5 As a child, Elizabeth received an excellent education, and proved very good at languages. Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr, arranged for some of the best tutors in England, scholars such as William Grindal and Roger Ascham, to teach her philosophy, history, speech, French, Spanish, and Italian.6 Grindal and Ascham were converted Protestants, who almost certainly influenced Elizabeth's religious views.7 Elizabeth's troubled childhood made her neurotic, as she suffered from panic attacks, irrational fears, and emotional paralysis when she was unsure of what to do.8.
Questions of legitimacy surrounded Elizabeth's childhood as she continuously fell in and out of the line of ascension throughout her path to becoming Queen. When Elizabeth was born, King Henry VIII declared her to be his heir to the throne.9 Despite her official status, many questioned whether the Princess Elizabeth would indeed succeed her father if he failed to produce a male heir. The 1534 Act of Succession confirmed Elizabeth as heiress presumptive, and gave her precedence over her older half-sister, Mary, the bastardized daughter of Katherine of Aragon.10 However, in 1536 Anne Boleyn was found guilty of adultery and treason, her marriage to Henry was dissolved, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate and excluded from the succession.11 Immediately following the death of Anne Boleyn, the Second Succession Act of 1536 declared both Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate.12 However, before Henry left for war with France in 1544, he had Parliament enact the Third Act of Succession, which reinstated Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession.13 The constant uncertainty about her hereditary title to the throne contributed to the stressful nature of Elizabeth's childhood.
After Mary's death in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and inherited a country that was impoverished, had lost its standing among other European powers, and was religiously divided.
