Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth (32 page)
Read Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth Online
Authors: Alice Hunt,Anna Whitelock
Tags: #Royalty, #Tudors, #England/Great Britain, #Nonfiction, #Biography & Autobiography
The most common image of Philip and Mary’s co-monarchy is perhaps typified by Sir Francis Hastings’
A Watchword to all religious true
hearted Englishmen
of 1598, whose content derived in large part from John Bradforth’s contemporary work of propaganda,
The Copye of a letter, sent
by John Bradforth to the right honourable lordes the Erles of Arundel, Darbie,
Shrewsburye, and Pembroke, declaring the nature of Spaniardes, and discovering
the most detestable treasons, which thei have pretended most falselye agaynste our
moste noble kingdome of Englande
(1556). Hastings described how
the plots and practices, layed, and pursued by the Spanish King, had made a wofull proofe to England of a further marke shotte at (which was discovered in a letter to some of our nobles from a true harted Englishman in Spaine) had not God almightie, in his rich mercie, prevented their purposes.
61
Hastings mixed attacks on Mary’s reintroduction of Catholicism with misplaced blame on the “proude and bloodie monster” Stephen Gardiner, for “he and his complices never rested, till they had brought in the
Spaniard
, and had matched him in marriage with the Queene; by which they betrayed God, her, and the whole realme.” He also accused the Spanish of seeking only to win the crown, alter the laws of England, and introduce the Inquisition and declared that the marriage “could not drawe the least sparke of true love from him to this noble Queene, who so lovingly made choice of him to be her husband.”
62
The episode came to represent the stereotype of the proud, tyrannical, and lust-driven Spaniard that became iconic after the beginning of the Dutch revolt and William of Orange’s
Apology
. While this is the image that has come to dominate the historiography of the marriage, the reality of the Marian interlude was of a more nuanced and delicate balancing act between competing factional, national, and personal interests.
The notion that Philip failed to forge an effective role for himself as king of England ignores two crucial factors: first, the corporatist nature of monarchy itself, its implication in some form of power-sharing, a fact to which he was well used in Catalunya, for example, where regal authority was hemmed in by
fueros
or subjects’ rights far beyond those enjoyed in England; second—and perhaps more importantly—the extent to which power was exercised symbolically, ceremonially, and ritualistically, through intimacy, clientage, courtly exchange, festival, tournaments, religious observance, and music. Philip clearly influenced major policy decisions and participated in important debates. Getting his way, however, was not a foregone conclusion, despite expectations of Mary’s submission to his will. However, he was effective in “aiding” his wife in the administration of her dominions, a task he assiduously carried out, leading both countries in war when the English council following the Stafford raid eventually agreed to support him against the French. Mary’s bad press owes much to the unfortunate coincidence of her reign with a more general loss of control over the medium of print and a breakdown of the royal monopoly on public discourse, as religiously oppositional voices exploited the international nature of print culture more and more effectively to undermine her regime.
63
These voices echoed down through the Elizabethan period although they never altogether silenced those who saw the co-monarchy as a limited success, despite its failure to resolve the most pressing issue of all—the succession.
Notes
- The continuities between the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, the language and conceptualization of Elizabeth’s authority and government owes more to the example of Mary than has previously been acknowledged. See Paulina Kewes, “Two Queens, One Inventory: The Lives of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor” in
Writing Lives: Biography and Textuality, Identity and Representation
in Early Modern England
, ed. Kevin Sharpe and Steven Zwicker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 187–207. - See Corinna Streckfuss, “‘Our Greatest Hop e?’ European Propaganda and the Spanish Match” in this volume.
The window is alluded to in Judith
Richards, Mary Tudor
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 239. - J. B. Owens, “
By My Absolute Royal Authority ”: Justice and the Castilian
Commonwealth at the Beginning of the First Global Age
(Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2005), 215. - Patrick Williams,
The Great Favourite: The Duke of Lerma and the Court and
Government of Philip III of Spain
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006). He leapt from 57th in the list of aristocratic incomes before 1598 to double the next closest grandee, the duke of Medina Sidonia. - Ernst Kantorowicz,
The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957), 381. - Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain
, ed. Theresa Earenfight (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), Editor’s Preface, xiii–xiv. For interesting Spanish views of queenship in the pre-modern period, see the proscriptive ideas found in Alfonso X’s
Siete partidas
and
Espéculo
, and the descriptive one in Jaume II of Aragon’s
Llibre dels Feyts
. - There are numerous examples of queens regnant in medieval Iberia, from Ormisinda, the daughter of Pelayo in the eighth century, to Sancha of León, Elvira of Castile, Urraca of León and Berenguela of Castile in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Maria de Molina in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and Catalina of Lanchester in the fifteenth.
- See Theresa Earenfight, “Absent Kings: Queens as Political Partners in the Medieval Crown of Aragon” and Ana Echevarria-Asuaga, “The Queen and the Master: Catalina of Lancaster and the Military Orders,” in
Queenship and Power
, ed. Earenfight, 34, 96. A number of these precedents were cited by the chronicler Hernando de Pulgar in the context of Fernando and Isabella’s marriage. See Peggy Liss,
Isabel the Queen: Life and
Times,
2nd edn. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 114. - John Ponet,
A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power
(London, 1556), Eiii. - Issued by Paul II on June 23, 1469.
- Diego Dormer,
Discursos varios de historia; con muchas escrituras reales antiguas, y notas a algunas dellas
(Zaragoza, 1683), 296–7. All translations are my own, unless otherwise noted. - For more on the symbolism of this see Judith Richards, “Renaissance Queen” in “
High and Mighty Queens” of Early Modern England: Realities and
Representations
, ed. Carole Levin, Jo Carney and Debra Barrett-Graves (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 35. - H. F. M. Prescott,
Mary Tudor
(London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, repr. 1953), 225;
CSPD
, XI: 2, No. 2. - Myles Hogherde,
Certayne questions demaunded and asked by the Noble Realme of Englande of her true naturall chyldren and Subiectes of the same
(London, 1555), Aiiv. - “Capitulaciones del matrimonio entre la princesa Doña Isabel y D. Fernando, Rei de Sicilia, ajustadas en Cervera a 7 de enero de 1469, y confirmadas por el Rei D. Juan de Aragon en Zaragoza a 12 del mismo mes y año” in Diego Clemencín,
Elogio de la reina Católica Doña Isabel, al que siguen varias illustraciones sobre su reinado
(Madrid: I. Sancha, 1821), 578. - Clemencín,
Elogio de la reina Católica
, 580, 582. - The unfortunate story of Juana is brilliantly recounted, separating myth from what survives in the documentary record, by Bethany Aram in her
Juana the Mad: Sovereignty and Dynasty in Renaissance Europe
(Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). - Antonio y Pío Beltrán, “Numismatica de los Reyes Católicos” and Pío Beltrán Villagrasa, “Bibliografia numismatica de los Reyes Catolicos” in
Instituciones economicas sociales y politicas de la epoca Fernandina
, ed. J. Vicens Vives, et al. (Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico, n. d.), 223–42. - A Supplicacyon to the quenes Maiestie
(Strasbourg: W. Rihel, 1555), Cviiir. - Papiers d’état du Cardinal de Granvelle
, ed. M. Weiss, 9 vols. (Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1843), IV: 78, 144 and 149–51. There is interesting information about the power struggle between Renard and Eraso for control of the English mission in a letter dated September 3, 1554, 298–300. - Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London
, ed. J. G. Nichols, Camden Society 53, 1st ser. (London: J. B. Nichols and Son, 1851), 86. - He is mentioned in
The Accession, Coronation and Marriage of Mary Tudor as
Related in Four Manuscripts of the Escorial
, ed. Cesare Malfatti (Barcelona: Sociedad Alianza de Artes Graficas y Ricardo Fontá, 1956), 145: “On the 5 August their majesties left here and ordered Diego de Azevedo to stay on in Windsor to gather together the horses and Spanish courtiers because in the castles where they were going, there were not sufficient number of lodgings for all the courtiers.” - Phrase coined by David Starkey, “Intimacy and Innovation: The Rise of the Privy Chamber, 1485–1547” in
The English Court: From the Wars of
the Roses to the Civil War
, ed. David Starkey et al. (London: Longman, 1987), 87. - AGS E807, fol. 15.
- BNM MS 9937: Florian de Ocampo,
Sucesos Acaecidos, 1550–1558 and
1521–1549
, “Relaçion enbiada por Don Diego de Azeuedo a su muger llego a Çamora en 2o. de Agosto de 1553,” fols. 97r–99r. 26. BNM MS 9937, fol. 212v: “A post arrived for Salamanca with the news that Don Diego de Azevedo had disembarked in this fleet along with the Archbishop of Toledo and the Regent Figueroa,” letter from Hernando Delgadillo in Valladolid to Florián de Ocampo. - Phrase used by the papal emissary Giovanni Francesco Commendone, sent covertly to England to reopen diplomatic relations between England and the papacy in
The Accession, Coronation and Marriage of Mary Tudor
, ed. Malfatti, 58. - AGS E808, fol. 119, Emperor to Philip, January 21, 1554, Brussels. The version in
CSPSp
, XII: 36, mistranslates the letter and, rather than “our wish,” says “your desire,” implying Philip was insistent on the present form of words. The statement “we hold it to be certain” is more assertive than the Calendar’s “trust her word.” - AGS E808, fol. 19v. Partial translation at
CSPSp
, XII: 103–5. - Epistolario del III Duque de Alba Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo
, 3 vols. (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1952), I: 62–3. - AGS E98, fol. 274: “Memorial que embio Francisco Duarte de lo que le dixo Nicolas Nicolai, September 1553.”
- AGS E807, fol. 36.
- The most comprehensive discussion of the act is in J. D. Alsop, “The Act for the Queen’s Regal Power, 1554,”
Parliamentary History
13 (1994): 261–76. - BNM MS 9937, fol. 126v.
- Viaje de Felipe Segundo
, “Tercera Carta,” 118. See also David Loades,
The Tudor Court
(Oxford: Davenant Press, 2003), 26. - Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España
, III: 530. - Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España
, III: 530. - John Murphy, “The Illusion of Decline: The Privy Chamber, 1547–1558” in
The English Court
, ed. Starkey et al., 141. - Constance Jordan, “Woman’s Rule in Sixteenth-Century British Political Thought,”
RQ
40 (1987): 426–9. - David Loades, “Philip II and the Government of England” in
Law and
Government under the Tudors
, ed. Claire Cross, David Loades and J. J. Scarisbrick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 194. This judgement seems to have softened, although not altogether changed, recognizing that “some of them sought to return to firm conceptual ground by accepting Philip as a real king rather than a consort.” Nevertheless, Mary refused to “give him...a realistic share in the government” and so Philip, while “king of England in name, had no sovereignty in his own realm”: David Loades,
Mary Tudor: The Tragical History of the first Queen of
England
(Bath: National Archives, 2006), 10–11. - Anne McLaren,
Political Culture in the Reign of Elizabeth I: Queen and Commonwealth, 1558–1585
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 16. - CSPSp
, XI: 288. A comment rightly cited twice by Judith Richards in her new biography:
Mary Tudor
(London: Routledge, 2008), 145, 157. - BL Cotton Vespasian FIII, no. 23.
- His attendance at privy council meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays is recorded in “Relación de las cosas de Inglaterra,” Biblioteca de San Lorenzo del Escorial MS Vii3, fols. 486–7. See also El Escorial MS Vii4, fol. 456.
- Epistolario del III Duque de Alba
, 64–5. - John Guy, “Conference style” review of
Talking Peace 1604
exhibition and Rosemary Mulcahy,
Philip II of Spain: Patron of the Arts
in
Times Literary Supplement
, September 10, 2004, 17. - See the excellent monograph by Rory Rapple,
Martial Power and Elizabethan Political Culture: Military Men in England and Ireland, 1558–1594
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). - SP11/6, no. 20.
- Epistolario del III Duque de Alba
, 77. - CSPSp
, XIII: 97. - Luis de Cabrera y Córdoba,
Felipe Segundo, Rey de España
(Madrid, 1619; in modern ed. Aribau, 1876–7), 19. - Real Academia de Historia, Salazar y Castro A–52:
Cartas de Felipe II del Emperador, Principes y otras personas 1555 siguientes
, esp. fol. 53v. - Cartas de Felipe II del Emperador
, fol. 56v. - Cabrera y Córdoba,
Felipe Segundo
, 19. - Cabrera y Córdoba,
Felipe Segundo
, 19. See the section discussing “Curtesie of England” in Thomas Edgar,
The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights: Or, the Lawes Provision for Woemen
(London, 1632). - Willobie his Auisa. Or the true picture of a modest maid, and of a chast and constant wife
(London, 1594), 15r, 16r–v. - Willobie his Auisa
, 3v. See Patricia Shaw, “Philip II and Seduction
a la española
in an Elizabethan
roman a clef
” in
Actas del II Congreso de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Renacentistas Ingleses
, ed. S. G. Fernández-Corugedo (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, 1992), 292–3. Agrippa’s
De Vanitate Scientarum
had been published in Latin in 1530 and translated into English in 1575. - See Sandra Clark, “Spanish Characters and English Nationalism in English Drama of the Early Seventeenth Century,”
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
84 (2007): 131–44. - In 1597, Shakespeare referred through Shallow in
Henry IV, Part 2
to caballeros: “I’ll drink to Master Bardolph and to all his cavlieroes about London,” 5.3.60 (Norton Shakespeare based on Oxford edition). - Willobie his Auisa
, fol. 15v. - Sir Francis Hastings,
A watch-word to all religious, and true hearted Englishmen
(London, 1598), 90. - Hastings,
A watch-word
, 82–3, 101. - See Herbert Grabes, “England or the Queen?: Public Conflict of Opinion and National Identity under Mary Tudor” in his
Writing the Early Modern English Nation: The Transformation of National Identity in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England
(Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001), 47–87.