Queen Elizabeth Ditchley

• Pocket mirrors come packaged complete with a velvet bag for safe keeping.
• Dimensions: 2.25 Diameter.
• Design on one side with real glass mirror on the other side.

Queen Elizabeth reigned as Queen of England and Ireland for 45 years. Imagine having a President for 11+ full terms in office. Okay take a deep breath, you can stop imagining.    45 years is a long time. You're going to make some mistakes in office in 45 years, sheesh, even in the best of times.  

Elizabeth I, if you didn't know or had forgotten, was the daughter of King Henry VIII and his Oh-so-unlucky 2nd wife Anne Boleyn. She was highly educated, fluent in multiple languages and inherited many of her parents  strengths. She is considered to be possibly the greatest English Monarch ever by many historians. Her list of accomplishments is long, as hopefully it would be over 45 years. She was a skilled diplomat who used her power wisely and very judiciously at times. When she began her reign England was poor and exhausted having fought religious battle after battle. She helped to establish a secure Church of England most likely preventing even more costly wars between Catholics and Protestants. She was generally appreciated by the people of England and took their interests into consideration frequently enough to keep them happy with her. She surrounded herself with hundreds of great statesmen and highly intelligent statesmen yet was never outshone by them. She greatly expanded trade and overseas expeditions.  Despite pressure from Puritans within England she fostered the theatre and arts,  helping set the stage for Shakespeare, Marlowe and others. She defeated possibly the most powerful man in the world, King Phillip II of Spain in 1588 when he sent an Armada of ships to Attack. She was able to stave off several execution and coup attempts.

This is not meant to give a sense of hero worship towards Elizabeth I. She certainly had her list of failures, both political and personal. When taking into account how great her accomplishments are we are required to  keep them in context with fact that she accomplished all of this as a woman in era that was literally anathemic to a woman holding so much power. Long Live her indomitable spirit!