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Age of Shakespeare - The Queen and Marriage
- 2. 1559 Plea of Parliament There is nothing which with more ardent affection we beg of God in our daily prayers, than our happiness hitherto received by your most gratious government may be perpetuated to the English nation unto all eternity. Whilst in our mind and cogitation we cast many ways how this might be effected, we can find none at all, unless your Majesty shall reign for ever, or else by Marriage bring forth children, Heirs both to their Mother's Vertue and Empire. This is the single, the onely, the all-comprehending prayer of all Englishmen.
- 3. Elizabeth Reply ...now that the Publick Care of governing the Kingdom is laid upon me, to draw upon me also the Cares of marriage may seem a point of inconsiderate Folly. Yea, to satisfie you, I have already joyned myself in marriage to an Husband, namely, the Kingdom of England...And to me it shall be a Full satisfaction, both for the memorial of my Name, and for my Glory also, if when I shall let my last breath, it be ingraven upon my Marble Tomb, "Here lieth Elizabeth, which Reigned a Virgin, and died a Virgin."
- 4. Philip II, Spain • January 1559 Offer • Consideration – Anglo-Spanish alliance as foil to French • Rejection – Close relationship as half- sister’s widower – Objections of subjects to a Catholic monarch
- 5. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-88) Amy Robsart Dudley, (1532-1560) m. 1550 m. 1578 Lettice Knollys Devereux (1543- 1634) Douglas Howard Sheffield (Dudley) Stafford
- 6. Drama and its Intended Uses • Comedy given by Dudley for Elizabeth • Juno and Diana debate marriage with Jupiter calling Juno’s defense of marriage the winner • Elizabeth to Dudley “This is all against me.”
- 7. Eric of Sweden (1533-1577) First proposal as prince (against father’s wishes) before Elizabeth was queen 1560 Becomes King Consideration: Protestant Elizabeth refuses proxy offer through brother “But I have always given both to your brother, . . . and also to your Ambassador likewise the same answer with scarcely any variation of the words, that we do not conceive in our heart to take a husband, but highly commend this single life, and hope that your Serene Highness will no longer spend time in waiting for us.” Van der Meulen, 1561
- 8. Bluff “She has many suitors for her hand, and by protracting any decision keeps them all in hope, persuading herself that in her need they will do what they can from rivalry to gain her love and matrimonial alliance." Giovanni Michieli, Ambassador, Venice “I do not think anything is more enjoyable to this Queen than the treating of marriage although she she assures me that nothing annoys her more. She is vain, and would like all the world running after her. Guzman de Silva, Ambassador, Spain
- 9. 1566 Parliament Confrontation Refusal to vote support unless marriage and succession is addressed • “I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself. . . And I hope to have children, otherwise I would never marry. “ • “Your petition is to deal in the limitation of the succession. At this present it is not convenient, nor never shall be without some peril unto you, and certain danger unto me. But as soon as there may be a convenient time and that it may be done with least peril unto you, although never without great danger unto me, I will deal therein for your safety and offer it unto you as your prince and head without requests. For it is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.”
- 10. Freedom of Speech 1566 Attempt to qualify the freedom to only apply to matters that are under consideration – She would reserve control over the subjects discussed 1571 The Commons were ‘to meddle with noe matters of state but such as should be propounded unto them, and to occupy themselves in other matters concerning the commenwealth’.
- 11. Charles II, Archduke of Austria 1560 Initial negotiations 1563-66 Resumption Consideration: Relationship with Hapsburgs and Netherlands trade Sticking points – Charles’ proxy negotiation – Catholicism – Question of status
- 12. Henry, Duke of Anjou (1551-89) 1570-72 Concerns: Plots against Elizabeth; Counter support for Mary, Queen of Scots Sticking Points – Religion – Henry’s opposition and refusal to woo in England – St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of Huguenots
- 13. Francis, Duke of Anjou (1555-84) 1578-81 Considerations: Coordinate support for anti- Spanish activities in Netherlands Reaction to Dudley marriage Pro – Elizabeth agrees to private worship – Francis, her ‘frog’ comes to England Anti – Domestic opposition to Catholicism – Fear of childbirth at Elizabeth’s age (46)
- 14. Gower, 1579 ‘Sieve’ Portraits Metsys, 1583 Mantegna 1495-1506
Editor's Notes
- Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Oil on panel. 110 x 80 cm. At Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection. The former attribution to Steven van der Meulen is in question since the discovery of van der Muelen's will (proved 20 January 1564); see Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630. New York: Rizzoli, 1995. ISBN 0-8478-1940-X, p. 94 (van der Meulen), p. 96 (this portrait). Leceister's Coat of Arms is depicted twice, surrounded by (left) the Collar of the Order of St Michael and (right) the Garter. For commentary (including a note that the arms with the Order of St Michael, which Leicester received in 1566, may have been added after the portrait was completed), see Karen Hearn, Dynasties, p. 96. Son and grandson of executed traitors. Acknowledged son, Robert Dudley, by Baroness Sheffield after the death of her first husband. She claimed a secret marriage and she was bought off Amy Dudley was found dead at Cumnor in the evening of 8 September 1560. Dudley was then with the court at Windsor, which was on its return from the progress in Hampshire. All that is known about the immediate circumstances comes from a correspondence of five letters between him and his household officer Thomas Blount of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, between 9 and 15 September. Amy Dudley was alone at the time (although the other women were elsewhere in the house) and no obvious cause of death could be discovered. Blount learned that she had rather emotionally and suddenly ordered her servants to go to a fair at Abingdon, which makes it difficult to credit a murder planned in advance. He worried initially about suicide, but this was denied strongly by her servants. In early 1567 John Appleyard tried to reopen the case, claiming that his half-sister had been murdered, though not by Dudley. He received short shrift from the privy council. Amy Dudley was buried at St Mary's, Oxford, on 22 September with the full dignities of her rank. Her husband appeared in mourning for the next six months, but his absence from the funeral (although this was within convention) and his failure to erect any memorial to her have been held to his discredit. The main literary source for a murder plot is the famous libel, Leicester's Commonwealth, published in 1584. It claimed that Dudley ‘when his lordship was in full hope to marry her Majesty … did but set her [his wife] aside to the house of his servant Foster of Cumnor by Oxford’. Having failed to poison her, he had her murder arranged by Verney, disguising it as a broken neck from a fall down a flight of stairs (Peck, 81–2, 90–92). In recent years a near contemporary version of this account including the role played by Verney has come to light, possibly written by John Hales, which suggests that it was in circulation immediately after Amy's death (BL, Add. MS 48023, fols. 353r–353v). In the nineteenth century the murder theory was sustained by the discovery of the contemporary Spanish ambassadorial correspondence. This repeated rumours that Amy Dudley was ill and that Dudley was trying to poison or divorce her as early as the spring of 1559. The only report to survive from the period immediately following her death, dated 11 September 1560, suggests that Cecil believed that Dudley was intending to murder his wife. In 1956 Ian Aird advanced a challenging alternative. On the basis of a reference in a Spanish report of April 1559 to her suffering from a malady in one of her breasts, he suggested that the cause of her death was advanced breast cancer. This theory accounts for a number of the known circumstances, but a serious illness in April 1559 is difficult to reconcile with her extensive travelling in the following months. The Dudleys' domestic life presents as many mysteries as Amy Dudley's death. There is not a hint of pregnancy or even miscarriage during the ten years of their marriage. It is also clear that after the summer of 1559 Dudley never saw his wife again. He was clearly shocked by her death, but possibly more by the political damage it might cause. The key role was possibly played by Elizabeth, as hinted at in the ‘Journal of matters of state’: ‘when the Lord Rob. went to his wife he wentt all in black, and howe he was commanded to saye that he did nothing with her, when he cam to her, as seldom he did’ (BL, Add. MS 48023, fol. 353r). Although the tradition that Amy Dudley was incarcerated or secluded at Cumnor has been disproved, Elizabeth's favour to Dudley clearly did not extend to his wife. In 2008 the Tudor historian S. J. Gunn discovered the verdict of the Berkshire coroner's inquest (TNA: PRO, KB 9/1073, art. 80, transcribed and translated in C. Skidmore, Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart, 2010, 377–9). The jury inspected Amy Dudley's body at Cumnor on 9 September, but then was progressively adjourned in order to record its verdict before the justices of assize. This finally took place on 1 August 1561. As was standard procedure, the justices then lodged the verdict, sealed by the jurors, with the court of king's bench, but it is filed under 1561 and as a result had eluded earlier searches. The verdict states that alone in a chamber, intending to descend certain stairs, she accidentally (casualiter) fell to the bottom of the stairs, suffering two head wounds (‘dyntes’), and died instantly from a broken neck caused by her own body weight. There was no other mark or wound on her body and she came to her death by misfortune (per infortunam). The head wounds add a new twist, but they are compatible with either accident or foul play. Simon Adams
- Eric also made unsuccessful marriage proposals to, among others, Mary, Queen of Scots (1542–87), Renata of Lorraine (1544–1602), Anna of Saxony (1544–77) and Christine of Hesse (1543–1604).
- While de Silva was ambassador relations with Spain were stable. His successor was more avid inrejecting her protestant ism and also turned toward relationship with Mary Queen of Scots
- Well, the matter whereof they would have made their petition (as I am informed) consisteth in two points: in my marriage, and in the limitations of the succession of the crown, wherein my marriage was first placed, as for manners’ sake. I did send them answer by my council, I would marry (although of mine own disposition I was not inclined thereunto) but that was not accepted nor credited, although spoken by their Prince. Claiming that she intended to marry in due course she insisted that it would be perilous to name a successor who might then become the focus of plots and factions, and therefore forebade all further discussion Read more: http://www.elizabethfiles.com/resources/speeches/1566-dressing-down/#ixzz3SLuhfTqd
- Concession Charles would attend private Catholic mass and public Anglican with E
- 1562 Treaty of Blois addressed concern of Spain and Scotland
- he was unfortunately scarred by smallpox at age eight, and his pitted face and slightly deformed spine did not suit his august birth name of Hercule ("Hercules" in English and Latin). He is believed to be less than 5’ tall. Elizabeth is estimated at 5’3 to 5’ 5”
- Tuccia was an ancient Roman Vestal Virgin whose chastity was questioned by a spurious accusation. When the piety of holy men and women was doubted by sceptics, the gods could perform miracles to vindicate them. In Tuccia's case she utilized a flat perforated basket to carry water, without the water falling to the ground through the sieve. Andrea Mantegna, The Vestal Virgin Tuccia, Tempera on poplar, c. 1495-1506, National Gallery London Tuccia's decision to prove her innocence is recounted: O Vesta, if I have always brought pure hands to your secret services, make it so now that with this sieve I shall be able to draw water from the Tiber and bring it to Your temple (Vestal Virgin Tuccia in Valerius Maximus 8.1.5 absol). Tuccia proved her innocence by carrying a sieve full of water from the Tiber to the Temple of Vesta [Augustine, De Civitate Dei, X, 16, in Worsfold, 69]. The Vestal Tuccia was celebrated in Pliny the Elder's Natural History (28: 12) and Petrarch's Triumph of Chastity. George Gower The Plimpton "Sieve" Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, 1579 Oil on panel This magnificent portrait by George Gower, Sergeant Painter to the Queen, belongs to the early group of "Sieve" portraits where Elizabeth wears a red gown. The portraits take their name from the sieve she holds in her left hand, recalling the Roman Vestal virgin who carried water in a sieve, thus proving her virginity. In this painting, the globe on the left with the Italian motto "I see everything and much is lacking," appears to refer to Elizabeth's imperial mission as her explorers sailed out to new lands. On the right is her coat of arms with a quotation beneath from Petrarch, indicating that the Virgin Queen is beyond the woes of lovers. The Siena Sieve Portrait, Metsys the Younger, 1583 Quentin Metsys the Younger - http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Metsys_Elizabeth_I_The_Sieve_Portrait_c1583.jpg Elizabeth I of England, The Sieve Portrait. Elizabeth is portrayed as Tuccia, a Vestal Virgin who proved her chastity by carrying a sieve full of water from the Tiber to the Temple of Vesta. She is surround by symbols of imperial majesty including a column with an imperial crown at its base and a globe. The portrait is signed on the base of the globe 1583. Q. MASSYS ANT (for "of Antwerp").