I take all "compliments" and veneration of all historical figures, ESPECIALLY POLITICIANS, with massive grains of salt.
However, it seems that there is a very one-sided historical precedent for Elizabeth Tudor, proclaiming her as the finest English monarch in history.
I am just curious, what would be some examples of her not so greatness?
Elizabeth is the most overrated English monarch. The only reasons I can think of of why she is popular is because: she is female to inspire the feminists, Protestant, had Shakespeare and the Spanish Armade to inspire the romanticists.
She was vainglorious and depended on English piracy on Spanish shipping to finance the treasury because she refused to raise taxes and therefore hurt her reputation among the population. That was the reason why Spain justifiably launched the Armada, not because England was Protestant. She milked the Armada as much as she could and refused to end the fruitless war against Spain which drained English resouces.
She was just as bloody as Bloody Mary in her persecutions of Catholics and particularly in her barbarous invasion of Ireland.
At the end of her rule, England was ungovernable and in financial ruin. England was lucky that the transition to James was peaceful since Elizabeth obviously didn't care who would succeed her to avoid bloodshed.
It is also James I that should have been more highly regarded. The first thing he did was end the war against Spain which started that years of peace enabling England to colonize North America. He reorgainized the finances and was tolerant towards Catholics. James 1 also supported culture. It was under his rule that Shakespeare wrote his best plays; under Elizabeth he had to write historical plays that glorified the monarchy. James 1 also the started the process that unified Scotland and England a hudred years later. Most of the postitive attributes that English romanticists assoiciate to Elizabeth are better attributed to James : religious toleration, golden age, British Empire and peace.