Elizabeth I: From Greenwich to Richmond

Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace on 7 September 1533, the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The palace's friary church served for royal christenings, hers among them. The Tudor palace is gone, but drain works begun in late 2005 at the Old Royal Naval College uncovered the Tudor chapel and vestry, its tiled floor still in place. The pin marks the college site, not the exact vanished rooms.

Location precision: The palace no longer stands; the pin marks the Old Royal Naval College where its remains were found.

Visitor guidance: The Old Royal Naval College occupies the former palace site.

After Wyatt's rebellion broke out in early 1554, against her sister Mary I, Elizabeth was brought to court and, on 18 March 1554, imprisoned in the Tower of London. She fervently protested her innocence. On 22 May she was moved from the Tower to Woodstock Palace, where she stayed under house arrest. The Tower's use as a prison peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Elizabeth is among its best-known prisoners.

Hatfield's Royal Palace was Elizabeth's childhood home and favourite residence. After her two months in the Tower she returned there, and in November 1558, once Mary had died, she held her first Council of State in its Great Hall. A legend says she learned she was queen under the Queen Elizabeth Oak, but that is considered unlikely, since Mary died in November. Hatfield House, next to the surviving part of the old palace, is open to the public.

Location precision: Only part of the old palace survives; the pin marks nearby Hatfield House.

Visitor guidance: Hatfield House is open to the public.

On 15 January 1559, a date chosen by her astrologer John Dee, Elizabeth was crowned and anointed in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle. The eve of the ceremony saw a procession through London, greeted by orations and pageants, most with a strong Protestant flavour. In 1560 she re-established the abbey as a royal peculiar, a church responsible directly to the sovereign rather than to a bishop.

In the summer of 1588 the Spanish Armada threatened invasion, and the Earl of Leicester gathered 4,500 militia at West Tilbury to defend the Thames Estuary. Elizabeth visited the fort by barge, then rode to the camp on horseback in ceremonial armour. Her address survives in at least six versions; one has her say, "I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king." Tilbury Fort is now run by English Heritage as a visitor attraction.

Visitor guidance: Run by English Heritage; check opening times before travelling.

Elizabeth spent much of her time at Richmond and enjoyed hunting stags in what is now the Old Deer Park. She died there on 24 March 1603, and her body was taken by barge to lie in state at Whitehall Palace. The palace was later demolished, and only vestigial traces survive, notably the Gate House, built in 1501. Street names such as Old Palace Lane and Old Palace Yard still hint at the site.

Location precision: The palace is demolished; the pin marks the Old Palace Yard area of the former site.

Visitor guidance: The site lies between Richmond Green and the Thames.