As for the matter of succession, a marriage leading to a lawful heir was the most expected outcome. Almost as swift to pay his court as Henry Fitzalan was Philip II of Spain, Elizabeth’s erstwhile brother-in-law. In his wish to marry Elizabeth, apart from his distinctly lustful feelings for the young and attractive lady, Philip wanted to retain influence in this strategically important country. Moreover Philip was prepared to do pretty much anything to keep England out of French hands – and France already had its eye on England and the throne.
When Mary I died, Henri II of France had announced that, as Elizabeth was illegitimate, the throne of England now belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots, who was married to his eldest son, the Dauphin François. According to this reasoning, the Queen of Scotland, who would be the next Queen of France, was also now Queen of England. Scotland, a country that bordered England, would provide any invading French army with an admirable starting point for an invasion.
Philip sent his envoy, Ambassador de Feria, to begin marriage negotiations with Elizabeth within days of her accession. Elizabeth was fascinated by the negotiations, holding several meetings with de Feria, who assumed that as the King of Spain had offered his hand, Elizabeth would accept. Philip had spelled out to his ambassador that by offering for the Queen of England he was rendering ‘this service to God … [I]t will be evident that I am serving the Lord in marrying her and that she has been converted by my act.’21
Elizabeth had other ideas. She hedged the subject by coquetting and flirting, pointing out that her people would not approve of her taking a foreign husband, especially one of whom they already had experience, moreover one who had abandoned her half- sister. Surely he would do the same with Elizabeth? She also reminded Philip that the Pope would never allow him to marry her unless she became a Catholic, and this was extremely unlikely to happen.
While de Feria had his doubts about Elizabeth’s sincerity towards Philip, especially when he realized that other ambassadors were approaching her and her Councillors with their own marriage offers, the other ambassadors seemed to feel that Spain would walk away with the prize. Michiel Surian, Venetian Ambassador to the Court of Philip II, wrote from Brussels, ‘As to what the Count de Feria is negotiating with regard to the marriage of Miladi Elizabeth, I am unable to write anything authentic, but the whole Court is full of the King’s intention to have her for himself …’22
Elizabeth’s Council also expressed doubts as to Philip’s suitability as King of England, however. They raised concerns about his religious intolerance, his poor treatment of Mary, his profligacy, Spain’s severe financial difficulties, and its war with France, which England did not want to get further dragged into. Moreover, there were legal complications: if Elizabeth was permitted to marry her sister’s husband, that would mean that her father (Henry VIII) was legally allowed to marry his brother Arthur’s wife, Catherine of Aragon, and that would mean that the divorce and therefore Henry’s subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn were both illegal and Elizabeth herself illegitimate.
Any of these points would have been enough to give Elizabeth the excuse to step back from Philip’s offer. Presented to her as a case against marriage by her Councillors, they were irrefutable. She could now flirt, negotiate and procrastinate, confident of being ‘forced’ to withdraw by her Council if matters became too serious.
Philip himself seemed to have a better understanding of the situation and soon realized that Elizabeth had no intention of accepting him. In April 1559, he reversed course and arranged to marry Henri II’s daughter, the 14-year-old Princess Elisabeth de Valois, as part of his peace negotiations with the King of France. He had previously arranged that his only son, Prince Carlos, marry Elisabeth de Valois, however, Carlos’s mental state was deteriorating, so Philip decided to marry her instead.
Elizabeth I teased Philip a little over the suddenness of his change of heart. On 7 April 1559, de Feria met with the Queen, who took him to task over the news that Philip was planning to marry the French princess. He reported how she chided him: ‘Your Majesty, she said, could not have been so much in love with her as I had represented, if you could not wait four months for her.’23
Despite having been vociferously against the match, now the English were furious at the slight to their Queen. Obscene ballads were written and circulated that were highly insulting to the unfaithful Spanish King.
This was not the end of Philip’s involvement in Elizabeth’s marital status, however. Even if Philip could not marry her himself, England was too great a prize to let go. Two of his cousins, the sons of his paternal uncle Ferdinand I (1503–64, Holy Roman Emperor 1558–64), would be suitable candidates, Ferdinand and Charles, Archdukes of Austria. However, Ferdinand, though ‘high spirited and lusty’, was an uncompromising Catholic and was rumoured to have a morganatic wife (a wife of inferior status). Furthermore, Ferdinand was against the match and his inflexible religious beliefs made him ineligible to the English.
His younger brother, the 19-year-old Charles, was more flexible. Elizabeth expressed interest; was he a soldier, did he ride and dance? She enquired about what he looked like, if he was well educated, and whether he had been noted to have loved any woman and, in which case, what kind?24
Charles was described as being ‘of sanguine complexion, and, for a man, beautiful and well-faced, well-shaped, small in the waist and well and broad breasted; he seems in his clothes well thighed and well-legged.’25
The Imperial Ambassador Count von Helfenstein also sent back glowing reports to Ferdinand I on the Queen as a potential wife for his son and on the enthusiasm of her Council for the match.26 The formal proposal of marriage from Ferdinand I on behalf of his son was brought to England in May 1559 by Baron Caspar von Breuner. He joined forces with the Spanish Ambassador Don Alvaro de Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, who introduced him to the Court. At first, everyone thought von Breuner was offering the hand of Ferdinand I himself, but de Quadra made it clear that the offer was for the younger, more adaptable Charles.
Elizabeth seemed pleased and said that the proposal should go before her Council, but she would prefer to see a man before she considered marrying him. De Quadra found this an unreasonable request, but Elizabeth was adamant. She would rather be a nun, she said, than ‘marry without knowing with whom and on the faith of portrait painters’. De Quadra knew the Emperor would never agree to Charles coming to England at the Queen’s suggestion and she must have known, as he did, that the Archduke Charles would not be presented to the Queen like merchandise on approval.27 By autumn 1559, Elizabeth had written to Ferdinand I that she was not considering marriage, but that she was honoured by Charles’s interest.28
Concerned that the alternative to an alliance through marriage might be invasion and conquest, certain English nobles were well aware of the advantages of Charles becoming King Consort. Sir Thomas Chaloner, the English Ambassador to Spain, gave Cecil his opinion: ‘In mine opinion, be it said to you only, the affinity is great and honourable; the amity necessary to stop and cool many enterprises. Ye need not fear his [Charles’s] greatness should overrule you. He is not a Philip, but better for us than a Philip.’29
England was, in addition, still weak after the rule of Edward VI and Mary I. It would take all Elizabeth’s diplomatic skill to play this high-stake game, holding out the hope of marriage to ward off the threat of invasion in the knowledge that England would be hard put to defend itself against a determined enemy.
Matters were complicated by Ambassador de Feria’s frustration with the Queen. Whereas he had enjoyed direct access to Mary I, Elizabeth insisted that all communications should first go through her advisers Cecil and Parry, well-known Protestants and also men whom de Feria detested.
De Feria continued to aid Philip in his increasingly frustrating efforts to sort out a suitable husband for the young Queen. It would be no easy task. De Feria warned Philip, ‘She is incomparably more feared than her sister was. She gives her orders and has her own way as absolutely as her father did.’30
In a report to de Quadra, warning him of the difficulty of negotiating marriage with Elizabeth, de Feria wrote, ‘Your Lordship will see what a pretty business it is to deal with her … I think she must have a hundred thousand devils in her body, notwithstanding that she is for ever telling me that she longs to be a nun and to pass her time in a cell praying.’31
Elizabeth’s other suitors included 33-year-old Adolf, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, brother of Christian III (King of Denmark and Norway 1534–59). Unusually among the Queen’s marriage candidates, the Duke actually visited England. Adolf was handsome, Protestant, wealthy and professed to be deeply in love with Elizabeth.
Although she had formed a liking for him, it appears that Elizabeth did not share his desire to get married. In the end, Elizabeth let him down gently and with great diplomacy, and he was able to return home after a magnificent reception with every sign that he still enjoyed her favour, as well as with splendid presents and the Order of the Garter.32 On his return home, the Duke married Christine, daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who would bear him 10 children, 5 sons and 5 daughters; something of a blow to Elizabeth’s Council, who desired to see her produce healthy English heirs.
Another, less welcome, suitor was Crown Prince Eric of Sweden. He had been wooing Elizabeth since before her accession, with no success. Now that she was Queen he renewed his efforts, sending his brother, Duke John of Finland, to act as his emissary in September 1559. He was ‘very courteous and princely, and well spoken in the Latin tongue’, and Elizabeth seemed to like him – so much so that there was some talk that she might marry John instead of Eric. Cecil allowed himself one brief moment of despair at his royal mistress’s antics, ‘How he shall speed, God knoweth and not I.’33
Flirting with his brother apart, Elizabeth tried hard to discourage this most persistent of suitors, writing to Eric in February 1560:
We are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection … but, as often we have testified both in words and writing, that we have never yet conceived a feeling of that kind of affection towards anyone … we do not conceive in our heart to take a husband, but highly commend this single life, and hope that your Serene Highness will no longer spend time in waiting for us.34
Eric, on hearing that Duke John had begun to woo Elizabeth on his own behalf, recalled his brother. He sent a new Ambassador, Nicholas Guildenstiern, who came with treasure to present to the Queen – 18 large piebald horses and two shiploads of ‘gifts’ – and a message ‘that he would quickly follow in person, to lay his heart at her feet.’35
In the knowledge that Elizabeth had accepted the gifts and that the soon-to-be King was reputed to be very handsome, there were rumours that Elizabeth was about to accept him. Broadsheets were published in anticipation of the event, showing portraits of the two side by side. Cecil was forced to make the Lord Mayor stop these publications, emphasizing that while the Queen was not ‘miscontented’, she could not allow her image to be joined in the same paper with any ‘King, or with any other prince, that is known to have made any request for marriage to her Majesty.’36
In case Eric should actualÏy make good on his promise to come to England, plans were drawn up for his reception, bearing in mind that she was a ‘maid’ and therefore certain formalities would need to be omitted out of honour and courtesy.37
For a further two years, the kingdom planned and waited as Eric threatened to come to England to woo her in person and bombarded her with expensive gifts. Eventually he realized that she would never succumb to his blandishments and his attentions ceased. Some years later, he would marry his low-born mistress, Karin Mansdotter.
Meanwhile, new diplomatic channels, and thus new marital possibilities, were opening up. After intense negotiations, in April 1559, England signed the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis with France and Spain. The main thrust of this treaty was to broker a peace between Spain and France with a return to pre-war borders. For England, the only failure of the negotiations was to achieve the immediate return of Calais, about which Elizabeth was obsessive. The French offered to return Calais after eight years or pay a forfeit of 500,000 crowns, but everyone doubted their intention of fulfilling this condition. As part of the peace negotiations, Cecil began discussions with Sir William Maitland of Lethington and his colleague, William Kirkaldy of the Grange, to separate Scotland from France with the aim of getting French troops out of Scotland.
One part of the plan was that the 22-year-old James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran, should be called back from France to try to seal an Anglo–Scottish alliance. His father was the heir to the Scottish throne after Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir James Croft wrote to Cecil that the Scottish nobility were bent on Protestant independence from Catholic France, that Hamilton was to be recalled, and that a marriage for him was being considered ‘you know where’.38
Kirkaldy wrote back, cryptically and pointedly, to say that Elizabeth might want to wait before she made any immediate plans for her marriage. Nonetheless, it was certainly in England’s interests to unite the island under Protestant rule, removing the French threat from its northern border, and it was felt that many Scots would support the marriage of Elizabeth with Hamilton.
In any case, it appears that the young Scot had English help to escape from France in early 1559. As Hamilton was an open supporter of the French Protestants (the Huguenots), Henri II tried to have him arrested, but he managed to flee to safety in Geneva. On 16 July, Elizabeth sent the diplomat Sir Harry Killigrew to bring Hamilton to England, but he had already set out, arriving in disguise before Killigrew could even deliver his message.
On arrival, Hamilton met the Queen and Cecil, staying at the latter’s house in Cannon Row. By this stage, there was no longer any talk of marriage. It is possible that Hamilton may already have been showing signs of the mental illness that would later claim him: in 1562 he was judged insane and handed into the care of his brother. Whatever the reason, Hamilton was secretly sent on his way back to Scotland in August to support the Protestant nobles.
On 10 July 1559, Henri II died from injuries sustained during a joust when a lance splintered and a sliver of wood pierced his helmet and went into his brain through his eye. This made Mary, Queen of Scots the Queen Consort of France by virtue of her 15-year-old husband, François II (King of France 1559–60), ascending to the throne. As Mary’s power grew, Scotland posed an ever greater threat to England. Not only was Mary a Catholic and allied with France, she also had a claim to the English throne. It was rumoured that there might be an active plot to use Scotland as a staging post for an invasion of England.
Tensions between the countries increased. When Jacques de Savoy, Duc de Nemours, mentioned that he was thinking of wooing Elizabeth, the Constable de Montmorency responded, ‘Do you not know that the Queen-dolphin [Mary, Queen of Scots] has right and title to England?’39 At a joust celebrating the betrothal in July 1559 of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy to Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry, Scottish heralds showed Mary, Queen of Scots’ arms including the quartered arms of England.
The English protested, but the French argued that it was only fair – Elizabeth still took the official (if symbolic) title of Queen of France (dating back to the claims of Edward III). Privately, Henri II had thought England, France and Scotland could be united under his son François and his daughter-in-law Mary, Queen of Scots. The new King, François II, would come to be perceived as less of a threat since he had to face rival religious and political factions in France before taking any serious interest in Elizabeth’s throne.
Meanwhile, an English nobleman who thought he might catch the fancy of the Queen was Sir William Pickering, one of the young men who had congregated around the late Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who was executed on charges of treason by Henry VIII in 1547. At the time of Wyatt’s rebellion, Pickering had been involved in the plot against Mary I and was forced to flee abroad. He joined the embassy to Emperor Charles V in Brussels.
He and
Elizabeth were old friends, and he came to London to see her in May 1559. The 43-year-old Pickering, a lusty, handsome, intellectual, single gentleman, was welcomed by Elizabeth. To everyone’s interest, the couple spent many hours together alone, and he was given rooms in the palace. Ambassador de Feria commented that Elizabeth saw him secretly just two days after his arrival and that ‘yesterday he came to the palace publicly and remained with her four or five hours. In London they are giving twenty-five to a hundred that he will be King.’40 Historian William Camden described Pickering as ‘… a man of good family though little wealth, and who had obtained reputation by the cultivation of letters, by the elegance of his manners and by his embassies to France and Germany …’41
Not everyone was pleased with Pickering. He began to behave as if he was already royalty, inviting people to his house and leaving them so that he could dine alone with musicians playing. On one occasion he was about to enter the Privy Chamber, which was open only to those of noble title (as a knight he was only entitled to be in the Presence Chamber outside), and Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel, took him to task. Pickering called him ‘an impudent, discourteous knave’.42 However, Pickering’s suit of Elizabeth would end as all her others had: as a friend, but not a husband.
With all these suits coming to nothing, the question arises how Elizabeth managed to placate the Council, who saw her marriage as a political necessity.
When Elizabeth took the throne early in 1559, the Commons had presented the Queen with an address requesting that she marry as a matter of urgency. Her reply was a masterful fudge; she would consider marriage, but not if it compromised national or religious interests. She stated:
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