Elizabeth: The Virgin Queen
The only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Marchioness of Pembroke, Elizabeth was born in the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, on September 7, 1533. Henry certainly would have preferred a son to ensure the Tudor succession, but upon her birth, Elizabeth became the heiress to the throne of England. After Queen Anne failed to produce a male heir, Henry would have her executed on charges of treason and then marry one of Anne’s ladies in waiting, Jane Seymour, who finally gave Henry his long-awaited son, Edward VI. Elizabeth was three years old at that time and declared illegitimate, losing the title of Princess Royal. Thereafter she was addressed as Lady Elizabeth and lived in exile from her father as he married his succession of wives. It was due to Henry’s last wife, Catherine Parr, who helped reconcile the King with Elizabeth, and Elizabeth with her half-sister, Mary, daughter of Catharine of Aragon, and be reinstated in the line of succession after Prince Edward under the Act of Succession 1544.
It would take a passing of twenty-five years before Elizabeth would become Queen on November 17, and remain so for nearly forty-five years till her death on the twenty-fourth of March 1603. Elizabeth’s childhood was full of heartache and troubled from the moment she was born. Her father the King had changed the course of his country’s history in order to marry Elizabeth’s mother, hoping that she would bear him the strong and healthy son that Catherine of Aragon never did. Anne did eventually conceive a son, but he was stillborn. Henry was beginning to tire of Anne and was looking for to be replaced, to do so Henry started to plot her demise. Henry would have Anne charge with incest with her brother, considered an act of treason, and of witchcraft. It was all Henry needed to sign her death warrant and on May 19, 1536, Anne was beheaded on the Tower Green (Hibbert 18). Elizabeth was two-years and eight-months-old and was sent away from Court, as Henry saw her as she was a reminder of Anne. With Henry’s third marriage to Jane Seymour, the son he so eagerly awaited finally arrived. Within three weeks Jane would die of the puerperal fever, leaving Henry to grief until his fourth and fifth marriages to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard. Even through his two more marriages, Henry would never have any more children (Stanley 6).
Elizabeth’s last stepmother, Katherine Parr, the sixth queen to Henry VIII, had originally hoped to marry the late Queen Jane’s brother, Thomas Seymour, though she caught Henry’s eye instead. It was Katherine who would bring both Elizabeth and her half-sister, Mary, back to the court. When Henry died in 1547, Katherine became the Queen Dowager and took her household, including Elizabeth, from Court and remarried Lord Admiral Thomas Seymour. It was there that Elizabeth received her education under Roger Ascham. She came to speak and read seven languages, her native English, as well as Scots, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin (Hibbert 27). Elizabeth would have become an outstanding intellect, like her father and mother. Under the influence of Catherine Parr and Ascham, Elizabeth was raised a Protestant. Elizabeth would leave the household after an incident with the Lord Admiral (Smith 38). It is not know just what occurred between them two will never be known for sure, but rumors at the time suggested that Katherine had caught them kissing or perhaps even in bed together. Katherine was pregnant at the time of the incident. She later gave birth to a daughter. Katherine died not too long afterwards and was buried at Sudeley Castle. This left Thomas Seymour as an eligible bachelor once again.
With Henry’s death, his only son inherited the throne with Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset being the Lord Protector of England (Smith 33). As long as her Protestant half-brother remained on the throne, Elizabeth’s own position remained secure. On July 6, 1553, Edward died at the age of fifteen, after suffering ill health from birth and having left a will which purported to replace his father’s will. Young Edward may have contracted what was then called consumption, today known as tuberculosis, or had a severe respiratory infection. When it looked inevitable that the teenager would die without an heir of his own body, the struggle for the crown began. A new chapter and an even more dangerous time had started in Elizabeth’s life.
With Princess Elizabeth being the youngest daughter of the late King Henry, she was in line to the throne due to the passing of the Act of Succession 1544. The act re-instated both Mary and Elizabeth as second and third, respectively, behind their half-brother Edward. Even with several attempts to remove her from the line to the throne, Elizabeth was in Henry’s will as an heir. It was because of that she became a most sought after bride. During the reign of young Edward, widower Thomas Seymour asked for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage, to which she refused. From this both Thomas and Elizabeth were suspected of plotting against the king. Elizabeth was questioned and never charged. Seymour however, after an attempt to kidnap the boy king, was arrested and eventually executed for treason. Elizabeth was reported to have said, upon hearing of the Lord Admiral’s death, “Today died a man of much wit, and very little judgment” (Hibbert 34).
With reports of the young King’s declining health spurred on those who did not want the crown to fall to the Catholic Mary. It was during this time that Guilford Dudley married Lady Jane Grey, who was a descendant of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary, and therefore also an heir to the throne. When Edward died in 1553, the Act of Succession was ignored and Jane proclaimed Queen by her father Henry Grey and her father-in-law John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Even with the support of armies that rallied to support her, many more supported the rightful heir, Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Lady Jane did take the throne, only to be removed from it nine days later when imprisoned with her husband in the Tower.
Shortly after becoming Queen, Mary was wed to Prince Philip of Spain, which made the Catholic Queen even more unpopular. The persecuted Protestants saw Elizabeth as their savior, since she was seen as an icon of “the new faith.” After all, it was to marry her mother Anne Boleyn that Henry instituted the break with Rome. Because of this, several rebellions and uprisings were made in Elizabeth’s name, although she herself probably had little or no knowledge of them. However, Mary sensed the danger from her younger sister, and imprisoned her in the Tower.
After Mary gained the crown, she made it clear that she intended to return England to the Catholic Church and restrict the rights to Protestants. Mary even contracted a marriage with King Philip II of Spain, seeking to strengthen the Catholic influence in England. This was cause for panic among the Protestant and in show a rebellion arose, Wyatt’s Rebellion of 1554. Named for the son of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Thomas Wyatt the Younger, Wyatt, was among others who greatly opposed the re-entry into the Catholic faith and rose up against the Queen (Hibbert 45). The rebellion sought to prevent Mary from marrying Philip was short-lived and resulted in Wyatt and his followers being arrested and executed. In an effort to make him an example, Queen Mary took away Wyatt’s title and lands, including the family home Allington Castle. When Queen took the throne, and as a distant relative to the Wyatt family, she would restored the family titles and lands.
With the failure of Wyatt’s Rebellion, Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for her alleged involvement. Elizabeth was deathly afraid of the Tower, much of her fear was probably due to her knowledge of her mother’s fate in the Tower. Elizabeth arrived to the Tower in the middle of the night so to not raise the sympathy of supporters. When told she was entering through Traitor’s Gate, Elizabeth refused to move. The night was cold and rainy, and there sat the Princess soaking wet on the stairs from the Thames River to the gate. After her governess finally persuaded Elizabeth to enter, she did so and became yet another famous prisoner of the Tower of London. There were demands for Elizabeth’s execution, but Mary did not wish to put her sister to death. Mary did attempt to remove Elizabeth from the line of succession, but Parliament would not allow it. After two months in the Tower, Elizabeth was released. Only due to the appearance of a pregnant Mary that Elizabeth was no longer seen as a threat. Mary let her return to her residence at Hatfield, under semi-house arrest in the care of Sir Henry Bedingfield.
Elizabeth’s release was due to the petition of King Philip, who felt if Mary died in childbirth, he preferred Lady Elizabeth, under his tutelage, to succeed rather than Mary of Scotland, who was next in line. Mary, Queen of Scotland and daughter of Mary of Guise, was openly hostile to Spanish interests because she was of her French descent. For the remainder of her reign, Mary Tudor continued to persecuted Protestants whom she saw as heretics, and came to be known as “Bloody Mary” among her enemies. Mary urged Elizabeth to take up the Catholic faith, but Elizabeth kept up a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions.
Mary’s pregnancy was a false one. After a few months and with the swelling of her stomach, no baby was produced. Some modern historians think that she had a large ovarian cyst and this led to her failing health and eventual death. When the news of Mary’s death on November 17, 1558, reached Elizabeth at Hatfield, she was said to be out in the park, sitting under an oak tree. Upon hearing that she was Queen, Elizabeth was quoted to have said, “It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Hibbert 60).
Elizabeth was crowned Queen on January 15, 1559 with no Archbishop of Canterbury present. Reginald Pole, the last Catholic holder of the office died only a few hours after Queen Mary. Due to the senior bishops declining to participate in the coronation, since Elizabeth was illegitimate under both canon law and statute and because she was a Protestant, the relatively unimportant Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle would crown her. The communion was celebrated not by Oglethorpe, but by the Queen’s personal chaplain, to avoid the usage of the Roman rites. Elizabeth’s coronation would become the last one during which the Latin service was used. Future coronations would use the English service. Elizabeth would later persuade her mother’s chaplain, Matthew Parker, to become Archbishop. He only accepted out of loyalty to Anne Boleyn’s memory, since he often found working with Elizabeth was difficult. Elizabeth was known for her short-temper and was sometimes an indecisive ruler. Her indecisiveness made her counselors impatient with her, but often saved her from political and marital misalliances.
Elizabeth had inherited a tattered realm with division between Catholics and Protestants; the royal treasury bled dry by Mary and her advisors, Mary’s loss of Calais left England with no continental possessions for the first time since the arrival of the Normans in 1066 and many people, mainly Catholics, doubted Elizabeth’s claim to the throne. Continental affairs added to the problems. France had a strong foothold in Scotland, and Spain, the strongest western nation at the time, posed a threat to the security of the realm. Elizabeth proved most calm and calculating in her political acumen, employing capable and distinguished men to carrying out royal prerogative.
One of the most important concerns during Elizabeth’s early reign was the issue of religion. She would rely heavily on Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghly, for advice on the matter. In Elizabeth’s effort to put the religious concerns to rest, her first act, the Act of Uniformity 1559 would require the use of the Protestant Book of Common Prayer in church services (Black 15). The papal control over the Church of England that her sister had been reinstated was ended by Elizabeth. Elizabeth would also assume the title “Supreme Governor of the Church of England,” rather than the previous “Supreme Head,” primarily because several bishops and many members of the public felt that a woman could not be the head of the Church. The Act of Supremacy 1559 would also require public officials to take an oath, acknowledging the Sovereign’s control over the Church or face execution for treason (Black 15). Many bishops were unwilling to conform to Elizabeth’s religious policy, and so they were removed and replaced by those who would. Elizabeth also appointed a new Privy Council, removing many Catholic counselors in the process.
Elizabeth also reduced Spanish influence in England. Though Philip II aided her in ending the Italian Wars with the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, Elizabeth remained independent in her diplomacy. She adopted a principle of “England for the English.” Ireland, another country under England’s rule, never benefited from such a philosophy. The enforcement of English customs in an effort to eradicate Catholicism from Ireland proved unpopular with its inhabitants, as did the Queen’s religious policies.
Soon after her accession, many questioned whom Elizabeth would marry. Her reasons for never marrying were many. None are known to us now. It is only with speculation that we make assumptions as to why she did not marry (Levin 39). It has been suggested she may have felt repulsed by the mistreatment of her father’s six wives. Her mother’s death could have always been on her mind or perhaps psychologically scarred by her rumored childhood relationship with Lord Thomas Seymour, while in his household. Present-day gossip has it that she suffered from a physical defect that she was ashamed to reveal. There are also the contemporary rumors that she would only marry one man, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, with whom she was deeply in love with. Due to her council refusal to sanction a marriage, because of his family’s participation in the Lady Jane Grey matter and also due to what was viewed in some circles, the suspicious death of his first wife. A few historians have gone so far as to speculate that perhaps Elizabeth’s sexual orientation was towards the same sex. By far the best scenario would be that Elizabeth did not wish to share the power of the Crown with another. Even if given the unstable political situation, Elizabeth could have feared an armed struggle among aristocratic factions, if she did in fact marry, but marry someone not seen as equally favorable to all factions. Or, she could have remained unmarried and instead used the hint of marriage to her country’s benefit when dealing with powerful suitors from Europe. Further more, marrying anyone would have cost Elizabeth large amounts of money and independence, as all of the estates and incomes Elizabeth inherited from her father, Henry VIII, were only hers until she was married. It goes without saying that Elizabeth was immediately descended upon by suitors as soon as she did take the throne. The one serious contender for her hand was Francis, Duke of Alençon of France, but negotiations eventually failed.
Besides the problems Elizabeth had with religion and her not marrying, she also had her foreign affaire problems. Elizabeth found a rival for her throne in her cousin, the Catholic Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots and wife of the French King Francis II. In 1559, Mary would declare herself Queen of England with French support. In Scotland, Mary Stuart’s mother, Mary of Guise, attempted to strengthen French influence by providing an army fortification against English aggression. A group of Scottish lords allied with Elizabeth and ousted Mary of Guise. Then under pressure from the English, Mary’s representatives would sign the Treaty of Edinburgh, which led to the withdrawal of French troops. Though Mary passionately refused to endorse the treaty, it had the desired effect and the French influence was greatly reduced in Scotland.
Upon the death of her husband, Mary would return to Scotland. While in France conflict between the Catholics and the Huguenots led to the outbreak of the French Wars of Religion. Elizabeth would secretly give aid to the Huguenots and not make peace with France until 1564, when she agreed to give up claims to the last English possession on the French mainland. Elizabeth would not give up her claim to the French Crown, something that had been maintained since the reign of Edward III during the period of the Hundred Year’ War.
The end of 1562 brought a bout of smallpox to which Elizabeth fell ill with and would later recover from (Stanley 15). With the alarm of Elizabeth’s near-fatal illness, Parliament demanded that she marry or nominate an heir to prevent civil war upon her death. Elizabeth refused to do either, and in April, she recessed Parliament until 1566 when she needed them to raise taxes. Different lines of succession were considered during Elizabeth’s reign. One possible line was that of Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII’s older sister, which led to Mary, Queen of Scots. The alternative line descended from Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. The heir in this line would be the Lady Catherine Grey, Lady Jane Grey’s sister. An even more distant possible successor was Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, who could claim descent only from Edward III, who reigned during the fourteenth century. Each possible heir had his or her own disadvantage. Mary of Scots was a Catholic, Lady Catherine Grey had married without the Queen’s consent, and the Puritan Lord Huntingdon was unwilling to accept the Crown.
Mary, Queen of Scots, suffered her own troubles in Scotland. Elizabeth had suggested that if she married the Protestant Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, then Elizabeth would “proceed to the inquisition of her right and title to be our next cousin and heir.” Mary refused, and in 1565 married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and a Catholic. Lord Darnley would be murdered in 1567, and Mary would marry the alleged murderer, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell. Scottish nobles rebelled, imprisoning Mary and forcing her to renounce her crown in favor of her infant son, James VI.
The succession question was becoming a heated issue in Parliament with the death of the last practical English heir to the throne, Catherine Grey, in 1568. Catherine had left a son, but he was deemed illegitimate. Catherine’s heiress was her sister, the Lady Mary Grey, a hunchbacked dwarf. Elizabeth was once again forced to consider a Scottish successor. Mary was unpopular in Scotland, where she was imprisoned and later fled to England, where she was captured by English forces (Black 386). After debating what the best way to deal with Mary was, Elizabeth decided to have her re-imprisoned in England.
Elizabeth found a new enemy in her brother-in-law, Philip II, King of Spain. After Philip had launched a surprise attack on the English pirates, Sir Francis Drake and John Hawkins, in 1568, Elizabeth assented to the detention of a Spanish treasure ship in 1569. Philip was already involved in putting down a rebellion in the Netherlands, and could not afford to declare war on England. Philip participated in some conspiracies to remove Elizabeth from the throne. The 4th Duke of Norfolk was also involved in the first plot, the Ridolfi Plot of 1571, a Roman Catholic plan to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Mary of Scotland. After the plot was discovered and foiled, the Duke of Norfolk was executed and Mary lost the little freedom she had while remaining in English prison.
Philip II of Spain and the Netherlands was crowned king of Portugal in 1583, increasing his power over the high seas. After the assassination of the Dutch Stadholder William I, England began to side openly with the United Provinces of the Netherlands, who were at the time rebelling against Spanish rule. Together with economic conflict with Spain and English piracy against Spanish colonies, including an English alliance with Islamic Morocco, led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1585. In 1586 the Spanish ambassador was expelled from England for his participation in conspiracies against Elizabeth. Fearing such conspiracies, Parliament had passed the Act of Association 1584, under which anyone associated with a plot to murder the Sovereign would be excluded from the line of succession. Nevertheless, a further scheme against Elizabeth, the Babington Plot, was revealed by Sir Francis Walsingham, who headed the English spy network. This new plot had once again planned to overthrow and murder Elizabeth in an effort to place Mary on the English throne. Mary’s fate was sealed this time and was executed at Fotheringhay Castle on February 8, 1587.
In her will, Mary had left Philip her claim to the English Throne. Under the force of threat from Elizabeth’s policies in the Netherlands and the east Atlantic, Philip set his plans in motion for an invasion of England. In April 1587, Sir Francis Drake burned part of the Spanish fleet at Cádiz, affectively delaying Philip’s plans. In July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a grand fleet of 130 ships bearing over 30,000 men, set sail in the prospect of conveying a Spanish invasion under the command of the Duke of Parma, across the English Channel from the Netherlands. Elizabeth encouraged her troops with a notable speech, known as the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, where she famously declared, “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of a King of England too.” The Spanish attempt was defeated by the English under the command of Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake, with the aid of bad weather. The Armada was forced to return to Spain, with appalling losses on the north and west coasts of Scotland and Ireland. This victory vastly increased Elizabeth’s popularity. The battle was far from over and would continue in the Netherlands, where the Dutch Estates were seeking their independence from Spain.
Elizabeth’s problems with Spain would continue when they arrived in Brittany and expelled the English forces that were there. This added threat of an invasion across the English Channel had Elizabeth sending an additional 2,000 troops to France. In an attempt to turn the fighting in her favor, Elizabeth ordered an attack on the Portuguese islands, Azores, in 1597. This attempt was a catastrophic failure and the battles would continue until 1598, when France and Spain finally made peace. The Anglo-Spanish war between England and Spain would only reach a draw with the death of Philip II later that same year (Levin 88).
Even with the Anglo-Spanish war, Elizabeth was also facing a rebellion in Ireland, called the Nine Years War. The chief executor of Crown authority in the north of Ireland, Hugh O’Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, was declared a traitor in 1595. Elizabeth was determined to minimize spending from her treasury and accordingly authorized a series of truces with the Earl. After three years, in 1598, Tyrone would offer a truce, at the same time benefiting from Spanish aid in the form of arms and training. Upon hearing of the truce, the English suffered their worst defeat in Ireland at the Battle of the Yellow Ford.
In 1599, one of the queen’s leading noblemen, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland given command of the largest army ever sent to Ireland in an attempt to defeat the rebels. Essex’s campaign was soon debauched, and after a private meeting with Tyrone, it became clear that victory was out of reach. In 1600, Essex would return to England without Elizabeth’s permission (Smith 207). This was seen as an offence for which he was punished with the loss of all political offices and trade monopolies, his principal source of income. The following year, Essex would attempt to lead a revolt against Elizabeth. This failed and ultimately Essex was executed.
A replacement was found in Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy. With ruthless intent, Mountjoy attempted to blockade Tyrone’s troops and starve his people into submission (Black 486). In 1601, the Spanish sent over 3,500 troops to aid the Irish, with the justification that their intervention countered Elizabeth’s previous aid to the Dutch rebels in their campaign against Spanish rule. After a devastating winter siege, Mountjoy defeated both the Spanish and the Irish forces at the Battle of Kinsale. Tyrone would surrender a few days after Elizabeth’s death in 1603.
Elizabeth I fell ill during the month of February 1603. Suffering from frailty and insomnia, she would die on March 24 at Richmond Palace at the age of 69. At that time, Elizabeth was the oldest English Sovereign to ever reign. Elizabeth was buried in Westminster Abbey, immediately next to her sister Mary, with the Latin inscription on their tomb, “Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection.”
It has been said that Elizabeth named James her heir on her deathbed. According to one story, when asked whom she would name her heir, she replied, “Who could that be but my cousin Scotland?” According to another, she said, “Who but a King could succeed a Queen?” Finally, a third legend suggests that she remained silent until her death. With no evidence to prove any of these tales, James VI was proclaimed King of England as James I a few hours after Elizabeth’s death. James I’s proclamation broke precedent because it was issued not by the new Sovereign himself, but by a Council of Accession, as James was in Scotland at the time. Accession Councils, rather than new Sovereigns, continue to issue these proclamations in modern times.
The legacy of Elizabeth is an ongoing one. Elizabeth helped steady the nation’s debt after inheriting the enormous national debt from Mary. Under Elizabeth, England would manage to avoid a crippling Spanish invasion. Elizabeth would prevent the outbreak of a religious civil war, despite inheriting probably the greatest potential for such a war. In addition, all that she did was often done in the face of an all-male council and parliament which was often openly hostile to the idea of a female monarch. Notable portrayals of her in film and television have been abundant and have played on that. Elizabeth is the most filmed British monarch with twelve movies (Dobson 216). There have been also been many novels written about Elizabeth. From I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, to The Virgin’s Lover and The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory, to Margaret Irwin’s trilogy, Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain (Dobson 238). Many artists would glorify Elizabeth, and masked her age in their portraits. Elizabeth would often be painted in rich and stylized gowns, and be depicted with an ermine or holding a sieve, both being symbols of virginity. Even an opera would be written about her relationship with Lord Essex by Benjamin Britten. It would be composed for the coronation of Elizabeth II and title Gloriana (Dobson 29).
Elizabeth became the fifth and final monarch of the Tudor dynasty, having succeeded her half-sister, Mary to the throne. She reigned during a period of turmoil in English history. A reign today referred as the Elizabethan Era or the Golden Age. It was marked by increases in English power and influence worldwide. It produced playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson. Francis Drake became the first Englishman to circle the globe. Francis Bacon laid out his philosophical and political views and English colonization of North America took place under Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The English colony in the new world, Virginia, was named in honor of the Queen. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudors, died at seventy years of age after a very successful forty-four year reign.
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