My Enemy, the Queen (28 page)

Lady Mary Sidney came to visit us on her way to Penshurst. She felt it necessary to leave Court, for the Queen was so vituperative against her brother Robert, and particularly against me, that she found it distressing; and when she mentioned to the Queen that she was sure the Dudley family no longer enjoyed her favor and asked leave to retire to the country, this was granted. Elizabeth had said that she had been so badly treated by the very member of that family on whom she had lavished great favor, that it would be easier if she were not reminded of him. She would never forget what Lady Mary had done for her, but she was ready to allow her to retire to Penshurst for a while.

We would sit quietly with Lady Mary and talk of the future. I was pregnant and so longed for a son that I could let this storm pass over me. I was well aware that I should never again be welcome at Court and that the Queen was my enemy for life, for whatever she didven if she married the Duc dnjou, which secretly I knew she never wouldhe would not forget that I had taken the man she loved, and would never forgive me for having made him so much in love with me that he had risked his future by marrying me. In spite of her self-deception over her charms, she knew very well that had it been a choice between two women, I would have been the chosen one. That knowledge would always be between us and she would hate me for it.

But I had married Robert; I was to bear his child; and just now I could snap my fingers at the Queen.

Lady Mary thought that this would be the end of the family favor at Court, and it seemed very likely that the Queen would marry the Duc dnjou out of pique.

I did not agree with this. I knew her well, and I think that this rivalry between us had given me a rather special understanding of her. In so many superficial ways she was a hysterical, illogical woman, but beneath this she was as strong as steel. I did not think she would ever commit an act which did not seem to her politically wise. It was true she had given the passport which would bring Anjou to England. But the people were against an alliance with the French; the only reason for marriage could be to get an heir, and her age made that very uncertain; moreover, she would make herself ridiculous if she married this young boy. Yet, because she wanted the fun of courtship, because she wanted to create the illusion that she was nubile, and perhaps, too, because she was deeply hurt that Robert had married me she would continue with this farce.

Was this the act of a sensible, reasonable woman? Hardly. And yet, beneath it all was the iron hand of the shrewd ruler, the woman who knew how to make the cleverest men of her realm bow down before her and give the best of their talents in her service.

Never to be close to the Court again would create an emptiness in my life; but as long as we lived there would be a tie between us he Queen and myself. It might even be strengthened by hatred. I had at last proved my own importance to her. I had scored the greatest victory of our campaign when I had so enslaved Leicester that he was prepared to flout her in order to marry me. There could have been nothing more revealing in the relationship between the three of us than that. And she would be fully aware of it. I had proved without question that I was by no means the insignificant third in our triangle.

Mary left for Penshurst, and soon after she had gone Robert received a summons from the Queen. He was to present himself.

Full of foreboding, he departed and in due course came back to Wanstead with mixed emotions.

She had belabored him, called him traitor and ungrateful man; she had enumerated all she had done for him, reminding him that she had raised him up and could as easily cast him down.

He had protested that she had made it clear over many years that she had no intention of marrying him and that he believed he had a right to family life and sons to follow him. He was ready to serve his Queen with his life, he had told her, but he had believed that he might enjoy the comforts of family life without impairing his service to his Queen and country.

She had listened grimly and then she had told him to beware. l tell you this, Robert Dudley,she had shouted, ou have married a she-wolf and you will discover this to your cost.

So I became the She-Wolf. It was a habit of hers to bestow nicknames on those about her. Robert had always been her Eyes, Burleigh her Spirit, and Hatton her Mutton. I could see that forever after I should be the She-Wolfhe picture of me in her mind being that of a wild animal, seeking victims to satisfy my violent passions.

he seems determined to have Anjou,said Robert.

l swear she won.

n her present mood she is capable of anything. She was shouting and swearing at me in a voice which could have been heard throughout the palace.

evertheless,I said, doubt she will take Anjou.

The Frog Prince

How the hearts of your people will be galled, if not aliened, when they shall see you take a husband, a Frenchman and a papist, in whom the very common people know this, that he is the son of the Jezabel of our agehat his brother made oblation of his own sister marriage, the easier to make massacre of our brethren in religion. As long as he is Monsieur in might, and a papist in profession, he neither can nor will greatly shield you, and if he grow to be a king, his defence will be like Ajaz shield, which rather weighed down than defended, those that bare it.

Philip Sidney

England is like to be Swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the Banes by letting Her Majestie see the sin and punishment thereof.

John Stubbs

Another crisis had arisen in my family. There had been a tacit understanding between Penelope and Philip Sidney that they would marry. Walter had dearly wished that this marriage should take place and he had mentioned it on his deathbed in Dublin.

Philip Sidney was an unusual man. He seemed almost ethereal and by no means eager for marriage and it might have been for this reason that the engagement drifted on.

I received a call from Francis Hastings, the Earl of Huntingdon, who had been appointed the guardian of my daughters.

Huntingdon was a man of great importance, largely because, on his mother side, he was of royal descent, her ancestor being Edward IV brother, the Duke of Clarence; and because of this he had a claim to the throne and maintained he came before the Queen of Scots and Catharine Grey.

He was forceful and a strong Protestant, and there was a possibility that since Elizabeth seemed unlikely to provide the country with heirs, he could one day take the crown.

His wife, Catharine, was Robert sister; they had been married at that time when Robert father had been eagerly marrying his children into the most influential families in the land.

Now he came to see me and tell me that he considered it was time husbands were found for my daughters and he had an offer for Penelope. I pointed out that she had an understanding with Philip Sidney, but at this he shook his head.

eicester is out of favor and likely to remain so. An alliance with a member of the family is not the best for Penelope. Robert Rich has become enamored of her and offers for her.

is father has just died, has he not?

es, and Robert has inherited the title and a very considerable estate. His name describes him well.

will test her feelings in the matter.

Huntingdon looked impatient. y dear lady, this is a brilliant match. Your daughter should seize it gratefully.

doubt she will do that.

he will, for she shall be made to. Let us be frank. She is your daughter and you do not stand high with the Queen. Whether Leicester will come back into favor we do not know, but the Queen has vowed she will never receive you. In these circumstances it would be well for your daughters to be safely married.

I saw the point of this and said I would broach the matter to Penelope.

Lord Huntingdon shrugged his shoulders impatiently, implying that consultation with the prospective bride was unnecessary. It was a good match, the best Penelope could hope for now that her mother was in disgrace, and it should be arranged without delay.

But I knew Penelope. She was no weak girl and would have decided views of her own.

When I told her of Lord Huntingdon visit and its purpose she was stubborn.

ord Rich!she cried. know of him and I do not want to marry him no matter what my Lord Huntingdon decrees. You know I am betrothed to Philip.

ou are of a marriageable age, and he has expressed no eagerness for it. Huntingdon points out that my disgrace will reflect on you and you should therefore be very ready to consider a good match while you can get one.

have considered it,said Penelope firmly. do not want to marry Robert Rich.

I did not pursue the matter, for I knew that would only increase her stubbornness. Perhaps when she grew accustomed to the idea it might not prove so repulsive to her.

There was great excitement throughout the country when the Duc dnjou came to Court. He arrived in a manner calculated to win the Queen heart, for he came secretly to England accompanied by only two servants and presented himself at Greenwich, where he asked permission to throw himself at the Queen feet.

Nothing could have delighted her more and her infatuation-assumed though it must have beenmazed everyone. There could have been few men as unattractive as this French Prince. He was very shortlmost a dwarfnd when he was a child had suffered from a violent attack of smallpox which had left his skin badly scarred and discolored. The end of his nose had become enlarged and had split in two, which gave him a very odd appearance. In spite of this, being a Prince, a life of debauchery had been possible for him and he had indulged himself freely. He had refused to learn, so his education had been scanty; he was completely unprincipled and irreligious, ready to become a Protestant or a Catholic to fit the moment. What he did have was a certain charm of manner and an ability to flatter and insinuate his passionnd this appealed to the Queen. When he was seated low in a chair he resembled nothing so much as a frog, which the Queen was quick to notice, and with her passion for nicknames he soon became her Little Frog.

I was disappointed not to be at Court to see the farce of these two togetherhe little French Prince in his early twenties, repulsively ugly, playing the ardent lover, and the dignified Queen in her forties, languishing under his passionate gaze and utterances.

It must have been quite comic, but the implications were far from that, and there was not a man who had the interests of the Queen and the country at heart who was not dismayed. I reckoned that even Robert greatest enemies felt it was a pity she had not married him and by this time given the country an heir.

Robert was obliged to attend Court, although he was in disfavor, and I sometimes wondered whether she put on this nauseating display to anger him. I heard that she had had an ornament made in the shape of a frogt was of flawless diamondsnd she carried it with her everywhere.

For a few days the Duc rarely left her side and they walked in the gardens, laughing and chatting, holding hands and even embracing in public; and when the Prince returned to France it was with the certainty that the marriage would take place.

It was the beginning of October when she summoned her council to debate on her marriage and as Robert was still a member of that council he was present, so I had an account of what took place.

s she was not there,Robert told me, was able to discuss the matter with freedom, and as a purely political venture. It seemed she had gone so far with the Prince that it might be difficult to draw back, and for that reason the marriage might be necessary. We all knew the Queen age and it seemed hardly likely that she could have an heir; and if by some chance she did, she would endanger her life by doing so. The Queen was old enough to be the Duc mother, said Sir Ralph Sadler, and, of course, that was something with which we all had to agree. However, knowing her temper, we thought it advisable to suggest the project be dropped, but compromised by asking to be informed of her pleasure and assuring her that we would endeavor to make ourselves conformable to it.

he did not like that, Il swear,I put in. he wanted you to beg her to marry and give the country an heir, keeping up the illusion that she was still a young woman.

oue right. She looked daggers at us all when we told herand at me in particularnd said that some were ready to marry themselves but wished to deny that pleasure to others. She said we had talked for years as though the only surety for her was to marry and get an heir. She had expected us to petition her to proceed with the marriage, and she had been foolish to have asked us to deliberate on her behalf, for it was a matter too delicate for us. Now we had aroused doubts in her mind, and she would break up the meeting that she might be alone.

She had been in an evil mood that day, abusing everyone; and those whose duties brought them close to her person, I had no doubt, bore the worst of the brunt.

Burleigh called the council together and said that as she seemed so set on marriage perhaps they should agree to it, for her temper was such that whether they advised it or not, she would follow her own inclination.

Even then I could not believe she would marry the Duc. The people were against it, and she had always considered the people.

Robert said he had rarely seen her in such a mood. It seemed that the Frog had cast some spell on her. He must be a magician, for an uglier man few had ever seen. It would be ludicrous if she accepted him. The English hated the French in any case. Wasn it the French who had supported Mary Queen of Scots and given her grandiose ideas about her claim to the throne? Elizabeth would be playing right into the hands of the French if she married. There could be a revolt in the country. It was true that Anjou was a Protestant at the moment. He was, everyone knew, like a weathercock. Fine today, raining tomorrownly in his case it would be Catholic and Protestant. He turned with the wind.

We went to Penshurst to consult with the Sidneys what was best to be done.

There was a great welcome for us there. I had always been struck by the family loyalty of the Dudleys. Robert was greeted even more warmly now that he was in disgrace than he had been at the height of his popularity.