Her usefulness had ended, and she no longer had the will to rouse herself from the listless sadness that immobilized her. From time to time she "raged exceedingly" at ministers who demanded money and at her nemesis Tyrone, who had managed to turn defeat to his advantage and to force the angry, humiliated queen to pardon him. But for the most part her "notable decay of judgment and memory" prevented her from attending to the tasks of rule.
"She cannot abide discourses of government and state," it was said, "but delighteth to hear old Canterbury tales, to which she is very attentive/' 6 She would see Cecil, but was unpredictable about receiving anyone else; "impatient and testy," she often sent others away.
It injured her greatly that, now that her death was close at hand, her servants and officials grew lax in obeying her and paid as little attention to her as if she were dead already. She was "very much neglected," wrote the bishop of Carlisle, "which was an occasion of her melancholy." To many, especially her "long-worn, threadbare, poor old servants," she was of interest chiefly for the possessions she would leave behind when the end finally came. What would become of her jewels, the rich furnishings of her apartments, her hundreds of gowns and perfumed gloves and swansdown fans? Would the new king bestow these treasures on Elizabeth's long-suffering, long underpaid servants, or would he take them for his wife? (Surely not, the gossip went; James and his queen were on distant terms at best, and it was rumored that he would have had her imprisoned if his councilors had not dissuaded him.)
"All are in a dump at court," an observer wrote. "Some fear present danger, others doubt she will not continue past the month of May, but generally all are of opinion that she cannot overpass another winter." The courtiers were nearly as fretful as the elderly queen, kept indoors by bad weather and forced into anxious inactivity by the deadlock in political affairs. Business and careers came to a standstill at Richmond, while as the long weeks passed the palace began to reek more and more strongly of unwashed bodies and unwashed floors.
In the first days of March the queen's symptoms became more severe, and made her so "full of chagrin and weary of life" that she refused to swallow the hated medicines her physicians urged on her and sank into a coma-like lassitude. She would not struggle to live, but she would not go to bed and die either. She sat on her cushions, aware yet fatally indifferent to her surroundings, not speaking, not eating, not changing her clothes. A swelling in her throat broke open, choking her with fluid and leaving her prostrate "like a dead person," but the doctors "found means to dry it up well," and the crisis passed.
It was a long, slow, wearying death, without drama or color—a death out of keeping with Elizabeth's flamboyant life. Glassy-eyed and emaciated, she lingered on amid her cushions, her body malodorous from disease, her finger in her mouth like an idiot or a dazed child. Finally, on the twenty-first of March, she did not resist the suggestion that she take off her soiled clothes and get into bed.
It may have been word of this significant event that caused fears of a
"commotion" among the nervous men and women of the court. With the queen in her deathbed it was time to take refuge against whatever trouble was coming. The council had fortified the palace and, in London, had begun to amass wheat in the storehouses to ensure against bread riots. The military danger, if it should come, would be from the north, where King James was said to have fourteen thousand mounted men ready to put into the field. London's defenses were strengthened by a wide ditch dug around its northern perimeter and on eastward to Westminster, though the city's best defense, it seemed, might be its worst affliction. Plague had broken out in both the city and suburbs, and was spreading so rapidly, and so early in the year, that the contagion promised to be far worse than any in memory.
They put the queen to bed in her high wooden bed with its ornate beasts and gilded plumes, covering her with embroidered sheets and laying her bony head on a silken pillow. She was greatly wasted from lack of food, but apart from a little broth, ate nothing, and continued her dulled vigil by turning on her side and ceasing to speak or to look at anyone. Alone despite the others in the room, her last thoughts shrouded in enigmatic silence, the great queen sank toward death.
There was a murmur of voices in the room as meditations and prayers were read; outside it, and in the realm at large, preachers had been instructed to pray for Elizabeth, "that she might be strengthened in weakness, her grief assuaged, her mind purified, and her health restored." 7 At the name of Jesus and when Archbishop Whitgift, who was with her, spoke of heaven she seemed to brighten fleetingly with hope, and hugged his hand. Within hours of going to bed she found she could not speak, and had to indicate by lifting her hand and eyes to heaven that she had full faith in her salvation "by Christ's merits and mercy only."
It was her last gesture. Late in the evening of March 23 she went to sleep, and her favorite chaplain, Dr. Parry, watched over her. In the corridor outside the bedchamber the chief servants and dignitaries paced back and forth, waiting for word to reach them. A horse stood in the outer courtyard, saddled and ready for its rider, who would set off northward as soon as the announcement was made to carry the news of the queen's death to King James. There was "great weeping and lamentation among the lords and ladies" when several hours later Dr. Parry, perceiving that the end had come and beginning earnestly to pray for the queen's soul, indicated that she was dead.
The word was passed, the rider mounted, and then the sound of galloping hoofbeats echoed through the rainy night.
Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
Burghley Papers
EHR LP
Relations politiques
Salisbury MSS.
Sp. Cal.
Sp. Cal. Elizabethan
A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth . . . left by William Cecil Lord Burghley, and now remaining at Hatfield House, ed. Samuel Haynes and William Murdin. 2 vols. London: William Bowyer, 1740-59. English Historical Review
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, ed. J.S. Brewer, R.H. Brodie and James Gairdner. 21 vols. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1862-1910. Kervyn de Lettenhove, Joseph M.B.C. and L. Gilliodts van Sev-eren, eds., Relations politiques des Pays-Bas et de VAngleterre, sous le regne de Philippe II. 11 vols. Brussels: P. Hayez, 1882-1900. Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. the Marquis of Salisbury . . . preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. 23 vols, in 19. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1883-1973. Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain, preserved in the Archives at Vienna, Simancas, Besancon and Brussels, ed. Pascual de Gayan-gos, G.A. Bergenroth, Martin A.S. Hume, Royall Tyler, and Garrett Mattingly. 13 vols. London: His and Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1862-1954.
Calendar of Letters and State Papers relating to English Affairs, preserved principally in the Archives of Simancas, ed. Martin A.S. Hume. 4 vols. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1892-1899.
>:j:-: F ;■:<-<. 3:-.c.o;
Slate Papers, Foreign,
Cj."
Cj>:Jj- .' >:j:c PjiV-n A -.<<::c >Vv> . ■ :-:< Rr.±-.> . ■ : ........
liny, Elizabeth and fames 1, preserved in the State Potpei Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Ojjfk* w fcobert
Le:v.cr. J".c: i.;r^ F c>cc- : :o'.> I O'.v.c.' U.. s .::. cc
Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the Reign of £'.':.. preserved in the State Paper Department of Hm > Public
Record QfJSi N l) vols - I ondon
Longnun. etc . 1863-1950,
Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, relating to I Affairs, existing in the Archives and CoUm . nsojVi ■... c jnJ m [fames ' . rthem Holy, ed Rawdon Brown ft e£, ;>ol> in 40 London Longnun. etc., 1SC4 ig^^
References to t P. Sp Col
numbers
and smul.u collections .ne to page numbers, not iLvnuu'iii
PARI ONE<
br />
The Improbable Child
CHAPTER 1
LP V, 592
LP VI, 412, 420 Ibid.. 450.
Sp. Cd/. IY:ii:ii, 923. Ibid., 788.
CHAPTER 2
L.P. VI, 684. /bid. VII, 360. Ibid. VI, 658. /bid., 604, 618. /bid., 610. Ibid., 629. LP. VII, 424-5 Ibid. VIII, 172-3. /bid. IX, 189.
10. /bid. VII, 191.
11. Ibid. VIII, 297.
12. /bid., 204.
13. Sp. Cd/. V:ii, 39.
14. LP. X, 361-2, 359-60.
CHAPTER 3
LP. VIII, 157. Ibid. X, 356. Ibid., 380. /bid., 381. /bid., 433. Ibid., 380. /bid., 466.
Ven. Cal. VLiii, 1538. LP X, 104, 339. 10. Ibid., 135.
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4"
PART TWO
God's Virgin
chapter 6
i. Burghley Papers, I, 100.
2. Ibid., 98.
3. Ibid., 70.
4. W. K. Jordan, Edward VI (London, 1968-70), II, 18.
5. Sp. Cal. IX, 46-7.
6. Jordan, II, 422.
7. The Good Duke is reassessed in M. L. Bush, The Government Policy of Protector Somerset (London, 1975).
8. Ascham, Whole Works, I:i, lvi-lvii.
9. For what follows see Burghley Papers, I, 99-100.
10. Burghley Papers, I, 99.
11. Ibid., 99-100.
12. Martienssen, p. 24, citing Vives, De Institutione Foeminae Christianae.
13. Ibid., 24-5.
14. Burghley Papers, I, 96.
CHAPTER 7
1. Burghley Papers, I, 96. "As I remember," Thomas Parry deposed later, "this was the cause why she was sent from the queen; or else that her grace parted from the queen. I do not perfectly remember whether of both she [Ashley] said, she went of herself, or was sent away."
2. Ibid., 101.
3. Ascham, Scholemaster, p. 261.
4. Apologia . . . pro caena Dominica, cited in Ryan, p. 96.
5. Ascham, VvTzo/e Works, I:i, lii-liii.
6. Mumby, pp. 69-72.
7. Ibid., 35-6.
8. Ibid., 37.
9. Burghley Papers, I, 103-4.
10. Cited in Martienssen, p. 239.
11. Burghley Papers, I, 82.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid., 105.
14. Sp. Cal. IX, 346-7. Their vehement disavowal of such backing after Seymour's apprehension suggests their involvement, as does the fact that the French king was closely informed of the admiral's activities. The messenger who brought him news of Seymour's arrest "broke one of his ribs in haste."
15. Burghley Papers, I, 80.
16. LP XXI:ii, 320-2.
17. Burghley Papers, I, 96.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 100.
20. Ibid., 102.
21. Ibid., 101.
22. Sp. Cal. IX, 340. Paget's remark may be the source of the apocryphal comment attributed by the fanciful historian Leti to Elizabeth on Seymour's death: "This day died a man of much wit and very little judgment."
CHAPTER 8
Burghley Papers, I, 70.
Ibid., 70-71.
Ibid., 72.
This story had a very long life. A version of it was still being told on the continent in 1601
Henry Clifford, The Life of fane Dormer, Duchess of Feria (London, 1887), p. 86.
7. Ibid., 94-5.
8. Ibid., 89, 102.
9. Ibid., 106-7.
10. Ibid., 108.
11. Mumby, pp. 55-9.
12. John Aylmer, A Harbor for True and Faithful Subjects, cited in Strickland, III, 38-9.
13. Sp. Cal. IX, 489.
14. Ibid., X, 6-7.
15. Salisbury MSS, I, 60.
16. Jordan, II, 20.
CHAPTER 9
1. Sp. Cal X, 186.
2. Ibid., 209.
3. Hie Chronicle and Political Papers [of Edward VI], ed. W.K. Jordan (London, 1966), p. 71.
4. Viscount Strangford, ed., Household Expenses of the Princess Elizabeth during her Residence at Hatfield October 1, 1551 to September 30, 1552. In The Camden Miscellany, Vol. II. Camden Society, Old series, LV (London, 1853).
5. Ascham, Whole Works, I:i, 175-6; Ryan, p. 112.
6. Sp. Cal. X, xxvii, and 114-15.
7. Ibid., 215-16.
8. Jordan, II, 87, 102.
9. Frederick Chamberlin, The Private Character of Henry VIII (New York, 1931), pp. 243-4; Jordan, II, 133-4.
10. Jordan, II, 494, 497.
11. Sp. Cal. XI, 54-5.
CHAPTER IO
1. Sp. Cal. XI, 228.
2. John G. Nichols, ed., Literary Remains of Edward VI (London, 1857; reprint New York, 1963), I, cxl.
3. Years later Cecil told his clerk John Clapham that Elizabeth had been in love with Courtenay, and that he was in fact the only man she had ever wanted to marry John Clapham, Elizabeth of England; certain observations concerning the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. Evelyn and Conyers Read (Philadelphia, 1951), p. 68.
4. Sp. Cal. XI, 252-3.
5. John G. Nichols, ed., The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of Queen Mary . . . Camden Society, Old series, XLVIII (London, 1850), 69.
6. Sp. Cal. XII, 5 5 ff.
7. The Acts and Monuments
of John Foxe, ed. George Townsend and A.R. Cattley, 8 vols. (London, 1837-41), VI, 414.
8. Patrick Fraser Tytler, England Under the Reigns of Edward VI and Mary, 2 vols. (London, 1838), II, 310-11; Mumby, 107-8; Chamberlin, Private Character of Henry VIII, 45-8.
CHAPTER 11
1. Neale, Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments (London, 1953-1957), I, 148.
2. Tytler, II, 320, 337-8.
3. Ibid., 340-1; Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, 6 vols. (London, 1807-8), IV, 56.
4. Tytler, II, 342.
5. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, VIII, 6c7ff.
6. Ibid., VIII, 609.
CHAPTER 12
1. "State Papers Relating to the Custody of the Princess Elizabeth at Woodstock in 1554," ed. Rev. C. R. Manning, in Norfolk Archaeology, IV (Norwich, 1855), 176.
413
3. Ibid., II, 343-4; Ambassades de messieurs de Noailles en Angleterre, 5 vols. (Leyden, 1763), III, 95-103.
4. Tytler, II, 366-7.
5. Ibid., II, 415, 396, 367, 405.
6. Ibid., II, 398^).
7. "State Papers . . . Woodstock," p. 206.
8. Ian Dunlop, Palaces and Progresses of Elizabeth I (London, 196.2), pp. 16-17.
9. Ibid., i3ff.
10. Nichols, Progresses, I, 9-10 note.
11. Ibid., I, 9-10.
12. Ibid., I, 10-11.
13. "State Papers . . . Woodstock," p. 142.
14. Ibid., 176-7.
15. Ibid., 169, 172-3.
16. Ibid., 170, 166, 169.
17. Ibid., 175-6, 179, 182-3.
18. Ibid., 192-3.
19. Ibid., 224-5.
CHAPTER 13
1. Sp. Cal. XIII, 135.
2. Ibid., 169; Ven. Cal. VI:i, 60-61.
3. Sp. Oz/. XIII, 145.
4. Ven. Cd/. VI:ii, 1059.
5. Ibid., 1058-9.
6. Ibid., 1059.
7. /bid.
8. Ibid.
9. Carolly Erickson, Bloody Mary (New York, 1978), p. 420.
10. Ven. Cal. VIA, 57.
11. Erickson, Bloody Mary, p. 413, and sources cited there.
CHAPTER 14
1. Ven. Cal. VI:ii, 1059.
2. Peter}. French, John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus (London, 1972), pp. 34-5 It is unclear just how Dee came to make the astrological calculations that endangered him.
The first Elizabeth Page 52