Elizabeth I: The Golden Reign of Gloriana - Hardcoverby David Loades (Author) Elizabeth I, who reigned over Shakespeare's England and defeated the Spanish Armada, is familiar both from her portraits and as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. Yet the reality of her character and her personal attitudes are harder to detect behind the public mask. Elizabeth I, a major biography by a leading Tudor expert to mark the 400th anniversary of her death in 1603, looks in detail behind the public life at the private woman.