Elizabeth (17 page)

As Elizabeth settled into forming her Council, busy minds were already occupied with her potential marriage. Among her Councillors, at least one felt that he had a greater role to play than just a political one. Almost at once, Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, let it be known that he was a willing suitor for the Queen’s hand in marriage. He reasoned that, after the unpopularity of Mary’s foreign marriage to Philip of Spain, Elizabeth would want an English husband. With Edward Courtenay no longer a
contender (he had died in exile in Italy), who better than one of the country’s most senior and well-connected noblemen? One, moreover, who had a family line that could be traced back to William d’Aubigny, the first Earl of Arundel? Only time and Fitzalan’s efforts would tell, it seemed.

In July 1559, Elizabeth set out on her first progress (the visits that she made to towns and aristocratic homes in southern England). Going first to her own property in Dartford in Kent, and then onto Cobham Hall, home of her friend Lord William Cobham, who later became an ambassador to the Low Countries, a Knight of the Garter and a Privy Councillor, she continued on her travels, ending up at Nonsuch in Surrey, which had been built by Henry VIII, but was now Henry Fitzalan’s property.

On Sunday night, Fitzalan held a banquet, a masque (a court pageant) and a concert in the new Queen’s honour. On Monday, she watched coursing from a stand in the park, after which the children of St Paul’s performed a play, which was followed by another banquet. When Elizabeth left Nonsuch, Fitzalan gave the Queen not just the usual gift of a few pieces of gold, silver or gilded plate, but an entire cabinet full. But would Elizabeth be so easily impressed by such measures?

Although Fitzalan was a 47-year-old widower who had married twice, he might have proved a suitable candidate had he not been a staunch Catholic and also unimaginative and physically unprepossessing. Ambassador de Feria was pleased to report to Spain that he didn’t hold out much hope for Fitzalan’s suit: ‘Arundel has been going about in high glee for some time and is very smart … but I did not lose hope, as the Earl is a flighty man of small ability.’
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As would become clear as more time passed, Elizabeth set her sights high, demanding youth, intelligence and a high degree of
physical beauty in any man whom she favoured. Within a relatively short time, Fitzalan realized that his suit would be unsuccessful.

Elizabeth, already accustomed to being a focus for offers of marriage, had frequently stated that she had no wish to marry. She made light-hearted reference to marrying on occasions such as in 1560 when she visited the 75-year-old William Paulet, 1st Marquis of Winchester, a skilled and experienced politician married to Lady Elizabeth Seymour (the sister of Queen Jane Seymour), saying, ‘by my troth, if my Lord Treasurer were but a young man, I could find it in my heart to have him for a husband before any man in England.’
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As Elizabeth was still young, most of those around her believed that the Queen would eventually give in and choose a husband. It was considered inconceivable that she would wish to remain a maid and never marry.
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With the coronation completed and Elizabeth now lawfully Queen, she was faced with a number of urgent problems. In February 1559, she held her first official Parliament in which three critical issues were raised. The first was to create a ‘uniform order of religion’, finally settling the sensitive religious question after the violently turbulent years of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, particularly, Mary I. The second was to review statutes ‘contrary or hurtful to the commonwealth’, that is, to end the war with France that Mary’s Spanish husband, Philip II, had foisted on the English people. The third was the question of the succession: both Edward VI and Mary I had died without heirs, and if Elizabeth should die in the same state, there could well be civil war as rival factions fought to place their candidate on the throne.

Another major problem that took several years to sort out was the currency, which had been thoroughly debased under Edward
VI and Mary I. As a step to lower the costs of the Court, in her first six months Elizabeth reduced the Crown’s expenditure from £267,000 to £108,000.
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She sent Sir Thomas Gresham, a financial expert, to the Netherlands to arrange to repair English credit, which he carried out with considerable success. The debased coinage was eventually recalled and new money reissued, making English currency once more respected in the European money markets. This was a major achievement that re-established England’s supremacy as a trading nation.

On the question of religion, Elizabeth sought a pragmatic solution that would address Protestant concerns but avoid offending Catholics. She legislated for a Protestant church with the monarch at its head, but refused her father’s title of Head of the Church, which, it was argued, could only be held by a man (since men could not be ruled by a woman in matters of religious doctrine). In a masterly act of compromise, Elizabeth agreed to become ‘Supreme Governor as well in spiritual and ecclesiastical causes as temporal’.
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A Royal Commission passed the Act of Supremacy in which the authority of the Pope was solemnly renounced and the whole government of the church vested in the Queen, her heirs and successors. An important clause enabled them to delegate their authority to commissioners of their own appointment.
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The Act of Uniformity was also passed, which made compliance with Protestant worship compulsory and allowed the Queen to appoint all bishops.
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As for the matter of succession, a marriage leading to a lawful heir was the most expected outcome. Almost as swift to pay his court as Henry Fitzalan was Philip II of Spain, Elizabeth’s erstwhile
brother-in-law. In his wish to marry Elizabeth, apart from his distinctly lustful feelings for the young and attractive lady, Philip wanted to retain influence in this strategically important country. Moreover Philip was prepared to do pretty much anything to keep England out of French hands – and France already had its eye on England and the throne.

When Mary I died, Henri II of France had announced that, as Elizabeth was illegitimate, the throne of England now belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was married to his eldest son, the Dauphin François. According to this reasoning, the Queen of Scotland, who would be the next Queen of France, was also now Queen of England. Scotland, a country that bordered England, would provide any invading French army with an admirable starting point for an invasion.

Philip sent his envoy, Ambassador de Feria, to begin marriage negotiations with Elizabeth within days of her accession. Elizabeth was fascinated by the negotiations, holding several meetings with de Feria, who assumed that as the King of Spain had offered his hand, Elizabeth would accept. Philip had spelled out to his ambassador that by offering for the Queen of England he was rendering ‘this service to God … [I]t will be evident that I am serving the Lord in marrying her and that she has been converted by my act.’
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Elizabeth had other ideas. She hedged the subject by coquetting and flirting, pointing out that her people would not approve of her taking a foreign husband, especially one of whom they already had experience, moreover one who had abandoned her half- sister. Surely he would do the same with Elizabeth? She also reminded Philip that the Pope would never allow him to marry her unless she became a Catholic, and this was extremely unlikely to happen.

While de Feria had his doubts about Elizabeth’s sincerity towards Philip, especially when he realized that other ambassadors were approaching her and her Councillors with their own marriage offers, the other ambassadors seemed to feel that Spain would walk away with the prize. Michiel Surian, Venetian Ambassador to the Court of Philip II, wrote from Brussels, ‘As to what the Count de Feria is negotiating with regard to the marriage of Miladi Elizabeth, I am unable to write anything authentic, but the whole Court is full of the King’s intention to have her for himself …’
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Elizabeth’s Council also expressed doubts as to Philip’s suitability as King of England, however. They raised concerns about his religious intolerance, his poor treatment of Mary, his profligacy, Spain’s severe financial difficulties, and its war with France, which England did not want to get further dragged into. Moreover, there were legal complications: if Elizabeth was permitted to marry her sister’s husband, that would mean that her father (Henry VIII) was legally allowed to marry his brother Arthur’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, and that would mean that the divorce and therefore Henry’s subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn were both illegal and Elizabeth herself illegitimate.

Any of these points would have been enough to give Elizabeth the excuse to step back from Philip’s offer. Presented to her as a case against marriage by her Councillors, they were irrefutable. She could now flirt, negotiate and procrastinate, confident of being ‘forced’ to withdraw by her Council if matters became too serious.

Philip himself seemed to have a better understanding of the situation and soon realized that Elizabeth had no intention of accepting him. In April 1559, he reversed course and arranged to marry Henri II’s daughter, the 14-year-old Princess Elisabeth de Valois, as part of his peace negotiations with the King of France. He had previously arranged that his only son, Prince Carlos, marry
Elisabeth de Valois, however, Carlos’s mental state was deteriorating, so Philip decided to marry her instead.

Elizabeth I teased Philip a little over the suddenness of his change of heart. On 7 April 1559, de Feria met with the Queen, who took him to task over the news that Philip was planning to marry the French princess. He reported how she chided him: ‘Your Majesty, she said, could not have been so much in love with her as I had represented, if you could not wait four months for her.’
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Despite having been vociferously against the match, now the English were furious at the slight to their Queen. Obscene ballads were written and circulated that were highly insulting to the unfaithful Spanish King.

This was not the end of Philip’s involvement in Elizabeth’s marital status, however. Even if Philip could not marry her himself, England was too great a prize to let go. Two of his cousins, the sons of his paternal uncle Ferdinand I (1503–64, Holy Roman Emperor 1558–64), would be suitable candidates, Ferdinand and Charles, Archdukes of Austria. However, Ferdinand, though ‘high spirited and lusty’, was an uncompromising Catholic and was rumoured to have a morganatic wife (a wife of inferior status). Furthermore, Ferdinand was against the match and his inflexible religious beliefs made him ineligible to the English.

His younger brother, the 19-year-old Charles, was more flexible. Elizabeth expressed interest; was he a soldier, did he ride and dance? She enquired about what he looked like, if he was well educated, and whether he had been noted to have loved any woman and, in which case, what kind?
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Charles was described as being ‘of sanguine complexion, and, for a man, beautiful and well-faced, well-shaped, small in the waist
and well and broad breasted; he seems in his clothes well thighed and well-legged.’
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