Elizabeth exhibited: the National Maritime Museum outside London presents the largest exhibit honoring the Tudor Queen.

As you step into the great red room that begins the most comprehensive collection ever exhibited to mark the 400th anniversary of the Tudor Queen's death in 1603, you are greeted by a large, sparkling replica of her royal signature emblazoned in gold across a mesh metal wall. From there, seven rooms display in succession the 69-year span of her life and her nearly 45-year reign with letters, documents, books, musical instruments, objets d'art, paintings, portraits, clothes and jewels. David Starkey, the historian whose BBC productions and attendant books on her life have been quite popular, guest curated the exhibit.

The journey through Elizabeth's remarkable life begins with the well-known backstory of Henry VIII's dissolution of marriage with Katharine of Aragon, and the split with the Roman Catholic church, to marry Anne Boleyn. A chalk drawing of a woman identified as "probably Anna Bollein (1507-1536)" has the accompanying description by a contemporary: as of …