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Why did Queen Elizabeth I have an entire age named after her?

The forty-five year reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) is known as the "Elizabethan Age" because it was one of the greatest periods in English history. The only child of Henry VIII (1491–1547) and his second wife Anne Boleyn (1507?–1536), Elizabeth had succeeded her half-sister Mary Tudor (1516–1558) as queen. Ascending the throne in 1558, Elizabeth I ruled until 1603. During this time England dominated the seas to become a major European power, while Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) and other explorers expanded the British empire by establishing settlements in North America. Also during Elizabeth's reign, English dramatists such as William Shakespeare (1564–1616), Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), and Sir Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) produced works that are now considered literary masterpieces. Soon after Elizabeth became queen...

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