Thomas Seymour (Jane's brother) she died in childbirth in 1548. Thomas Seymour was then caught in a plot to kidnap King Edward and marry himself to Elizabeth and beheaded one year later. Edward's reign was short and Elizabeth's half-sister Mary, a Catholic, became queen in 1553. Many plots were hatched in Elizabeth's name against her sister for the sake of restoring English Protestantism, though there is no proof Elizabeth was involved. She was, however, imprisoned in the Tower of London. When Mary died in 1558, Elizabeth became queen and is said to have quoted psalm 118 upon hearing the news "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Elizabeth I then proceeded to become one of the longest reigning queens of England and to have presided over a "golden age" of English history in which poets like Philip Sydney and playwrights like Shakespeare wrote and in which she defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. It was also a time of great upheaval in religion and dynastic politics with plots against Elizabeth from Mary Queen of Scots (Elizabeth's cousin, also a Catholic) and marriage proposals from the royal houses of Spain, France, and even Sweden. Elizabeth died in 1603 leaving the throne to James VI of Scotland (Mary Queen of Scots' son).

This proclamation is important because it touches on the issue of religion which so divided both England and Europe at the time. Elizabeth was caught between the Protestant supporters of Edward VI and the Catholic supporters of Mary I. Though Elizabeth is often seen as creating a compromise between the two which is to a certain degree true, she was herself raised a Protestant and believed firmly in its cause. Therefore, this proclamation comes down firmly on the side of Protestantism and declares that the statute on religion made in the first year of Edward VI's reign was now in force. The statute referred to was more Calvinist in outlook than certainly any of her father Henry VIII's had been and definitely more so than the Catholic statutes of Mary I. Therefore, Elizabeth was placing herself and her realm firmly in the hands of the Protestant reformers and because of her long reign, cemented England's role as the most powerful of the Protestant European nations.

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