Queen Elizabeth, the virgin queen.

Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry the 8th and Ann Boleyn. She was born in 1533 and ruled england from 1558 to 1603 the year of her death, and was known as the virgin queen because she never married. She served as the fifth and last monarch of the tudor dynasty.

Under her rule England deafeated the Spanish armada and established itself as the nation that "ruled the waves". As a result, new countries were discovered and explored and the queen gave her subjects permission to settle in far-flung parts of the world and found colonies. These settlements were the beginnings of the British Empire.