15^th February 1554, England

Dear diary,

I’m in a terrible situation my dear friend, I’ve been imprisoned in the Tower of London from nearly a month. I’ve asked the guards if they could be so gentle to give me a little book to write in during my detention, so here I am. I am Elizabeth Tudor, the second daughter of Henry VIII, who was king and father of my half-sister Mary, better known as Mary I Queen of England. The queen is the person responsible of my arrest, she, my own sister, is strongly convinced that I plotted against her in the rebellion organized by Sir Thomas Wyatt. I didn’t conspired against her, she is blood of my blood, but she doesn’t believe me.

How dreadful my fate is, how I keep surviving I really don’t know, lovely diary. I have to confess, I’m so tired now, it has been a painful and boring day, spent in preying and crying, so I need a rest.

I’ll write you again, they permit me to confess my thoughts to you once a week.

Bye bye dear diary.

Elizabeth

22^nd February 1554

Dear diary,

It has been a hard week without you, but now that you finally are again with me, I want to tell you about my half-sister Mary. Her birth was the result of the marriage between Henry VIII, our father, and Catherine of Aragon. Mary growing up proved to be a studious and bright girl, but all changed when our father, whose desire was to have a male heir, divorced with the actual queen’s mother, with the consequence of marring my mother, Anne Boleyn. Mary suffered a lot because from our father’s new marriage she wouldn’t be able anymore to see her parents, and people also started treating her like an illegitimate son. Even my mother behaved badly with her, stripping to Mary the title of princess and forcing her to act like if she was my lady-in-waiting.

I understand that my mother behavior influenced Mary personality, which from then on would be less joyful and more tempestuous, some characteristic that are evident in his reign. In fact, my half-sister, that I used to love really tenderly, is now one of the most cruel queen that have ever been.

I have to let you go now, my dear diary, but I’ll continue to tell you about the queen the next time we’ll meet.

Goodbye my lovely friend.

Elizabeth

29^th February 1554

Dear diary,

Finally you come back to me, I looked forward to see you from the moment you had left me last time.

I’ll rapidly continue the tale about me and my sister, the guards told me that this time I’ll have only thirty minutes with you, because the queen isn’t satisfied by the interrogations that she made me do about the rebellion. I interrupted the narration before talking of my brother, prince Edward, that now rests in peace with our father. When Edward was born my father finally was satisfied, so Mary, that was previously reconciled with our father and the royal family after my mother’s execution, became the male heir’s godmother.

My sister, although she was returned to be a princess, still wasn’t able to free herself from the illegitimate birth accuse, but anyway she was putted in line of succession for the throne. Me and her weren’t really close, she always treated me with anger, but I thought that her, being my sister, would love me. After my father’s death my half-brother became king. His policy was extremely against catholic religion, so Mary once again was in danger of loosing her head. I’ll continue my narration the next time, my loyal friend.

See you soon,

Your Elizabeth

15^th March 1554

Dear diary,

It’s been a lot since the last time I’ve talked to you, but after my liberation I had to keep a low profile in favor to my queen’s reign. I just want to finish my tale about my rapport with my half-sister Mary.

After Mary became Queen of England last year, she started showing hate and angry to protestants, and, especially after the marriage with Philip II King of Spain, she started persecuting and killing every person who wasn’t catholic. In this situation, in which I’m still now, my religion is in danger, and I have to hide my personality for keep me safe and not intercede with my bloody half-sister’s policy. That’s extremely hard and I always feel the pain of sufferance for the crimes that Mary do to my religious-brothers.

I know that surely I’m not the most unfortunate woman on the planet, but trust me, my dear and old friend, I really feel fear every morning and every night, and there’s nothing I can do instead of simulating a calm and gentle behavior and professing a religion that I do not believe in. That situation is destroying me, and sincerely I hope sometimes that my half-sister just end behaving so bad and retire herself from the reign. Oh, I know dear diary, that’s just a pure and impossible dream. I hope that England’s life will go better in future years and that this terrible and awful moment will pass rapidly.

Goodbye my lovely diary, I don’t know if I will ever write again with you the story of my family and of my life.

Your sincerely.

Elizabeth 

30^th January 1560

Dear diary,

I never thought that I could hold your pages in my hand again, not after all what has happened. I’m the Queen of England now, I’m always busy and I’ve got a lot of responsibility upon my shoulders. My beloved sister is dead, an event that was terrible for me, but not for my nation. I have to confess that in certain moments I miss my sister, she had been really cruel, it’s true, but thanks to her I’ve also learned what a bad influence and a series of errors could make to a person and to a nation, I’ve learned what action I have to avoid, and also that tolerance is the key for success. My dear and old friend, you, my diary, have been really important to me, you’ve helped me to be a more careful and smart person, and I will never thanks you enough for that, but I’ve decided that from now on I will not open you again.

You would probably destroy the idea that I have maturated of my sister, and this is something unacceptable for me, because if she wasn’t a good person in the world, I want her to be a good person in my head.

Farewell my dear friend.

Elizabeth

Finish

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