Noble Queen

What is believed to be the earliest, fulllength portrait of Elizabeth I is to be put on display, and it reveals a new side to the Virgin Queen: slight, modestly dressed, clutching a prayer book. The date is estimated at 1559, not even a full year into her reign, when this twentysomething faced the threat of religious rebellion. That Elizabeth would live for another four decades of relative peace was hard to predict. Her brother, Edward, expired at the tender age of 15.

Elizabeth was every inch a Tudor: the portrait bears a striking likeness to a youthful Henry VIII. But while Henry married six times, Elizabeth remained single, averting civil war and the headache of so many wedding receptions. Here is a young woman before she has decided what to become – Gloriana. Her father would be proud.