The Spencer Family
Page 38
Although the princess’s mother, Anne of Denmark, was a Catholic sympathiser, her father’s succession to the English throne had been conditional on his promise to uphold Anglicanism. The English Establishment, which had so hurriedly welcomed James, already viewed him with concern. Nobles were appalled by his sale of hereditary titles, which introduced rich parvenus to the aristocracy. Furthermore, his rampant homosexuality was considered troubling in a king, partly on moral grounds, but more practically because his good-looking young favourites bypassed the conventional channels of patronage to gorge themselves on ill-deserved honours.
A sure way for James to regain some popularity was to play the religious card: in 1612 he took England into the Protestant Union, a defensive confederation of nine German principalities and seventeen imperial cities formed by Frederick’s father, and which the young Palsgrave now led. The same year, he agreed that Elizabeth should wed Frederick. The public preacher in Bristol — England’s second city and a place that was to play an important role in Rupert’s adult life — welcomed the betrothal: ‘Unto you happy Prince, and sent of God to increase our happiness’, he said in an open letter, ‘Come in thou blessed of the Lord, for whom the choicest pearl in the Christian world is by God himself prepared. The Lord makes her like Leah and like Rahel [sic], which two builded the house of Israel. Let her grow into thousand thousands, and let her seed possess the gate of his enemies.’[11]
It was expected for princes and princesses to make dynastic marriages. Rupert’s parents were unusual in that theirs was a genuine love match, whose romantic pulse never slowed. Frederick made a sublime impression, on arriving in England. His ‘well-becoming confidence’[12] was noted, as was his ‘wit, courage and judgement’.[13] Elizabeth was relieved to be marrying such a dashing young man: when Prince Maurice of Nassau had been presented as a possible mate, she had been repelled by the physical decay of his advanced middle age. By contrast, she fell quickly and completely in love with her handsome, youthful suitor.
The 16-year-old couple, only four days apart in age, married in Whitehall Chapel on St Valentine’s Day, 1613. Elizabeth wore a gold crown, her white dress and loosely hanging hair advertising her virginity. Despite the bride’s simplicity, James managed to spend nearly £100,000 on the celebrations, prompting one of his courtiers to offer a cheerless supplication: ‘God grant money to pay debts.’[14] However, the revelry was not only about fleeting extravagance: William Shakespeare offered an enduring wedding gift, writing a play for the couple. The Tempest was performed fourteen times by the King’s Men during the festivities, for which the players received £150. The Archbishop of Canterbury summed up the hopes of all who witnessed the match: ‘The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob bless these nuptials, and make them prosperous to these kingdoms and to his Church.’[15]
Frederick left for home ahead of his bride so that he could be in the Palatinate to receive her. Elizabeth travelled with a train of supporters that, by the time it reached the outskirts of Heidelberg, consisted of 12 princes, 30 earls, 1,000 gentlemen, and 2,000 soldiers. Her arrival was greeted with volleys of musket shot and salvoes of cannon fire from the Palatine army. ‘Then they marched altogether orderly in good array,’ wrote an eyewitness, ‘conducting her to Heidelberg, where the citizens wanted no expressions of joy, love, and duty in hearty welcoming of her, & praying for her; all windows being replenished with people of all ages and degrees, and the streets thronged with multitudes of people, drawn thither from all parts, not so much to see the Pageants that were erected to further this honourable entertainment, as to have their eyes filled in beholding of her Highness, whom all honoured and admired.’[16]
Frederick and Elizabeth enjoyed six happy years in Heidelberg. The prince enlarged the pink, sandstone castle for his wife, adding a suite of ten rooms — ‘the English wing’ — to welcome her to her new home. The castle’s floors were made of porphyry, while the cornices were inlaid with gems. Elizabeth’s drawing room was hung with silver decorations, against a background of white marble. The library, with its priceless codices, housed one of the greatest book collections in Europe.
Outside, the Electress’s passion for animals found expression in a monkey-house and a generously proportioned menagerie. The palace garden, the Tiortus Palatinatus’, was famous throughout the Continent, delighting visitors with its system of fountains, its fine statues, and its intricate network of flowerbeds. When an heir, Frederick Henry, was born, Frederick showed his delight by planting an extension to the garden under his wife’s bedroom window: it was laid out with English flowers, to remind the princess of home. Two more children quickly appeared, Elizabeth and Charles Louis, before she fell pregnant with Rupert.
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[1] Thomas Flatman, On the Death of the Illustrious Prince Rupert, A Pindarique Ode, (London: 1683) p. 2.
[2] Prince Rupert's life story, probably written by his secretary, Colonel Bennet, quoted in Eliot Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, Vol.1 (London: 1849) p. 447.
[3] Sir John Harington, Nugae Antiquae, vol. III (London: 1779) p. 156
[4] Ibid., vol. II, p. 237
[5] Ibid., pp. 239-40
[6] A. Le Fere de la Boderie, Ambassades (Paris: 1750), quoted in Carola Oman, The Winter Queen (London: 1938) p. 36
[7] Sir Walter Raleigh, Works vol.VIII, p. 234, quoted in Oman, The Winter Queen, p. 51
[8] The Spanish ambassador, Don Pedro Zuniga, to the King of Spain, 2 August 1612, quoted in M. A. Everett-Green, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, (London: 1909) p. 28.
[9] James Medlus, ‘and one of his Majesties Chaplaines’, A Sermon, Preached before the two high borne and illustrious Princes, Fredericke the 5 Prince Elector Palatine, Duke of Bavaria. And the Princesse Lady Elizabeth ... Together with a short narration of the Prince Elector's greatness, his Country ..., (London: 1613) pp. 57-8.
[10] From p. 3 of 'The Epistle to the Reader' introducing A Full Declaration of the Faith and Ceremonies professed in the Dominions of the most Illustrious and noble Prince Fredericke 5, Prince, Elector Palatine, trans. John Rolte (London: 1614).
[11] A Vow of Teares, For the losse of Prince Henry, pp. iv-v of the Epistle Dedicatory by E. C., ‘publike Preacher' to Bristol (London: 1612).
[12] Nichols, The Progresses, p. 464, quoted in Brennan C. Pursell, The Winter King (London: 2003) p. 18.
[13] Quoted in Pursell, The Winter King, p. 18.
[14] Journal of Sir Roger Wilbraham, quoted in The Camden Miscellany, vol. 10 (London: 1902) p. 110.
[15] Gardiner History, vol. II, p. 160 [quoted in ‘The Camden Miscellany’, vol. 10, p. 110 (London: 1902).
[16] John Beale, A Sermon ... Together with a short narration of the Prince Elector’s greatness, his Country, his receiving of her Hi ghnesse, (London: 1613) pp. 65-6.