Hello and Welcome to Western sev Episode two hundred and ninety five, The Unknown
Queen. When Elizabeth the First ascended to the throne, she was an unknown
quantity. People knew that Mary had been an ardent Catholic, people had every
reason to expect that Edward would be guided by the evangelicals in his household.
But Elizabeth, well, no one really knew what to think. Elizabeth had
been extremely young during Henry the Eighth's reign. She was only fourteen years old
when he died. She had been a teenager during the bulk of the reigns
of her siblings. She had played the role of a good evangelical and then
told Mary she was Catholic, So which was it. It is interesting to
think that Elizabeth, the last of Henry's children to rule, one of the
longest and by far most important impact on England and European history. Her sister
Mary had ruled England for five unhappy years. During those years, England lost
Calais, its last prize from the long gone Hundred Years War. England came
out of Mary's reign riven with religious strife and very much a minor power on
the periphery of Europe. France and Spain were by far more powerful and more
aggressive, and they were right next door. There would have been many at
the time of Elizabeth's ascension. I would have guessed England would have become some
kind of client state to either great power, or at the very least that
England would continue its current downward trajectory. But it didn't. Elizabeth's story is
simply amazing. It's unlikely to the extreme. From the moment of her mother's
death, she was written off. Yet she would be the monarch to finally
write England's ship of state after a tumultuous decade plus. It's a remarkable story,
an integral to Western history. Today we'd begin to tell it. Elizabeth's
first act as sovereign was to give official thanks for her peaceful transition to power.
In this age, that counted for quite a lot. The next decision
she made was just as crucial. Elizabeth decided from the outset that there would
not be any foreign interference in her administration. She had witnessed for herself the
devastating impact of Mary's marriage to Philip, and Philip to Mary's illegitimacy. As
an English monarch, she would have none of that for herself, not from
any European nation and certainly not from Rome. She wanted to be a focus
for English nationalism. In her words quote the most English woman in England end
quote. In terms of her lineage, she couldn't have been more right.
Her father, Henry Aith, had Plantagenet stock in his blood, and Elizabeth's
mother had no royal lineage, but she was English through and through. Elizabeth
was not quite three years old when her mother was executed for treason. No
one knows when or how she found out about her mother's death. We could
only guess at the impact her mother's death would have had on her emotionally.
We do know Elizabeth was confused why one day she was addressed as Lady Princess
and the very next as Lady Elizabeth. Certainly she recognized the change. Nor
do we know whether or not she believed in her mother's guilt. She made
only two references an adult life to Anne Boleyn, neither of them particularly revealing.
Although she was close to and prompted the interests of several relatives on her
mother's side, what is clear is that throughout her life she revered the memory
of her sometimes terrifying father, who had declared her mastered and could not bear
to have much contact in the years with her following Anne Boleyn's disgrace. Those
years, as we know, brought a succession of stepmothers for Elizabeth, all
of whom took pity on the motherless child and did their best to restore her
to favor. Perhaps the worst episode in her childhood occurred when Elizabeth was eight
years old. The King's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, a cousin of Anne
Boleyn, actually was a young girl who unwisely admitted former lovers into her househoorld,
and of course it was later alleged into her bed. Late in fifteen
forty one, her crimes were uncovered. The King wept when told, but
would not see her. In February fifteen forty two, she met the same
fate as Anne Bolynn. There was around this time that Elizabeth reportedly told her
friend, the young Robert Dudley, son of the Earl of Warwick, quote,
I will never marry end quote. Some writers have suggested that the events
of her childhood led her to equate marriage with death, and although there is
no evidence to support this theory, I don't think that there's any doubt that
this was a traumatic time for Elizabeth, with Catherine Howard's execution reviving a painful
memory of what had happened to her mother. When Henry married Catherine Parr in
fifteen forty three, Elizabeth finally found something like a normal family life. Catherine
was a calming influence over Henry and was able to get Elizabeth readmitted to court.
Yet even then, Henry had her exiled for a year for some unknown
reason. While the two reconciled just before his death in fifteen forty seven,
I do not see how anyone could interpret Henry's influence on his daughter's life as
anything but negative. Now Henry might have been a neglectful father, for sure,
but he was concerned with his daughter's education. At the age of six,
Henry made sure Elizabeth started dietting, an education that would befit a Renaissance
prince. Henry's final wife, Catherine Parr, made sure that that continued after
the king's death. She also made sure that Elizabeth was given the best Protestant
education possible, filling her studies with some of the best evangelical tutors of the
age, a feat obviously easier done during Edward's reign. As we will see,
those formative religious teachings had an impact. Elizabeth was highly intelligent. Everyone
says that. In fact, some of her tutors declared her to be the
most educated woman in England. That was at roughly the age of ten.
Hyperbole for sure, but not far from the truth. Like most education a
gentlewoman of her day, Elizabeth was encouraged to become the equal of men in
learning and to outdo quote the vaunted paragons of Greece and Rome end quote.
The curriculum devised for her was of course punishing by today's standards, but she
thrived on intellectual exercises, and she had a gift for languages, which she
enjoyed showing off as queen. She read and conversed fluently in Latin, French
and Greek, Spanish, Italian and Welsh, which is no easy feat.
She had read The New Testament in Greek, the Orations of Isocrates, and
Tragedies of Sophocles, amongst many other classical works. Her interest in philosophy and
history endured throughout her life. She would set aside three hours each day even
when she was queen, just to read historical books. Elizabeth had hobbies beyond
the classroom. She loved horseback riding, enjoyed outdoor walks, loved practicing what
we would call today caligraphy, really enjoyed penmanship, and above all, she
loved to dance, though to be fair, she had little occasion to practice
dancing prior to her ascension. The first time Elizabeth would get to use her
rhetorical skills was during the Lord Seymour affair. As you will recall, Seymour
had this nasty habit of flirting with the young princess, a charge that became
serious after his wife Catherine Parr remember he married her after Henry's death, and
especially after Seymour's downfall, when even Elizabeth's own servants were questioned about her conduct.
But Elizabeth was up for the challenge and defended herself quite ably. In
the end, we know she salvaged her name and her reputation. During Mary's
reign, Elizabeth did her best to stay out of the limelight. Always suspected
Elizabeth of being a secret Protestant. In one of the early revolts against her
rule, Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned in the tower for three months because she suspected
the princess of being complicit. Nothing, however, could be proven. Based
on later speeches Elizabeth would make this three month period was one of the most
difficult of her young life. According to what she would later say, Elizabeth
believed every single day during that three months to get noticed that she had been
condemned and would be executed like her mother and her aunt. Throughout the rest
of her life, Elizabeth would repeatedly thank God for intervening in this incident and
saving her life. Now, in actuality, it was actually King Philip who
had intervened on Elizabeth's behalf, but perhaps there was an additional mystical hand that
to the Ellosians. Regardless, Elizabeth remained in the country for the rest of
Mary's reign, doing her best to stay the heck out of trouble and look
the dutiful subject. Elizabeth was twenty five years old at the time of her
ascension and considered attractive by many. She was slender. She had her mother's
high cheek bones in her father's ruddy, reddish hair. Her complexion was olive
toned, a fact that Elizabeth hated throughout her life, and she would use
various potions in an effort to whiten it. As I mentioned at the beginning,
Elizabeth's character at the time that she took the throne was a bit of
a mystery. She had kept to herself for years. She had hinted at
her Protestant leaning, but hadn't given any clear indications. Now here's what one
historian, Alison Weir, had to say about Elizabeth. Quote always dignified and
stately in her bearing, she could also be vain, wilful, dictatorial,
temperamental, and imperious. Her sense of humor sometimes had a malicious edge to
it, and she was capable of making sharp cutting remarks. Yet she could
be warm and compassionate when occasion demanded, particularly towards the old and sick,
the bereaved, and those who had suffered misfortune. She had courage both in
her convictions and in the face of danger, and was not above metaphorically thumbing
her nose at her enemies. Possessing an innate humanity, she was not normally
cruel, unlike most of the rulers of her day, and many regarded her
as being unusually tolerant in that age of religious dogmatism. She saw herself as
a paragon of honor and honesty, who dealt with others in a straightforward manner
and would stand by quote the word of a prince, but the reality was
somewhat different. She could prevaricate, dissemble, and deceive as well as any
other ruler of her time. The need constantly to economize had made her so
careful with money as to appear parsimonious, and to the end of her life
she would avoid spending if she could. Caution was her watchword in all her
dealings. She took no more risks than she had to. She had learned
in a horrid school. She had also learned to use femininity to her advantage,
artfully stressing her womanly weakness and shortcomings, even indulging in effective storms of
weeping, whilst at the same time displaying many of the qualities most admired in
men. She had wisdom, common sense, staying, power, integrity,
and tenacity, which, along with the ability to compromise, a hard headed
sense of realism, and a devious, subtle brain, would make her a
monarch worthy of respect. Men might despise her sex, and they might mistake
her finely calculated sense of timing for dithering that they learned to appreciate her abilities,
even if they did not always understand how her mind worked, her unpredictability,
her tendency to unconventional behavior, and above all, her ability to change
her mind far more than they deemed necessary, or to put off making decisions
for what seemed like an inordinate length of time end quote. Unlike her siblings,
Elizabeth was as healthy as the proverbial horse. She did suffer from what
we would call panic attacks. However, Moreover, like her father, she
had a rather short fuse. Neither could she tolerate loud noises. She loved
flirting. In fact, throughout her life she seemed to take endless joy in
the idea that every man was in love with her. For this reason,
she tended to see other women as a threat. On November seventeenth, fifteen
fifty eight, Elizabeth ascended to the throne. That day, she summoned her
closest advisors for what was to be her first Privy Council meeting. Most of
the men assembled were surprised at her business like acumen, but one was not,
and that was William Cecil. He had been with Elizabeth for years already
for the next forty years he would be Elizabeth's chief adviser and her closest friend.
Cecil was now thirty eight. He had attended Cambridge and a degree in
law under Edward the sixth he had prospered and secured several important legal positions.
In fifteen fifty one, Cecil had been knighted William. Cecil was by nature
a cautious man. He believed firmly in preserving the medieval social order and the
prerogatives of the monarch. He was a patriot and quite conservative, but his
calm demeanor was what mattered most. It was the quality Elizabeth would rely upon
most in the years to come. Cecil was a fervent Protestant, and as
a result his career had largely stagnated under Mary. Throughout Edward and then Mary's
reigns, Cecil advised Elizabeth on political and financial matters, and she quickly came
to appreciate his worth. Elizabeth had this habit throughout her name of giving those
closest to her nicknames. It in fact came to be a sign of royal
favor to have one bestowed upon you. Elizabeth called Cecil her spirit, and
we can see the value she believed he brought to her life in the following
letter, quote, Sir Spirit, I doubt I do nickname you. For
those of your kind they say have no sense. But I have seen an
ek segum that if an ass kick you, you feel it too soon,
I will recant you from being my spirit. If ever I perceive that you
disdain not such a feeling. Serve God feared the King, and be a
good fellow to the rest. Do not be so silly a soul as to
not regard her trust who puts it in you. God bless you, and
long may you last. End quote. At that first meeting of her Privy
Council, missives declaring Elizabeth's ascension were drafted and sent abroad. Three days of
mourning were declared for Mary. Then the meeting ended. The next day,
everyone met again to begin filling the various vacancies that had cropped up every time
a new monarch took the throne. The first question was the critical post of
master of Horse. Elizabeth picked Robert Dudley for that. It was a surprise
choice in a lot of ways. Dudley's father was the one who had attempted
to supplant both Mary and Elizabeth with Lady Jane Gray, and he lost his
head for it. Dudley himself had spent time in the tower, and for
many his name was tainted with treason, but Elizabeth picked him. She thought
the choice was logical. Dudley's brother had held the same position under Edward.
Moreover, Elizabeth and Dudley had been close since childhood. It was an early
sign of favor that would be crucial in later years. Dudley's job was not
purely ceremonial, by the way. He was in charge of breeding and providing
horses for the Queen and her retinue, a crucial task in the sixteenth century.
He also had to organize state processions and entertainment, an equally important job.
He was suited to both. Dudley absolutely loved horses and knew every rule
of chivalry. He also encouraged Elizabeth to ride daily. Given that the Queen
loved riding already, it should come as no surprise that she quickly took his
advice. Before long, the Queen was often seen riding in the company with
her Master of Horace, who also, I should say, happened to be
tall and handsome. It was a true renaissance man. Dudley was interested in
subjects that ranged from mathematics and theology all the way down to biology, and
as we mentioned horsemanship. He spoke French and Italian fluently. Dudley's appointment,
in his obvious favor with the young Queen, did dismay those at court who
feared a revival of his family's ambitions and power. Some remembered that not only
his father, but also his grandfather, Edmund Dudley, had gone to the
block for treason, the latter at the beginning of Henry Eighth's reign, Although
it now seems likely that Edmund was merely a scapegoat for Henry the seventh's unpopular
financial policies. We covered that many episodes ago. Yet it wasn't long before
Elizabeth's favor extended to other members of Dudley's family, notably Robert's brother Ambrose and
his sister Mary, who became one of the ladies of the Bedchamber, to
whom the Queen was most devoted. On November the twentieth, William Cecil was
appointed Secretary of State. It was not the highest position in the English government
at the time, but it did allow Elizabeth to forge a close working relationship
with the man she trusted the most. I should note that though Cecil was
highly misogynistic and did not believe that women had the temperament to rule, at
least that's what he thought at first, but Elizabeth would quickly prove him wrong.
Many of the lords of Mary's privy council actually stayed on, but those
whose Catholic leanings were a bit too strong and a bit too obvious were dismissed
and replaced with Protestant lords of Elizabeth's choosing. Some were not replaced at all,
as Elizabeth's privy council was to be much smaller than Mary's or Edwards according
to our record. And then Elizabeth closed the second meeting of a privy Council
with the following statement, the law of nature moves me to sorrow for my
sister. The burden that falleth upon me marketh me amazed. And yet,
considering I am Grod's creature, ordagn to obey his appointment, I will yield
there too, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance
of his grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now
committed to me, And as I am but one body. So I shall
require you, all my lords, to be assistant to me, that I,
with my ruling and you, with my service, may make a good
account to Almighty God, and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth.
I mean to do wrecked all mine actions by good advice and counsel. My
meaning is to require of you all nothing more but faithful hearts, and of
my goodwill. You shall not doubt, using yourselves as good and loving subjects.
For the next three days, Elizabeth and Cecil worked to fill the various
vacancies left by the transition, both in the government and in her household.
Remember this is an age when the monarch was the government, so household positions
mattered a lot, because proximity to power matters a lot. One of the
first foreign visitors to see Elizabeth was from Philip, King of Spain. Philip
was keen to make sure the prior alliance between the Tutors and the Habsburgs continued.
He needed England to help protect the Low countries from France. Those said
Low Countries would soon be a major headache for him rather than a benefit.
As we know, Henry the Second in France, for his part, declared
Elizabeth a bastard and ineligible for the English throne. He asserted Mary, Queen
of Scot's, as England's true queen more on that later. As a result
of all of this, Elizabeth naturally favored an alliance with Philip at least early
on. Of course, everyone expected Elizabeth to marry. It was assumed that
a woman of her age would want nothing more. It was also assumed that
women who remained single had unstable minds. In Philip's mind, there was only
one proper match for Elizabeth himself. Habsburg ambassadors floated the idea to Cecil and
others, who demurred. Elizabeth was an independent woman. She would not rush
any major decision like this, they were told, And honestly, even Philip
had his misgivings. He knew Elizabeth wasn't Catholic, and worse yet, he
knew she might not be as pliable as Mary had been. Philip, in
all reality, probably never intended to marry in England again, though the possibility
remained widely debated during Elizabeth's first year. On November the twenty eighth, Elizabeth
entered London for the first time as Queen. Thousands turned out to see her,
and they fell in love with her almost at once. One commenter wrote,
as quollows, if any person had either the gift or the style to
win the hearts of the people, it was this Queen. All her faculties
were in motion, and every motion seemed a well guided action. Her eye
was set upon her, her ear listened to another. Her judgment ran upon
a third to a fourth. She addressed her speech, her spirit seemed everywhere.
Some she pitied, some she commended, some she thanked at others she
pleasantly and wittily jested, condemning no person, neglecting no office, distributing her
smiles, looks, and graces so artfully that thereupon the people again redoubled the
testimony of their joys, and afterwards, raising everything to the highest strain,
filled the ears of all men with immoderate extolling of their prince. Elizabeth remained
in London for some time before moving on to Whitehall Palace on the twenty third
of December. Whitehall was to be her principal and favorite residency throughout her reign.
While Philips, ambassador went along with the royal retinue, he was given
no audience with the Queen, who wanted it clear from the outset she would
govern without foreign interference. Unlike Henry the Eighth, who had given over all
his time to pleasure during the early years of his reign and left the business
of governing to others, Elizabeth worked hard every day, finalizing plans for her
household and intending to state business. She insisted that every letter arriving at court
he brought to her inspection, much to Cecil's dismay, because he believed that
a woman had no business poking her nose into matters that were properly the concern
of the Privy Council. When he found out, for example, that a
dispatch from overseas had been taken straight to Elizabeth without first being shown to him
as Secretary of State, his irritation increased, and he was further aggravated when
the Queen revealed that she had already discussed the contents the letter with the messenger
who had delivered it. Later, Cecil would lecture the poor fellow, saying
he had no right to take it to Elizabeth. The young Queen had from
the first established a set daily routine. She would get up early, went
in in all the worst weather for a short but brisk walk in the palace
gardens. She then had her breakfast served to her in the Privy Chamber,
where she would remain while she attended to the day's business, summoning her various
secretaries who would kneel before her to present letters and documents that needed the royal
signature. She might then preside over a meeting of the Privy Council. At
noon, dinner was served to her again in the Privy Chamber. Elizabeth actually
rarely ate in public. In the afternoon, she might hold more formal receptions
in her presence chamber for foreign ambassadors and other visitors, remaining standing for hours
on end and conversing fluent in Latin. Usually she would set aside time in
which to indulge her passion for dancing. It was not unusual, by the
way, for her to dance six spirited dances in the presence chamber. Evenings
there would be state banquets or courtly entertainments to attend. Elizabeth loved music of
all kinds and welcomed many performers at her court. Sometimes she herself would play
on the lute. Later in the evenings, after supper, she would play
cards with her courtiers, but she usually worked for an hour or so on
state papers before retiring to bed, and was not above summoning cecil or other
counselors at all hours of the night if she wanted or needed some advice.
Often she would make a decision at midnight, but changed her mind in the
morning. Needless to say, this kind of behavior drove her advisers. Mad
Mary was buried in early December with all the Catholic rights. Yet, though
Elizabeth had not made any official announcements regarding religion, her behavior left few wondering
which way she was leaning. A dispirited Spanish Ambassas wrote back to Philip as
follows quote, the kingdom is entirely in the hands of young folks, heretics
and traitors. The old people and the Catholics are disaffected, but dare not
open their lips. Her majesty seems to me incomparably more feared than her sister,
and gives her orders and has her way as absolutely as her father did.
We have lost a kingdom body and soul. End quote. The ambassador,
likewise, had grown increasingly dismayed about the prospect of a match between Elizabeth
and Philip, who still had not proposed, and of course the alliance with
England that would come with it. The same ambassador wrote to Philip that if
he didn't propose soon, Elizabeth might choose an Englishman for a husband and all
would be lost. England got a real sense of Elizabeth's religious leanings that Christmas.
During her Christmas service, as the priest held the host aloft in the
Catholic manner, Elizabeth angrily ordered him to desist. When he did not,
she stormed from the room. Days later, Elizabeth issued a proclamation that parts
of the Mass might be set in English rather than Latin, and that when
Parliament met scheduled for January, the religious issue would be decided. As a
result, Philip decided finally to move before any final religious decisions were made.
On January the tenth, he informed his ambassador to propose to Elizabeth, who
did so several days later on his king's behalf. The ambassador wanted to see
Elizabeth alone, but she was still in the process of planning her coronation,
which she wanted to be as magnificent as possible. This was still an age
when legitimacy might be conferred through awe and spectacle, Elizabeth wanted to use both.
The date was set for January the thirteenth, fifteen fifty nine. The
cost just over sixteen thousand pounds ten and a half million in today's money.
Cheap, by the way, compared to what the recent Charles the Third paid
earlier this year. His cost was nearly one hundred million pounds. Next time,
Elizabeth's coronation, early religious questions and a firm answer for Philip. In
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