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Hello and Welcome to Western SIEV Episode
three h three Gloriana. Throughout the winter

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of fifteen sixty eight sixty nine,
the Duke of Norfolk grew increasingly restless over

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what he saw as the infiltration of
hardline Protestants you know them as Puritans into

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Elizabeth's government. Chief amongst these was
none other than William Cecil. That November,

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in fact, it seemed that Cecil
would finally fall from power completely when

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a Spanish ship carrying eighty five hundred
pounds ran a ground near Southampton. The

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money had been loaned to fill up
the second by Genoese bankers, was supposed

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to go to pay his troops fighting
in the Netherlands, but Elizabeth confiscated the

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money and claimed she would repay the
loan herself. Norfolk did his best to

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lay the scandal squarely at Cecil's feet, hoping that might bring him down.

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While Philip was furious, he had
his hands full with the Dutch revolt and

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did little. Instead of declaring war
on England as some feared he might,

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Philip seized all the English ships and
property he could in the Netherlands and used

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the funds from that to pay his
men. As best as he was able.

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In January fifteen sixty nine, Mary
Stewart was moved to Tutbury Castle and

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placed in the care of the Earl
of Shrewsbury, who would remain her jailer

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for the next fifteen years. Mary
hated the place and immediately continued her efforts

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to plot against Elizabeth. She continued
passing messages to the Spanish stat with her

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support, she could make England Catholic
again. Norfolk continued scheming all the while

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to wed Mary himself. His plan
was to use the marriage and the promise

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to maintain the Protestant faith as the
basis to restore Mary to her Scottish throne.

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Then Elizabeth would be forced to recognize
her as her heir, taking the

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wind out of the sails of the
Catholic faction, which would no longer be

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able to use the now Protestant Mary
as their champion. Elizabeth was likely not

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aware of any of this, though
we still cannot confirm that today. Cecil

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opposed the idea now. On ash
Wednesday, Robert Dudley approached the Queen with

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complaints against Cecil, but it backfired. Elizabeth erupted in a fury and declared

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she would hear no ill words said
about her. Secretary. Dudley and Norfolk,

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who had found common cause in their
campaign against Cecil, real they had

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to back down. William Cecil,
for his part, realized he needed to

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be more careful to not offend Norfolk
or Dudley, and honestly did his best

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going forward to be on friendlier terms
with both. But with Elizabeth clearly behind

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him, everyone realized Cecil was essentially
untouchable. Meanwhile, Mary had identified a

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potential escape route from her prison.
Norfolk had at first dismissed the idea of

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marrying her as treason, but as
the months went by he had given the

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matter deeper consideration. It seemed to
him that if her previous marriage to Bothwell

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could be annulled, it made sense
for the Queen of Scots to marry a

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loyal English lord who could safeguard Queen
Elizabeth's interests when Mary had been restored to

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her throne. Added to this,
of course, he would gain a crown

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for himself. In May fifteen sixty
nine, Mary was overjoyed to receive a

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formal proposal of marriage through the Bishop
of Ross, which Elizabeth was in theory

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to have sanctioned, and by June
Norfolk and her were exchanging the kind of

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letters that could only be seen as
courtship. Signing herself quote your assured Mary

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end quote, the former Scottish Queen
sent what she wrote as my Norfolk a

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cushion embroidered by herself, which showed
a knife cutting down a green vine,

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said to represent Elizabeth. Neither party
cherished any romantic notions. By the way,

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this was not about love. This
was a union of ambition. Knowing

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that the Queen would be against the
marriage, since she would anticipate that a

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man who was ambitious to be the
King of the Scots could also covet the

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throne of England, the Duke attempted
in June to canvass the backing of his

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old rival Cecil, but Cecil was
deeply suspicious of Mary Stuart, and he

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warned Norfolk that the only way out
of this was to confess everything to Elizabeth.

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Dudley, fearful of the consequences of
his involvement, also confided in Cecil,

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who, though he may have recalled
the recent conspiracy against himself, did

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not actually betray the confidence. Actually, what it turns out is no one

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none of these three men, Cecil
Dudley Norfolk wanted to divulge the marriage plan

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to Elizabeth until they were certain they
could convince her that it was to her

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advantage. Norfolk, in the end, was too fearful of Elizabeth's anger to

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take Cecil's advice and come clean.
But someone talked, and by the end

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of July, the Duke's proposed marriage
to Mary Stewart was common knowledge at court.

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In fact, it turned out most
of the counselors were in favor of

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it. Elizabeth, who learned of
the plan through mere court gossip, decided

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she would meet with Norfolk and give
him the chance to come clean, though

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he evaded her questions. But in
August some supporters of the marriage were dismayed

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when the Earl of Moray in Scotland
informed the Queen that the Scottish lords were

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not going to accept Mary Stuart back
as Queen no matter who her husband was.

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Neither would Spain support any project that
would see Elizabeth replaced with Mary.

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In June, the Duke of Alba
told the Spanish ambassador in England, who

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was in secret communication with Mary,
that Spain was not going to support any

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conspiracy against Elizabeth, at least not
now. Philip, for the moment,

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his hands full in the Netherlands,
had decided to remain neutral, But this

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ambassador actually didn't listen and continued to
encourage Norfolk's marriage ambitions, as well as

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encouraging rebellion amongst the Northern English magnates
who tended to be more Catholic. Meanwhile,

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Norfolk, though he hadn't had the
gall to tell Elizabeth any of this,

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continued his machinations while simultaneously refusing to
admit anything to the Queen, despite

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reputed efforts to get him to do
so. Norfolk seems to have felt he

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had gone too far with Mary to
back out, but he still did not

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want to confess his actions to Elizabeth
for fear of retribution. On September the

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sixth, Elizabeth summoned Norfik to her
presence and told him in no uncertain terms,

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to stop all these plans. A
marriage to Mary was simply out of

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the question. Yet Norfolk persisted almost
as soon as he was out of the

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Queen's presence, though he was smart
enough to at least plead illness when summoned

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again to the North. However,
a much more dangerous threat to Elizabeth's power

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was brewing. The North had long
been a hotbed of resistance. It had

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never been reconciled to the new religion, and there were several powerful lords there,

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notably Northumberland and Westmoreland, who could
raise powerful private armies. Now,

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it seemed, after eleven years apiece, the North was getting ready to muster

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its strength. Elizabeth and Cecil had
always been aware of the situation in the

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North. What they could not afford, and what they both now feared,

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was Norfolk joining them and bringing the
East into rebellion at the same time as

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the North. However, Norfolk,
in reality, was actually quite sick and

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in no position to raise himself from
his bed, let alone raise East Anglia

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in revolt. He was busy writing
to the Queen begging for her forgiveness.

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Norfolk, fearful that he would be
blamed for the rebellion no matter what he

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did, now, wrote to Westmoreland
begging him to call it all off.

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But on the third of October Norfolk
was arrested on his way to Windsor and

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confined to the tower. As we're
said, several others who were suspected of

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treason. On the sixteenth of October, Cecil warned Elizabeth that the real threat

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to her throne lay with Mary Stuart, not any of the lords to the

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north, and use this information to
remind her where her duty lay. Quote.

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There are degrees of danger. If
you would marry, it should be

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less. Whilst you do not,
it will increase. If her person be

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restrained here or in Scotland. It
will be less if at liberty greater.

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If found guilty of her husband's murder, she shall be a person hairless at

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least less. If passed over in
silence, the scar of the murder will

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wear out, and the danger greater. End quote. Elizabeth announced in her

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Privy Council that she wanted Norfolk tried
for treason, but Cecil didn't consider the

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Duke's actions to be within the definition. Quote whereupon I am bold to wish

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your Majesty would show your intent,
only to inquire into the fact, and

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not to speak of it as treason
end quote. In fact, there wasn't

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actually much evidence that Norfolk's intentions had
been treasonable, and there was certainly not

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enough to convict him. The Queen
did not care. She wanted Norfolk tried

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and executed, but as usual With
time, her temper receded. Eventually she

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conceded that to proceed against Norfolk without
legal cause was to become a tyrant,

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and she was no tyrant. Norfolk
would remain in the tower for a time,

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but he would not be tried.
Still, when Westmoreland and Northumberland learned

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of Norfolk's fate, and with the
promise of Spanish aid, they mustered their

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armies twenty five hundred strong and marched
south. Their goal was Tutbury, where

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Mary Stuart was held. And this
is the first time that Elizabeth really begins

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to suspect that Mary was behind the
whole affair. She even allowed her counselors

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to draw up an execution warrant in
the event it was discovered that in fact

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she was involved. Around the same
time, there were risings in smaller districts,

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and so on November the twenty fifth, Mary was moved to the Midlands,

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firmly Protestant territory. The ports around
England were closed. Windsor prepared for

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a siege, but unable to catch
Mary before she was moved. The Northern

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rising quickly lost steam. By the
twentieth of December, it was over without

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a fight. A twenty eight thousand
royal army, led by the Earl of

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Sussex, pursued the rebellious Earls North
when they fled into Scotland. Perhaps the

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most worrying aspect of the Northern Rising
had been Philip the Second's willingness potentially to

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support it, which demonstrated just how
hostile now he was starting to become towards

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Elizabeth. He had instructed the Duke
of Alva to send Mary Stuart ten thousand

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ducats. Urged on by Cecil,
Elizabeth determined to show her suspect that any

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rebellion against her authority would be punished
with the utmost of severity. Quote you

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are preceded thereunto for the terror of
others with expedition. Spare no offenders.

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We are in nothing moved to spare
them end quote. Such was her command

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to the Earl of Sussex, and
the Earl wasted no time in rounding up

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the lesser rebels and making a great
example of them. Reprisals were unusually savage,

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and no village was to be without
at least one execution. Quote.

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He would write back the bodies to
remain till they fall to pieces, where

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they hang End quote. By February
fourth, fifteen seventy, between six hundred

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and seven hundred and fifty commoners had
been hanged and two hundred gentry had been

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deprived of their estates and goods,
which were distributed to loyal noblemen. The

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Queen, however, thought it was
unfair that those who had helped to plan

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the revolt had escaped with their lives
while lesser men suffered the ultimate penalty.

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Westmoreland ultimately fled to Flanders Northumberland evated
capture until later on in fifteen seventy,

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but then he was arrested in Scotland, returned to York and put to death.

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Plans to execute Mary Stuart, however, were quietly abandoned. Elizabeth came

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out of the whole affair her position
much stronger. When she opened the Royal

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Exchange at London in January fifteen seventy, she was positively beaming. On that

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very same day, the regent in
Scotland, the Earl of Moray, was

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assassinated by the Scottish lords, who
feared he wanted to make himself king.

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Elizabeth was distraught as she thought about
all the chaos along her northern border.

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The kings of both France and Spain
urged Elizabeth to use this up opportunity to

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restore Mary to her throne. The
continuing problem of the Queen of Scots was

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greatly exacerbated when on February twenty fifth, fifteen seventy, Pope Hious the Fifth,

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inspired by old reports of the Northern
Rising, impulsively published a bull regnance

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in Excelsis excommunicating Elizabeth quote the pretended
Queen of England, the serpent of wickedness

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end quote. The bull deprived her
of her kingdom, absolved all true Catholics

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from their allegiance to her, and
extended the anathema to all who continued to

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support her. This was effectively an
invitation to Elizabeth's subjects and to foreign princes

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to rise against her in what would
amount to a holy crusade. It also

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actively encouraged Mary Stuart's supporters to set
her up in Elizabeth's place. Most sinister

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of all, it subverted the loyalty
of Elizabeth's Catholic subjects and made every single

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one of them a potential traitor to
be regarded with suspicion. From now on,

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each one of them would face a
choice of loyalty. It would no

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longer be possible to compromise on matters
of conscience. One could not be a

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loyal Englishman and an art and Catholic. This in turn led to the hardening

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of attitudes on part of the English
Protestants, who became even more patriotic and

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even more protective toward their queen their
loyalty, prompting them to press increasingly for

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Mary Stuart's execution and for tougher laws
against Catholics. The bill's ultimate effect was

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to turn Catholicism into a political rather
than religious issue in England, and because

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of this it ultimately failed in its
purpose. Most english people ignored it.

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A man who nailed it to the
door of the Bishop of London's palace in

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Saint Paul's Churchyard was arrested, tortured, and executed. In the North,

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where the bull might have once been
well received, Catholic power had already been

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effectively crushed. Nor did the great
Catholic monarchs of Spain and France hastened to

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invade England on the contrary. Actually, both Philip the Second and Charles the

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ninth angrily condemned the Pope for taking
such hasty action without consulting them first.

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Elizabeth herself announced defiantly that no ship
of Saint Peter would ever enter any of

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her ports. Otherwise She was dismissive, and the mainly Protestant Londoners echoed her

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feelings when they described the bull as
quote a vain crack of words that made

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a noise. Only after the bull, Elizabeth considered Catholic's traders. If you

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were Catholic, you were a trader. And if you died, it wasn't

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Martyr Dumb for your faith had committed
treason. This was a major change for

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Elizabeth. Before fifteen seventy she had
never demonstrated any personal animosity toward English Catholics.

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That would no longer be the case. This was also when Cecil started

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to organize an efficient espionage network that
could detect conspirators. Now getting back to

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diplomacy, France kept pressuring Elizabeth to
restore Mary. Everyone at court urged Elizabeth

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not to do it, but in
the end, the Queen sent Mary a

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series of conditions that she would need
to meet before Elizabeth would consider releasing her.

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These included sending James her Son south
to England as a hostage to her

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behavior. It was not until October, but ultimately Mary agreed to the terms.

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But by then, in fact much
earlier, by July, the Earl

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of Lennox had been appointed the new
regent. If there was an opportunity to

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restore Mary, it had already passed. All of these conspiracies lent more urgency

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to the argument that Elizabeth needed to
marry and produce an air. Thus,

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in August she sent an envoy to
the Emperor to try and restart the negotiations,

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but the Archduke said he was no
longer interested. In fact, shortly

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afterwards he married a Bavarian princess.
Then in September a new proposal of marriage

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arrived, this time from Charles the
ninth brother and heir, the nineteen year

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old Henri, Duke of Anjous.
Charles and Catherine de Metici hoped by this

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project to unite England and France in
a defensive alliance against Spain. Elizabeth was

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interested, if only for the political
advantages and much needed friendship that prolonged negotiations

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with France could bring her, and
Cecil began to drop a list of quote

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unquote commodities to be gained from the
union putting out feelers as to how serious

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the French were about it. To
this end, he sent the fiercely Protestant

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Sir Francis Walsingham to Paris, where
he would act as Elizabeth's envoy. But

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once again religion proved to be the
sticking point. Elizabeth insisted that her husband

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adopt her religious that his English religious
customs. Anjou would not. He actually

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wasn't a very good match anyway.
Anjou was a notorious womanizer and also a

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bisexual. In fact, later in
life he would appear at court in elaborate

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female costumes, not something likely to
impress the puritanical Walsingham. Now I want

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to pause here and talk actually for
the rest of the episode about just what

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kind of queen Elizabeth was. She
had now ruled for a round twelve years,

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far more than her siblings combined,
and she's going to rule for another

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thirty three. Elizabeth would once famously
say, quote to be a king,

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and where a crown is more glorious
to them that see it than it is

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pleasure to them that bear it.
At the same time, she reveled and

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jealously guarded the privileges of her sovereignty
She would also write, quote, I

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am answerable to none from my actions, otherwise than I shall be disposed of

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my own free will, but to
Almighty God alone. End quote. God,

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she believed firmly, had persevered and
brought her through so many trials to

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give her the throne, and she
was convinced that she reigned by God's special

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favor. In fifteen seventy six,
she told Parliament, quote and as for

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those rare and special benefits which many
years have followed and accompanied me with happy

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reign, and I attribute them to
God alone these seventeen years. Again,

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she's writing in fifteen seventy six,
God hath both prospered and protected you with

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good success under my direction, and
I am nothing doubt that the same maintaining

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hand will guide you still and bring
you to the ripeness of perfection end quote.

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So as you can see, Elizabeth
firmly believed that she had been divinely

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appointed to be queen. She alone
was able to fully comprehend the complexities and

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mysteries of church and state. Quote. She is our God on earth,

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would later remark Lord North. Elizabeth
would have to agree, but she was

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no tyrant. Nothing was more important
to Elizabeth than that she ruled with her

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subject's love. Sir Walter Raleigh would
later note that she was a queen for

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the small as well as the great. She was a stickler for justice.

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Her god son later revealed how well
she understood how to deal with her subjects.

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Quote. Her mind was oft time, like the gentle air that cometh

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from a westerly point in a summer
morn. It was sweet and refreshing to

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all around. Her speech did win
all affections, and her subjects did try

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to show all love to her commands. For she would say, her state

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did require her to command what she
knew her people would willingly do from their

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own love of her. Herewith did
she show her wisdom fully, For who

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did choose to lose her confidence?
Or who would withhold a show of love

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and obedience when their sovereign said it
was their own choice and not her compulsion.

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Surely she did play her tables well
to gain obedience. Thus, and

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without restraint again, she could put
forth such alterations when obedience was lacking,

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as left no doubt as to who
her daughter was end quote. Elizabeth traveled

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on progresses as many times as she
could. She understood full well that this

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was an age of personal monarchy,
and her people was support a monarch.

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They saw a monarchy, at least
believed that they knew. She wrote effective

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speeches in which she would justify her
actions to her subjects, something her father

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never would have thought to do.
She was also, from all accounts,

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an excellent public speaker, but she
was Henry's daughter and was not about to

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let anybody to forget it. She
constantly reminded her counselors just how much sterner

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her father had been. I might
use the word tyrannical, she used the

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word stern. Her command of statesmanship
was exceptional. Elizabeth was both astute and

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pragmatic. Above all, she had
two goals. She wanted to provide England

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with a peaceful and a stable government. She wanted to maintain law and avoid

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war at all costs. Her judges
that they must stand pro Veritai for the

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truth rather than pro Reggina for the
Queen Cecil would later write in tribute quote,

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there was never so wise woman born
as Queen Elizabeth. For she spake

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and understood all languages, knew all
estates and dispositions and princes, and particularly

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was so expert in her knowledge of
her own realm, as no counselor she

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had could tell her what she did
not know before end quote. But for

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all of this, Elizabeth remained mired
in a society deeply prejudiced against women in

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leadership roles. The example of Queen
Mary the First had seemed only to confirm

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suspicions that women inherently made bad sovereigns. A typical example of this male prejudice

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occurred when a French envoy asked the
council to be present that his audience with

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the Queen, implying that the matters
of state he had come to discuss were

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beyond female understanding. Back came a
furious answer from Elizabeth. Quote the ambassador

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forgets himself in thinking us incapable of
conceiving an answer to his message without the

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aid of our council. It might
be appropriate in friends where the king is

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young, But we are governing our
realm better than the French are theirs?

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End quote. Elizabeth was no feminist. She accepted the creed of the day

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that women had serious limitations. She
always spoke of herself as quote, a

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woman wanting both wit and memory,
and quote in a self composed prayer,

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she actually thanked God for making her
a weak woman, but his instrument,

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nonetheless, to combat prejudice and underline
her position. She invariably referred to herself

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as a prince of princess, comparing
herself with kings and emperors, and with

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some success. At the very end
of her reign, she would tell Henry

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Before of France, quote, my
experience in government has made me so stubborn

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as to believe that I am not
ignorant of what becomes a king and quote.

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Elizabeth was a master of using any
skill, any attribute to her advantage.

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She flirted tactically with the men of
court to keep them loyal. This

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stratagem also kept her Privy Council largely
devoid of faction and strife. She was

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so successful as a monarch that at
her death her subjects considered her one of

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the best English monarchs of all time, not merely a great queen. Poets

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and dramatists did plenty for her.
In his famous poem The Fairy Queen,

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Edmund Spencer referred to her as Gloriana. As loved as she was, Elizabeth

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was also a master of procrastination.
Consider the following from Sir Thomas Smith,

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one of Elizabeth's secretaries of state,
quote, it maketh me weary of my

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life. This time passeth almost irrecuable, the advantage lost, the charges continuing,

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nothing resolved. I neither can get
the letters signed, nor the letter

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already signed. But day by day
and hour by hour, it has deferred

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upon until anon noon and tomorrow.
The lack of a resolute answer from her

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Majesty drives me to the wall end
quote. In fact, as she grew

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older, Elizabeth became increasingly reluctant to
sign any sort of document at all.

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Sometimes she refused to even give verbal
assent. One of her favorite mottos was

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quote I see all and I say
nothing. Elizabeth could be resolute and tough

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when she had to be, and
on two known occasions she did not shrink

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from authorizing the torture of offenders,
which was officially illegal, but in her

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view necessary in the interests of national
security. In both cases, the victims

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were involved in plots against the Queen's
life, but even so, the jailers

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in the tower were aware that her
anger would fall upon them if they exceeded

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their warrant. She absolutely hated executions
and issued reprieves to condemn felons whenever she

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could, so long as it seemed
in the interest of justice. Ceco called

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her very merciful, and she followed
major trials with interest and intervened if she

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felt was necessary. She was,
in most respects we'd say, conservative,

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who respected the old medieval ideal of
a hierarchical order than the Christian universe,

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and she cherished traditional notions of degree
priority in place. Sir fran Sus Bacon

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would later write, quote, her
majesty loveth piece. Next she loveth not

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change. When of her secretaries,
Robert Beale, warned his successor to quote

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avoid being new fangled and by all
means bringing in new customs end quote.

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For all this, Elizabeth could be
maddeningly unpredictable, which makes sense given that

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she, like her father before her, kept her own counsel. One of

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the criticisms often leveled at her was
that Elizabeth was mean, and by this

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what her critics really meant was that
she was stingy with money. She had

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to be. Mary had left Elizabeth
a huge debt and with an annual income

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that rarely exceeded three hundred thousand pounds. Elizabeth had to pay her own expenses

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plus those of the court and her
government. Elizabeth was frugal. As a

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result. She was in many ways
Henry the seventh, her grandfather's direct descendant.

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One thing Elizabeth was very good at
was choosing advisers, and that paid

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dividends. She was surrounded with good
counselors. Though she was never afraid to

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00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:11.279
go against their advice. She was
not afraid either to place huge demands on

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them. One witness recalled she would
keep cecil with her quote till late at

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night, discoursing alone, and then
call out another at his departure, and

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try the depth of all around her. Sometime each displayed his wit in private.

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If any dissembled with her or stood
not well to her advisings, she

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did not let it go unheeded and
sometimes not unpunished. Elizabeth matched every effort

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her advisers made. In that sense. Today, I suppose we would call

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her a workaholic. Elizabeth, though
generally left day to day matters with her

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00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:52.119
counsel That was smart. She could
take the creditive things went well and avoid

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00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:56.119
the blame if they did not.
Parliament, however, was less easily managed

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00:30:56.119 --> 00:30:59.920
than the council, to which it
was subordinate. The Queen believed that as

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the sovereign, she had absolute authority
over Parliament, but the Puritans and the

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00:31:03.400 --> 00:31:08.480
Commons could be relied upon to oppose
many measures, and both houses were jealous

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00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:14.680
of their powers and privileges, seeking
constantly to extend them. Clashes between the

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00:31:14.759 --> 00:31:19.519
Queen in Parliament were therefore inevitable,
and Elizabeth was, on some occasions forced

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00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:26.599
to concede defeat whenever possible. She
managed without Parliament in the forty five years

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00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:30.960
of her reign. It sat for
only ten sessions, which lasted a total

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00:31:30.039 --> 00:31:36.119
of one hundred and forty weeks,
less than three years. The Queen attended

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00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:40.680
only the opening and closing state ceremony, arriving by barge or on horseback.

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She wrote her own speeches for all
of these occasions. If the Commons or

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lords wished to speak to her,
they sent a delegation to wherever she was

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00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:52.839
staying. After they had addressed her
on their knees, she would rise from

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00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:59.079
the throne and bower. Curtsey messengers
brought her news of debates, and cecil

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00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:05.319
conveyed her wishes to both houses.
Elizabeth once reminded the speaker quote it is

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00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:08.119
in me and my power to call
Parliament. It is in my power to

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00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.079
end and determine the same. It
is in my power to dissent to anything

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00:32:13.160 --> 00:32:16.480
done in the parliaments. End quote. Certain matters, as we've seen,

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such as the succession and her marriage, were considered by her inappropriate for discussion

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by Parliament. The Parliament increasingly thought
otherwise. In her foreign policy, Elizabeth

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sought to preserve England's stability and prosperity
in a Europe that was, for the

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00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:36.680
moment dominated by the two great Catholic
powers, France and Spain. She achieved

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00:32:36.680 --> 00:32:40.000
this by a policy of diplomacy that
was not willy understood by her own advisors.

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She hated war because it threatened her
kingdom's stability and her treasury Mike Philip

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the Second. She had no desire
to found an empire, and in fifteen

359
00:32:51.039 --> 00:32:54.880
ninety three she would tell Parliament quote, it may be thought simplicity in me

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that all this time of my reign
I have not sought to advance my territory

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00:33:00.400 --> 00:33:04.880
and enlarge my domains. Her opportunity
hath served me to do it. My

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00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.440
mind was never to invade my neighbors
or usurp over any I am contented to

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reign over mine and to rule as
a just prince. Now. Elizabeth was

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00:33:14.839 --> 00:33:20.039
complicated. She loved to learn.
She also spent three hours a day reading

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00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:24.039
history books and loved philosophy. She
also loved practical jokes, as had her

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mother, Anne Boleyn, as I
mentioned in one of our first episodes on

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Elizabeth's reign. She thoroughly enjoyed dancing, hunting, and especially writing, and

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00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.079
liked her father. She enjoyed both
hearing and performing musical works. She was

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00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:45.160
evidently quite skilled at the lute,
though she was interested in the more practical

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00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:53.240
sciences. She also employed astrologers,
particularly the noted astrologer and suspected wizard doctor

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00:33:53.440 --> 00:34:00.799
John d Unlike both of her half
siblings, Elizabeth enjoyed good health basically her

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00:34:00.839 --> 00:34:05.799
whole life, right up to the
very end of her reign. She maintained

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00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:09.519
her faculties, though she did suffer
from bouts of anxiety, mostly as the

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result of the trauma she experienced early
in life. Late in life, the

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00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:22.159
queen did find herself plagued by headaches. Doctors did as much harm as good

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in the sixteenth century, and Elizabeth
seems to have recognized this, she consulted

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00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:31.920
them as rarely as she could.
In Tudor times, the royal image was

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all important, and much more so
than today. Magnificence was regarded as being

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00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:43.559
synonymous with power. The Tudor monarchs
were renound for their splendor no less than

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their personal charm. Elizabeth's wardrobe,
which was rumored to contain more than three

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00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:53.760
thousand gowns, became legendary during her
lifetime as her costumes grew ever more flamboyant.

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The image of a godly Protestant virgin
in sober black and white, so

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00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:06.440
carefully cultivated by Elizabeth during her half
sister's reign, soon vanished, and there

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00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:13.000
emerged an all together more colorful and
showy image. The Queen's portraits always show

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00:35:13.039 --> 00:35:17.119
her in dresses of silk, velvet, satin cloth of gold encrusted with real

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00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:22.639
gems, pearls, and embroidery.
Her favorite colors were black, white and

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00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:30.840
silver, warm with transparent silver veils. Some of Elizabeth's dresses and other clothings

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00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:36.000
were presented to her by gifts by
her courtiers, and many certainly remained unworn.

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These, with other discarded dresses,
she gave to her ladies. However,

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00:35:42.119 --> 00:35:46.360
Elizabeth absolutely appreciated the many gifts of
clothing from friends and courtiers. In

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fifteen seventy five, having given the
Queen a blue cloak of embroidered with flowers

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00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:57.480
and trimmed with velvet, Bess of
Hardock was gratified to learn from a friend

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00:35:57.480 --> 00:36:00.639
that quote, her Majesty never liked
anything you gave her so well, the

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color and strange trimming of the garment, with a great cost bestowed upon it,

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hath caused her to give out such
good speeches of your ladyship as I

396
00:36:08.559 --> 00:36:17.559
have never heard better. One courtier
described her physical appearance as follows quote slender

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00:36:17.800 --> 00:36:22.440
and straight. Her hair was inclined
to pale yellow, her forehead large and

398
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:29.039
fair, her eyes lively and sweet
but short sighted, her nose somewhat rising

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00:36:29.039 --> 00:36:32.480
in the middle. Her countenance was
somewhat long, but yet of admiring beauty,

400
00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:39.239
and in a most delightful composition of
majesty and modesty. The portraits of

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Elizabeth are the subject of quite frankly, more books than I can even recount,

402
00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.079
although there is a great demand for
her portrait. In the years after

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00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:53.840
her ascension, she was, according
to William Cecil quote very unwilling to have

404
00:36:53.880 --> 00:37:00.159
a natural representation end quote, and
therefore there was a large number of lightiness

405
00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:06.199
is that were produced that were probably
very inaccurate. The very earliest portraits are

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00:37:06.480 --> 00:37:10.039
half lengths showing the queen full faced
wearing a French hood. Only a few

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examples of this survive. She was
depicted full face in her coronation portrait.

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This painting on a wooden panel has
been tree ring dated to around sixteen hundred,

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and it's probably a copy of a
lost original, which may have been

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the work of a Flemish women artist
who painted many miniatures for the queen during

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the early years of her reign.
In reality, all we have to show

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us what Elizabeth the First Gloriana looked
like our stylized images. Painters, of

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course, were keen to flatter the
Queen, and she no doubt encouraged them

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to do so over her forty five
year reign. If we had a photograph

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of Elizabeth, the difference between that
and one of our paintings would likely be

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dramatic, but frankly, for one, I'm happy we don't. So next

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week we are headed back to France
to follow Catherine de Medici. Charles the

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ninth, and of course the Geese
family as they try to pull the kingdom

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through its ongoing religious turmoil. If
you need more Western Sieve in the interim,

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00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.000
check out the link in the show
notes for a free seven day trial

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00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:28.320
of Western SIEV two point zero.
We're now deep into the Punic Wars back

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00:38:28.360 --> 00:38:31.360
in ancient Roman history, and I
know how much of a fan everyone is

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00:38:31.639 --> 00:38:52.039
for that, and it is a
great, great way to support the show.