They were masters at spin and properganda. Giving the public and the rest of the world the image they wanted them to see hoping they wouldn't look too closely at what really was going on in the palace. If Henry VII hadn't left such a well stocked treasury that Henry VIII was able to pull stunts like The Field of Cloth of Gold and indulge in mass palace building and lavish courts would we really have been left with such glowing chronicles of his reign.

If Elizabeth had married would we still have the myth of Gloriana or would she have been overshadowed by whichever Prince of Europe she waas persuaded to wed. Also, if the wind had not been in our favour in a couple of places then Spain could well have won and that would have been her lot.