- "The world is watching, we reign on its stage."
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603), also known as the Virgin Queen, Gloriana and coloquially as Good Queen Bess, was queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death. During her reign, she established the foundations of Anglicanism, successfully defended England against the Spanish Armada, and sponsored a renaissance of English theatre through figures such as William Shakespeare. She leads the English in Civilization VI.
Would you be interested in a trade agreement with England? Controlling trade is the way to set England up for a new Elizabethan age.
Intro[]
Elizabeth Regina, Virgin queen of England and monarch of the seas, you command the wooden wall that defends England from those who would seize it. Guard yourself against intrigues at home and abroad, and let your captains set sail at your command. Bow your head to no one, and Britannia shall rule the waves!
In-Game[]
Elizabeth I's unique agenda is Trade Agreement. She tries to have as many 
Trade Routes as possible, likes civilizations that send Trade Routes to her cities and dislikes civilizations that do not send Trade Routes to her cities.
Her leader ability is Drake's Legacy. She receives +2 Trade Route capacity upon recruiting her first 
Great Admiral. She also earns +3 
Gold for each specialty 
District in the origin city when sending Trade Routes to city-states and twice the normal yields for plundering Trade Routes.
Detailed Approach[]
Trade and Great Admirals are the central focus with England under Elizabeth’s rule. The Royal Naval Dockyard gives you additional naval movement and Great Admiral points. Use the additional naval movement with the Sea Dog unit to plunder enemy Trade Routes and receive increased booty with Drake’s Legacy. Once you receive your first Great Admiral you receive 2 extra Trade Routes; send them to City-States to quickly fill your treasury.
Lines[]
Elizabeth I is voiced by Beth Goddard. She speaks British English.
Voiced[]
| Codename | Quote | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agenda-based Approval | Thank you for your interest in a trade agreement with England. | This is a reference to Elizabeth's infamous line from Civilization V when offering a trade agreement, which became a meme due to her insistence. |
| Agenda-based Disapproval | Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths. | This line is taken from a letter written by Elizabeth in 1581. |
| Attacked | Those who would touch the scepters of rulers deserve no pity. | Elizabeth said this to the French ambassador about Charles de Gontaut's rebellion against Henry IV. |
| Declares War | Let tyrants fear. | This is part of Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury in 1588, before battling the Spanish Armada. |
| Defeated | The rest... is silence. | These are Prince Hamlet's last words in Shakespeare's Hamlet. |
| Greeting | I am Elizabeth, Queen of Britannia, and only seek the most noble and stalwart allies. | |
| Quote from Civilopedia | The world is watching, we reign on its stage. | This may be a reference to a line from Shakespeare's As You Like It: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." |
Unvoiced[]
Delegation: Here is something very, very new to the world - a hot boil of stimulating leaves, like a soup of sorts. It shall be known as "a cuppa."
Accepts Player's Declaration of Friendship: We share common cause.
Rejects Player's Declaration of Friendship: I am wed already, you see, to England.
Requests Declaration of Friendship: I may take no husband, but value a friend.
Player Accepts Declaration of Friendship: Friends - and commerce - only grow richer the more they increase in number.
Player Rejects Declaration of Friendship: Your words are fair, but we know that fair can be foul, and foul fair.
Denounced by Player: Wit warns me to shun such snares and falsehoods that now flow so freely.
Denounces Player: God may forgive you, but I never can.
Too Many Troops Near Her Border: I trust you, of course. But I would trust you much more if your soldiers were not wandering about next to my lands with weapons.
Invitation to Capital: Shall you see the lights of London turning the fog to gold?
Invitation to City: We seek to expand our view upon the world. Shall you do the same?
Civilopedia entry[]
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) gains a bit more fame today than she had in her own time. She constructed the foundations for the British Empire to come, but in her day, this was a desperate patchwork of privateers and spies amidst a world order dominated by other hostile powers.
Tudor England epitomizes the Early Modern period in history. Here, we have the foundations of much of the present-day world system beginning to be put into place – the origins of finance, insurance, and investment in the halls of the British East India Company, the Reformation, and the foundation blocks of absolute monarchy as well as democratic parliamentarianism. All of these formed during the Elizabethan period, under one of the greatest monarchs in English – or world – history.
The world in the 1500s epitomized a previous world order. Spanish and Portuguese empires were at their peak but burning through even the extraordinary wealth that they gleaned from their colonies in what were wars that largely concerned royal succession – hardly interesting to most common folk. Ming and Mughal empires were at their peak, a status that would eventually breed complacency in the face of the coming storm of colonial conquest. England was a rainy, muddy rock at the edge of the world. One did not expect an empire from them.
Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second, ill-fated wife, Anne Boleyn. With Boleyn’s death and the annulment of her marriage, Elizabeth became illegitimate – hardly an auspicious start. Things got even worse when the Catholic Mary came to the throne, and Elizabeth’s Protestant leanings proved too much of a liability. The young queen-to-be was imprisoned. But Mary was ill, and upon her death, Elizabeth took a precarious seat on the throne in 1558.
Elizabeth’s early reign was its most uncertain. After twelve years on the throne and showing no signs of returning to the Catholic fold, the Pope declared her excommunication, and plots against her life and her rule proliferated. In this, Elizabeth developed defenses: an increased naval presence, a secret police centered around the spy Francis Walsingham, and a constant flirtation with marrying a Catholic monarch. But threats are not always so subtle. After decades of harassment by English privateers and a rebellion of Dutch Protestants against Spanish rule, England went to war against Spain in 1585. Spain sent its famed armada against English shores – no small menace, as the 1580s was the height of the Spanish Empire.
The defeat of the armada was to mark the beginnings of England’s “wooden wall” and its naval superiority for centuries to come. There was no one great Battle of Salamis (in the Greco-Persian wars) to mark the victory, rather a series of harassing raids against Spanish ships, a daring use of oil-soaked fireboats, and a fortunate storm all contributed to the Spanish losses.
At home, Elizabeth knew her position was tenuous. She had already inflamed tensions with Catholic powers, and as such, she downplayed any overt Protestant symbolism, even going so far as to expel the Puritans (who would later end up in the English colonies in North America). Further, she refused marriage contracts – whether by personal inclination or out of a fear of being too politically indebted to her husband being a source of historical speculation. She was thus dubbed “the Virgin Queen” – this is why her settlement in North America became known as “Virginia.”
In one place, however, she showed little caution. The Irish population was strongly Catholic and resented English rule. Elizabeth promoted granting land and titles to loyal English subordinates and burned out all the land which defied her there.
Her rule later in life could not match her early years. With her important courtiers gone, Elizabeth’s reign began to be chipped away from within by political and social climbers who sought powerful trade monopolies. These monopolies would prove influential, if at times detrimental, to subjects both within England and abroad. Indeed, here is the beginning of the great trading companies in England. While Elizabeth never saw the establishment of Virginia, it was not for lack of trying – the doomed Roanoke colony was established under her reign.
Elizabethan literary life remains with us today, most notably in the persons of Shakespeare and Marlowe, which sparked an efflorescence of English arts and culture.
Elizabeth died in 1603 after 44 years on the throne. The England that she laid the foundations for did not, however, and was set to dominate the world stage in the centuries to come.
Trivia[]
- Elizabeth I's diplomacy screen shows the courtyard of Richmond Palace.
- Elizabeth I's leader ability references Sir Francis Drake, her chief admiral and privateer, while her leader agenda references her incarnation in Civilization V, whose constant trade agreement requests became a meme among players.
- Elizabeth I is, along with Alexander, Gandhi, Genghis Khan, Montezuma, and Shaka, one of six leaders to have appeared in every Civilization game to date.
- Elizabeth I is one of the many leaders throughout the Civilization franchise to be descended from both Eleanor of Aquitaine and Frederick Barbarossa.
- Additionally, her third cousin and successor, James, is the ancestor of Victoria, another English leader in Civilization VI.
- Elizabeth I had a direct relationship with one other leader in Civilization VI: she and Philip II fought each other during the Anglo-Spanish War from 1585 to 1604. Philip's marriage to Mary I, Elizabeth's half-sister, also made them in-laws for four years.
- Elizabeth I's leader agenda is identical to that of Wilhelmina.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Elizabeth I Promo (Civ6).jpg (1.99 MB)")
.png "Elizabeth I loadscreen (Civ6).png (2.13 MB)")
Videos[]
Related achievements[]
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The Triumphs of Oriana
Win a regular game as Elizabeth I.
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For Queen and Country
Playing as England on a Huge map, have a city on every continent at the start of the turn.
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Taxation Without Representation
As England, lose a city to disloyalty which has an established Financier Governor
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See also[]
- Elizabeth I in other games
