Coronation

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth I took place on this date in 1559. She had officially become queen two months before, upon the death of her half-sister, Mary Tudor. She was told of Mary's death at the Palace of Hatfield; legend has it that she was sitting under an oak tree at the time, and quoted the 118th Psalm: "It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."

The coronation was held at Westminster Abbey, and the banquet and festivities cost almost 17,000 pounds,” around 3.5 million pounds in today's money. She spent the night of the 14th at the Palace of Westminster, and walked in procession along a blue carpet that ran from the palace to the abbey. John Dee, who was a mathematician and an astrologer, chose the date; he had consulted his star charts and determined it to be propitious. The ceremony was a delicate balance of Catholic and Anglican principals, a tightrope the new sovereign would find herself walking many times during her reign.

"Be ye well assured I will stand your good Queen," she said to her subjects after she emerged from the abbey, holding aloft the orb and scepter of state.