Elizabeth was a much loved monarch and known to her people as Good Queen Bess. She ruled England for almost forty five years, changing the country from a second rate power to one of the most powerful countries in the world. A conservative Protestant, she re-established the Church of England after the return to Roman Catholicism in the reign of Mary I, and successfully preserved religious peace in her country in a time when religious wars were being fought all over Europe. While her father, Henry VIII, is famous for marrying many times, Elizabeth is famous for never marrying at all. In the early years of her reign she faced immense pressure from her Privy Council and Parliament to marry, but for both personal and political reasons, she never yielded to that pressure and remained single. Elizabeth did come close to marrying twice, however. The first man she seriously contemplated marrying was her childhood friend, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the second man was Francis, Duke of Alencon, brother to the King of France. Unlike her father, Elizabeth valued her hard-working ministers, and her relationship with William Cecil, Lord Burghley, is the longest working relationship between a sovereign and first minister in English history. 

As Elizabeth was single and childless, the issue of the succession concerned a number of people, and opinion was divided over who should succeed. Many, especially Roman Catholics, believed that the best right lay with Mary, Queen of Scots, who was Henry VII's great granddaughter, while others favored Arabella Stuart or the sons of Catherine Grey. Because Mary, Queen of Scots, was Roman Catholic, and Elizabeth's prisoner after her deposition in Scotland, many Roman Catholics plotted to kill Elizabeth and make Mary queen instead. One such man was Anthony Babington, and it was for involvement in his plot to free her, that Mary was executed at Fotheringay Castle in the February of 1587. The following year, Philip II of Spain sent his famous Armada against England, in the hope of deposing Elizabeth and bestowing the throne on his daughter, Isabel the Infanta. Determined to lead and inspire her people at this critical hour, Elizabeth left London for Tilbury, and there delivered a powerful speech to her soldiers. After a long battle in the English Channel, the English triumphed, and  the defeat of the Spanish Armada is one of the most famous events in English history.

Elizabeth died on 24 March 1603 at Richmond Palace, London. Her funeral was held the following month, and witnesses reported that the grief of her subjects was so profound that when they saw her coffin being carried through the streets of London with the Queen's effigy upon it, there was such a crying and moaning that the like had never been known in history for the death of a sovereign. 

The House of Tudor died with Elizabeth, and she was succeeded by  King James VI of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, who became James I.