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Hello, and welcome to Western SIEV
Episode two hundred and ninety six, The

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Virgin Queen. There was no issue
more important throughout the early years of Elizabeth's

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reign than whom she would marry.
It was assumed she would, but as

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we will see today, Elizabeth would
quite literally shocked the world when she determined

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to remain unmarried throughout her reign,
with major repercussions later on. Well,

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those repercussions are for a future episode. For now, let's get back to

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our story where we left off the
coronation. On the morning of her coronation

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eve, Queen Elizabeth was wearing a
robe made of twenty three yards of cloth

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of gold and silver, trimmed with
ermine and overlain with gold lace, one

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of the four she had ordered for
her coronation. On her head, she

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had a golden cap ringed with a
princess's crown. Outside, light flakes of

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snow were drifting down. The sky, as always in London, was a

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leaden gray, but the corti airs
in the Queen's vast retinue glowed in rich

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satins and velvets, glittering with jewels. The magnificent procession formed with over a

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thousand mounted dignitary, and Elizabeth walked
to her waiting litter, which was lined

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with white satin and trimmed with gold. Before climbing in, she prayed aloud,

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quote, Oh, Almighty and Everlasting
God, I give thee most hearty

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thanks that thou hast been so merciful
unto me to spare me to behold this

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joyful day. Thou hast dealt as
wonderful and as mercifully with me as thou

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didst with Daniel, whom thou delivered
out of the den from the cruelty of

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the raging lions. Even so was
I overwhelmed, and only by THEE delivered

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end quote. It was an apt
prayer, by the way, as lions

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in the tower menagerie were just then
making their presence known by roars and growls.

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Having reiterated her conviction that God himself
had brought her to the throne,

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the queen finally entered his litter and
made herself comfortable on eight enormous cushions.

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The whole event had been planned as
a propaganda ex sized, intended to cement

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the harmonious relationship between Elizabeth and her
people and Harold the New Age that was

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beginning. As the Queen's entourage made
its way through the city, she was

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met with a variety of specially designed
pageants at every turn and stop. Many

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of these took almost direct jabs at
Queen Mary and her Catholic leanings. London,

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after all, was a Protestant bastion. Elizabeth greeted these displays with smiles

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and approval. It was clear to
all whose side she was on. Throughout

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the pageants and processions. It was
also clear that Elizabeth was intimately interested in

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her subjects. She would converse with
those who took part in the pageants afterwards,

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and even gasp, listen to their
complaints. To many present, this

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was being a bit too comfortable for
a monarch, but it made the common

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people love her evermore. By days
end, Elizabeth was exult, lost it

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and collapsed into her bed at Westminster, where she slept that night. Elizabeth's

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coronation day was January fifteenth, fifteen
fifty nine. Her coronation was remarkable,

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both for its opulence and the fact
that it was the last in England's history

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to be conducted in London. All
of the major peers of the realm were

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present, and everyone was in high
spirits. After the ceremonies were all ended,

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there was a traditional Lavish banquet at
Westminster the next day. Elizabeth remained

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in bed, exhausted from the festivities. The scheduled tournament went ahead anyway.

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Now that she was firmly established on
the throne, Elizabeth turned her attention to

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the urgent matters of state that we
debated in her first Parliament. Two issues

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seemed likely to dominate the session,
the controversial always subject of religion, and

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the more delicate matter of the Queen's
marriage. For most people, it wasn't

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a question of whether she would marry, but whom she would marry. Link

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to this was of course, the
ongoing issue the tutor succession, which had

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existed in politicians' minds for four decades
now, because it wasn't clear who would

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succeed in the event of Elizabeth's early
death. On the political front, there

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were hopes that a peace would be
concluded with France, thereby frustrating those who

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wished to support the Dauphenine Mary Stuart
dynastic claims and removing the necessity for French

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troops to remain in Scotland. Such
a peace was rendered all the more necessary

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by the news that on the sixteenth
of January, Mary and her husband had

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begun styling themselves the King and Queen
of England. Yet it was also necessary

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that England maintained its friendship with Spain
in order to safeguard lucrative trading links between

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the two powers, and of course, to obtain protection against French ambitions.

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It was obvious to the Queen from
the first that her sin success in the

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field of diplomacy would depend on playing
off those two bitter enemies, France and

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Spain. Lack of money was a
major problem that would have to be addressed.

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Elizabeth's annual income was about two hundred
and fifty thousand pounds, out of

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which she had to finance the needs
of court and government and pay off Queen

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Mary's debts two hundred and sixty six
thousand pounds. Prices arising all the time,

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Elizabeth so set herself to live within
her means and practiced the most stringent

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economy and selling off multiple crown lands. As a result, her annual expenditure

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never once exceeded three hundred pounds throughout
her entire reign. Elizabeth was finally able

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to open Parliament on the twenty fifth
of January. Back in Mary's reign,

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one of her first acts in Parliament
as queen had been to declare herself legitimate.

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Elizabeth wondered whether she should do the
same. After all, Henry,

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her father, had divorced her mother
as well, but Elizabeth did not.

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She was declared the rightful claimant to
the throne in Henry the Eighth's Will,

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and so for now she let those
sleeping dogs lie. The succession was another

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sensitive issue. The Tutors were not
a fertile family, and there was a

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relative paucity of suitable heirs to replace
the Queen should she die childless. The

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fifteen forty four Act and Henry the
Eighth's Will provided that after Elizabeth, the

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crown should pass to the heirs of
his younger sister, Mary, Duchess of

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Suffolk. Mary had left two daughters, Francis and Eleanor Brandon. The elder

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Francis had produced three daughters, one
of whom had been the ill fated Lady

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Jane Gray. The two other daughters
were Lady Catherine and Lady Mary Gray,

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aged nineteen and fourteen in fifteen fifty
nine. Both were Protestants, but Elizabeth

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really disliked them, especially Catherine.
It was said, quote the Queen could

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not abide the sight of her end
quote. She was particularly suspicious of their

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dynastic pretensions, and perhaps with cause, for in fifteen fifty nine there were

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rumors that King Philip, aware that
Lady Catherine Gray had the strongest claim to

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the English succession, was plotting to
abduct her and make her the wife of

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his heir, the insane Don Carlos
that we met a few episodes ago.

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Catherine was well aware of Elizabeth's dislike, and in March fifteen fifty nine revealed

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to the Spanish ambassador that she knew
her cousin did not wish her to succeed.

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Nor was the Queen much more enamored
of Lady Mary Gray, who she

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referred to as a hunchback dwarf.
Many people frankly shared Elizabeth's antipathy towards the

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Gray sisters, and some argued that
their father's treason in supporting Northumberland had rendered

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their claim to a place in the
succession forfeit. Anyway, so none of

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this matter. Next in the Suffolk
line, after the Gray sisters came Margaret,

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the only child of Eleanor Brandon,
who was married to Henry Lord Strange,

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later Earl of Derby. In Queen
Mary's time, some people had viewed

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Margaret as a likely successor to the
throne, in view of the fact that,

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unlike the Gray family, she had
not taken part in Northumberland's treacherous coup

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back in fifteen fifty three, when
he tried to supplant Lady Jane for Queen

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Mary. Despite the fact that Margaret
had no desire at all to be Queen,

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Elizabeth insisted on her coming to court
often quote as one very near in

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blood to us end quote, but
really to keep an eye on her.

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Another possible claimant was Henry Hastings,
descended from Edward the third. Henry never

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once raised his claim, however,
he served Elizabeth faithfully his entire life.

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Of course, there was another claimant, France and its King, Henry the

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Second, believed that Mary Stuart Mary
Queen of Scots, was the rightful heir

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to the English throne. In reality, however, she had no legitimate claim

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to the throne for a number of
reasons. Not that that mattered. Of

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course, Elizabeth was never going to
let that happen. Elizabeth, in fact

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hated discussing the succession, which I
suppose makes sense given that that would mean

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discussing her death. Elizabeth also knew
that if she named an heir, all

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she was likely doing was appointing the
figurehead of her next revolt, and she

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Elizabeth would often remark, had enough
of those as it was. Of course,

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the obvious illusion to all of this
was for Elizabeth to marry and have

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children. On February fourth, in
fact, Parliament drafted a resolution asking the

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Queen to marry as soon as possible. The petition reminded Elizabeth that it'd be

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better for her and quote her kingdom
if she were to take a consort who

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might relieve her of those labors which
are only fit for men end quote.

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When she heard these words, the
Queen was plainly astonished at the boldness approaching

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such a delicate issue. She heard
and recovered herself and responded graciously, saying,

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quote in a manner most unpleasing pleasing
to me is the apparent goodwill of

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you and my people end quote.
She then went on to state that she

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had decided to stay single, despite
being offered marriage by quote end quote,

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the most potent of princes. She
considered that she already had her kingdom,

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who was both her husband and her
child. She stated, quote, I

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am already bound unto a husband,
which is the Kingdom of England. End

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quote. She went on to assure
her comments that she would do as God

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directed her. She had never been
inclined toward marriage, but wouldn't rule it

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out completely. If she did marry, she would not do anything prejudicial ever

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to the commonwealth, and she would
choose only a husband who quote would be

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as careful for the preservation of the
realm as she was herself end quote.

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As for the succession, the queen
promised that the realm would have an heir.

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Yet who that air was she did
not specify. If she remained single,

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she continued, she was certain quote
that God would so direct mine and

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your counsels, that ye shall not
need to doubt of a successor who may

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be more beneficial to the commonwealth than
he who may be born of me,

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considering that the issue of the best
princes many times degenerate end quote. All

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of this, she was implying that
any son of her body might conspire to

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overthrow her a mere woman, a
thing which probably few among her patriarchal advisors.

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Would even lift a finger to prevent. At best, frankly, pressure

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might be put upon her to abdicate
in favor of any son. Concluding,

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then, she declared, quote in
the end, this shall be for me

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sufficient that a marble stone shall declare
that a queen, having reigned such a

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time, lived and died a virgin
quote. And thus it was from this

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statement that was born the legend of
the Virgin Queen, upon which Elizabeth would

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capitalize to full advantage, and which
would achieve essentially cult status in the years

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to come. Six days later,
a copy of Elizabeth's response was read to

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Parliament. The Commons was aghast.
If Elizabeth did not Mary, then there

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would be no answer to the succession
issue, and if that were the case,

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then the tenuous religious compromise might be
undone. If Elizabeth wanted to protect

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her Protestant subjects, William Cecil told
her that she needed to marry. Cecil,

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in fact, remained wary of the
idea of a woman ruling the kingdom.

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He believed she should marry and start
having children. That was proper.

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Her husband could rule in her name
as was natural. But to a large

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extent, Elizabeth was just being careful
she had witnessed the major headaches Mary's marriage

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to Philip had brought. There were
political advantages to staying single. Sure,

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a foreign prince might protect England,
but he might also view England as a

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mere satellite, as a means to
pay for continental wars, or as a

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pawn in a game against a larger
opponent. Regardless of the reason, Elizabeth

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assumed, probably rightly, that any
husband would see her and her kingdom as

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second tier entities and spend much of
his time elsewhere. What she wondered would

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be the point of that. Of
course, she could marry an Englishman,

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but that avenue had pitfalls of its
own. Marrying someone from court would buy

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necessity, elevate that man's family.
Factions would form, as they had throughout

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the later years of Henry the Eighth's
reign. If those factions grew in power,

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it might be right back to the
Wars of the Roses. And if

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everyone could agree on at least one
thing, it was that no one wanted

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to go back to the Wars of
the Roses. But most of all,

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Elizabeth didn't want to lose her freedom. Keep in mind that Elizabeth had just

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finally gained her autonomy after living in
forced seclusion for years, she didn't want

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to go back to the shadows.
Elizabeth was highly intelligent. Wives were supposed

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to be obedient and subservient to their
husbands, Yet Elizabeth was also supposed to

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be the queen of her kingdom,
and that wouldn't be an easy dance to

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pull off. Philip had been frustrated
when Mary did not follow his advice.

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The whole situation seemed to guarantee either
a total loss of autonomy for Elizabeth or

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a guarantee of marital strife the queen
wanted neither. Writers have endlessly speculated that

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there was a more fundamental reason for
Elizabeth's hesitation to marriage. Robert Dudley later

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told a French ambassador that from the
age of eight, the queen had declared

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that she would never marry. She
had been eight when Henry the Eighth's fifth

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wife, Catherine Howard, had been
executed for adultery, and this may have

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awakened a painful awareness of how her
father had similarly killed her mother. When

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she was fifteen, the man who
had probably been her i'll say first least

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love interest or maybe lust interest,
Admiral Seymour, had gone to the chopping

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block. It's possible that these events
so traumatized her that she could only equate

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marriage and even courtship with death.
She herself told the Scott's Envoy in fifteen

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sixty one that certain events in her
youth made it impossible for her to regard

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marriage with anything like security. She
blamed this on the marital problems of her

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father and her sisters. She wrote, quote, some say that this marriage

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was unlawful, that one was a
bastard, and some other to and fro

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as they favored or misliked. So
many doubts of marriage was in all hands

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that I am in awe of myself
to enter into marriage fearing the controversy end

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quote. In addition to this,
of course, the tragic experience of her

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sister Mary, and the unhappy example
of many marriages amongst the various peers of

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England cannot have failed to deter the
Queen. This was an age of arranged

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marriages, and many well born persons
suffered in incompatible unions. Some, such

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as the Earls of Worcester, Derby
and Shrewsbury, even separated from their wives.

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In each case, Elizabeth was acted
as an unofficial marriage guidance counselor insisting

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without success on reconciliation. Fear of
childbirth might also have played a role.

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Two of Elizabeth's stepmothers, Jane Seymour
and Catherine Parr, died as a result

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of childbirth. Time and time again, Elizabeth would flirt with the idea of

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marriage, only to back away,
often at the last minute. It has

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been argued that Elizabeth's aversion to marriage
was that she couldn't medically bear children,

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but there's no direct evidence to support
that contention. Elizabeth was consistently flirtatious with

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the men of her court throughout her
reign. Rumors consistently flew around the Queen

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that she had numerous lovers. Some
even suggested that she had secret children hidden

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away in different locations. There's no
credible evidence to support these assertions. Even

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the most foreign ambassadors, the most
opposed to Elizabeth, did not believe the

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Slanders. The Queen's much vaunted virginity
was a matter not of personal choice but

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of state policy, and in many
ways it cost her, condemning her to

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a lifetime of lonely isolation, emotional
deprivation, and enforced chastity. She did

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indeed make a virtue of what she
sought to be a necessity, and sometimes

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the strain showed on her. She
may have teased her lovers and allowed them

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certain liberties, but never more than
that. It may be that the sex

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act itself to frighten her in some
way, that she was psychologically unable to

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part anticipate. But even if this
were true, it didn't alter the fact

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that she felt more invincible being this
persona, this idea, this virgin queen.

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To remain invincible, she must not
only bear the name, but also

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play the part with conviction. And
that meant illicit sexual intercourse was always strictly

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forbidden, whatever her private feelings might
have been about it. Many people believed,

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and some still do, that because
Elizabeth loved courtship and flirtation, she

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was in some way immoral, But
in fact she was hardly ever alone.

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In fact, she herself would later
write, quote I am always surrounded by

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my ladies at the bedchamber and maids
of honor end quote who slept in her

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bedroom with her. Furthermore, she
would write, quote, my life is

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in the open, and I have
so many witnesses. I cannot understand how

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so bad a judgment can be formed
of me. End quote. Now hardly

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anyone took Elizabeth at her word when
she expressed her wish to say single.

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Both Parliament and the Council would behave
as if the only choice of husband was

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an issue, and foreign ambassadors would
press the suits of various masters with good

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hopes of success. Elizabeth always played
along with the game. She loved nothing

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more than masculine attention and flattery,
and she did revel in the ritual of

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courtship at least in fact, so
well did she play her part that most

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people were deceived into thinking that she
had in fact changed her mind about remaining

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celibate, and that it was only
a matter of time and a matter of

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choice. This view was given credence
by Elizabeth's fondness for discussing her possible nuptials

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or declaring that quote. She was
but human and not insensible to human emotions,

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and when it became a question of
the well being of her kingdom,

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or might be for other reasons,
her heart might change end quote. Prove

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advantageous for her to have European princes
competing for her hand in England's friendship at

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a time when the country was weak
and impoverished well, they believed that they

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stood a chance of marrying her,
they were unlikely to stir up trouble.

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In late February, the Spanish ambassador
finally put Philip's marriage proposal before the Queen.

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She politely declined then and there.
He responded by saying that would result

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in Mary, Queen of Scott's,
inevitably seizing the throne. At some point.

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This assertion caused Elizabeth to fly into
a rage, so much so that

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when she was done, she collapsed
into a chair and told the ambassador she'd

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need to think about it. She
told him the next day that she was

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inclined to accept, but needed to
consult Parliament. Cecil was appalled, as

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Elizabeth no doubt knew he would be. Parliament did not want Philip part two.

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They hadn't wanted him the first time
around. Elizabeth certainly knew that.

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As we will see, Elizabeth was
very skilled at giving responses that would in

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the moment make the person she was
conversing with optimistic, even though she knew

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in the long run all she had
really done was reject their request. Of

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course, the other major issue facing
Elizabeth upon her ascension was religion. England

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had now vacillated wildly between the Catholic
and Evangelical faiths. Elizabeth would prove much

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more moderate. She had been taught
by Protestant tutors, but she also loved

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the pageantry of the old faith.
Famously, she once summed up her views

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on religion as follows. Quote,
there is only one Jesus Christ. The

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rest is all a dispute over trifles. Quote Catherine de Medici will say much

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the same thing. Elizabeth was not
Mary. She was no fanatic. In

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fact, she despised extremists on both
sides of the isle, Protestant and Catholic.

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For her, the arguments of theologians
and the divines were quote as ropes

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of sand or sea slime leading to
the moon. End quote. She told

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Parliament in fifteen ninety I see many
over bold, with the God Almighty making

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too many subtle scannings of his blessings
will, as lawyers do with human testaments.

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If I were not certain that mine
were the true way to God's will,

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God forbid that I should live to
prescribe it to you. End quote.

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Early in her reign, she confided
in several ambassadors that she just differed

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very little from Catholics in her beliefs. She believed in the sacrament and only

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dissented in a couple of things in
the Mass. But we might want to

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discount this because she said it at
a time when she needed spain support.

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She was quite capable of criticizing the
Old Faith. In fifteen seventy seven,

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she referred to it in a letter
to German Protestants as quote the darkness and

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filth of popery end quote. When
she learned that King Philip was persecuting Protestants

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in the Netherlands, she wrote to
ask him why he cared so much what

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they believed, And even later in
her reign, she refused to allow Sir

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Walter Raleigh's alleged atheism to be investigated. Because of all this, some accused

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her of being an atheist herself.
Yet she read the Bible regularly, keeping

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faith in her own and very private
way. She believed very much in the

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strong hand of Providence. When England
was threatened by Spain in the fifteen eighties,

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she famously said that God has not
yet decided that England shall cease to

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stand. More than anything, Elizabeth
hated many aspects of official religion, especially

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the sermons. If a preacher went
on for too long, it was not

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00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:14.440
unusual at all for her to shout
at him to be quiet. There were

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00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.720
practical reasons, too, for her
to dislike these sermons. They often serves

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00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:23.640
as subtle means for men to criticize
her. This was especially true of the

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radical Protestant group that would later be
known as the Puritans. She consistently irritated

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00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:36.240
them by supporting the arts throughout her
reign, even going so far as to

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form her own company of actors known
as the Queen's Men. Lucky for us,

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00:26:41.799 --> 00:26:47.519
though this was, after all,
the age of Shakespeare. Elizabeth despised

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00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:52.079
clergy who married, and would often
simply refuse to acknowledge their wives in public.

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Now, Queen Mary had repealed Henry
the Eighth's Act of Supremacy, and

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when Elizabeth succeeded to the thrown,
England was still technically a Catholic kingdom under

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00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:07.440
the jurisdiction of the Pope. However, most people expected the royal supremacy to

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be restored by Parliament, just as
some kind of Protestant religious settlement was anticipated.

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Since her ascension, Elizabeth had given
only hints as to her intentions regarding

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the crucial issue of religion. But
those hints had led people to believe that

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England would once again become independent of
the Catholic Church. As far as Elizabeth

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00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:33.240
was concerned, there could be only
one head of the Church in England,

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00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:37.519
and that was the monarch. She
believed she had been called on by the

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deity to bring about quote the according
and unity of these people of the Realm

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into a uniform order of religion,
to the honor and glory of God,

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the establishing of the Church, and
the tranquility of the Realm end quote.

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00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:55.799
One of her chief concerns was that
public worship should be conducted in the correct

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00:27:55.839 --> 00:28:00.559
form in English, and she was
to insist, much to the discos of

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her stricter Protestant subjects, upon retaining
some forms of Catholic ritual. She kept

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00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:11.319
candles as well as crucifixes in her
private chapel, and insisted that her clergy

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00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:18.119
wear caps, capes and surpluses.
She nevertheless abandoned the more elaborate ceremonies that

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00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:22.599
smacked of Rome, such as a
belief in miracles, indulgences, and the

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veneration of the Virgin Mary. In
fact, she losed the scent of incense

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00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:33.200
in churches, but the peeria tends
all the same still found much to complain

313
00:28:33.240 --> 00:28:36.200
about. They kind of have a
tendency to do that no matter what.

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00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:42.039
Elizabeth encouraged the worship of Saint George, though mostly to encourage nationalistic sentiments.

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00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:49.440
Though Catholics were viciously persecuted throughout her
reign, Elizabeth held no personal animosity toward

316
00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:55.079
them. She had a few Catholics
in her household. In fact, all

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00:28:55.119 --> 00:29:00.799
these persecutions, they were political in
nature, not religious. The priests who

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00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:03.680
were executed were put to death,
as we will see, because of treason's

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00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:08.039
behavior, not because of what they've
believed. So long as you accepted her

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00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:12.119
as the rightful Queen of England,
Elizabeth was content to let you be.

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00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:18.720
In the end, she wanted loyalty
and outward conformity. That was all.

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00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:25.440
On February the ninth, fifteen fifty
nine, Parliament finally moved forward on the

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00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:30.519
religion issue. The first goal was
to restore royal supremacy, but the first

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bill was hopelessly flawed and it failed
miserably. Then on February sixteenth, the

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Pope in Rome declared non Catholic rulers
might be lawfully deposed by their Catholic subjects

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or by other Catholic rulers. This
only raised further fears of a French sponsored

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00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:55.200
invasion with the aim of placing Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne.

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Elizabeth wanted a middle road. England
would be Protestant, but it would

329
00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:06.000
not be Puritan. The byword of
her reign would be compromise. Now the

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00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.480
sticking point at first was all semantics. Some members of Parliament did not feel

331
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:15.440
that a woman could be the supreme
head of the English Church, so with

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00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:21.440
Elizabeth's approval, they changed the name
to Supreme Governor, and so it was.

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00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:26.640
On March the eighteenth, Parliament passed
a new Bill of Supremacy declaring Elizabeth

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00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:32.519
Supreme Governor. The following week,
Elizabeth restored the Book of Common Prayer that

335
00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:37.279
had been used under Edward. Of
course, throughout the early parts of fifteen

336
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:42.079
fifty nine, various ambassadors continued to
press Elizabeth on the question of her marriage.

337
00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.799
The Holy Roman Emperor sent ambassadors to
see if she might wed one of

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00:30:45.839 --> 00:30:52.599
her sons, But on March fourteenth, when the Religious settlement plus a peace

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00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:57.000
treaty with France seemed all but done. She finally summoned Philip's ambassador. She

340
00:30:57.119 --> 00:31:00.519
told him firmly that the answer was
no, Well, she would not marry

341
00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:06.440
Philip. She gave two reasons.
One she felt that Philip was a heretic.

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00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:11.640
Two she didn't want to. The
ambassador subsequently reported the news back to

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00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:18.359
his master, who was doubtless relieved. Spain, too, was moving toward

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00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:22.920
peace with France. In fact,
just weeks later, Philip announced his marriage

345
00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:26.319
to one of Henry the Second's daughters. Philip, though for now, did

346
00:31:26.319 --> 00:31:30.960
not give up on the goal of
bringing Elizabeth and hence England back into the

347
00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:37.000
Catholic fold. He began casting about
for various habsburgs that might fit the bill.

348
00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:41.519
Evidently, Philip had not been listening
closely when Elizabeth said there were two

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00:31:41.559 --> 00:31:45.000
reasons she didn't want to get married, one of them that she didn't want

350
00:31:45.039 --> 00:31:51.200
to. Early in April, England
and France signed the peace treaty I just

351
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:56.039
alluded to. The terms were quite
simple. Calai was to remain in French

352
00:31:56.079 --> 00:32:00.480
hands for eight years. After that, all bets were off. Throughout her

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00:32:00.519 --> 00:32:06.119
reign. Elizabeth was confident she could
regain England's last territorial possession on the continent.

354
00:32:07.039 --> 00:32:12.319
It was her only real delusion.
France and Spain signed a separate treaty,

355
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:15.920
and for a moment at least the
major European powers were at peace.

356
00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:22.359
Elizabeth now felt more secure and more
able to proclaim England's position in Europe as

357
00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:28.759
a Protestant nation. Over the Easter
holidays, the Queen thrashed out the new

358
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:31.960
settlement with her lords, both spiritual
and temporal, and in the end managed

359
00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:37.200
to reach a compromise with the more
pre Britanical reformers. Elizabeth was to have

360
00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:43.119
the title Supreme Governor of the Church
of England, and an act of uniformity

361
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:46.720
was to restore by law Edward's Book
of Common Prayer of fifteen fifty two.

362
00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:52.240
The Mass was outlawed and all services
were to be in English. Transubstantiation was

363
00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:59.240
denied. Anglican communicants were instead instructed
to feed on Jesus Christ in their hearts

364
00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:04.519
with faith, church ornaments. Investments
were subject to the Queen's own discretion.

365
00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:10.079
Every subject over sixteen was to be
required to attend church on Sundays or be

366
00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:15.599
fined twelve pence for non attendance.
These fines would of course be paid mainly

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00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:22.559
by Catholic recusants, who were not
otherwise molested in practice. In a few

368
00:33:22.680 --> 00:33:30.240
years some were subject to petty harassment
for attending or celebrating mass. Elizabeth took

369
00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:35.519
time away from these negotiations and on
the twenty third of April took a boat

370
00:33:35.559 --> 00:33:38.640
and rowed up and down the River
Thames. Hundreds of boats and barges were

371
00:33:38.720 --> 00:33:43.759
rowing about her, and thousands of
people were thronging at the waterside to look

372
00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:49.000
upon her majesty. For the trumpets, blue drums, beat, flutes played,

373
00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:53.039
guns were discharged, and squibs hurled
up into the air as the Queen

374
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:58.640
moved from place to place, and
thus continued until ten o'clock at night,

375
00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:02.960
when the Queen departed at home.
By these means, showing herself so freely

376
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:07.639
and condescendingly onto her people, she
made herself dear and acceptable to them end

377
00:34:07.679 --> 00:34:15.199
quote. The Acts of Supremacy and
Uniformity were passed in Parliament on April twenty

378
00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:20.920
ninth, fifteen fifty nine. On
the eighth of May, Elizabeth approved them,

379
00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:25.199
making Protestantism the official religion of the
state, and establishing a form of

380
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:32.480
worship that in essence, is still
in practice in England today. Of course,

381
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:37.880
both Catholics and Calvinists wanted the reforms
to go further, albeit in different

382
00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:45.360
directions, but the vast majority of
Elizabeth's subjects applauded this compromise. Now England

383
00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:50.719
just needed a spiritual leader, you
see, the position of Archbishop of Canterbury

384
00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:53.599
had been vacant since the death of
Stephen Gardner at the end of Mary's reign.

385
00:34:54.760 --> 00:35:00.239
Elizabeth wanted to offer the job to
Matthew Parker, who had been her

386
00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:05.679
mother Anne Milynn's personal chaplain. He
didn't want it, and it took him

387
00:35:05.679 --> 00:35:09.679
five months, but eventually he succumbed
to the pressure and accepted. While all

388
00:35:09.679 --> 00:35:15.519
this was going on, Imperial diplomats
continued to press the idea of marriage into

389
00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:21.039
the Habsburg family. The Emperor now
intended to marry his son Charles to Elizabeth,

390
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:25.119
but the plan was flawed from the
start. The Emperor assumed that Elizabeth

391
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:31.559
would convert to Catholicism after the marriage, while the English negotiators assumed Charles would

392
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:37.880
convert to Protestantism. Clearly, the
two sides were not seeing eye to eye.

393
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:42.960
It only got worse from there.
The Imperial Master went ahead with a

394
00:35:42.960 --> 00:35:47.400
marriage proposal directly to Elizabeth. Anyway, she demurred, indicating that she did

395
00:35:47.400 --> 00:35:53.360
not intend to marry, But she
replied she might consider Charles if he personally

396
00:35:53.400 --> 00:35:58.880
came to England to meet her.
To us, that probably makes sense.

397
00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:02.280
It sounds like no thing at all
out of the ordinary. But in the

398
00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:07.199
sixteenth century that kind of request was
a non starter, and Elizabeth knew it.

399
00:36:07.079 --> 00:36:12.079
The Emperor would never risk the humiliation
that his son might go and then

400
00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:16.920
be rejected. Moreover, Charles himself
had no interest in going to England unless

401
00:36:16.920 --> 00:36:22.960
the marriage was a done deal.
Meanwhile, two English candidates had by that

402
00:36:23.039 --> 00:36:30.199
May emerged as potential suitors. One
was the forty seven year old Henry Fitzalan.

403
00:36:30.400 --> 00:36:37.599
Elizabeth remembers twenty five. He is
described as follows quote a flighty man

404
00:36:37.679 --> 00:36:44.920
of no ability, rather silly and
loudish end quote. Ouch. Elizabeth did

405
00:36:44.920 --> 00:36:50.639
not take his courtship seriously. The
other was the forty two year old William

406
00:36:50.679 --> 00:36:55.639
Pickering, a former ambassador who just
returned from abroad. He had been Elizabeth's

407
00:36:55.800 --> 00:37:01.280
friend and confidant since Mary's reign.
He was the most popular choice amongst those

408
00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:06.760
in the Privy Council. Indeed,
at this point he seemed like the only

409
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:14.679
serious choice. Elizabeth never seriously considered
him, though in fact, that spring,

410
00:37:15.239 --> 00:37:20.280
unbeknownst to everyone, at least at
first, a third potential suitor had

411
00:37:20.320 --> 00:37:27.000
emerged. He was the most serious
contender of all, and probably the only

412
00:37:27.079 --> 00:37:53.719
man Elizabeth ever loved. His name
was Robert Dudley.