September 7, 1533

Elizabeth I

Birth of Princess Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace

The royal birth notices had already been written for a "Prince." Clerks had to correct them to "Princess."

7 September 1533, at Greenwich

Queen Anne Boleyn gave birth at Greenwich Palace on 7 September 1533 to a daughter, Elizabeth — the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Anne.

Anne had entered the customary royal confinement at Greenwich for the delivery of Henry's expected legitimate heir. Both of them had particularly hoped the child would be male.

The word that had to be changed

Official birth announcements had reportedly been prepared for a prince and were corrected from "Prince" to "Princess." Celebrations were noticeably muted, because Henry had expected a son.

A document calendared from 7 September records Anne informing Lord Cobham of the birth of a princess from Greenwich that same day.

Acknowledged, then baptized

The last-minute correction shows a boy was expected. It does not mean the newborn went unrecognized: she was formally acknowledged as a princess and treated by Henry's regime as heir presumptive.

Elizabeth was baptized three days later, on 10 September, with elaborate ceremony at the Observant Friars' church in Greenwich.

Parliament's statutory settlement explicitly excluding Mary and favouring Anne's issue came the following year, in 1534.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The conventional birth date and place are strongly supported and not seriously disputed.
The exact date and location of Henry and Anne's secret wedding remain less certain, although most historians favor 25 January 1533 at Whitehall. That uncertainty does not support the listed claim that Elizabeth was born only a little over three months after the marriage.