Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, came to the throne in 1558. she re-stablished the Anglican Church and adopted a policy of compromise in religious field. She restablished the indipendence of the Church of England from the Church of Rome in the 1559 witha second Act of Sumpremacy, so in this way she ensured the England's internal peace, and increased wealth and commercial.

Elizabeth I supported the new explorations thamks to the creation of a powerful fleet, and the commerce supporting the birth of some new companies (East India Company).

She had one internal threat, her cousin Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, next in succession after her, after a serie of plot, Elizabeth let Mary for nineteen years in a tower, and then she beheated her Cousin Mary. After this murder, of a catholic queen, the king of Spain (catholic too), tried to invade England, but the Elizabeth's fleet won the Invincible Armada.