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On November 17, 1558, Elizabeth I, aged 25, ascended the English throne upon death of her half sister, Queen "Bloody" Mary. Elizabeth ruled during the Golden Age of English literature to which she herself contributed. From the article:
"Elizabeth I
Biography
Princess Elizabeth Tudor was born the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, on September 7, 1533. Considering how much trouble the king had gone through to annul his previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon (separating England from the papacy in the process), all so that he may produce a son to assure the royal succession, one must conclude that Elizabeth’s birth brought a certain amount of disappointment with it and undoubtedly must have brought delight to those who had opposed the annulment in the first place. Nevertheless, King Henry doted on his new daughter and she was baptized with great solemnity. The Succession Act of 1534 gave Elizabeth and any other children Henry might produce preference over Princess Mary (his only child with Catherine of Aragon, who from this point on would be considering illegitimate) in the royal succession. A lavish household was set up for Elizabeth of which Mary was a part of, involuntarily, and, from a very young age, the king tested his younger daughter’s value on the international marriage market, though none of the proposed unions came to fruition (obviously).
Elizabeth lived in this comfortable fashion for the first two and half years of her life. In the spring of 1536, her mother was executed after being found guilty on trumped up charges of fornication with her own brother and four other men. Less than two weeks later, the king married his third wife, Jane Seymour, and a new Succession Act was passed giving preference in the royal succession to any children that Henry and Jane would produce. Just like her sister Mary, Elizabeth was now considered to be a bastard and her value on the marriage market plummeted. It would be naïve for one to think that the execution of her mother had no effect on Elizabeth’s views towards men and marriage and it would be very easy to conclude that, it many ways, it left a void in her life that would never be properly filled.
For the remainder of her father’s reign, Elizabeth seems to have maintained a relatively low profile and did not spend any extended amount of time at court. She participated in the christening of her brother Edward in 1537 and most likely saw her father on holidays, but nothing much more than that. Though she by no means received the amount of attention that her brother, the new heir to the throne, did, Elizabeth lived comfortably on her various lands and was given an unusually solid education for a girl, even the daughter of a king. By the time she reached her teens, Elizabeth had a solid grasp on several different languages (French, Latin and Italian, among others) and was highly familiar with many of the standard pieces of literature and philosophy of the time. The princess was taught by men such as Richard Cox and John Cheke, both of whom were followers of the reformed faith, making it more than evident as to why Elizabeth would herself become a staunch Protestant. In 1544, both Elizabeth and her sister Mary were restored to the royal succession (though neither were officially legitimized) and were to succeed their brother Edward should he die childless, which no one at the time expected him to do. Though still a relative long shot, the king’s sudden change of heart on the matter of the succession was a huge victory for both of the princesses.
Elizabeth does not seem to have cultivated a steady relationship with any of her father’s subsequent wives, with the exception of his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr. It was at this point, in the closing years of the reign of Henry VIII, that Elizabeth finally began to spend more time at court and she most certainly shared a religious and intellectual bond with her stepmother. This is made evident by the fact that, after the king’s death in January 1547, the two remained close. It is not know as to what Elizabeth’s reaction was to her father’s death and it must be assumed that she felt a certain amount of sadness to have both of her parents deceased by the time she was thirteen. But one must also wonder if the princess garnered a certain amount of resentment towards her father for his brutal treatment of her mother. Given the fact that Elizabeth would never marry, it is safe to say that her father’s careless discarding of his wives did indeed have some sort of psychological effect on her, and a permanent once for that matter.
After her father’s death and the accession of her brother, Edward VI, to the throne, Elizabeth went to live with Catherine Parr at her house in Chelsea. Just months after the old king’s death, Catherine had married Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral of the Fleet and a maternal uncle to Edward VI. The marriage was widely despised, particularly by the Admiral’s elder brother Edward, Duke of Somerset, who served as Protector to his young nephew. It was widely believed at the time that the Admiral had originally planned to marry either Elizabeth or her elder sister Mary and had only chosen to wed Catherine as a second choice (though the two were nearly married before Henry VIII chose Catherine to be his final wife). Some accounts will even go so far as to say that the late king had planned for Seymour and Elizabeth to marry, though this must be taken with a grain of salt as it is unlikely that Henry would have agreed to give up such a valuable tool on the marriage market in favor of a buffoon such as the Admiral.
Whatever the case may be, Seymour seems to have wanted to keep his options open with Elizabeth, despite his marriage and supposed love for Catherine. This was made clear by the blatantly flirtatious behavior the two engaged in while living together at Chelsea. It is believed that Seymour would frequently visit the princess in her bedchamber while she was still only half-dressed, touch her inappropriately and engage in sexually explicit conversation with her. Though Elizabeth did what she could to deflect the solicitations of the Admiral, it cannot be said that she was completely against them. When Catherine found out about this behavior, she was, at first, not alarmed and even jokingly participated on occasion. However, it became clear that Seymour was taking the situation too far and his wife, who was now pregnant, began to grow angry with him. It comes as no surprise that, soon after, Elizabeth left Chelsea to live in the household of Sir Anthony Denny. Both Elizabeth and Catherine felt it would be best that the princess was kept away from the temptations that the Admiral put before her and, though relations between the two women remained semi-cordial, they were clearly not the friends they had once been.
When Catherine died during childbirth in September 1548, Seymour renewed his efforts to make Elizabeth his wife. In addition, the admiral seems to have been, at the very least, humoring thoughts to seize power from his brother. Seymour knew very well that, without the approval of the royal council, his marriage to Elizabeth would never happen. He therefore did what he could to badmouth Somerset in the presence of young king himself in order to win his favor. When the Protector discovered his brother’s devious behavior, he had him arrested and imprisoned in January 1549. Elizabeth’s cofferer, Thomas Parry, and her governess, Kat Ashley, were also arrested and even Elizabeth herself was vigorously interrogated in order to discover any involvement she may have had in the schemes of her suitor. The interrogators were able to discover that Elizabeth and Seymour had indeed acted inappropriately, but no evidence was found to implicate the princess or any of her household in the coup that the Admiral was supposedly plotting and Somerset had no choice but to release them. Elizabeth was undoubtedly embarrassed by the whole situation, and her honor was temporarily tarnished, but she escaped relatively unscathed. The same could not be said for Admiral Seymour, who was attainted and beheaded two months following his arrest. Elizabeth must have felt a certain amount of sorrow for his death, but she must also have known that his own provocations sealed his fate and her pity therefore had to be limited.
For the remaining years of the reign of Edward VI, Elizabeth lived a quiet existence and played no role at all in the politics of the regime. She lived comfortably on her estates and visited court only sporadically. It is worthy of mention that it was around this time that she chose Sir William Cecil to be her surveyor, beginning a relationship that would last nearly fifty years. In the spring of 1553, the king’s health was rapidly deteriorating and, by the summer, the royal council was preparing for his death. Henry VIII’s final will stated that the Orthodox Catholic Mary was to succeed Edward should he die childless. The king, who was himself a zealous Protestant, would have nothing of this and worked with the Duke of Northumberland (who had usurped power from Protector Somerset in the fall of 1549) to draw up a will that disinherited both Mary and Elizabeth in favor of their first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant. It is not known what Elizabeth’s initial reaction was to this development, but she does not seem to have made any significant objections, though it can be assumed she felt a bit discarded considering the fact that she and her brother were both followers of the reformed faith. The drama that followed Edward’s death in July 1553 is more appropriately told in detail in Mary’s biography, but when Mary emerged victorious and became the new Queen of England, it must be assumed that Elizabeth, considering her knowledge of her sister’s religious beliefs, was a bit uneasy with the regime change.
Elizabeth welcomed Mary into London, where she was to be officially proclaimed and crowned queen, and the two sisters seem to have greeted each other warmly. But, it must be assumed that this was for outward show only considering the fact that it was obvious that Mary viewed her younger sister as a bastard and a heretic, whose mother was no less than the whore of Babylon herself. Anyone familiar with the situation knew that Elizabeth’s religious beliefs would be an issue for the new queen and Elizabeth was forced to at least humor her sister and participate in the traditional Catholic mass. Mary had claimed that no one would be persecuted for their religious beliefs, but seems to have been under the impression that all of the English people would embrace the Orthodox Catholic faith and a reconciliation with Rome. The queen was wrong in her assumptions and, despite the fact that Elizabeth outwardly appeared to be a loyal Catholic, Mary (correctly) would never fully believe in her sister’s sudden transformation.
With trust a major issue between the two sisters, it came as no surprise that Mary and her council believed that Elizabeth was involved in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt in early 1554. Though she most likely had no direct involvement in the specifics of the rising, the rebels’ plan seems to have been to replace Mary with Elizabeth to prevent the highly unpopular marriage between the former and Philip of Spain (which Mary seemed dead set on by this point) from occurring. Elizabeth was forcefully taken from her estate, despite her ill health, and put in the tower to be questioned. As much as the queen’s ministers tried to break her, Elizabeth would not admit to any knowledge of the rebellion and no sufficient evidence could be found to incriminate her. The princess received a further reprieve when Wyatt himself, just before his execution, admitted that she was not directly involved and that the rebels had acted on their own freewill. Though Mary was never fully convinced of her sister’s innocence, she knew that it would be unjust to keep her in the tower any longer, but still chose to keep her under house arrest at Woodstock in the custody of her loyal henchman, Sir Henry Bedingfield. Elizabeth vehemently protested against her continued confinement and wrote a number of letters to the queen and the council expressing her anger, but her complaints were largely ignored by Mary, who was concentrating all her attentions on her new husband, Philip, and to the reconciliation of England and Rome. Over time, Elizabeth was gradually granted more liberties but was always under some sort of close watch by her sister the queen.
Meanwhile, Mary’s popularity amongst her subjects was on the decline, while Elizabeth’s was on the rise. The Spanish marriage had never been popular or advisable and the fact that Mary was by this point ordering the burnings of Protestants by the dozen did not exactly endear her in the hearts of her people. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was looked at as a sort of underdog who was being repressed and persecuted by a despotic, iron-fisted dictator for unjust reasons. Mary’s position became even weaker when she suffered a phantom pregnancy by the summer of 1555. Shortly after this event, her beloved husband departed England to deal with continental affairs (he was soon to become King of Spain). Before he left the realm, Philip apparently urged his wife to treat Elizabeth with more respect and even to officially name her as her heir. This was clearly a strategic move on Philip’s part. He knew that there was a very good chance that Mary, who was nearing forty, would die childless, and that Elizabeth would be her most logical successor, and it would be in his best interest to stay on good relations with the future queen, should he need her assistance against the French, of whom he was on the verge of war. The alternate English heir, Mary, Queen of Scots, though Catholic, would undoubtedly have treated England as no more than an extension of France (where she was being brought up), an unacceptable scenario to Philip.
After Philip’s departure, Mary still refused to officially acknowledge Elizabeth as her heir, but she was definitely treated better and was allowed to retire to her own lands. At least two other smaller risings erupted in the coming months in which Elizabeth was suspected of being involved in, but, again, no evidence against her could be mustered. As time progressed, in became increasingly clear that Mary would have no children and that Elizabeth would become queen. Therefore, Philip, wanting to stay on friendly terms with the future monarch but, not wanting a Protestant to ascend the throne, he proposed for her to marry his ally, the Duke of Savoy, a Catholic. Elizabeth outright refused the match and even Mary was not happy with the prospect, considering it would never win the approval of parliament. Philip returned to England for his final visit in the spring of 1557, but could still not convince Mary or Elizabeth to accept the marriage and was forced to leave again, but this time with a sizeable English army for the newly commenced war against France. Mary received two more major blows in early 1558: First, the French conquered the English-controlled town of Calais; and, secondly, it appears that the queen was the victim of yet another phantom pregnancy several months later. Soon after, Mary’s health slowly began to deteriorate and, by the fall of that year, it became blatantly obvious that she would die childless. Having no other choice, Mary was forced to acknowledge Elizabeth as her rightful heir, despite the fact that she knew very well that her sister would bring the realm right back into the depths of Protestantism, just as it had been in during the reign of Edward VI. On November 17, 1558, Mary died after a reign of just five (grueling) years. That same day, Elizabeth was proclaimed Queen of England...
...Assessment and Analysis
Whatever one’s opinion is pertaining to the character of Queen Elizabeth I, it is difficult to look back at her life and reign and not be inspired in some way. In a time dominated by men, and with the women’s rights movement hundreds of years away, Elizabeth was able to reign as the monarch of a major European power for an astounding period of forty-four years. It is true that there were other women who ruled during the sixteenth century (Mary Stewart reign as Queen of Scotland; Catherine de Medici served as regent of France; and Elizabeth’s own sister, Mary Tudor, reigned for five years before her), but none of them came close to achieving what Elizabeth did. This point being established, the question then becomes: Why was Elizabeth Tudor able to survive and prosper while other women rulers failed miserably in their attempts to rule? The question is not an easy one, and opinion will surely differ, but a number of factors play into Elizabeth’s success.
For one thing, England did not (and still does not) have a Salic Law, which would prevent the royal succession passing to, or through, a female. It is true that the clarity of English succession laws in those days was blurry at best, but the lack of a Salic Law gave Elizabeth a distinct advantage over any woman in France, a country in which the Salic Law reigned supreme. Before the sixteenth century, England had not faced the possibility of having a female ruler since 1135, when King Henry I died without any legitimate male issue and named his daughter Matilda as his heir. Back then, women possessed even fewer rights and Matilda was deprived of her inheritance by her cousin Stephen, a nephew of the late King Henry. The situation involving the daughters of Henry VIII, four hundred years later, is similar. When Edward VI died without a direct heir in 1553, England had to face the fact that she would have a female ruler. The king had no brothers, only two sisters, and no male relative existed who was as close to the royal family as Stephen had been in the twelfth century. Therefore, it was inevitable that a female would reign. Edward VI attempted to put his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne, but unsuccessfully, and his sister Mary became queen. When Mary failed to produce an heir of her own body, Elizabeth was lucky enough to succeed her.
For these reasons, it can be established that Elizabeth was able to become queen through a combination of sheer luck and a lack of royal male heirs. But, Elizabeth has not become famous over the years for how she became queen. She has retained her notoriety because she was able to remain queen for such a lengthy period of time in a male dominated world. Two of the primary reasons for this revolve around the fact that Elizabeth possessed good councilors and promoted fairly moderate policies. Men such as Francis Walsingham, Robert Cecil and, most importantly, the latter’s father, Lord Burghley, assured that the queen would never be betrayed or led astray. Whereas Henry VIII was fickle with his councilors and allowed such competent men as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell to fall victim to the jealousy and greed of the nobility, Elizabeth never betrayed or lost faith in Lord Burghley and theirs’ was a partnership that would only end upon Burghley’s own death, nearly forty years into the reign.
Elizabeth’s policies always contained a tinge of moderation to them, a stark contrast from the radical, and sometimes violent, changes her father, brother and sister put into effect. When it came to the topic of religion, Elizabeth herself was, unquestionably, of the reformed faith. Unlike her predecessors, Elizabeth was not as forceful when it came to religious policy and possessed a great amount of toleration for her Catholic subjects. While Elizabeth did require anyone who held public or clerical office to sign a supremacy oath, just as Henry VIII had, she did not press the issue to any great extent, and it was only made a treasonable offense after the third refusal. The result of this was that no one was executed for refusing to acknowledge the oath, a much different outcome then in the days of Henry VIII. Elizabeth was also more tolerant towards the Catholics in allowing clerical vestments and certain relics within the English church, something that would have been strictly forbidden during the reign of her brother, Edward VI. Most significantly though, Elizabeth never thought of burning at the stake anyone she considered to be a heretic as her sister Mary had and she was indeed able to boost her own popularity by condemning the brutal punishments her sister had handed out. Though it cannot be said that Elizabeth faced no rebellions based on religion (all of the risings in which the goal was to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne will prove this), it must be believed that, if Elizabeth would have taken a more repressive approach towards Catholicism, her reign would have been much more turbulent.
The queen’s moderation also extended into foreign policy. Henry VIII jumped at every opportunity to go to war, whether it be with France, Scotland or the Holy Roman Empire. Elizabeth only sent her troops onto the battlefield when she felt it was absolutely necessary to defend the Protestant cause or to defend her kingdom from foreign invasion. For this reason it is ironic that one of the greatest victories in English history, the defeat of the Spanish Armada (also known as the Battle of Gravelines), occurred during Elizabeth’s reign. The success of the queen’s military endeavors were mixed and the fact that she could not personally lead her forces into battle left her at a distinct disadvantage compared to her male counterparts. Elizabeth’s success against the Spanish was limited, despite decisive victories at Gravelines (1588) and Cadiz (1596), and, in the long run, the Low Countries achieved freedom from Spanish rule largely on their own. In Ireland, events were catastrophic under the Earl of Essex’s command, but, in the end, the English were certainly the winners of the Nine Years’ War.
It can be argued though, that the most attributable factors for Elizabeth’s longevity are based upon the facts that she never married and never officially named an heir. Elizabeth’s reluctance to marry undoubtedly stemmed from her father’s harsh treatment of his wives, divorcing two of them and, more significantly, executing another two, including Elizabeth’s own mother, Anne Boleyn. Her mistrust of men only expanded when during the time when she was being aggressively, and inappropriately, pursued by Thomas Seymour. When Elizabeth became queen, she chose not to marry, despite the consequences it would cause and despite the endless pleadings of her councilors, for several reasons. Firstly, if she married foreigner, as her sister Mary had done, the marriage would immediately be unpopular (just as Mary’s was) and, considering the fact that all of the available bachelors on the continent were Catholic, religion would become an issue. It the queen married a subject (say, the Earl of Leicester), the new king would gain the hatred and enmity of all of the influential men at court. Mary Queen of Scots made the mistake of marrying men who were troublesome and controversial (Lord Darnley and the Earl of Bothwell) and it had cost her her kingdom. Secondly, Elizabeth knew that whoever her husband might be would expect to play a major role in political affairs, and she had no intention of being ruled by any man by this point.
Elizabeth chose not to name an heir for the simple fact that, whoever the heir may be, they would always be a symbol of rebellion whenever there was any widespread disgruntlement or dissatisfaction with the regime. During Mary’s reign, Elizabeth was the most obvious heir and there had been a number of rebellions to place her on the throne. Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s own most sensible heir, caused a great deal of trouble for the latter’s regime, despite the fact that she was never actually acknowledged as heir apparent. Elizabeth was so sensitive about any discussion of the royal succession that Robert Cecil was forced to communicate with James VI of Scotland in secret to ensure the fact that there would be a smooth transition of power.
All of these factors combined to keep Elizabeth on the throne until she died a natural death and made her reign a truly astonishing phenomenon. By no means can it be said that Elizabeth was perfect and that she did not have her flaws. Many contemporaries and historians will draw attention to the queen’s stubbornness and to the fact that, at certain times, she dithered until the last second on a number of important decisions. These decisions ranged from going to war to executing recalcitrant subjects. Elizabeth greatly hesitated sending military aid to the Low Countries to protect her fellow Protestants from Spanish suppression and hesitated even more when it came to signing the death warrants on traitors such as Mary Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk. Ultimately though, Elizabeth always seemed to know when to when to take the advice of her councilors, and when not to, and when to jump into action, and when not to.
Elizabeth faced an uphill battle in life. Her mother was executed when she was not yet three years old; she was declared a bastard and never fully able to shake off the title; she was abused and taken advantage of by Thomas Seymour; and she was nearly executed for her faith during the reign of her sister Mary. It is no wonder, considering all these facts, that Elizabeth was reluctant to give up any sort of power when she finally became queen. Whether it was for her longevity, her leadership qualities or her ability to survive in a world dominated by men, once cannot help but admire the “Virgin Queen.” Over time, Elizabeth’s reign has become a sort of Golden Age and is looked upon as an age of progress where men such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser thrived and where England took its final step towards becoming a strictly Protestant nation. But, Elizabeth herself was the real story during this time period and her strong reign undoubtedly opened the door for many other women. In the end, it must be concluded that, for all her discrepancies and flaws, she was, like her father, a symbol of progress and woman who genuinely loved her people..."
"Elizabeth I
Biography
Princess Elizabeth Tudor was born the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, on September 7, 1533. Considering how much trouble the king had gone through to annul his previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon (separating England from the papacy in the process), all so that he may produce a son to assure the royal succession, one must conclude that Elizabeth’s birth brought a certain amount of disappointment with it and undoubtedly must have brought delight to those who had opposed the annulment in the first place. Nevertheless, King Henry doted on his new daughter and she was baptized with great solemnity. The Succession Act of 1534 gave Elizabeth and any other children Henry might produce preference over Princess Mary (his only child with Catherine of Aragon, who from this point on would be considering illegitimate) in the royal succession. A lavish household was set up for Elizabeth of which Mary was a part of, involuntarily, and, from a very young age, the king tested his younger daughter’s value on the international marriage market, though none of the proposed unions came to fruition (obviously).
Elizabeth lived in this comfortable fashion for the first two and half years of her life. In the spring of 1536, her mother was executed after being found guilty on trumped up charges of fornication with her own brother and four other men. Less than two weeks later, the king married his third wife, Jane Seymour, and a new Succession Act was passed giving preference in the royal succession to any children that Henry and Jane would produce. Just like her sister Mary, Elizabeth was now considered to be a bastard and her value on the marriage market plummeted. It would be naïve for one to think that the execution of her mother had no effect on Elizabeth’s views towards men and marriage and it would be very easy to conclude that, it many ways, it left a void in her life that would never be properly filled.
For the remainder of her father’s reign, Elizabeth seems to have maintained a relatively low profile and did not spend any extended amount of time at court. She participated in the christening of her brother Edward in 1537 and most likely saw her father on holidays, but nothing much more than that. Though she by no means received the amount of attention that her brother, the new heir to the throne, did, Elizabeth lived comfortably on her various lands and was given an unusually solid education for a girl, even the daughter of a king. By the time she reached her teens, Elizabeth had a solid grasp on several different languages (French, Latin and Italian, among others) and was highly familiar with many of the standard pieces of literature and philosophy of the time. The princess was taught by men such as Richard Cox and John Cheke, both of whom were followers of the reformed faith, making it more than evident as to why Elizabeth would herself become a staunch Protestant. In 1544, both Elizabeth and her sister Mary were restored to the royal succession (though neither were officially legitimized) and were to succeed their brother Edward should he die childless, which no one at the time expected him to do. Though still a relative long shot, the king’s sudden change of heart on the matter of the succession was a huge victory for both of the princesses.
Elizabeth does not seem to have cultivated a steady relationship with any of her father’s subsequent wives, with the exception of his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr. It was at this point, in the closing years of the reign of Henry VIII, that Elizabeth finally began to spend more time at court and she most certainly shared a religious and intellectual bond with her stepmother. This is made evident by the fact that, after the king’s death in January 1547, the two remained close. It is not know as to what Elizabeth’s reaction was to her father’s death and it must be assumed that she felt a certain amount of sadness to have both of her parents deceased by the time she was thirteen. But one must also wonder if the princess garnered a certain amount of resentment towards her father for his brutal treatment of her mother. Given the fact that Elizabeth would never marry, it is safe to say that her father’s careless discarding of his wives did indeed have some sort of psychological effect on her, and a permanent once for that matter.
After her father’s death and the accession of her brother, Edward VI, to the throne, Elizabeth went to live with Catherine Parr at her house in Chelsea. Just months after the old king’s death, Catherine had married Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral of the Fleet and a maternal uncle to Edward VI. The marriage was widely despised, particularly by the Admiral’s elder brother Edward, Duke of Somerset, who served as Protector to his young nephew. It was widely believed at the time that the Admiral had originally planned to marry either Elizabeth or her elder sister Mary and had only chosen to wed Catherine as a second choice (though the two were nearly married before Henry VIII chose Catherine to be his final wife). Some accounts will even go so far as to say that the late king had planned for Seymour and Elizabeth to marry, though this must be taken with a grain of salt as it is unlikely that Henry would have agreed to give up such a valuable tool on the marriage market in favor of a buffoon such as the Admiral.
Whatever the case may be, Seymour seems to have wanted to keep his options open with Elizabeth, despite his marriage and supposed love for Catherine. This was made clear by the blatantly flirtatious behavior the two engaged in while living together at Chelsea. It is believed that Seymour would frequently visit the princess in her bedchamber while she was still only half-dressed, touch her inappropriately and engage in sexually explicit conversation with her. Though Elizabeth did what she could to deflect the solicitations of the Admiral, it cannot be said that she was completely against them. When Catherine found out about this behavior, she was, at first, not alarmed and even jokingly participated on occasion. However, it became clear that Seymour was taking the situation too far and his wife, who was now pregnant, began to grow angry with him. It comes as no surprise that, soon after, Elizabeth left Chelsea to live in the household of Sir Anthony Denny. Both Elizabeth and Catherine felt it would be best that the princess was kept away from the temptations that the Admiral put before her and, though relations between the two women remained semi-cordial, they were clearly not the friends they had once been.
When Catherine died during childbirth in September 1548, Seymour renewed his efforts to make Elizabeth his wife. In addition, the admiral seems to have been, at the very least, humoring thoughts to seize power from his brother. Seymour knew very well that, without the approval of the royal council, his marriage to Elizabeth would never happen. He therefore did what he could to badmouth Somerset in the presence of young king himself in order to win his favor. When the Protector discovered his brother’s devious behavior, he had him arrested and imprisoned in January 1549. Elizabeth’s cofferer, Thomas Parry, and her governess, Kat Ashley, were also arrested and even Elizabeth herself was vigorously interrogated in order to discover any involvement she may have had in the schemes of her suitor. The interrogators were able to discover that Elizabeth and Seymour had indeed acted inappropriately, but no evidence was found to implicate the princess or any of her household in the coup that the Admiral was supposedly plotting and Somerset had no choice but to release them. Elizabeth was undoubtedly embarrassed by the whole situation, and her honor was temporarily tarnished, but she escaped relatively unscathed. The same could not be said for Admiral Seymour, who was attainted and beheaded two months following his arrest. Elizabeth must have felt a certain amount of sorrow for his death, but she must also have known that his own provocations sealed his fate and her pity therefore had to be limited.
For the remaining years of the reign of Edward VI, Elizabeth lived a quiet existence and played no role at all in the politics of the regime. She lived comfortably on her estates and visited court only sporadically. It is worthy of mention that it was around this time that she chose Sir William Cecil to be her surveyor, beginning a relationship that would last nearly fifty years. In the spring of 1553, the king’s health was rapidly deteriorating and, by the summer, the royal council was preparing for his death. Henry VIII’s final will stated that the Orthodox Catholic Mary was to succeed Edward should he die childless. The king, who was himself a zealous Protestant, would have nothing of this and worked with the Duke of Northumberland (who had usurped power from Protector Somerset in the fall of 1549) to draw up a will that disinherited both Mary and Elizabeth in favor of their first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant. It is not known what Elizabeth’s initial reaction was to this development, but she does not seem to have made any significant objections, though it can be assumed she felt a bit discarded considering the fact that she and her brother were both followers of the reformed faith. The drama that followed Edward’s death in July 1553 is more appropriately told in detail in Mary’s biography, but when Mary emerged victorious and became the new Queen of England, it must be assumed that Elizabeth, considering her knowledge of her sister’s religious beliefs, was a bit uneasy with the regime change.
Elizabeth welcomed Mary into London, where she was to be officially proclaimed and crowned queen, and the two sisters seem to have greeted each other warmly. But, it must be assumed that this was for outward show only considering the fact that it was obvious that Mary viewed her younger sister as a bastard and a heretic, whose mother was no less than the whore of Babylon herself. Anyone familiar with the situation knew that Elizabeth’s religious beliefs would be an issue for the new queen and Elizabeth was forced to at least humor her sister and participate in the traditional Catholic mass. Mary had claimed that no one would be persecuted for their religious beliefs, but seems to have been under the impression that all of the English people would embrace the Orthodox Catholic faith and a reconciliation with Rome. The queen was wrong in her assumptions and, despite the fact that Elizabeth outwardly appeared to be a loyal Catholic, Mary (correctly) would never fully believe in her sister’s sudden transformation.
With trust a major issue between the two sisters, it came as no surprise that Mary and her council believed that Elizabeth was involved in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt in early 1554. Though she most likely had no direct involvement in the specifics of the rising, the rebels’ plan seems to have been to replace Mary with Elizabeth to prevent the highly unpopular marriage between the former and Philip of Spain (which Mary seemed dead set on by this point) from occurring. Elizabeth was forcefully taken from her estate, despite her ill health, and put in the tower to be questioned. As much as the queen’s ministers tried to break her, Elizabeth would not admit to any knowledge of the rebellion and no sufficient evidence could be found to incriminate her. The princess received a further reprieve when Wyatt himself, just before his execution, admitted that she was not directly involved and that the rebels had acted on their own freewill. Though Mary was never fully convinced of her sister’s innocence, she knew that it would be unjust to keep her in the tower any longer, but still chose to keep her under house arrest at Woodstock in the custody of her loyal henchman, Sir Henry Bedingfield. Elizabeth vehemently protested against her continued confinement and wrote a number of letters to the queen and the council expressing her anger, but her complaints were largely ignored by Mary, who was concentrating all her attentions on her new husband, Philip, and to the reconciliation of England and Rome. Over time, Elizabeth was gradually granted more liberties but was always under some sort of close watch by her sister the queen.
Meanwhile, Mary’s popularity amongst her subjects was on the decline, while Elizabeth’s was on the rise. The Spanish marriage had never been popular or advisable and the fact that Mary was by this point ordering the burnings of Protestants by the dozen did not exactly endear her in the hearts of her people. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was looked at as a sort of underdog who was being repressed and persecuted by a despotic, iron-fisted dictator for unjust reasons. Mary’s position became even weaker when she suffered a phantom pregnancy by the summer of 1555. Shortly after this event, her beloved husband departed England to deal with continental affairs (he was soon to become King of Spain). Before he left the realm, Philip apparently urged his wife to treat Elizabeth with more respect and even to officially name her as her heir. This was clearly a strategic move on Philip’s part. He knew that there was a very good chance that Mary, who was nearing forty, would die childless, and that Elizabeth would be her most logical successor, and it would be in his best interest to stay on good relations with the future queen, should he need her assistance against the French, of whom he was on the verge of war. The alternate English heir, Mary, Queen of Scots, though Catholic, would undoubtedly have treated England as no more than an extension of France (where she was being brought up), an unacceptable scenario to Philip.
After Philip’s departure, Mary still refused to officially acknowledge Elizabeth as her heir, but she was definitely treated better and was allowed to retire to her own lands. At least two other smaller risings erupted in the coming months in which Elizabeth was suspected of being involved in, but, again, no evidence against her could be mustered. As time progressed, in became increasingly clear that Mary would have no children and that Elizabeth would become queen. Therefore, Philip, wanting to stay on friendly terms with the future monarch but, not wanting a Protestant to ascend the throne, he proposed for her to marry his ally, the Duke of Savoy, a Catholic. Elizabeth outright refused the match and even Mary was not happy with the prospect, considering it would never win the approval of parliament. Philip returned to England for his final visit in the spring of 1557, but could still not convince Mary or Elizabeth to accept the marriage and was forced to leave again, but this time with a sizeable English army for the newly commenced war against France. Mary received two more major blows in early 1558: First, the French conquered the English-controlled town of Calais; and, secondly, it appears that the queen was the victim of yet another phantom pregnancy several months later. Soon after, Mary’s health slowly began to deteriorate and, by the fall of that year, it became blatantly obvious that she would die childless. Having no other choice, Mary was forced to acknowledge Elizabeth as her rightful heir, despite the fact that she knew very well that her sister would bring the realm right back into the depths of Protestantism, just as it had been in during the reign of Edward VI. On November 17, 1558, Mary died after a reign of just five (grueling) years. That same day, Elizabeth was proclaimed Queen of England...
...Assessment and Analysis
Whatever one’s opinion is pertaining to the character of Queen Elizabeth I, it is difficult to look back at her life and reign and not be inspired in some way. In a time dominated by men, and with the women’s rights movement hundreds of years away, Elizabeth was able to reign as the monarch of a major European power for an astounding period of forty-four years. It is true that there were other women who ruled during the sixteenth century (Mary Stewart reign as Queen of Scotland; Catherine de Medici served as regent of France; and Elizabeth’s own sister, Mary Tudor, reigned for five years before her), but none of them came close to achieving what Elizabeth did. This point being established, the question then becomes: Why was Elizabeth Tudor able to survive and prosper while other women rulers failed miserably in their attempts to rule? The question is not an easy one, and opinion will surely differ, but a number of factors play into Elizabeth’s success.
For one thing, England did not (and still does not) have a Salic Law, which would prevent the royal succession passing to, or through, a female. It is true that the clarity of English succession laws in those days was blurry at best, but the lack of a Salic Law gave Elizabeth a distinct advantage over any woman in France, a country in which the Salic Law reigned supreme. Before the sixteenth century, England had not faced the possibility of having a female ruler since 1135, when King Henry I died without any legitimate male issue and named his daughter Matilda as his heir. Back then, women possessed even fewer rights and Matilda was deprived of her inheritance by her cousin Stephen, a nephew of the late King Henry. The situation involving the daughters of Henry VIII, four hundred years later, is similar. When Edward VI died without a direct heir in 1553, England had to face the fact that she would have a female ruler. The king had no brothers, only two sisters, and no male relative existed who was as close to the royal family as Stephen had been in the twelfth century. Therefore, it was inevitable that a female would reign. Edward VI attempted to put his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne, but unsuccessfully, and his sister Mary became queen. When Mary failed to produce an heir of her own body, Elizabeth was lucky enough to succeed her.
For these reasons, it can be established that Elizabeth was able to become queen through a combination of sheer luck and a lack of royal male heirs. But, Elizabeth has not become famous over the years for how she became queen. She has retained her notoriety because she was able to remain queen for such a lengthy period of time in a male dominated world. Two of the primary reasons for this revolve around the fact that Elizabeth possessed good councilors and promoted fairly moderate policies. Men such as Francis Walsingham, Robert Cecil and, most importantly, the latter’s father, Lord Burghley, assured that the queen would never be betrayed or led astray. Whereas Henry VIII was fickle with his councilors and allowed such competent men as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell to fall victim to the jealousy and greed of the nobility, Elizabeth never betrayed or lost faith in Lord Burghley and theirs’ was a partnership that would only end upon Burghley’s own death, nearly forty years into the reign.
Elizabeth’s policies always contained a tinge of moderation to them, a stark contrast from the radical, and sometimes violent, changes her father, brother and sister put into effect. When it came to the topic of religion, Elizabeth herself was, unquestionably, of the reformed faith. Unlike her predecessors, Elizabeth was not as forceful when it came to religious policy and possessed a great amount of toleration for her Catholic subjects. While Elizabeth did require anyone who held public or clerical office to sign a supremacy oath, just as Henry VIII had, she did not press the issue to any great extent, and it was only made a treasonable offense after the third refusal. The result of this was that no one was executed for refusing to acknowledge the oath, a much different outcome then in the days of Henry VIII. Elizabeth was also more tolerant towards the Catholics in allowing clerical vestments and certain relics within the English church, something that would have been strictly forbidden during the reign of her brother, Edward VI. Most significantly though, Elizabeth never thought of burning at the stake anyone she considered to be a heretic as her sister Mary had and she was indeed able to boost her own popularity by condemning the brutal punishments her sister had handed out. Though it cannot be said that Elizabeth faced no rebellions based on religion (all of the risings in which the goal was to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne will prove this), it must be believed that, if Elizabeth would have taken a more repressive approach towards Catholicism, her reign would have been much more turbulent.
The queen’s moderation also extended into foreign policy. Henry VIII jumped at every opportunity to go to war, whether it be with France, Scotland or the Holy Roman Empire. Elizabeth only sent her troops onto the battlefield when she felt it was absolutely necessary to defend the Protestant cause or to defend her kingdom from foreign invasion. For this reason it is ironic that one of the greatest victories in English history, the defeat of the Spanish Armada (also known as the Battle of Gravelines), occurred during Elizabeth’s reign. The success of the queen’s military endeavors were mixed and the fact that she could not personally lead her forces into battle left her at a distinct disadvantage compared to her male counterparts. Elizabeth’s success against the Spanish was limited, despite decisive victories at Gravelines (1588) and Cadiz (1596), and, in the long run, the Low Countries achieved freedom from Spanish rule largely on their own. In Ireland, events were catastrophic under the Earl of Essex’s command, but, in the end, the English were certainly the winners of the Nine Years’ War.
It can be argued though, that the most attributable factors for Elizabeth’s longevity are based upon the facts that she never married and never officially named an heir. Elizabeth’s reluctance to marry undoubtedly stemmed from her father’s harsh treatment of his wives, divorcing two of them and, more significantly, executing another two, including Elizabeth’s own mother, Anne Boleyn. Her mistrust of men only expanded when during the time when she was being aggressively, and inappropriately, pursued by Thomas Seymour. When Elizabeth became queen, she chose not to marry, despite the consequences it would cause and despite the endless pleadings of her councilors, for several reasons. Firstly, if she married foreigner, as her sister Mary had done, the marriage would immediately be unpopular (just as Mary’s was) and, considering the fact that all of the available bachelors on the continent were Catholic, religion would become an issue. It the queen married a subject (say, the Earl of Leicester), the new king would gain the hatred and enmity of all of the influential men at court. Mary Queen of Scots made the mistake of marrying men who were troublesome and controversial (Lord Darnley and the Earl of Bothwell) and it had cost her her kingdom. Secondly, Elizabeth knew that whoever her husband might be would expect to play a major role in political affairs, and she had no intention of being ruled by any man by this point.
Elizabeth chose not to name an heir for the simple fact that, whoever the heir may be, they would always be a symbol of rebellion whenever there was any widespread disgruntlement or dissatisfaction with the regime. During Mary’s reign, Elizabeth was the most obvious heir and there had been a number of rebellions to place her on the throne. Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s own most sensible heir, caused a great deal of trouble for the latter’s regime, despite the fact that she was never actually acknowledged as heir apparent. Elizabeth was so sensitive about any discussion of the royal succession that Robert Cecil was forced to communicate with James VI of Scotland in secret to ensure the fact that there would be a smooth transition of power.
All of these factors combined to keep Elizabeth on the throne until she died a natural death and made her reign a truly astonishing phenomenon. By no means can it be said that Elizabeth was perfect and that she did not have her flaws. Many contemporaries and historians will draw attention to the queen’s stubbornness and to the fact that, at certain times, she dithered until the last second on a number of important decisions. These decisions ranged from going to war to executing recalcitrant subjects. Elizabeth greatly hesitated sending military aid to the Low Countries to protect her fellow Protestants from Spanish suppression and hesitated even more when it came to signing the death warrants on traitors such as Mary Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk. Ultimately though, Elizabeth always seemed to know when to when to take the advice of her councilors, and when not to, and when to jump into action, and when not to.
Elizabeth faced an uphill battle in life. Her mother was executed when she was not yet three years old; she was declared a bastard and never fully able to shake off the title; she was abused and taken advantage of by Thomas Seymour; and she was nearly executed for her faith during the reign of her sister Mary. It is no wonder, considering all these facts, that Elizabeth was reluctant to give up any sort of power when she finally became queen. Whether it was for her longevity, her leadership qualities or her ability to survive in a world dominated by men, once cannot help but admire the “Virgin Queen.” Over time, Elizabeth’s reign has become a sort of Golden Age and is looked upon as an age of progress where men such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser thrived and where England took its final step towards becoming a strictly Protestant nation. But, Elizabeth herself was the real story during this time period and her strong reign undoubtedly opened the door for many other women. In the end, it must be concluded that, for all her discrepancies and flaws, she was, like her father, a symbol of progress and woman who genuinely loved her people..."
Elizabeth I
Posted from shakespeareandhistory.com
Literature
World History
Military History
England
Posted 5 y ago
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