Which British monarch granted a charter to the East India Company in 1600?

Queen Elizabeth I granted the East India Company its charter in 1600. On 31 December that year, she approved the incorporation of the “Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies,” giving it a 15-year monopoly over English trade east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Strait of Magellan.

The company was created by London merchants who wanted to compete with the Dutch and Portuguese in the lucrative Asian spice trade. Its first governor was Thomas Smythe, and James Lancaster later led its first voyage to the East Indies. The charter gave the company commercial privileges, but it did not initially make it a territorial government.

A common mix-up is to associate the company’s foundation with later monarchs. James I renewed and expanded its privileges, while Queen Victoria ruled during the period when the British Crown took direct control of India in 1858. The original charter, however, belongs firmly to Elizabeth I’s reign.

The company eventually became one of the most powerful commercial and political institutions in history, administering large parts of India before its rule ended after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.