Elizabeth (15 page)
With Philip gone, Mary dedicated herself to her religion and the possibility of his return. His last visit had not left her pregnant, so even the hope of a child had disappeared. England was now locked into war with France, and in January 1558, Mary received notice that Calais, England’s last foothold in France, the relic of what had once been vast English holdings, had been lost. The blow to English pride was severe, and Mary never fully came to terms with it. She is supposed to have said that when she died, they would find the word ‘Calais’ engraved on her heart, so terrible had been her loss. Certainly the failure of the English troops did serious damage to England’s reputation in Europe, and to Mary’s own reputation with the English people.
Elizabeth did her best to live quietly, knowing the Queen would do anything she legally could to deny her the throne. In April 1558, with an eye to the future, Gustav I (King of Sweden 1523–60), proposed that Elizabeth should marry his son and heir Prince Eric. However, the King wrote directly to Elizabeth, not to Mary I as he should have. Mary, worried that Philip would not approve and would blame her if the marriage took place, contacted Elizabeth to find out how she felt.
Pope, Elizabeth’s Governor, asked her directly, and she reiterated that she had no desire to marry and certainly would not consider the Swedish prince. He asked if she might agree if some suitable match were identified, and Elizabeth replied, ‘What I shall do hereafter I know not, but I assure you, upon my truth and fidelity, and as God be merciful unto me, I am not at this time otherwise minded than I have declared unto you. No, though I were offered the greatest prince in all Europe.’
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Even before becoming Queen, it seems her mind was made up against marrying.
In 1557, we have a rare contemporary description of Elizabeth, written by the Venetian Ambassador Michiel:
She is at present of the age of twenty-three, and is esteemed to be no less fair in mind than she is in body. Albeit, in face she is pleasing rather than beautiful; but her figure is tall and well proportioned. She has a good complexion, though of a somewhat olive tint, beautiful eyes, and above all a beautiful hand, which she likes to show. She is of admirable talent and intelligence, of which she has given proof by her behaviour in the dangers and suspicions to which she has been exposed. She has great knowledge of languages, especially Italian, and for display talks nothing else with Italians. She is proud and haughty; for in spite of her
mother, she holds herself as high as the Queen and equally legitimate, alleging in her own behalf that her mother would not cohabit with the King save as his wife, and that with the authority of the Church … so that even if she were deceived having acted in good faith, she contracted a valid marriage and bore her child in lawful wedlock. Even supposing she be a bastard, she bears herself proudly and boastfully through her father, whom she is said to resemble more than does the Queen … She lives on what her father bequeathed her, and is always in debt; she would be more so but that she keeps down her household not to awaken the Queen’s jealousy. For there is no lord, nor knight in the kingdom who would not enter her service, to send there his son or brother; such is the affection and love which is felt towards her. She is always pleading her poverty, in such a dexterous way as to awaken silent compassion and therefore greater affection. For every one thinks it hard that a King’s daughter should be so miserably treated. Since Wyatt’s rebellion she has never been free; for though she is allowed to live in her house, some twelve miles distant from London, still she has many guards and spies about her, who observe all comers and goers; and she never says or does anything that is not at once reported to the Queen.
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Mary was alone in denying that Henry VIII was Elizabeth’s father. She would have denied the throne to Elizabeth if she could, but her Council would not allow her to change the succession, and her absent but still adored husband would never accept the alternative represented by Mary, Queen of Scots. Philip put pressure on his wife to name her sister as her successor, which she finally agreed to, just 11 days before her death.
In 1558, Mary fell ill. She died just before dawn on 17 November at the age of 42. Her courtiers left in droves to go to Elizabeth at Hatfield. When William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, both Catholic ministers in Mary’s Council, came to bring Elizabeth the official news of Mary’s death at 8 a.m., she praised God for bringing her to such a position.
On the road from London, crowds flocked to her, abandoning the dead Mary I to offer their services to the new Queen. The sight was to make a lasting impression on Elizabeth, one that would affect her policy in naming her own successor for decades to come. At the age of 25, Elizabeth was finally Queen.
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The New Queen 1558–59
W
hen Elizabeth became Queen, she inherited a country with a range of serious internal and external problems. The reigns of Edward VI, followed by Mary I, had both been short, but had been marked by economic difficulties, war, and religious and social unrest. A contemporary memorandum summed up the situation:
The Queen poor; the realm exhausted; the nobles poor and decayed; good captains and soldiers wanting; the people out of order; justice not executed; the justices unmeet for their offices; all things dear; division among ourselves; war with France and Scotland; the French King bestriding the realm, having one foot in Calais and the other in Scotland; steadfast enmity, but no steadfast friendship abroad.
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At her accession, Elizabeth must have recalled the initial joy with which her half-sister’s succession had been met, only to end, a scant five years later, in disappointment, disillusion and bitterness. Now it was Elizabeth’s turn – and she had no intention of failing.
One strong card that Elizabeth held in her favour was the matter of her parentage. As she was proud to remind everyone, Elizabeth was ‘mere English’, unlike the half-Spanish Mary I.
The official record of her accession further states that Elizabeth was ‘of no mingled blood of Spaniard, or stranger, but born mere English here among us, and therefore most natural unto us.’
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Elizabeth’s youth, grace and charm, and her undoubted resemblance to Henry VIII, also stood her in good stead with both her subjects and her court. Politician and writer Sir Robert Naunton describes the 25-year-old Queen as ‘tall, of hair and complexion fair, and therewithal well favoured, but high nosed; of limb and feature neat, and, which added to the lustre of these external graces, of a stately and majestic comportment, participating more of her father than of her mother.’
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Elizabeth was also renowned for her ability to engage with all her subjects, from the highest to the lowest: ‘If ever any person had either the gift or the style to win the hearts of the people, it was this Queen … Some she pitied; some she commended; some she thanked; at others she pleasantly and wittily jested, condemning no person, neglecting no office …’
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Her succession was met favourably and was announced swiftly. Less than half an hour after the official announcement of Mary I’s death at 8 a.m. on 17 November 1558, Parliament had confirmed Elizabeth as Mary’s successor. On 19 November, heralds proclaimed the Queen at the gates of Hatfield, and it was there that on the following day Elizabeth I held her first Council meeting, one that would prove vital to the successful transfer of power.
It would have been tempting for any new monarch to make a clean sweep of his or her predecessor’s Councillors, but even at 25, Elizabeth recognized that their experience, influence and skill were essential to how successful she would be as Queen – in the early days at least. Similarly, as Renard, the Imperial Ambassador, also recognized in his missives home, not all of the Council were hostile to the new Queen.
Displaying the caution that was to mark her reign, Elizabeth strove to achieve a workable compromise. While she removed Councillors who had worked against her during Mary’s reign – such as Sir Henry Bedingfield and William Paget (Nicholas Heath, the Catholic Archbishop of York, refused to continue as Lord Chancellor and retired in December 1558), she also retained several. Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel; William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke; William Paulet, 1st Marquis of Winchester; Francis Talbot, 5th Earl of Shrewsbury; Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby; Sir William Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham; Lord Edward Fiennes Clinton; Sir John Mason; Sir William Petre and Dr Nicholas Wotton (the only remaining churchman) all remained. To those men, she added her own personal supporters: Sir William Cecil as the new Principal Secretary; Sir Thomas Parry; Sir Edward Rogers; Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford; William Parr, 1st Marquis of Northampton; Sir Richard Sackville; Sir Francis Knollys; Sir Ambrose Cave and Sir Nicholas Bacon.
The new Queen’s priority was to seek good, experienced counsel and the Council now had 20 members, all of whom, except for Sir Ambrose Cave, had served at least one of the preceding monarchs, either as a Councillor or a household officer (Cave had been Elizabeth’s Controller of the Household at Hatfield when she was a princess and was now a country neighbour of the Cecils). William Cecil, 13 years Elizabeth’s senior, was the youngest member of the Council. Most were older; some considerably so, such as the 83-year-old William Paulet. Several of the Councillors were also related to Elizabeth through her mother, Anne Boleyn, including William Howard, Henry Fitzalan, Sir Francis Knollys and Sir Richard Sackville.
Elizabeth also rewarded those who had remained faithful to her throughout her early years. Roger Ascham, her old tutor, became
her Latin Secretary; Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was made Chief Butler and Chamberlain of the Exchequer; and Lord Cobham, who had been implicated in Wyatt’s rebellion and imprisoned in the Tower, became Warden of the Cinque Ports.
Others arrested during Wyatt’s rebellion were also rewarded: Sir William St Loe was created Captain of the Guard, and Sir James Crofts became Captain of Berwick. Elizabeth’s dear friend William Parr was restored as the Marquis of Northampton. Henry Carey, her cousin, was created Baron Hunsdon and made Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners, the Queen’s bodyguard. His sister, Catherine Carey, now married to the new Councillor Sir Francis Knollys, was made a Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber, with Elizabeth Norwich, wife of Sir Gawen Carew (another of Elizabeth’s supporters who was exiled after Wyatt’s rebellion). Sir John Ashley, who was related by marriage to Anne Boleyn and who had tried to warn his wife, Kat Ashley, of the perils of permitting Thomas Seymour to grow too familiar with the princess, was rewarded with the posts of Master of the Jewel House, Treasurer of Her Majesty’s Jewels and Plate, and Groom of the Chamber.
Kat Ashley, who had endured several periods of imprisonment through her loyalty to Elizabeth, was made Mistress of the Maids of Honour, Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber and Keeper of the Close Stools. She would remain in Elizabeth’s service until her death. The second Gentlewoman and Keeper of Her Majesty’s Books was Blanche Parry, who had seen the infant Elizabeth rocked in her cradle. Both of these ladies had considerable sway when it came to influencing the Queen in smaller matters.
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The trusted Blanche was devoted to the Queen. Blanche never married and had no title, but over the years she bought land in Herefordshire and Breconshire, where her family came from, and also in Yorkshire, where her beloved nephew John Vaughan lived.
In Blanche’s final will, published at her death in 1590, the first item was the bequest of a large diamond to Elizabeth I, a sign of her great devotion to her former charge and Queen.
On attaining the throne, Elizabeth dismissed many of the older, staunchly Catholic ladies-in-waiting of the Court of Mary I, and replaced them with friends and family closer to her own age such as Anne Morgan (wife of Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon), aged 29; Anne Poyntz (wife of Sir Thomas Heneage), aged about 20; Lettice Knollys (daughter of Catherine Carey and Francis Knollys), aged 19; and the legendary beauty Elizabeth Fitzgerald (third wife of Edward Fiennes Clinton), aged 31.