Elizabeth I's Secret Lover

by Robert Stedall

  Coligny negotiated with the English during June and July, offering to return Calais if they would send an invasion force. As Calais was not in Huguenot hands, they promised Le Havre (known by the English as Newhaven) in the meantime. By October, when the English at last established a garrison of 6,000 men at Le Havre, the Huguenots had been forced back. Although Robert asked to be given command, Elizabeth would not let him leave her side. Ambrose led the English force, while Robert kept closely in touch. He sent a fine horse, and Elizabeth provided a ‘token’30 for Ambrose to wear round his neck.

  At this critical moment, Elizabeth, who was at Hampton Court, became dangerously ill with smallpox. It was slow to develop, but she became delirious, hovering ‘on the brink of death, too ill to make her wishes known’.31 In a sudden moment of lucidity, with her councillors assembled round her bed, she nominated Robert as Protector of the Realm, with an income of £20,000 per annum. She went on to confirm ‘her trust and love for Lord Robert – love she assured them, which had never involved them in any impropriety’.32 She was ever the master dissembler and she granted Robert’s highly trusted servant, Tamworth, who slept in his bedchamber, a massive pension of £500 per annum. Only he could verify the extent of any intimacy between them.33 Her reputation depended on his continued loyalty. Her distraught councillors granted everything she asked.34 They agreed to co-opt the 29-year-old Robert into their number. To avoid any jealousy, Cecil insisted on the 26-year-old Norfolk’s appointment at the same time. Robert continued to occupy his Council place with regular attendance for the rest of his life. He never played a dominant role but used his presence to keep himself informed and to maintain his standing ‘at the innermost circle of the sphere of power’. This improved his opportunity to sell his support or information and to dispense patronage to gain allies.35

  Elizabeth’s smallpox was treated by a German doctor, Burcot, who wrapped her in a bolt of red cloth and laid her on a mattress before a fire, providing a drink, which she found ‘very comfortable’.36 Although pock marks developed, she was not badly disfigured, and in less than a month was up and about again. Only her favourite maids were permitted in attendance. Mary Sidney, who remained constantly at her bedside, became wretchedly disfigured after contracting the disease. When Sir Henry returned from the Continent, he reported: ‘When I left my wife at court to go to Newhaven, she was a full fair lady; in my eyes the fairest. On my return I found her as foul a lady as the smallpox could make her …’37 She was never prepared to be seen in public again, keeping to her own chamber at court, and retiring to Penshurst to care for her children.

  The invasion of France demonstrated that England’s Huguenot allies were unreliable and, as always, Elizabeth left her army short of resources. Although 3,000 men were detached from the English garrison to support Condé in defending Rouen and Dieppe, both towns fell to their Catholic besiegers, leaving Ambrose pinned down in Le Havre. With French national pride being shocked by the prospect of losing Calais, Huguenots combined with Catholics against the English invaders. Although Elizabeth instructed Ambrose to defend Le Havre despite his dearth of supplies, he needed a larger military commitment. Nevertheless, he commanded the garrison ‘with great bravery and constancy’,38 but Robert could not persuade her to commit more money even to repair the town’s defences. She did not criticise Ambrose and, in April 1563, commended the garrison’s bravery, making him a Knight of the Garter. In July, Le Havre was struck by the plague and with his men dying in large numbers, Ambrose received Elizabeth’s authority to come to terms. He responded that the garrison ‘well perceived [the] great care your Majesty have of us all, and that in respect of our lives and safeties, you do not regard the loss of this town’.39 While parleying with his attackers from the walls he was shot in the leg, a wound which left him on a stick for the rest of his life.

  On the garrison’s return to Portsmouth in August, it brought the plague with it. Despite it being highly contagious, Robert risked death to visit his brother at Southwick. The Queen was furious and forced him into quarantine. On 1 September, Ambrose was released. He returned to court with his leg strapped up with ‘taffety’. Nevertheless, the outbreak spread to London, causing 3,000 deaths in a week. One of these was de Quadra. Even Catherine Grey and Hertford were removed temporarily from the Tower. Catherine was held at the home of her uncle, Lord John Grey at Pirgo in Essex, while Hertford was moved to Middlesex. Robert was again asked to intercede on their behalf, as she was Guildford’s sister-in-law.

  Fully recovered from smallpox, Elizabeth visited Cambridge in August 1563. Robert went on ahead to inspect the arrangements, both as Master of the Horse and as High Steward of the university. With King’s College being ‘turned inside out’ to accommodate the court, Robert inspected the Provost’s lodge, where the Queen was to stay while visiting the chapel, in which a stage had been built. There was a place in the choir for her to ‘repose herself’,40 which in the end was not required. As the university’s Chancellor, Cecil also arrived early, despite an attack of gout, and was determined that Cambridge should make a good impression. He saw to it that the students were properly and sombrely attired as befitted ‘a storehouse of learning and virtue’,41 and he introduced Robert to university members. On the Queen’s arrival, she was dressed in black, with her hair in a gold net under a black hat with gold-spangled black feathers.42 She remained on horseback to hear a long oration in Latin and moved on to another oration before dismounting and entering the chapel, which she much admired. After a Te Deum and sermon, she retired to the Provost’s Lodge. The programme continued in a similar vein for five days. Elizabeth listened intently until, on the last evening, she became too tired to sit through a performance of Sophocles’s Ajax.

  In April 1564, the Treaty of Troyes brought lasting peace between France and England. Charles IX was made a Knight of the Garter, and the Queen’s cousin, Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, was sent to Paris to deliver the insignia. When Hunsdon examined the Garter paraphernalia, he wrote to Robert of his embarrassment at its quality. The Garter itself was much too big for a puny boy and he could not wear it. The chains, which were traditionally returned on the death of a previous recipient, were very worn and inappropriate as a gift for the French King. He complained that there were several rich chains in the treasury and asked Robert to send another as soon as possible. All seems to have been well, as Castelnau was sent to England and was at particular pains to cultivate Robert’s friendship.

  With Robert’s standing growing in France, he considered visiting Paris himself. Hunsdon recommended the horse fair at St Denis, where animals arrived for sale from Flanders, Germany and Denmark. If Robert had been there, he would have spent ‘one or two thousand crowns’.43 Throckmorton sent him a list of suitable clothing and presents to bring. Despite this Elizabeth eventually vetoed the trip, but Robert sent Catherine de Medici a spaniel, a mastiff and some cobs.

  Chapter 12 The political background to Elizabeth’s European marriage negotiations

  It is necessary to pause in the chronology of this narrative to assess the impact of European politics on Elizabeth’s marriage negotiations, in which Robert had become intimately involved.

  Europe was dominated by two Catholic superpowers, Spain and France. The huge Spanish empire had been ruled by Charles V until his abdication in 1556. His son, Philip II, inherited Spain, the Spanish-American colonies, the Netherlands – encompassing most of present-day Belgium and Holland, and Spain’s Italian provinces, Naples and Milan. Charles’s brother, Ferdinand I, became the Holy Roman Emperor controlling Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic and Croatia. Ferdinand had numerous children, including Maximilian II, who succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II and Charles II, who became Archdukes of Austria. Charles V also had an illegitimate son, Don John of Austria, a romantic military commander, who made his name at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, during which the Turkish fleet was destroyed. France was in some disarray following Henry II’s death in a jousting accident in July 1559, follo
wed in December 1560 by the death of his eldest son, Francis II, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Although Mary’s Guise uncles had assumed control of French Government, their belligerently pro-Catholic policy faced Protestant Huguenot opposition. Progressively, the conciliatory approach of Francis’s mother, Catherine de Medici, enabled her to regain control, and she became Regent. Both the superpowers were exhausted by continuous war but realised that their domination of Europe depended on establishing an alliance with England, which was well able to cause its own nuisance with incursions onto the Continent. Nevertheless, England was financially weakened by fighting against the Scots and Irish and, during Mary’s reign, on behalf of the Spanish in Northern France. It was during this conflict that it had lost its last remaining Continental outpost at Calais.

  Henry VIII had severed English links with the Papacy to allow him to divorce Katherine of Aragon. The resultant English Reformation had been reinforced by the ardently Protestant protectorate for Edward VI. Although Mary Tudor restored Catholicism while married to Philip of Spain, her brutal policies had made her extremely unpopular. The backlash had provided Elizabeth with overwhelming support to inherit the throne and to revert to Protestantism after her accession. While the Papacy encouraged the superpowers to invade England, this did not appeal to either Spain or France. Although Elizabeth was illegitimate in Catholic eyes, neither of them wanted to promote Mary Queen of Scots, the rightful Catholic claimant, in her place. They were exhausted by war; any military intervention would be prohibitively expensive and was likely to meet with strong English resistance. Spain was facing open hostility from the Dutch in the Netherlands, and the Catholic French Government was embarking on civil war against the Protestant Huguenots. With Mary being Queen Dauphine, and soon to become Queen Consort of France, Philip II had no desire to hand England to the French on a plate. Furthermore, Catherine de Medici, who was in the process of wresting control of the French Regency from Mary’s Guise uncles, wanted to avoid enhancing their status by making their niece Queen Regnant of England in addition to Scotland.

  The Spanish supported Elizabeth on the English throne but sought a suitable husband for her who would be supportive of Spanish interests against the French. No one was in any doubt that Elizabeth’s foremost task was to choose a spouse to provide her with an heir. Philip was now advocating his cousins the Archdukes Ferdinand and Charles, who owed allegiance to neighbouring German Protestant princes, but her Protestantism remained a stumbling block. Ferdinand soon withdrew his suit and died in 1564. The Guise faction in France continued to support Mary Queen of Scots, but they were out of power. She was also banned under the 1536 English Act of Succession, having been born outside England, and under Henry VIII’s will. Nevertheless, the English Government recognised the strength of her dynastic claim and insisted on her choosing a spouse acceptable to their interest, notwithstanding that Elizabeth had not recognised her as her heir.

  Although Elizabeth was now firmly established on the English throne, marriage considerations within Continental Europe were greatly hampered by her continuing infatuation for Robert. In the early part of the reign, he acted as the liaison for overseas marriage suits and, with her connivance, did his best to scupper those which threatened their relationship. Nevertheless, Cecil’s detailed notes are full of the perceived disadvantages of Elizabeth marrying Robert and his preference for foreign princes. Robert’s interference particularly upset those of her council who were trying to negotiate politically advantageous suits from abroad. Norfolk told Robert to stop meddling. As we have seen, Elizabeth was eventually persuaded by Cecil not to marry Robert after he had sought Spanish support for their marriage in return for backing another Counter-Reformation. His political shortcomings greatly disappointed her but did not immediately end their intimate relationship.

  As will be shown, Elizabeth was placed under a great deal of pressure to agree to a Continental marriage alliance, and by 1563 she had realised that she had to end any hopes of espousing Robert, although he remained the love of her life. The first, most obvious, hint of this was her proposal that he should marry Mary Queen of Scots. This did nothing to encourage her to look elsewhere, and she may well have decided by then that if she could not marry Robert, she would not marry at all. While her obsession for him is generally blamed for her reluctance to marry, she had not become pregnant and may have feared that she was infertile. She had seen Mary Tudor’s embarrassment at failing to conceive, so it is a reasonable assumption that she was fearful of finding herself in a similar predicament. When she heard that Mary Queen of Scots had given birth to Prince James on 19 June 1566, she complained, with understandable jealousy: ‘Alack, the Queen of Scots is lighter of a bonny son, and I am but of barren stock.’1 The birth certainly strengthened Mary’s position as a claimant to the succession. At about this time, there were two contradictory medical opinions of Elizabeth’s fitness for child-bearing. During the negotiations for her to marry Charles IX, one of her physicians told a member of the French embassy: ‘If the King marries, I will answer for her having ten children, and no one knows her temperament better than I do.’2 Nevertheless, Dr Huick, who had been Catherine Parr’s physician and had known Elizabeth since she was 15, discouraged the marriage because of ‘her nervous resistance’, which Camden described as ‘I know not what womanish infirmity’.

  With the English Council redoubling its efforts to find Elizabeth a suitable Continental spouse, the suit of the Archduke Charles rumbled on. She never quite said: ‘No!’, but when the Archduke Ferdinand died suddenly in July 1564, Dr Mundt, the English Agent to the house of Austria, proposed an approach to his eldest brother, Maximilian II, the Holy Roman Emperor. This would have been a serious diplomatic coup. Maximilian was the most powerful marriage prospect available. With Elizabeth’s connivance, Cecil wrote a carefully worded letter to explain her inclination towards marriage as he saw it. Mundt reported:

  He can with certainty say nothing; than that he perceives that she would rather marry a foreign than a native prince, and that the more distinguished the suitor is by birth, power and personal attractions, the better hope he will have of success. Moreover, he cannot deny that the nobleman who, with them, excites considerable expectation, to wit Lord Robert, is worthy to become the husband of the Queen. The fact of his being her Majesty’s subject, however, will prove a serious objection to him in her estimation. Nevertheless, his virtues and his excellent and heroic gifts of mind and body have so endeared him to the Queen, that she could not regard her own brother with greater affection. From which they who do not know the Queen intimately, conjecture that he will be her future husband. He, however, sees and understands that she merely takes delight in his virtues and rare qualities, and that nothing more is discussed in their conversation than that which is most consistent with virtue, and furthest removed from all unworthy sentiments.3

  This was endorsed by Cecil: ‘Written to Mr Mundt by the Queen’s command.’ No doubt, it was what Elizabeth wanted people to believe.

  Robert did not initially accept that the prospect of marriage to Elizabeth was at an end. There was no sudden schism and they remained close friends and allies for the rest of Robert’s life, despite each seeking romance elsewhere. Elizabeth’s decision was entirely political, and her secret infatuation sometimes bubbled to the surface, but she was now in better control of her emotions. When the able Don Diego de Silva y Guzmán replaced de Quadra as Spanish Ambassador, Robert sent messages of greeting to him before Elizabeth had time to do the same. De Silva asked Robert to convey a request to the Queen for an audience, which Robert immediately obtained. De Silva soon gained the impression that Robert remained a friend of Spain and the Catholics, while Cecil was their enemy. Robert warned him that there was great enmity between himself and Cecil.4 It was clear to de Silva that Robert saw Cecil as the barrier to him marrying the Queen but could not make up his mind whether their marriage would go ahead, as opinions were constantly changing.5 To resurrect his suit, Robert needed Cecil ou
t of the way. He suggested that Cecil should lead a diplomatic mission with Throckmorton to promote her suit with Maximilian. Cecil immediately sent his wife to petition for him to remain at home, as he was ‘weak and delicate’. This enabled him to sidle out of it.

  Unlike the Spanish, the French had no suitable royal scion of an appropriate age to put forward as Elizabeth’s suitor. To bring negotiations with Maximilian to an end, the French bribed Robert to suggest that she should marry Charles IX of France. Robert ‘pretended to be strongly in favour of the match’.6 With Elizabeth’s suit for Maximilian or the Archduke Charles being negotiated by Cecil, Norfolk and Sussex, they were furious at Robert’s interference. Despite having sought Spanish support to marry her himself, he now argued that Spain was England’s great enemy. His inconsistency only confirmed views that he was too unreliable to become Elizabeth’s consort, diminishing the last vestiges of support for his suit in the Council. In February 1565, Paul de Foix, the French ambassador, saw Elizabeth in her presence chamber to confirm that Catherine de Medici would be the happiest of mothers if Elizabeth should marry her son. ‘She would find in the young King, both bodily and mentally, that which would please her.’ As Elizabeth was 30 and Charles IX was 13, this was never going to happen, but it might render Maximilian’s suit – upon which Cecil’s marriage policy depended – abortive.

  Cecil was not too upset at the prospect of a French match, as he hoped that it would provoke the Spanish into greater action to promote Maximilian, but he needed to stop it developing too far. He was fearful that, if it progressed, the Spanish would be able to marry-off one of their nominees to Mary Queen of Scots. He drew up a list of the advantages and disadvantages of a French marriage. With the disadvantages greatly outweighing the advantages, Elizabeth repeated them to the ‘ruffled’ de Foix but did not rule it out. Arundel claimed that Cecil did not want Elizabeth to marry, as ‘he was ambitious and fond of ruling, and liked everything to pass through his hands, and if the Queen had a husband’7 he would become subordinate.