Hello and Welcome to Western SIEV episode three hundred and one, without an air
Back in England, the Queen was not well. Smallpox was a major issue
in England throughout Elizabeth's reign in the early fifteen sixties. It was seemingly everywhere.
It was one of the most dreaded diseases of the sixteenth century, because
even if you survived it, you might be scarred for life. Elizabeth was
at Hampton Court on October the tenth, fifteen sixty two, when she first
felt unwell. Following prevailing medical opinion, she immediately took a bath and then
went for a brisk walk. As a consequence, she caught a chill and
had to retire to bed, immediately running a light fever. Doctor Burcott,
a respected but irritable German physician, was summoned to examine her. He diagnosed
smallpox, but there were no pots, and so the queen dismissed him for
a fool. No eruptions appeared, which many believed to be the token of
the onset of a serious attack, and a day or so later her fever
grew worse. October the sixteenth she was extremely ill, first becoming incapable of
speech and then lapsing into an unconscious state, in which she remained for twenty
four hours. The Royal doctors, fearing that her death was imminent, sent
urgently for William Cecil to come the next night. Elizabeth drifted in and out
of consciousness as the crisis approached, and there were hurried convenings of an anxious
Privy Council whose members were all panic strickened over the unresolved matter of the succession.
If the Queen died, as most believed she would, who should succeed
her. Over the next few days there were urgent discussions with the councilors,
according to many divided in their opinions. Extreme Protestants favorite Lady Catherine Gray,
while moderates supported the Earl of Huntington, who had no near blood relationship to
the queen. Arrest one of the judiciaries to determine the matter. No one
spoke in support of Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, but consensus continued to
be lacking, which hinted at deep divisions and voted ominously for the future.
As the court prepared to go into mourning, Lord Hunson persuaded the reluctant doctor
Burcott, some say at the point of a dagger, to resume his treatment
of the queen. Following a curative measure first used by the Arabs and recommended
by the English medieval physician John of Gadinson, Burcott ordered that she be wrapped
in red flannel, laid on a palette beside a fire, and given a
potion of his devising. Two hours later, Elizabeth was conscious, unable to
speak. Elizabeth, though conscious, remained aware bravely ill. She would later
tell a parliamentary delegation quote, death possessed every joint of me. Her only
goal at that time was to make a plan for England in the event of
her death. Her answer Robert Dudley. She commanded the Privy Council to declare
him Lord Protector of England and grant him a massive salary of twenty thousand pounds
per year. Her counselors were dismayed, but did as they were told,
and preparations were laid for Dudley to take over the government of England. Shortly
after this, doctor Burcott returned with yet another treatment. It was then that
Elizabeth first noticed the red eruptions of smallpox on her hands. At first,
she was upset at what this might mean for her appearance, but Burcott scolded
his patient and said that the spots were a good sign. They would soon
scab and fall off, but the worst was over. He diagnosed Elizabeth on
the men then and there. Six days later, the Queen had fully recovered,
but the entire episode left more than just Elizabeth's hands scarred. She had
survived, sure, but had she not. The entire kingdom had just walked
up to the precipice of civil war. Everyone now realized there needed to be
some solution to the succession issue, and it had to be done now.
Most believed Elizabeth could solve this herself, that she should simply marry right now.
As for Dudley, he had very nearly become the King of England,
and shortly after her illness ended, Elizabeth finally raised him to the Privy Council
in order to keep the peace. By the way, she simultaneously raised his
great rival, the Duke of Norfolk, to the same position. Now,
whatever people thought of Dudley, he took his job seriously. In fact,
Dudley attended more Privy Council meetings than most in the years for his death.
On the twenty five October, Elizabeth resumed her normal activities, but she did
not call Parliament into session. She knew her illness had altered the public attitude
toward her marital status. She knew once Parliament was in session, it would
demand she'd pick a husband, get married, and have children, so she
delayed. In November, Elizabeth had a furious encounter with her Privy Council,
who insisted that it had the right to intervene in the issue of her marriage
because it impacted the whole kingdom. By the end of November, Elizabeth had
to call parliament because, fortunately for her, she was out of money.
Parliament opened on January the twelfth, fifteen sixty three, and it was clear
from the opening ceremony the issue of Elizabeth's marriage would be front and center.
Both houses wrote petitions urging the Queen to marry. Both petitions were couched in
humble terms, reminding Elizabeth of the terror felt by her subjects during her own
line and warning her what might ensue if she died, without naming her successor.
Quote the unspeakable miseries of civil wars, the perilous intermeddlings of foreign princes.
With seditions ambitions and factious subjects at home, the waste of noble houses,
the slaughter of people, subversion of towns, unsurety of all men's possessions,
lives and estates, attainers, treasons, a host of calamities. We
Parliament, fear a faction of heresies in your realm, contentious and malicious papists.
From the conquest of the present day, the realm was never left as
now it is without a certain air. If your Highness could conceive or imagine
the comfort, surety, and delight that should happen to yourself by beholding an
imp of your own, it would sufficiently satisfy to remove all manner of the
impediments and scruples. Unquote. Elizabeth always took the view that neither her marriage
nor the succession were the business of her subjects, but matters for herself alone.
Yet she could not afford to alienate Parliament, and therefore resorted to deliberate
procrastination. After a dinner on the twenty eighth of January, she graciously received
the delegation from the Commons in the gallery at Whitehall Palace. The Speaker,
on his knees, presented the comments petition, which she thankfully accepted, and
then delivered an oration in which she assured him and his fellow's subjects that she
was as worried as they were about the succession, and had been especially so
since her illness. She won sympathy by confiding that the matter had occupied her
mind constantly as she recuperated, saying, quote, yet I desired I not
then life so much for my own safety as for yours end quote. Ultimately,
Elizabeth would conclude by reminding the House of Commons that choosing a husband was
a serious matter. If she chose the wrong person, then England might not
have to wait for her death for civil war to erupt, or perhaps even
worse, from some people's perspective, England might be Catholic ones more. Now,
two days later, the exact same petition arrived from the House of Lords.
The Lords put their cards on the table. They would not tolerate Mary
Stuart as queen, so Elizabeth had to marry someone, anyone, even Dudley.
That's right. The Lords were now willing to agree to Robert Dudley just
to get the marriage done. Both houses were getting restless. On February the
twelfth, the Commons wrote to the Queen, gently reminding her that they were
still waiting for a formal response to their petition. Elizabeth continued to equivocate.
In truth, she was just waiting for Parliament to grant her of subsidy.
Once it did, she was determined to close it then and there. Parliament
had by then proceeded to its other business, that of passing legislation to protect
the Anglican Settlement of fifteen fifty nine. These acts extended the oath of supremacy
required from all in public life, and imposed penalties upon those who upheld the
priority and authority of the Pope and those who opposed The Church of England.
In February, Convocation approved the restoration of the thirty nine Articles of Henry the
Eighth in place of the forty two Articles of Edward the sixth. These were
then enshrined in the Church's basic doctrines and were finally approved by Parliament in fifteen
seventy one. Then, on the tenth of April, Parliament assembled for its
closing ceremonies. The Queen, who had been voted her subsidy, now attended
and gave the Lord Keeper a handwritten answer to the petition. Fuming over her
subjects temerity. She had written two earlier drafts which referred to the two huge
scrolls they had given her, but ultimately she amended her response as her irritation
and frustration subsided. In her final version, Elizabeth responded to the demands that
she marry as follows. Quote, if any here doubt that I am,
as it were, by vour determination, bet never to trade that way of
life, I e. To be single. Let them put out that kind
of heresy for your belief therein is awrye. For though I can think it
is best for a private woman, yet do I strive with myself to think
it not meet for a prince? And if I can bend my liking to
your need, I will not resist such a mind. I hope I shall
die in quiet with nuc de mintus, which I cannot be without. And
I see some glimpses of your surety in my graved bones. End quote That
was essentially an answer answerless, as it was proclaimed by parliament, a response
that said absolutely nothing. But in the end, a lot had happened as
a result of this Parliament. By rejecting Mary Stewart's claim, the House of
Lords had implicitly endorsed Lady Catherine Gray as Elizabeth's successor. She had been in
the tower since August fifteen sixty one, and both she and her secret husband
had been treated quite well. What Elizabeth did not know was that the jailers
had allowed the couple to spend several nights together. As a result, by
the fall of fifteen sixty two, Catherine was pregnant again. She gave birth
to another son in February fifteen sixty three. Elizabeth, incensed, practically lost
her mind as a result, and demanded that the two never be allowed to
see another again, and they never did. But there was no question now
that Catherine was Elizabeth's heir obviously, though she doesn't succeed Elizabeth, as I'm
sure you know. Catherine would die of tuberculosis in fifteen sixty eight. William
Cecil took guardianship of their two sons and brought them up with his own children.
Edward Seymour would go on to Mary twice more, but never seemed to
have been involved in his children's lives. Likewise, to the north in February
fifteen sixty three, scandal also touched Mary Stuart. Since her return to Scotland,
She had always had a certain nostalgia for the French court, and employed
as her secretary a young French courtier called Pierre de Chastelard. Unwisely, Mary
showed him favor, but he soon grew way too ambitious in his behavior toward
his mistress and could have seriously compromised her honor when he was discovered hiding under
her bed by a Scottish lord who were jealous of his influence. They arrested
him and on the twenty second of February he was executed. But for the
moment, affairs to the North involving Mary Stuart Remaine a little bit of a
side show. After Elizabeth recovered from smallpox, the six thousand strong English force
left for New Haven in France to support the Huguenots. But as we discovered
last week, the murder of Francois de Guese and capture of the Huguenot leaders
had allowed Catherine to bring peace to France, albeit temporarily. As a result,
both the Protestant and Cathlin factions ganged up on the English, who then
suffered an outbreak of plague. Quickly, the situation appeared far from tenable.
On the succession front, the troubles continued as well. Mary Stuart had supported
Elizabeth during her illness, and that made Elizabeth more inclined toward her Scottish cousin.
But as always with these things, there were a lot of issues to
consider. The lords probably would not accept Mary as their heir apparent, but
neither could Elizabeth formerly exclude Mary without running the almost certain risk of war with
Scotland and possibly France as well. Cecil simply continued pressing Elizabeth to Mary now.
Interestingly, it was around this time that Elizabeth conceived of the idea that
Mary Stuart should wed wait for it, Robert Dudley. It was not such
a preposterous notion as it may first sound. Dudley was the one man who
could be trusted to promote England's welfare north of the border. Indebted to Elizabeth
for his rise to power and an almost princely status, he would not likely
forget the woman for whom he felt a genuine affection, if not love.
Dudley was hungry for a crown to be a penchant for attractive redheads. By
marrying him, Mary would remove herself from the European marriage market, and the
threat of foreign influence in Scotland would recede. As a Protestant, Dudley would
be acceptable to the Calvinist lords and would hold the Scottish Catholics in check.
The drawback, obviously, was that Elizabeth would have to give him up,
but it seems that she had already decided to embrace celibacy, and hard as
renouncing him would be, she convinced herself that she could do so if she
knew that it was in her and England's advantage. Moreover, royal marriage negotiations
took so long that their partying might be months, if not years away.
Cecil supported the idea, but in his case that was only because doing so
would get Dudley far far away from the English court. In July, Elizabeth
finally agreed to allow the English to retreat from New Haven. It seemed now
that there was little prospect of ever recovering Calais, but the plague ridden English
army returning was not a boon to the queen. Soon, plague was raging
uncontrolled throughout England, and it would continue to ravage the Kingdom all that summer.
That August, Elizabeth dispatched a messenger to Mary Stuart, telling her that
if she accepted an English husband of Elizabeth's choosing, then Scotland would have English
protection and Mary would have protection from her Calvinist subjects. Mary wrote back,
inquiring just who this englishman might be, but Elizabeth would not say for the
moment. As usual, she only wanted to delay Mary's marriage choice and prevent
her from choosing a match who might be adversarial to the English court. Somewhat
Luckily for Elizabeth, by this point, it was clear that Don Carlos,
Philip's deranged and deformed son was dying, so at least Mary could not marry
him, and thus England would not be surrounded by Catholic enemies, at least
not yet. It was at this time Elizabeth, mindful of her promise to
Parliament, attempted to revive negotiations for her own marriage to the Archduke Charles.
This appears at first to be a forlong hope, though, because despite being
reminded of the advantage of the alliance, the Holy Roman Emperor was justifiably suspicious
of Elizabeth's motives and would not have forgotten that she had formerly rejected his son.
There was also persistent gossip about Robert Dudley. He now had apartments next
to the queen's in every royal palace. He was the host at most courtly
entertainments. He kept state like a prince, and enjoyed vast power and influence.
In spite of these obstacles, Elizabeth expected the Archduke to make the first
move toward reviving his courtship. It was unthinkable that she, as a woman,
would take the initiative. Cecil therefore wrote to one of his agents in
Germany, who in turn approached the Duke of Wurtemberg, who, in his
turn, then sent a letter to the Emperor. Courtship took a long time
back. Then, Ferdinand consented to the reopening of negotiations, but proceeded with
caution, as did Cecil, who made it clear that the Archduke must take
matters slowly, since the Queen was much inclined towards staying celibate. She had
acknowledged that the Archduke was the best foreign match for her, but she waxed
alternatively hot and cold over the matter. In January fifteen sixty four, the
Imperial ambassador sat down with Elizabeth and Cecil prior to discuss the issue Elizabeth bluntly
told him that the Archduke had to make the first move. Her honor would
not allow otherwise. She further stated that if she ever married, quote,
it would be as a queen and not as Elizabeth end quote. In other
words, she needed to know the material benefits that this match would bring to
England. Confused and dissatisfied, the Imperial ambassador went home. By March fifteen
sixty four, there was no way that Elizabeth could continue to conceal the identity
of Mary's husband to be cringing, her ambassador told Mary it was none other
than Robert Dudley. Mary was completely taken aback. Perhaps had the offer been
joined with a guarantee that Mary would be the heir apparent, then she might
have considered it, but there was no such adendum. Mary, like most
people, just didn't take the offer seriously. She liked most people believed that
Elizabeth would never part with Dudley, Hence they believed it was just a delay
tactic, which quite frankly, it probably was. Regardless, Mary had absolutely
no interest at all in the match and was once more angling for a connection
with a foreign prince. When Elizabeth offered to meet with Mary in person.
That summer, Mary declined. On April the eleventh, England and France signed
the Treaty of Tors, bringing the hostilities between them to an end and placing
Calais firmly beyond the reach of English recovery. In June, Philip the second
sent a new ambassador to England, Don Diego de Guzman de Silva, who
did a lot actually to foster good Anglo Spanish relations. In that very same
month, Emperor Holy Roman Emperor that is, Ferdinand died and was succeeded by
his eldest son, who was crowned Maximilian the second. These events brought talk
of Elizabeth's marriage to the Archduke to a temporary standstill, but the new Emperor
was more in favor of the match than his father had been, although anxious
that his brother Quote would not, as on the last occasion, suffer himself
to be led by the nose end Quote. On August the fifth, one
of the most famous progresses of her reign, brought Elizabeth to Cambridge, where
she stayed for five days. Attired in a gown of black velvet slashed with
rose and studded with pearls, the Queen entered the city, preceded by trumpets
and attended by a magnificent retinue. There she was welcomed by Cecil in his
capacity as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and by scholars quote lowly kneeling,
crying vivat Regina end quote. When Elizabeth left on the tenth of August,
she declared she would have stayed longer had there been adequate provisions available.
Again, in an age when legitimacy and pageant went hand in hand, Elizabeth
was a master. After the progress, Elizabeth dispatched a messenger to the new
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian the Second, congratulating him on his coronation. But there
were rumors that this messenger was actually going to finalize a marriage alliance with the
Archduke. These rumors were false. Elizabeth still intended to wed Mary and Robert
Dudley, though Mary had no intention of going through with it. In reality,
all of these moves and counter moves and descemptions were simply Elizabeth stalling for
time. However, on the September twenty eighth, Elizabeth finally raised Dudley to
the peerage, reportedly to make Queen Mary quote think more of him than quote.
It was around the same time that Elizabeth, according to him, admitted
to the Scottish ambassador that she had no intention herself of ever getting married Mary.
For her part, now having moved beyond the dream of Don Carlos,
which was a nightmare in reality anyway, began to think about marrying Lord Darnley.
He had connections in Scotland and was an ardent Catholic, but the only
issue was that he was a resident at the English Court, and Elizabeth was
not about to let him go to Scotland to wed Mary. A meeting of
the Scottish and English lords that November ended poorly when the English lords refused any
guarantee that Mary would be heir apparent no matter who she married. Elizabeth continued
to offer potential matches, now including the Earl of Leicester, but would not
commit to anything on the succession front. In December, succession issues resurfaced when
Elizabeth fell dangerously ill. Bishop John Jewell of Salisbury spoke for many when he
wrote, quote, Oh, how wretched we are, who cannot tell under
what sovereign we are to live? God, will I trust long preserve Elizabeth
to us in life and safety end quote. Luckily for him, he was
prophetic. Elizabeth was destined to live a long if not particularly in terms of
children, fruitful life