Elizabeth

by Philippa Jones

  … I will never in that matter conclude anything that shall be prejudicial to the realm, for the weal, good, and safety whereof I will never shame to spend my life. And whomsoever my chance shall be to light upon, I trust he shall be as careful for the realm and you – I will not say, as myself, because I cannot so certainly determine of any other – but at the leastways, by my goodwill and desire, he shall be such as shall be as careful for the preservation of the realm and you as myself.43

  She then went on to reassure them that a suitable successor could be found regardless of whether she had an heir, and that, in any case, a Queen’s offspring was no guarantee of a ‘fit governor’. She also took care to underline her virginity: ‘… in the end this shall be for me sufficient: that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin …’44

  One can only speculate if Elizabeth made this claim to publicly bolster her moral character, or if she truly was a virgin at this stage. Perhaps, if not, she felt that abstinence would restore her ‘pure’ state. It is reported that one of her favourite prayers included the lines: ‘… grant that I may continually have care and regard not to sully nor to abase this Thy holy image restored in me through Jesus Christ, but instead keeping it pure and untainted by any carnal affection …’45

  Elizabeth may have believed that abstinence was in some way a factor in her succeeding to the throne. If she had indeed had a physical affair with Thomas Seymour and borne a child, she might have seen her subsequent years of turmoil as some kind of punishment. Both her own experiences to this point and as an observer to her father’s imbroglios may have caused her to arrive at the conclusion that the wisest path was to remain chaste in order to succeed as the Queen of England. Whether she saw this as God’s will or her free choice, or whether it was just a public front masking a different private reality, is buried with Elizabeth herself.

  The other irrefutable fact was that she was openly wary about giving up her independence by marrying. In a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I in June 1559, Elizabeth praised his son, her suitor, Charles, diplomatically acknowledging that it was a most honourable match, but stating, ‘When however we reflect upon the question of this marriage and eagerly ask our heart, we find that we have no wish to give up solitude and our single life, but prefer with God’s help to abide therein of our free determination.’46

  Nonetheless, Elizabeth’s advisers, as well as nobles around Europe, ignored her forthright assertions that she did not desire to marry, putting it down to politics and maidenly modesty. Throughout 1559, Elizabeth was besieged with suitors from England, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Saxony. In October, William Cecil wrote to the statesman Ralph Sadler, ‘I would to God her Majesty had one and the rest honourably satisfied.’47

  But perhaps Elizabeth did have ‘one’ in mind – a particular suitor that occupied a place above all others in her heart.

  6

  The Great Love 1559–60

  One particular gentleman had emerged as a firm favourite of the Queen by 1559 – but far from being a king, prince or nobleman with an irreproachable pedigree, Robert Dudley, the man chosen by Elizabeth, was the descendant of convicted and executed traitors. Robert Dudley’s grandfather, Edmund, had helped devise new ways of raising taxes under Henry VII’s administration. When Henry VIII came to the throne, the young King’s advisers arbitrarily selected Edmund and another officer to be scapegoats for Henry VII’s heavy taxation policies. They were both executed on 17 August 1510. Following his father’s death, sixyear-old John Dudley, Edmund’s eldest son, became the ward of royal official Sir Edward Guildford. This would be a springboard for his eventual rise to power.

  John Dudley possessed extraordinary talents as both a soldier and administrator. As a favourite of Henry VIII, he was granted several positions and titles, but he became even more powerful under Edward VI, when he became Edward’s first minister after ousting Edward Seymour from the position in 1549. In this position, he effectively ruled the country. In 1551, he was also made 1st Duke of Northumberland, but less than two years later, he fell rather spectacularly from grace, executed for high treason after plotting to place his daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey on the throne after Edward VI’s death. His abilities as a shrewd politician would become legendary. Sir Richard Moryson, Ambassador to the Court of Charles V, said that Dudley ‘had such a head that he seldom went about anything but he conceived three or four purposes beforehand.’1

  John Dudley married Sir Edward Guildford’s daughter, Jane, with whom he had 11 children that survived infancy: 7 sons and 4 daughters. Robert Dudley was their fifth son, and according to historian William Camden, he shared his birth date, 7 September 1533, with Elizabeth I.2 However, there are no existing records of Robert's actual birth date. Robert was placed in the household of Edward VI as one of the ‘King’s Children’ – the young King’s companions – and his father hoped that he and Edward would become friends. However, there is nothing to indicate that Edward felt more than mild friendship for Robert.

  Robert’s relationship with Elizabeth prior to her becoming Queen is largely the subject of conjecture. They were roughly the same age, and as members of the Royal Court, both were pupils of Roger Ascham, although they were probably never taught together. Ascham reported that whereas Elizabeth preferred history and languages, Robert was more interested in mathematics, an interest that carried on into his adult life.3

  In order to strengthen his own position, Robert’s father negotiated politically or financially advantageous marriages for his children. In 1550, the 18-year-old Robert married Amy Robsart, who was 17 at the time. The couple had most probably met when Robert stayed in Wymondham as part of the force, under his father’s command, that went North to put down Kett’s rebellion.

  Edward VI attended the marriage, which took place the following year, on 4 June 1550, at the royal palace in Sheen (Richmond, Surrey), as did the King’s half-sister, Lady Elizabeth. Although it was obvious to all present that the couple held each other in great affection, the marriage was also financially advantageous. Amy was the only legitimate child and heiress of Sir John Robsart, Lord of the Manor of Syderstone in Norfolk.

  At that time, there were different schools of thought concerning marriage matches. Some argued in support of there being at least some affection between a couple, if not love, given that a marriage was for life. On the other hand, William Cecil would present the opposite case when drawing up a list of points for and against marriage in 1566 (the question in hand was Robert Dudley’s suitability as a husband for Elizabeth). One point read nuptiae carnales a laetitia incipient et in luctu terminantur, meaning ‘marriages of physical desire begin with happiness and end in grief’.4

  After their marriage, Robert and Amy went to live in Norfolk, where he became Constable of the Castle. However, it was not John Dudley’s plan to have his son live so far away from the centre of power for long. From 1551, Robert was given a series of Court posts, thanks largely to his father, including Chief Carver to the King, joint Commissioner for the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, and Master of the Royal Buckhounds.

  By 1553, John Dudley, now 1st Duke of Northumberland, was at the zenith of his power and Robert was dividing his time between London and Syderstone, Norfolk, where he had been elected a Justice of the Peace and Member of Parliament. He also received lands near Yarmouth, as well as in Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, by grace of his father and also Edward VI. But the family’s fortunes would change with the death of Edward VI in July 1553.

  As soon as the King died, John Dudley started to plot to cut Mary and Elizabeth out of the succession and secure the Crown for Lady Jane Grey, who had recently married his son, Guildford. Mary and her supporters resisted, marching on the capital, and most of John Dudley’s men deserted him for Mary’s side, leaving John and Robert to flee. They continued their campaign, with Robert taking part, but soon realized the futility of their struggle, as the rest of the Council supported Mary and proclaime
d her Queen.

  Although John Dudley pledged that he was the servant of the Council and, therefore, to Mary I, he and his sons were arrested and taken to the Tower of London. On 18 August, John Dudley was tried for treason, along with his eldest son, John, 2nd Earl of Warwick, and both were found guilty.

  Despite the ruthless reputation she would later acquire for her religious persecutions, Mary I was surprisingly lenient with the Dudleys. She seized the lands given to Robert by his father and Edward VI, but John Dudley was the only one to be executed on 22 August 1553 on Tower Hill. Even Jane Grey and her husband Guildford Dudley were spared, remaining prisoners in the Tower.

  Unfortunately for Jane Grey, Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion against Mary I in January 1554 led the Queen to reassess her position. Mary’s advisers won out, arguing that as long as Lady Jane Grey lived she would always be a focus for discontent and, therefore, a threat to Mary. On 12 February 1554, Jane and Guildford were executed. The other Dudley brothers, John, Ambrose, Robert and Henry, remained prisoners in the Tower.

  Romantic history has it that Elizabeth and Robert were imprisoned in the Tower together, where they met secretly and fell in love. In reality, from March to May 1554 Elizabeth was held in the Bell Tower, while the Dudley brothers were in the Beauchamp Tower from July 1553 to October 1554, the next tower along on the west wall. While Elizabeth was allowed to walk along the wide roof gutter between the two towers, she was easily observed from a row of houses that faced Tower Green. Furthermore, Elizabeth was always attended by four guards, so it is unlikely that she could have seen or communicated with any of the Dudleys, let alone met Robert in secret.

  In any case, there is no evidence to indicate that she would have wanted to at that time. As far as she was concerned, the Dudleys’ plotting, had it been successful, would also have deprived her of the throne – and possibly might have resulted in her death – so it is unlikely that she would have regarded them sympathetically. There are contemporary accounts of Elizabeth receiving notes and posies from an admirer, but it is more probable that these were from Edward Courtenay, who was also imprisoned in the Tower at the time, for his father’s implication in a Roman Catholic uprising, and who was also viewed by some as a possible husband for Elizabeth.

  During the Dudleys’ incarceration, their mother, Jane, appealed to the Queen for clemency for her sons, ‘gifting’ her few remaining jewels and expensive items of clothing to those of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting who might be persuaded to speak to Mary I about her sons’ release. After Jane’s death in January 1555, her friends, including Mary’s husband, Philip of Spain, continued to make her case, with the result that in October, John, Ambrose, Robert and Henry were released.

  While Robert returned to Amy and their estates, in 1556 he joined his brothers, Ambrose and Henry, as part of the English army fighting in France on behalf of Spain – England and Spain were allied through Mary’s marriage to Philip. Their service to the Crown went some way towards the rehabilitation of the Dudley family fortunes, and in March 1557, Philip sent Robert back to London with some dispatches for Mary.5 The Queen welcomed the messages and rewarded the messenger and his brothers. Ambrose, the eldest surviving Dudley, was restored to the title of Viscount Lisle. Robert’s confiscated lands were returned. He returned to the war, and in August 1557, was Master of Ordinance at the Battle of St Quentin, in which his 22-year-old brother Henry was tragically killed in the fighting.

  During these years, Robert would probably have had little opportunity to meet with Elizabeth. However, a rumour, recounted in the State papers as well as in the letters of Hubert Languet, a French diplomat, suggests that they were in contact and were on quite friendly terms. Reportedly, a jeweller named Dymock, who was visiting the Swedish Court in 1562, was asked by the King of Sweden why Robert was such a favourite. He replied, ‘When she was but Lady Elizabeth … in her trouble he did sell away a good piece of his land to aid her, which divers supposed to be the cause the Queen so favoured him.’6 It is perhaps odd that neither Elizabeth nor Robert mentioned this as a reason for their friendship, but Elizabeth’s debts after Mary I cast her off, combined with Robert’s diplomatic astuteness, make the story plausible.

  By 1558, Robert was living the life of a minor member of the nobility, although he appears to have had financial problems himself. Certainly, neither he nor Amy resided at Syderstone any longer; in fact it may have been too dilapidated to live in. With Robert primarily at Court in London, Amy moved around, staying with family and friends in comfortable houses, attended by a number of servants and accompanied by chests loaded with her personal possessions. So it was that Amy was living with friends, William Hyde and his wife Elizabeth, at Throcking, near Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, when Robert rode out on a ‘snow-white horse’7 to meet Elizabeth, the new Queen, at Hatfield, in November 1558, after Mary I’s death.

  Robert showed to his best advantage on horseback. He was muscular, tall and long-legged, but more importantly, he was a very skilled horseman, a talent that Elizabeth prized. On ascending the throne, Elizabeth made him her Master of the Queen’s Horses. In this post, he was responsible for the riding horses, pack-horses and mules belonging to the Queen and her household. The role also demanded that he remain in close attendance to the Queen. Robert held this post until he died. Although he was awarded other posts and positions, he attached great importance to this first sign of the Queen’s favour.

  On 23 November 1558, Elizabeth left Hatfield for London, stopping at Charterhouse, the home of Sir Edward North, Baron North of Kirtling, whose son, Roger, was a close friend of Robert’s. On 28 November, she left in procession for London, riding in a chariot as far as Cripplegate, and from there she made her way on horseback. In front of her rode the Lord Mayor, carrying the sceptre, and the Garter King-at-Arms; behind her came William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, with the sword of state, and the Sergeant-at-Arms as her bodyguard. She was dressed in a habit of violet velvet and rode a white horse. Riding behind her came Robert, on a black horse, making his first appearance in his new role.

  If the sight of this famous jouster on horseback was not enough, Elizabeth could also see Robert to great advantage on the tennis court. In Tudor times, the show of masculine beauty, skill and strength in tennis was considered very attractive, as evidenced by the vivid description of the young Henry VIII coming off the tennis court after a strenuous game, damp with sweat, his shirt clinging to the musculature of his body, his face delightfully flushed, his chest heaving for breath. Similarly there were reports that the Queen often came to see Robert play, as this account, made after 1564, when Robert became the Earl of Leicester, indicates: ‘… de Quadra complained that the Queen had failed to attend an important meeting … on the grounds that she was indisposed, but in fact had gone to watch Leicester playing tennis.’8

  Robert also excelled as a dancer, and Elizabeth loved dancing. Venetian Ambassador Giovanni Michiel wrote in 1557, ‘The Queen’s daily amusements are musical performances and other entertainments and she takes marvellous pleasure in seeing people dance.’ A further letter dated February 1559 showed that Elizabeth also liked to participate: ‘Last evening … at the dance the Queen performed her part, the Duke of Norfolk [Thomas Howard] being her partner, in superb array.’9

  Rumours began to circulate about the Queen’s relationship with Robert Dudley. In April 1559, Spanish Ambassador de Feria wrote to Philip II, making his doubts known that the Queen would ever accept the pending suit of Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, as the current gossip was that she was in love with ‘Lord Robert’, a married man:

  During the last few days Lord Robert has come so much into favour that he does whatever he likes with affairs and it is even said that her Majesty visits him in his chamber day and night. People talk of this so freely that they go so far as to say that his wife [Amy Robsart] has a malady in one of her breasts and the Queen is only waiting for her to die to marry Lord Robert. I can assure your Majesty that matters have reached such a pass that
I have been brought to consider whether it would be well to approach Lord Robert on your Majesty’s behalf, promising him your help and favour and coming to terms with him.10

  Signs of the Queen’s affection for Robert – and his for her – continued to grow more pronounced. On 23 April 1559, St George’s Day, Robert Dudley was elected Knight of the Garter, a surprisingly high honour, normally limited to only the most esteemed nobles. The Venetian Ambassador to Brussels received a report that Robert was ‘a very handsome young man towards whom in various ways the Queen evinces such affection and inclination that many persons believe that if his wife, who has been ailing for some time, were perchance to die, the Queen might easily take him for her husband.’ Robert himself seemed a willing partner in this developing intimacy.11

  The foreign ambassadors at Elizabeth’s Court focussed on any possible relationships that the Queen might have, concerned as they were by the crucial question of who might father the next monarch of England. While they believed that Elizabeth might consider an English husband, it seemed beyond the imagination of most that she would select Robert Dudley from a choice of suitors that included great princes and nobles.

  The question of whether Elizabeth was fertile was also of considerable interest to them. In 1559, Ambassador de Feria wrote to Philip, ‘For a certain reason they have recently given me, I understand she will not bear children.’12 The Scottish Ambassador Sir James Melville had heard the same thing, probably surmised from reports that Elizabeth had erratic periods. This information would have come from chambermaids and laundresses who were paid a modest fee for their firsthand accounts, a valuable source of information for the vast number of foreign diplomats who wished to be able to report on the state of Elizabeth’s health and fecundity to their royal paymasters.

  In 1559, the Venetian Ambassador reported, ‘Before leaving London, her Majesty was blooded from one foot and from one arm, but what her indisposition is, is not known. Many persons say things I should not dare to write [that the bleeding was to compensate for her lack of periods], but they say that on arriving at Greenwich she was as cheerful as ever she was.’13