Hello and Welcome to Western CIV. Episode three h nine. English Intrigues.
Back in England, though religious convulsions were less epic than in France, but
not by much, certainly not if you ask the Queen. In February fifteen
seventy one, Elizabeth heaped further honors on William Cecil, making him first baron
Burhee. Her inner circle had now shrunk effectively to three men, Cecil,
Dudley and Walsingham. Though this inner circle often agreed on state policy, that
was not universally true. In fifteen seventy one, England stood for care isolated.
It was now under interdict. Spain and France both wanted a defensive alliance,
but only to serve their own purposes. Everyone saw England as a second
class kingdom. An English alliance, though, would of necessity mean a marriage
as well. Elizabeth therefore had to be a meanable to both. That February
she sent word to France that she was finally willing to discuss such a proposal,
but as always, religion would prove the sticking point. If she were
to marry Anri, the Duke of Anjou, Elizabeth was insistent that he convert
to the Anglican faith an Joux would not. Almost immediately both sides reached an
impass, though this was hardly the end of that story. That same February,
a Scottish delegation arrived in London to speak with the English Queen. They
made it clear that it was the desire of everyone within James the Fourth's court
that Elizabeth needed to stay out of the succession issues in Scotland. They did
not, under any, and I do mean any circumstances want England attempting to
restore Mary Stuart to her throne. No one wanted her back. Had to
be fair to Elizabeth, she had no intention of putting Mary back on the
throne, as she did not want a Catholic neighbor to the north. It
did not take long for news of all of this to reach Mary, who
threw herself whole hog now into trying to secure her release through intrigue. In
reality, Mary had already become involved in one of the most serious plots of
Elizabeth's reign. Since the collapse of the Northern Rising, nothing had been heard
of one of the most important agents of said rising, Roberto Ridolphi, a
Florentine banker who doubled as a papal agent. Then, in January fifteen seventy
one, RIDOLPHI had written to Mary offering to act as her representative in the
courts of Europe. There he could be well placed to stir up support for
her. He had conceived of a plan whereby the Catholic powers would invade England,
overthrow Elizabeth and set Mary in Norfolk up in her place. Already King
Philip and the Pope had agreed in principle to support the plan. Now he
needed the consent of Mary herself. Mary, after obtaining the Pope's approval,
was only too happy to give it. This is what she had been praying
for. She told RIDOLPHI to inform her friends that if they did invade England,
they could expect the support of many influential lords, and provide him with
credentials issued by herself to show King Philip, the Pope, and the Duke
of Alba. Now the other side of the story is, of course,
the Duke of Norfolk. Now, even though Norfolk was presently in the Tower
of London, Mary still cherished hopes that he would be her savior. She
wrote to him rather foolishly, expressing her earnest desire that they marry. This
was an absurd request that Elizabeth would never in a million years grant, and
of course, given Norfolk's present situation, they both needed a lot of royal
grace to make the marriage happen. Moreover, when Norfolk was finally released from
the tower, he swore to the Queen that he would never again even entertain
the thought of helping Mary Stuart. But the fact that Mary was now pressing
the point makes it clear just how desperate she had become. On February eight,
fifteen seventy one, Mary wrote to Norfolk outlining Ridolphi's plans and inviting him
to join the conspiracy. The Duke had no desire to become involved at a
great danger to himself in what was undoubtedly high treason. He was also alarmed
at Mary's insistence that he become a Catholic, but by the tenth of March,
Mary had worn down his resistance and, most likely driven by the hope
of obtaining a crown, he met RIDOLPHI in secret and offered his help and
support. When he refused to sign a written request for men and supplies to
King Philip, RIDOLPHI simply forged his name on the document. Two weeks later,
Ridolphi left for Rome, where the Pope was pleased to bless his enterprise.
Now news reached English spies in April that the Queen of Scots was in
fact secretly corresponding with the Duke of Alva Shrewsbury. Mary's jailer was instructed to
keep a close eye on his prisoner. Things got even more serious when the
Duke of Tuscany, who had recently hosted Ridolfi, wrote to the English Court
warning everyone of the pending conspiracy. Secretly, Cecil was excited, waiting and
hoping that Mary would further incriminate herself, which would finally give him the evidence
he wanted to proceed against her and secure her execution. When Parliament reassembled in
May of fifteen seventy one, its priority was to pre empt any Catholic plots,
and Titan National Security Acts were passed to this end. From now on,
it would be high treason to say that Elizabeth was not the lawful Queen
of England, or to publish, write, or say that she was a
heretic, infidel, tyrant, or usurper. It would also be treason for
anyone to bring a papabull even into the realm. Crucifixes, rosaries and religious
pictures were banned. Finally, Catholics who had fled abroad were ordered to return
within six months. If they did not, their possessions were forfeit. Now
life was becoming very difficult for those Catholics still living in England. They had
to make sure to attend Anglican services and watch their tongue when talking about the
queen. However, contrary to what you might expect, most were not interested
in supporting Mary's In fact, most were ardently loyal to Elizabeth. By the
end of June, Ridolfi was warmly received by Philip the Second in Madrid.
By now the details of the plot had been finalized. The Duke of Alva
would invade England with six thousand Spanish troops from the Netherlands and would then march
on London occupy it. Simultaneously, Norfolk would incite loyal English Catholics to rise
up against Elizabeth, who would be seized by the Duke and either assassinated or
held in hostage for Mary's safety. Mary would be liberated and proclaimed Queen of
England. Then she and Norfolk would marry and in time reign as joint sovereigns
over England and Scotland, to which kingdoms they would, of course restore the
Catholic faith. There were fatal weaknesses in the plan, the biggest weakness being
that RIDOLPHI, like most Catholics, vastly overestimated the number of English Catholics he
would be willing to rise on Mary's behalf. He believed the number was around
thirty nine thousand. It was, let's just say, a lot less.
The Florentine banker had no real understanding of English politics or the English people,
and Norfolk, who should have understood both, was either too gullible or too
blinded by ambition to point out the flaws. It was left to the Duke
of Alva, ultimately, and really interestingly, to veto the plan. Olva,
who had dismissed ridolphe as quote that great chatterbox end quote, was convinced
that the invasion would fail, and that if it did, it would do
a reparable harm to Catholicism in general, as well as Mary's cause it might
well cost her her life. He was almost certainly right about that. He
refused point blank to use his troops in the enterprise, knowing that without them,
Philip was powerless to help the Queen of Scots. Throughout the summer,
the other conspirators tried to persuade Alva to change his mind, but with no
success. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's court was undergoing some important changes. In July of
fifteen seventy one, the Earl of Leicester, Robert Dudley, was finally cleared
of any previous allegations of treason, which improved his standing. He remained closer
to the Queen than anyone else, but a new player had now emerged,
Christopher Hatton. He was thirty one years old and strikingly handsome, and,
in the words of many, the perfect courtier. Hatton constantly flattered the Queen,
and unlike her other courtiers, he remained unmarried. Dudley was desperately jealous
of him. It was this court in March that learned of Elizabeth's intentions to
marry the Duke of Anjou, or at least that was what she told her
counsel. Soon afterwards, Catherine de Medici sent a special envoy, Gudio Carvanti,
to England with a formal proposal of marriage from anjou, a flat ring
portrait of him in a list of demands. The Duke must be permitted to
practice the Catholic faith, was to be crowned King of England on the day
after the wedding, and the England Exchequer was to pay him an annual income
of sixty thousand pounds for life. Elizabeth made difficulties about all these conditions.
She would not agree to the Duke being crowned, nor to granting him a
life income. They couldn't have paid that anyway, and while she conceded that
she would not be compelled to attend Anglican services, she refuse on Jew's request
to attend Mass at all, even in private. Throughout the spring, more
and more obstacles to this match continued to appear. The Duke made several rude
remarks about Elizabeth's age, which were in turn reported back to her. Elizabeth
had grown increasingly sensitive about her years and did acknowledge the age gap between them.
It was over a decade, and that it was concerning. Many diplomats
throughout Europe assumed Elizabeth was up to her old tricks, merely playing the French
for time. Indeed, by September it was clear to everyone involved that there
would be no marriage. That being said, the negotiations had brought England and
France closer together, and there were many in both courts that hoped there would
be an alliance. Nonetheless, in August fifteen seventy one, Elizabeth, against
all advice, decided to go on a progress. This is one of those
late summer tours of the kingdom, now luckily for her. By then,
it was pretty clear that Ridolfi's plot was without merit. On August the twenty
sixth, a courtier finally turned in the Duke of Norfolk for sending suspicious letters
to Mary. The Duke was arrested on September third and taken to the tower,
where he later revealed all he knew. This then led to mary main
confidant, the Bishop of Ross, to be arrested. Threatened with torture,
which is unusual for a man of the cloth, he revealed all he knew.
It was enough to see both Mary and Norfolk executed for high treason.
Elizabeth immediately expelled the Spanish ambassador, who was clearly implicated in the plot.
Our old friend Ridolphi. However, he got off scot free, having already
fled the kingdom. After the Ridolphie plot, Elizabeth changed her attitude toward Mary,
who was now kept more securely under lock and key. Bitterly disillusioned,
she decided that she would finally recognize James the sixth as the King of Scotland.
This effectively ended forever any notion that Mary would be free. When Mary
was confronted with all this evidence, all she would say was that she had
been trying to recover her throne in Scotland and that all of this had nothing
to do with any English intrigues. She claimed she had never known Ridolfi at
all. I would say nothing at all about Norfolk, when in reality all
of her confiscated letters suggested the opposite. Even Charles the ninth in France,
really Mary's last hope, decided to abandon her as a lost cause. At
this point. This is really kind of end game for Mary. She had
no more moves to make, and the great game of early modern intrigue.
Had she been smarter, she would have just given up and spent the rest
of her life in quiet captivity. But as we will see, she wasn't.
In fact, In the weeks after the conspiracy, she had the goal
to write Elizabeth seeking to excuse her behavior. The English Queen did not respond.
The Ridolfi plot also convinced Elizabeth and her government that England needed an ally,
and that that ally was France. The Queen did her best to revive
marriage negotiations with Alljous. As a consequence, Walsingham advised against the idea.
He knew Anjou would never agree, no matter how many concessions Elizabeth granted,
he was very invested in the present time in the notion of becoming the King
of Poland, which would require him to marry a Polish princess. Besides,
Anjou had never been keen on the match in the first place. Elizabeth sent
ambassadors regardless, who soon discovered that, no matter how much Catherine pleaded with
her son, he would not marry Elizabeth. Catherine, however, recognizing how
much France needed an ally as well, decided to offer her younger son,
Hercules Francois alsin On instead. But Hercules Francois was only seventeen years old and
badly scarred from several bouts of smallpox. Elizabeth rejected the notion immediately, but
Walsingham encouraged her to at least draw out the negotiations for England's benefit, which
she agreed to do. Domestically, matters remained tense as fifteen seventy one gave
way to fifteen seventy two. That January, the Duke of Norfolk was tried
before a jury of twenty six in Westminster on charges of treason. He was
found guilty on all thirteen counts of foregone conclusion in Tutor England. Norfolk was
sentenced to be drawn and quartered, though everyone knew when the condemned was appear
the sentence would be commuted to decapitation. When Mary Stewart heard the news,
she wept pitifully. The Duke's execution was set for the twenty first of January,
but Elizabeth could not bring herself to sign his death warrant. Not only
was he the foremost peer in England and popular with the people, but he
was also her cousin, so she put off the moment while the days turned
in. Two weeks later on William Cecil would write, quote, the King's
Majesty hath always been a merciful lady, and by mercy she hath taken more
harm than justice. And yet she thinks she is more beloved in doing herself
harm. God save her to His honor long among us end quote. Early
in February, Elizabeth was prevailed upon to sign the death warrant, but on
the night before the Duke's execution was due to take place, she sent for
Cecil, and, in great distress, rescinded the order again. The spectators
who turned up at Tower Hill the next morning had to watch the hangings of
two common criminals instead. In March fIF teen seventy two, Elizabeth fell seriously
ill, and many began to wonder if the Duke would ever face justice.
For a moment it honestly seemed as though she might die, and both Cecil
and Dudley, as they always did, when it seemed like Elizabeth might pass,
put aside their differences and prepared for a contested succession. But she recovered.
Still, as always happened, when Elizabeth had a brush with death,
those around her became convinced there needed to be some solution to the succession issue.
Her counselors convinced Elizabeth to call Parliament and at the very least take some
action against Mary Stuart to make it clear to the Catholic powers of Europe that
that door was forever and firmly shut. That April, Elizabeth again signed Norfolk's
death warrant, and then later again withdrew. The same public feeling against Mary
Stewart was running high. Most of Elizabeth's subjects agreed with men like Walsingham,
believing that quote so long as this devilish woman lives, neither her majesty must
make account to continue in quiet possession of the Crown, nor her faithful servants
assure themselves of the safety of their lives end quote. And so when Parliament
met in May of fifteen seventy two, they read out a whole list of
Mary's misdeeds to both houses, who immediately then demanded she'd be put to death.
One member of Parliament declared he feared to go to sleep after hearing how
the Queen of Scots had murdered Lord Darnley and plunged Scotland into chaos, and
insisted the queen quote cut off her head and make more do about her end
quote. Another member pointed out, quote warning hath already been given, and
therefore the acts must be the next warning end quote. The Lords and Commons
arranged for a committee to be set up to determine Mary's fate. By the
nineteenth of May, its members had come up with two alternative ways of proceeding.
Either Mary could be attainted of treason and executed immediately, or they could
legislate to bar her from the succession and warn her that if she plotted against
Elizabeth again, she would be put to death. Parliament was unanimously in favor
of the first course, the immediate execution, but the Queen insisted that it
would be wiser to adopt the second, since honor would not permit her to
attaint a foreign sovereign who was not subject to English law. It would also
be very costly and mean that Parliament would have to sit through the summer,
when there was usually an outbreak of plague in London. The Lords and Commons
were passed caring about all that they wanted Mary's head. Frankly, several wote
to her that they didn't believe, given her past conduct, that any threatening
legislation would deter Mary from plotting against the Queen in the future, nor preventing
traitorous subjects from aiding her. Parliament then submitted to the Queen a petition for
Mary's head, Elizabeth again refused to sign. Instead, she gave a speech
to Parliament explaining why she was declining to attaint Mary, and evidently that convinced
everyone except one member of Parliament who held out. So on the twenty sixth
of May, having been forced to take less drastic measures than against Mary,
Parliament drew up a list of her offenses, depriving her of her pretended claim
to the throne. From henceforth it would be an offense for anyone to proclaim
or assert it. However, when the bill was submitted to the Queen for
royal assent, she exercised her veto. It was now obvious that she meant
to take no action whatsoever against her cousin, and frankly her Privy Council despaired.
Their intelligence from abroad show conclusively that both King Philip and the Pope were
set upon overthrowing Elizabeth in Mary's favor. It was probably around this time that
Elizabeth wrote her famous sonnet about Mary, which was published in her lifetime in
the book The Art of Poetry. Here's a little extract of it. Quote
the Daughter of Debate that xsorrow doth so shall reap no gain where former rule
hath taught still peace to grow. Nor foreign banished with shall anchor in this
port our realm at brooks no stranger's force. Let them elsewhere report our rusty
sword with rest shall first his edge, employ to pull their tops that seek
such change, and gape for joy end quote. Having spared Mary, Elizabeth
had no choice. She had to throw Norfolk to the wolves. Parliament had
been agitating for the law to take its course, and so finally, on
the thirty first of May, the Queen finally gave me in and signed the
Duke's death warrant. On the following day, she paid a very rare visit
to the Tower of London to ensure the arrangements had been made in a seemly
and proper fashion, although she did not see Norfolk in person. At seven
am on the second of June, the Duke of Norfolk was beheaded on Tower
Hill, Declaring to the watching crowds that he had never been a papist and
acknowledged the justness of the sentence of beheading. He told the assembled crowd quote,
for men to suffer death in this place is no new thing since the
beginning of our most gracious Queen's reign. I am the first, and God
grant I may be the last. End quote, standing there, dignified in
a black satin doublet. He refused a blindfold and died bravely, his head
being quote at one chop off end quote. His body was buried at the
altar of Saint Peter within the tower, between those of his two cousins,
and Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and so Mary Stuart escaped the chopping block yet
again for now before our next episode. If you'd like more Western Sieve,
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