When Elizabeth first came to the English throne, no one believed a woman could rule on her own without a husband to guide her. Queen Elizabeth proved time and again that she would always be the exception to the preposterous rule, much to the chagrin of those who wished to see her fail. The final years of her long reign saw an end to the Mary, Queen of Scots debacle, the defeat of the Spanish Armada (thank you Protestant Winds!), and more conspiracies from scheming nobles.

In the conclusion to our four-part series, we learn what it is to be a queen. Elizabeth became master of her own legacy with the help of trusted advisors. She had, in her own words, “the feeble body of a woman but the heart of a King”. But we know she had the clever and sharp intellect of a woman, and the tenacity of a Difficult Damsel and Queen.