Queen Consort of England, Anne Boleyn

16 century England, the Boleyn family has three children - Anne , Mary and George. Anne and Mary spent part of their childhood in France. When the King of France died, Mary Boleyn returned to England to attend Queen Katherine. At court, Mary catches King Henry VIII's fancy to be his mistress. 

Later, Anne went to England court . Anne's desire to be Queen drives her with ruthless intensity. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover.  As Henry grows more desperate for a legitimate son , he began to seek an annulment of his marriage to Spanish Princess Katherine.

Anne began Queen in 1533. Mary abandons court life to live with a new husband in the countryside. After giving birth to Princess Elizabeth and miscarried two children,  Anne loses favor from Henry VIII, especially since the King's fancy for one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, began to grow. Anne's enemies at court began to plot against her using Henry VIII's attentions to Jane Seymour as the catalyst. They persuaded the King that one of Anne miscarried child is a incestous child fathered by her brother George Boleyn. 

On May 2, the Queen was arrested at Greenwich and was informed of the charges against her: adultery, incest and plotting to murder the King. Even though the evidence against them was scant, Anne and George were both found guilty. Anne was executed  on May 19 in  the Tower Green, two days after George's execution and one thousand days after she became the Queen. 

The Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I

After Henry VIII 's death, Prince Edward , the son of Henry VIII and  his third wife, became the King of England. After Edward's death , Princess Mary , the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife , became the Queen of England.  Elizabeth , the child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, succeeded to the throne on Queen Mary's death in  1558. Her 45-year reign is generally considered one of the most glorious in English history.

During Elizabeth's reign,  a secure Church of England was established. Her church settlement probably saved England from religious wars like those which France suffered in the second half of the 16th century.  Elizabeth's reign also saw many brave voyages of discovery, such as Walter Raleigh, particularly to the Americas. These expeditions prepared England for an age of colonisation and trade expansion. The arts flourished during Elizabeth's reign.  The Queen attended the first performance of Shakespeare's 《A Midsummer Night's Dream》.

Elizabeth's reign was one of considerable danger , with threats of invasion from Spain through Ireland, and from France through Scotland. In 1587, Queen of Scots' Mary Stuart  was executed for her assacination on Elizabeth.  In 1588, the English navy scored a great victory over the Spanish invasion fleet of ships - the 'Armada'. The Armada was intended to overthrow the Queen and re-establish Roman Catholicism by conquest , Spanish King Philip II.

Elizabeth chose never to marry. If she had chosen a foreign prince, he would have drawn England into foreign policies for his own advantages; marrying a fellow countryman could have drawn the Queen into factional infighting. Elizabeth used her marriage prospects as a political tool in foreign and domestic policies.

Overall, Elizabeth's leadership brought successes during a period of great danger both at home and abroad. She died at Richmond Palace on 24 March 1603, having become a legend in her lifetime. 

The Queen of Rococo , Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was the youngest and most beautiful Princess of Austria. She married the crown Prince of France in Spring 1770. Four years later she became Queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI .

Marie was the Queen of Rococo. She compensated by spending lavishly on clothes and palaces. She had a passionate love affair with Swedish Count von Fersen.  

In 1780s,  'The affair of necklace' triggered a mob at Versailles. Later , the French Revolution began. On January , 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine. Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine. She was executed on October 16, 1793.

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