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Hello and Welcome to Western sev Episode
two hundred and ninety five, The Unknown

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Queen. When Elizabeth the First ascended
to the throne, she was an unknown

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quantity. People knew that Mary had
been an ardent Catholic, people had every

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reason to expect that Edward would be
guided by the evangelicals in his household.

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But Elizabeth, well, no one
really knew what to think. Elizabeth had

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been extremely young during Henry the Eighth's
reign. She was only fourteen years old

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when he died. She had been
a teenager during the bulk of the reigns

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of her siblings. She had played
the role of a good evangelical and then

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told Mary she was Catholic, So
which was it. It is interesting to

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think that Elizabeth, the last of
Henry's children to rule, one of the

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longest and by far most important impact
on England and European history. Her sister

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Mary had ruled England for five unhappy
years. During those years, England lost

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Calais, its last prize from the
long gone Hundred Years War. England came

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out of Mary's reign riven with religious
strife and very much a minor power on

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the periphery of Europe. France and
Spain were by far more powerful and more

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aggressive, and they were right next
door. There would have been many at

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the time of Elizabeth's ascension. I
would have guessed England would have become some

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kind of client state to either great
power, or at the very least that

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England would continue its current downward trajectory. But it didn't. Elizabeth's story is

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simply amazing. It's unlikely to the
extreme. From the moment of her mother's

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death, she was written off.
Yet she would be the monarch to finally

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write England's ship of state after a
tumultuous decade plus. It's a remarkable story,

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an integral to Western history. Today
we'd begin to tell it. Elizabeth's

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first act as sovereign was to give
official thanks for her peaceful transition to power.

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In this age, that counted for
quite a lot. The next decision

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she made was just as crucial.
Elizabeth decided from the outset that there would

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not be any foreign interference in her
administration. She had witnessed for herself the

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devastating impact of Mary's marriage to Philip, and Philip to Mary's illegitimacy. As

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an English monarch, she would have
none of that for herself, not from

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any European nation and certainly not from
Rome. She wanted to be a focus

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for English nationalism. In her words
quote the most English woman in England end

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quote. In terms of her lineage, she couldn't have been more right.

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Her father, Henry Aith, had
Plantagenet stock in his blood, and Elizabeth's

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mother had no royal lineage, but
she was English through and through. Elizabeth

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was not quite three years old when
her mother was executed for treason. No

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one knows when or how she found
out about her mother's death. We could

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only guess at the impact her mother's
death would have had on her emotionally.

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We do know Elizabeth was confused why
one day she was addressed as Lady Princess

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and the very next as Lady Elizabeth. Certainly she recognized the change. Nor

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do we know whether or not she
believed in her mother's guilt. She made

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only two references an adult life to
Anne Boleyn, neither of them particularly revealing.

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Although she was close to and prompted
the interests of several relatives on her

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mother's side, what is clear is
that throughout her life she revered the memory

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of her sometimes terrifying father, who
had declared her mastered and could not bear

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to have much contact in the years
with her following Anne Boleyn's disgrace. Those

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years, as we know, brought
a succession of stepmothers for Elizabeth, all

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of whom took pity on the motherless
child and did their best to restore her

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to favor. Perhaps the worst episode
in her childhood occurred when Elizabeth was eight

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years old. The King's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, a cousin of Anne

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Boleyn, actually was a young girl
who unwisely admitted former lovers into her househoorld,

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and of course it was later alleged
into her bed. Late in fifteen

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forty one, her crimes were uncovered. The King wept when told, but

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would not see her. In February
fifteen forty two, she met the same

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fate as Anne Bolynn. There was
around this time that Elizabeth reportedly told her

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friend, the young Robert Dudley,
son of the Earl of Warwick, quote,

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I will never marry end quote.
Some writers have suggested that the events

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of her childhood led her to equate
marriage with death, and although there is

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no evidence to support this theory,
I don't think that there's any doubt that

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this was a traumatic time for Elizabeth, with Catherine Howard's execution reviving a painful

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memory of what had happened to her
mother. When Henry married Catherine Parr in

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fifteen forty three, Elizabeth finally found
something like a normal family life. Catherine

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was a calming influence over Henry and
was able to get Elizabeth readmitted to court.

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Yet even then, Henry had her
exiled for a year for some unknown

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reason. While the two reconciled just
before his death in fifteen forty seven,

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I do not see how anyone could
interpret Henry's influence on his daughter's life as

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anything but negative. Now Henry might
have been a neglectful father, for sure,

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but he was concerned with his daughter's
education. At the age of six,

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Henry made sure Elizabeth started dietting,
an education that would befit a Renaissance

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prince. Henry's final wife, Catherine
Parr, made sure that that continued after

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the king's death. She also made
sure that Elizabeth was given the best Protestant

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education possible, filling her studies with
some of the best evangelical tutors of the

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age, a feat obviously easier done
during Edward's reign. As we will see,

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those formative religious teachings had an impact. Elizabeth was highly intelligent. Everyone

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says that. In fact, some
of her tutors declared her to be the

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most educated woman in England. That
was at roughly the age of ten.

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Hyperbole for sure, but not far
from the truth. Like most education a

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gentlewoman of her day, Elizabeth was
encouraged to become the equal of men in

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learning and to outdo quote the vaunted
paragons of Greece and Rome end quote.

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The curriculum devised for her was of
course punishing by today's standards, but she

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thrived on intellectual exercises, and she
had a gift for languages, which she

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enjoyed showing off as queen. She
read and conversed fluently in Latin, French

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and Greek, Spanish, Italian and
Welsh, which is no easy feat.

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She had read The New Testament in
Greek, the Orations of Isocrates, and

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Tragedies of Sophocles, amongst many other
classical works. Her interest in philosophy and

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history endured throughout her life. She
would set aside three hours each day even

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when she was queen, just to
read historical books. Elizabeth had hobbies beyond

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the classroom. She loved horseback riding, enjoyed outdoor walks, loved practicing what

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we would call today caligraphy, really
enjoyed penmanship, and above all, she

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loved to dance, though to be
fair, she had little occasion to practice

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dancing prior to her ascension. The
first time Elizabeth would get to use her

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rhetorical skills was during the Lord Seymour
affair. As you will recall, Seymour

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had this nasty habit of flirting with
the young princess, a charge that became

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serious after his wife Catherine Parr remember
he married her after Henry's death, and

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especially after Seymour's downfall, when even
Elizabeth's own servants were questioned about her conduct.

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But Elizabeth was up for the challenge
and defended herself quite ably. In

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the end, we know she salvaged
her name and her reputation. During Mary's

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reign, Elizabeth did her best to
stay out of the limelight. Always suspected

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Elizabeth of being a secret Protestant.
In one of the early revolts against her

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rule, Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned in
the tower for three months because she suspected

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the princess of being complicit. Nothing, however, could be proven. Based

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on later speeches Elizabeth would make this
three month period was one of the most

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difficult of her young life. According
to what she would later say, Elizabeth

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believed every single day during that three
months to get noticed that she had been

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condemned and would be executed like her
mother and her aunt. Throughout the rest

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of her life, Elizabeth would repeatedly
thank God for intervening in this incident and

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saving her life. Now, in
actuality, it was actually King Philip who

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had intervened on Elizabeth's behalf, but
perhaps there was an additional mystical hand that

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to the Ellosians. Regardless, Elizabeth
remained in the country for the rest of

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Mary's reign, doing her best to
stay the heck out of trouble and look

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the dutiful subject. Elizabeth was twenty
five years old at the time of her

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ascension and considered attractive by many.
She was slender. She had her mother's

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high cheek bones in her father's ruddy, reddish hair. Her complexion was olive

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toned, a fact that Elizabeth hated
throughout her life, and she would use

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various potions in an effort to whiten
it. As I mentioned at the beginning,

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Elizabeth's character at the time that she
took the throne was a bit of

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a mystery. She had kept to
herself for years. She had hinted at

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her Protestant leaning, but hadn't given
any clear indications. Now here's what one

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historian, Alison Weir, had to
say about Elizabeth. Quote always dignified and

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stately in her bearing, she could
also be vain, wilful, dictatorial,

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temperamental, and imperious. Her sense
of humor sometimes had a malicious edge to

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it, and she was capable of
making sharp cutting remarks. Yet she could

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be warm and compassionate when occasion demanded, particularly towards the old and sick,

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the bereaved, and those who had
suffered misfortune. She had courage both in

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her convictions and in the face of
danger, and was not above metaphorically thumbing

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her nose at her enemies. Possessing
an innate humanity, she was not normally

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cruel, unlike most of the rulers
of her day, and many regarded her

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as being unusually tolerant in that age
of religious dogmatism. She saw herself as

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a paragon of honor and honesty,
who dealt with others in a straightforward manner

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and would stand by quote the word
of a prince, but the reality was

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somewhat different. She could prevaricate,
dissemble, and deceive as well as any

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other ruler of her time. The
need constantly to economize had made her so

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careful with money as to appear parsimonious, and to the end of her life

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she would avoid spending if she could. Caution was her watchword in all her

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dealings. She took no more risks
than she had to. She had learned

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in a horrid school. She had
also learned to use femininity to her advantage,

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artfully stressing her womanly weakness and shortcomings, even indulging in effective storms of

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weeping, whilst at the same time
displaying many of the qualities most admired in

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men. She had wisdom, common
sense, staying, power, integrity,

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and tenacity, which, along with
the ability to compromise, a hard headed

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sense of realism, and a devious, subtle brain, would make her a

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monarch worthy of respect. Men might
despise her sex, and they might mistake

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her finely calculated sense of timing for
dithering that they learned to appreciate her abilities,

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even if they did not always understand
how her mind worked, her unpredictability,

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her tendency to unconventional behavior, and
above all, her ability to change

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her mind far more than they deemed
necessary, or to put off making decisions

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for what seemed like an inordinate length
of time end quote. Unlike her siblings,

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Elizabeth was as healthy as the proverbial
horse. She did suffer from what

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we would call panic attacks. However, Moreover, like her father, she

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had a rather short fuse. Neither
could she tolerate loud noises. She loved

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flirting. In fact, throughout her
life she seemed to take endless joy in

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the idea that every man was in
love with her. For this reason,

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she tended to see other women as
a threat. On November seventeenth, fifteen

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fifty eight, Elizabeth ascended to the
throne. That day, she summoned her

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closest advisors for what was to be
her first Privy Council meeting. Most of

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the men assembled were surprised at her
business like acumen, but one was not,

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and that was William Cecil. He
had been with Elizabeth for years already

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for the next forty years he would
be Elizabeth's chief adviser and her closest friend.

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Cecil was now thirty eight. He
had attended Cambridge and a degree in

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law under Edward the sixth he had
prospered and secured several important legal positions.

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In fifteen fifty one, Cecil had
been knighted William. Cecil was by nature

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a cautious man. He believed firmly
in preserving the medieval social order and the

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prerogatives of the monarch. He was
a patriot and quite conservative, but his

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calm demeanor was what mattered most.
It was the quality Elizabeth would rely upon

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most in the years to come.
Cecil was a fervent Protestant, and as

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a result his career had largely stagnated
under Mary. Throughout Edward and then Mary's

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reigns, Cecil advised Elizabeth on political
and financial matters, and she quickly came

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to appreciate his worth. Elizabeth had
this habit throughout her name of giving those

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closest to her nicknames. It in
fact came to be a sign of royal

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favor to have one bestowed upon you. Elizabeth called Cecil her spirit, and

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we can see the value she believed
he brought to her life in the following

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letter, quote, Sir Spirit,
I doubt I do nickname you. For

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those of your kind they say have
no sense. But I have seen an

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ek segum that if an ass kick
you, you feel it too soon,

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I will recant you from being my
spirit. If ever I perceive that you

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disdain not such a feeling. Serve
God feared the King, and be a

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good fellow to the rest. Do
not be so silly a soul as to

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not regard her trust who puts it
in you. God bless you, and

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long may you last. End quote. At that first meeting of her Privy

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Council, missives declaring Elizabeth's ascension were
drafted and sent abroad. Three days of

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mourning were declared for Mary. Then
the meeting ended. The next day,

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everyone met again to begin filling the
various vacancies that had cropped up every time

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a new monarch took the throne.
The first question was the critical post of

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master of Horse. Elizabeth picked Robert
Dudley for that. It was a surprise

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choice in a lot of ways.
Dudley's father was the one who had attempted

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to supplant both Mary and Elizabeth with
Lady Jane Gray, and he lost his

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head for it. Dudley himself had
spent time in the tower, and for

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many his name was tainted with treason, but Elizabeth picked him. She thought

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the choice was logical. Dudley's brother
had held the same position under Edward.

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Moreover, Elizabeth and Dudley had been
close since childhood. It was an early

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sign of favor that would be crucial
in later years. Dudley's job was not

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purely ceremonial, by the way.
He was in charge of breeding and providing

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horses for the Queen and her retinue, a crucial task in the sixteenth century.

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He also had to organize state processions
and entertainment, an equally important job.

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He was suited to both. Dudley
absolutely loved horses and knew every rule

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of chivalry. He also encouraged Elizabeth
to ride daily. Given that the Queen

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loved riding already, it should come
as no surprise that she quickly took his

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advice. Before long, the Queen
was often seen riding in the company with

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her Master of Horace, who also, I should say, happened to be

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tall and handsome. It was a
true renaissance man. Dudley was interested in

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subjects that ranged from mathematics and theology
all the way down to biology, and

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as we mentioned horsemanship. He spoke
French and Italian fluently. Dudley's appointment,

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in his obvious favor with the young
Queen, did dismay those at court who

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feared a revival of his family's ambitions
and power. Some remembered that not only

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his father, but also his grandfather, Edmund Dudley, had gone to the

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block for treason, the latter at
the beginning of Henry Eighth's reign, Although

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it now seems likely that Edmund was
merely a scapegoat for Henry the seventh's unpopular

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financial policies. We covered that many
episodes ago. Yet it wasn't long before

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Elizabeth's favor extended to other members of
Dudley's family, notably Robert's brother Ambrose and

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his sister Mary, who became one
of the ladies of the Bedchamber, to

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whom the Queen was most devoted.
On November the twentieth, William Cecil was

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appointed Secretary of State. It was
not the highest position in the English government

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at the time, but it did
allow Elizabeth to forge a close working relationship

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with the man she trusted the most. I should note that though Cecil was

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highly misogynistic and did not believe that
women had the temperament to rule, at

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least that's what he thought at first, but Elizabeth would quickly prove him wrong.

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Many of the lords of Mary's privy
council actually stayed on, but those

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whose Catholic leanings were a bit too
strong and a bit too obvious were dismissed

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and replaced with Protestant lords of Elizabeth's
choosing. Some were not replaced at all,

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as Elizabeth's privy council was to be
much smaller than Mary's or Edwards according

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to our record. And then Elizabeth
closed the second meeting of a privy Council

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with the following statement, the law
of nature moves me to sorrow for my

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sister. The burden that falleth upon
me marketh me amazed. And yet,

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considering I am Grod's creature, ordagn
to obey his appointment, I will yield

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there too, desiring from the bottom
of my heart that I may have assistance

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of his grace to be the minister
of His heavenly will in this office now

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committed to me, And as I
am but one body. So I shall

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require you, all my lords,
to be assistant to me, that I,

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with my ruling and you, with
my service, may make a good

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account to Almighty God, and leave
some comfort to our posterity on earth.

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I mean to do wrecked all mine
actions by good advice and counsel. My

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meaning is to require of you all
nothing more but faithful hearts, and of

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my goodwill. You shall not doubt, using yourselves as good and loving subjects.

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For the next three days, Elizabeth
and Cecil worked to fill the various

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vacancies left by the transition, both
in the government and in her household.

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Remember this is an age when the
monarch was the government, so household positions

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mattered a lot, because proximity to
power matters a lot. One of the

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first foreign visitors to see Elizabeth was
from Philip, King of Spain. Philip

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was keen to make sure the prior
alliance between the Tutors and the Habsburgs continued.

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He needed England to help protect the
Low countries from France. Those said

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Low Countries would soon be a major
headache for him rather than a benefit.

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As we know, Henry the Second
in France, for his part, declared

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Elizabeth a bastard and ineligible for the
English throne. He asserted Mary, Queen

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of Scot's, as England's true queen
more on that later. As a result

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of all of this, Elizabeth naturally
favored an alliance with Philip at least early

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on. Of course, everyone expected
Elizabeth to marry. It was assumed that

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a woman of her age would want
nothing more. It was also assumed that

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women who remained single had unstable minds. In Philip's mind, there was only

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one proper match for Elizabeth himself.
Habsburg ambassadors floated the idea to Cecil and

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others, who demurred. Elizabeth was
an independent woman. She would not rush

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any major decision like this, they
were told, And honestly, even Philip

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had his misgivings. He knew Elizabeth
wasn't Catholic, and worse yet, he

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knew she might not be as pliable
as Mary had been. Philip, in

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all reality, probably never intended to
marry in England again, though the possibility

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remained widely debated during Elizabeth's first year. On November the twenty eighth, Elizabeth

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entered London for the first time as
Queen. Thousands turned out to see her,

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and they fell in love with her
almost at once. One commenter wrote,

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as quollows, if any person had
either the gift or the style to

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win the hearts of the people,
it was this Queen. All her faculties

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were in motion, and every motion
seemed a well guided action. Her eye

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was set upon her, her ear
listened to another. Her judgment ran upon

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a third to a fourth. She
addressed her speech, her spirit seemed everywhere.

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Some she pitied, some she commended, some she thanked at others she

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pleasantly and wittily jested, condemning no
person, neglecting no office, distributing her

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smiles, looks, and graces so
artfully that thereupon the people again redoubled the

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testimony of their joys, and afterwards, raising everything to the highest strain,

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filled the ears of all men with
immoderate extolling of their prince. Elizabeth remained

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in London for some time before moving
on to Whitehall Palace on the twenty third

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of December. Whitehall was to be
her principal and favorite residency throughout her reign.

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While Philips, ambassador went along with
the royal retinue, he was given

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no audience with the Queen, who
wanted it clear from the outset she would

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govern without foreign interference. Unlike Henry
the Eighth, who had given over all

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his time to pleasure during the early
years of his reign and left the business

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of governing to others, Elizabeth worked
hard every day, finalizing plans for her

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household and intending to state business.
She insisted that every letter arriving at court

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he brought to her inspection, much
to Cecil's dismay, because he believed that

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a woman had no business poking her
nose into matters that were properly the concern

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of the Privy Council. When he
found out, for example, that a

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dispatch from overseas had been taken straight
to Elizabeth without first being shown to him

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as Secretary of State, his irritation
increased, and he was further aggravated when

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the Queen revealed that she had already
discussed the contents the letter with the messenger

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who had delivered it. Later,
Cecil would lecture the poor fellow, saying

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he had no right to take it
to Elizabeth. The young Queen had from

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the first established a set daily routine. She would get up early, went

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in in all the worst weather for
a short but brisk walk in the palace

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gardens. She then had her breakfast
served to her in the Privy Chamber,

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where she would remain while she attended
to the day's business, summoning her various

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secretaries who would kneel before her to
present letters and documents that needed the royal

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signature. She might then preside over
a meeting of the Privy Council. At

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noon, dinner was served to her
again in the Privy Chamber. Elizabeth actually

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rarely ate in public. In the
afternoon, she might hold more formal receptions

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in her presence chamber for foreign ambassadors
and other visitors, remaining standing for hours

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on end and conversing fluent in Latin. Usually she would set aside time in

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which to indulge her passion for dancing. It was not unusual, by the

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way, for her to dance six
spirited dances in the presence chamber. Evenings

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there would be state banquets or courtly
entertainments to attend. Elizabeth loved music of

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all kinds and welcomed many performers at
her court. Sometimes she herself would play

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on the lute. Later in the
evenings, after supper, she would play

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cards with her courtiers, but she
usually worked for an hour or so on

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state papers before retiring to bed,
and was not above summoning cecil or other

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counselors at all hours of the night
if she wanted or needed some advice.

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Often she would make a decision at
midnight, but changed her mind in the

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morning. Needless to say, this
kind of behavior drove her advisers. Mad

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Mary was buried in early December with
all the Catholic rights. Yet, though

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Elizabeth had not made any official announcements
regarding religion, her behavior left few wondering

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which way she was leaning. A
dispirited Spanish Ambassas wrote back to Philip as

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follows quote, the kingdom is entirely
in the hands of young folks, heretics

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and traitors. The old people and
the Catholics are disaffected, but dare not

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open their lips. Her majesty seems
to me incomparably more feared than her sister,

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and gives her orders and has her
way as absolutely as her father did.

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We have lost a kingdom body and
soul. End quote. The ambassador,

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likewise, had grown increasingly dismayed about
the prospect of a match between Elizabeth

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and Philip, who still had not
proposed, and of course the alliance with

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England that would come with it.
The same ambassador wrote to Philip that if

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he didn't propose soon, Elizabeth might
choose an Englishman for a husband and all

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would be lost. England got a
real sense of Elizabeth's religious leanings that Christmas.

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During her Christmas service, as the
priest held the host aloft in the

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Catholic manner, Elizabeth angrily ordered him
to desist. When he did not,

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she stormed from the room. Days
later, Elizabeth issued a proclamation that parts

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of the Mass might be set in
English rather than Latin, and that when

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Parliament met scheduled for January, the
religious issue would be decided. As a

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result, Philip decided finally to move
before any final religious decisions were made.

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On January the tenth, he informed
his ambassador to propose to Elizabeth, who

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did so several days later on his
king's behalf. The ambassador wanted to see

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Elizabeth alone, but she was still
in the process of planning her coronation,

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which she wanted to be as magnificent
as possible. This was still an age

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when legitimacy might be conferred through awe
and spectacle, Elizabeth wanted to use both.

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The date was set for January the
thirteenth, fifteen fifty nine. The

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00:31:08.880 --> 00:31:15.559
cost just over sixteen thousand pounds ten
and a half million in today's money.

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00:31:15.240 --> 00:31:18.880
Cheap, by the way, compared
to what the recent Charles the Third paid

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00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:26.160
earlier this year. His cost was
nearly one hundred million pounds. Next time,

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00:31:26.920 --> 00:31:34.960
Elizabeth's coronation, early religious questions and
a firm answer for Philip. In

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00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.839
the meantime, if you're interested in
supporting Western Sieve, or if you'd like

333
00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:44.920
more Western Sieve, check out the
link to Western SIV two point zero.

334
00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:47.640
In the show notes, you get
a seven day free trial and if you

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enjoy it, for a dollar a
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If you do the math, I
believe and you get no ads whatsoever.

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And for two dollars a month,
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