Long did they reign! Between them, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria ruled England for more than a century and their names define two historically and culturally significant eras. Queen Elizabeth I, the last reigning Tudor monarch, was the daughter of Henry VIII and the doomed Anne Boleyn. Despite her tumultuous upbringing she reigned from 1558 to 1603 and ushered in a period of stability and prosperity. Often referred to as the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth never married or produced an heir. She was, she insisted, married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. During her reign, in 1588, the British navy defeated the Spanish Armada—one of England’s greatest military victories—and England’s age of exploration and expansion began. The arts flowered during the Elizabethan era when poets and playwrights like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were plying their trade.

Queen Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901, an astonishing 63 years.  She expanded the British Empire to the four corners of the globe, confirmed the country as a constitutional monarchy, opened up railway systems around the world, and oversaw the beginnings of various social reforms, including the abolishment of slavery and establishment of child labor laws. Unlike Elizabeth, Victoria managed to balance her duties as sovereign with a happy marriage and nine children. The Victorian age in England was relatively peaceful and prosperous. The Industrial Revolution was taking hold, writers such as Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, and Arthur Conan Doyle were finding audiences, and Gilbert and Sullivan were musically sending up a certain class of Victorians in their delightful comic operas.

Sabrina Baron, an assistant research professor in the department of history at the University of Maryland, illuminates the lives and legacies of two extraordinary women.