ELIZABETH THE FIRST

ELIZABETH AND MARRIAGE : THE SUCCESSION QUESTION

"Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married"

Elizabeth I

From the moment Elizabeth became Queen, there was one question that everyone was asking - who will the Queen marry? It was assumed that one of the first things Elizabeth would do, would be to select a husband to help her govern the realm, and more importantly, to get her pregnant. Elizabeth was the last of her dynasty, and it was thought natural that her main concern would be to provide a child to perpetuate the rule of the Tudors. Elizabeth was young, unlike her sister who was already into her late thirties when she became Queen, and there were high hopes that soon England would have a royal family again. Without an heir of the Queen�s body, the future would be uncertain, and many feared that the rival claims of  Henry VII�s distant relatives, would plunge the country into a bitter civil war should Elizabeth die without a legitimate child to succeed her.  In these early weeks of her reign, the court buzzed with suitors eager for her hand in marriage, and European ambassadors were busy trying to advance the suit of their masters and of their master�s relatives.  Elizabeth was now the most sought after woman in Europe.   She received offers of marriage from the King of Spain, Prince Eric of Sweden - soon to be king, The Archduke Charles (son of the Emperor Ferdinand), the son of John  Frederic Duke of Saxony, The Earl of Arran, the Earl of Arundel, and Sir William Pickering, who was so confident that  he would be selected, that he demanded certain privileges be granted him while he stayed at the Court.  Elizabeth politely rejected the offer made by King Philip, but allowed the other suitors to remain hopeful, while allowing her advisors to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each match.  Yet, the only person, it seemed, who did not see the urgency for marriage, was Elizabeth herself.

It will never be known whether Elizabeth really intended to marry or not.  Historians are divided on the question:

Christopher Haigh:

He [Cecil] consigned Elizabeth to the role of Virgin Queen. It was probably at this point that Elizabeth decided not to marry ... there were still twenty years of international courtships to go, but with a brief exception in 1579, they were diplomatic manoeuvres for political advantage ... Elizabeth probably intended to remain single

Susan Doran

There is very little evidence to support the view, which appears in so many biographies, that from the beginning of her reign the Queen had made a conscious decision to remain unwed either because of her implacable hostility to matrimony or her determination to rule alone.

Doran also argues that the image of the Virgin Queen was not deliberately created in the 1560s by Elizabeth and her councillors in an attempt to compensate for the so-called disadvantages of her gender and her single status : �Elizabeth ... did not have to remain unmarried and chaste to appear exceptional to her subjects, nor did she need to develop the secular cult of the Virgin to create for herself a special mystique.�

Certainly she showed no great enthusiasm for marriage, and declared on a number of occasions that she personally preferred the single life.  However, there is a danger to read history backwards and assume that because Elizabeth never married, it was always her intention not to. The marriage of a Queen regnant was a complicated affair, and could be disastrous for the country, as the case of Queen Mary had illustrated. Elizabeth did not want to repeat her sister�s mistake by marrying a man that would not be popular with her people. Any man Elizabeth married would expect a say in the governing of the country (as Philip had expected under Mary) and neither Elizabeth or her ministers wanted to relinquish any power over English affairs.  For this reason, it was in the best interests of  the country for Elizabeth to marry a man who, although of suitable rank and status, was not a major European power, and would be content to be the Queen�s consort only.  This effectively ruled out reigning monarchs, although Eric of Sweden was given serious consideration by Elizabeth�s ministers. The suit of Eric, a fellow Protestant, was also popular in the country, and when it was rumoured that Elizabeth had accepted his proposal, medals were made in London with a picture of Elizabeth and Eric united on them. But Eric was  far from a wealthy monarch, and marriage to him would have brought England little financial benefit, or provided her with a strong European ally. The Archduke Charles was also given serious consideration, and his suit remained a possibility for several years.  But  as well as the need to consider the demands for power a potential husband would make, it was also necessary to take into consideration his religion, and religion often proved to be a serious bar to the marriage eventually occurring.   The Archduke was a Catholic, and as a Catholic, his suit was not popular by the Protestant element in Elizabeth�s Council.

As Susan Doran points out : �... many at Court disliked the prospect of the Queen marrying a foreigner. Besides xenophobic prejudices, they shared a genuine apprehension about the practical political problems that seemed likely to arise from any union between Elizabeth and a foreign prince. Her consort, it was feared, might draw the Queen into wars of his own making and expect her subjects to pay the cost; he might take his wife abroad to live in his own territories, leaving England to be governed by a viceroy; worse still, the birth of a male child would put at risk England�s national independence. Furthermore, if Elizabeth were to die in childbirth, her husband would act as regent with the authority to rule until the child reached maturity. Even though a number of these concerns could be dealt with in a carefully worded marriage contract, as indeed they had been in Mary I�s matrimonial treaty, these alarming prospects influenced many to speak out against Elizabeth�s foreign candidates.�

To complicate matters further, it seemed that Elizabeth had fallen deeply in love with one of her own subjects, Lord Robert Dudley, her Master of Horse.  They had been friends since childhood, and he was one of the few men Elizabeth believed valued her for herself, and not for the fact that she was now Queen.   Her marriage to a fellow protestant Englishman would certainly have avoided the problem of foreigners controlling the realm through marriage to the Queen, and avoided a clash over religion, but marriage to a subject also gave rise to serious problems.  Competition for power amongst the English nobility was fierce, and if Elizabeth married one noble, his rivals in power would be offended, and possibly withdraw their allegiance from her, and even plunge the country into civil war. Also the match would not be one of equality, and would not provide England with a much needed foreign ally.  There were also other considerations that made Dudley particularly unsuitable. To begin with he was already married, having married a young girl called Amy Robsart when he was about seventeen, and secondly he was the son of the much hated Duke of  Northumberland who had been executed for treason in the reign of the Queen�s sister, and the grandson of Edmund Dudley, who had likewise met a traitors death earlier in the century. Robert Dudley himself had been imprisoned in the Tower for his involvement in his father�s scheme to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, and was regarded with suspicion by his fellow Englishman.   Elizabeth's attachment to him, however, seemed unrelenting, and it was feared by many that he would seek an annulment from his wife, and marry the Queen.  Whether Elizabeth seriously intended marrying him or not, is another of the many mysteries of her reign, but the sudden death of Dudley�s wife in the September of 1560, put to an end any real hope of marrying him that she may have entertained.  The relationship between the Queen and her Horse Master had long been the subject of speculation amongst her people and  in Europe, and malicious gossip had circulated the idea that Dudley was going to murder his wife so that he could marry Elizabeth. Amy was found dead at the bottom of a narrow staircase, her neck broken, and many believed that her death was not an unfortunate accident. Dudley was widely suspected to be responsible for her death, despite the fact that the Inquest declared it to be an accident, and had Elizabeth married him, many more would have believed the ugly rumours circulating about him, and perhaps even that Elizabeth herself had been involved. But despite the bar Amy�s death made to their marriage, for the next ten years, Dudley was still the most likely candidate for her hand, and her advisors reluctantly had to acknowledge this fact.
 

The only other serious contender for Elizabeth�s hand was Francis,  Duke of Alencon, later Duke of Anjou. He was the son of Catherine de Medici, Queen Mother of France, and a brother to the French King. His courtship did not gain serious consideration until the 1570�s, as he was considerably younger than Elizabeth herself, and the negotiations were entirely based on the mutual need of England and France to make an ally of each other.  The traditional  European alliance system whereby England was united with Spain was rapidly deteriorating, and England needed the support of  France if she was to protect herself against Spain.   The French were Catholic as well, but did not appear to be as hostile to English Protestantism as the Spanish were.  Alencon himself was also known to have a sympathy with the French Protestants (called Hugeunots), and was not as adverse to marrying a Protestant Queen as his older brother, now king,  had been.  For a decade, negotiations for the hand of Alencon played a prominent part in English politics.  The negotiations were temporarily discontinued following the Bartholomew Massacre, in which an estimated six thousand French Protestants,  including women and children, were killed, but were soon continued when the need for an ally was pressing again.  This was by far the most serious foreign courtship of Elizabeth�s reign, and it seemed certain for a while that Elizabeth would indeed marry him. Francis even came to England for Elizabeth to meet him, and it seemed that the Queen was quite taken with the Frenchman, who she called her �frog�, despite the fact that he was not as good looking as some of her suitors had been, and was reputedly disfigured from an attack of the small pox.  Elizabeth announced before some of her courtiers that she would marry him,  kissed him, and gave him a ring. This pleased those eager for her marriage, but alarmed those who did not want their Queen married to a French Catholic.  The political elite appeared divided. There were those who supported the marriage such as William Cecil and Thomas Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, and those who were ardently opposed such as Robert Dudley, now Earl of Leicester.  A man named John Stubbes wrote a pamphlet warning the Queen against the marriage, for which he had his right hand cut off, and Sir Philip Sidney, the famous poet, wrote her a letter advising her against it.  Once again, politics and religion was making it difficult for the Queen to marry. Elizabeth was in a difficult situation. If she married, then she risked her popularity and support for her regime, but she was now in her late forties, and if she did not marry Alencon, then this could be her last chance at marriage, and having a child to succeed her to the throne.  Elizabeth appears to have felt this deeply, and on one occasion when her Council was debating the pros and cons of the marriage, she broke down and wept.  The ultimate decision  as to whether she married or not, lay with Elizabeth herself, but without the solid backing of the country, marriage would not have been wise.  No one knows  if marriage was what Elizabeth really wanted, and perhaps Elizabeth did not really know herself.  The Alencon courtship had caused lot of problems within the court and country, and on top of that, Elizabeth learnt that Dudley had  married her cousin, Lettice Devereux, Countess of Essex. While  the story that he kept the marriage a secret from her for a year is probably apocryphal (Alison Weir in her recent publication Elizabeth the Queen persuasively  argues that it probably originates in the work of a seventeenth century historian) Elizabeth still felt a sense of betrayal at his marriage and this may have been a factor in her apparent desire to marry Alencon. But after ten years, the Alencon match was finally
laid to rest. Elizabeth�s fears of marriage once again began to surface, and the political problems the marriage would cause, made it seem impractical.

For over twenty years, Elizabeth had been courted by the most eligible men in Europe. The �marriage game� had come to be an important part of foreign relations, and a valuable asset to the country. When it seemed that England was losing friends, or in times when England needed friends, all Elizabeth had to do was suggest marriage to the respective countries, and regardless of whether she intended to marry or not, the prospect of marriage to the English Queen was too big a bait to resist, and Elizabeth could be assured of their support for the foreseeable future. But now that Elizabeth was approaching fifty years of age, and could no longer realistically expect to bear a child, she could no longer use her marriage as a diplomatic weapon.  The Alencon courtship was her last political courtship.  It was certain now that Elizabeth would never marry. Her statesmen must have been relieved that the often gruelling negotiations for her hand were over, but the dangers the lack of an heir posed could not be ignored, and must have weighed heavily on the minds of her more far-sighted advisors.

The woman who early in her reign had declared that it would please her immensely if on her grave it was written� A queen having lived and reigned such and such a time, lived and died a virgin�  would have her wish come true, and be known for ever more as �The Virgin Queen�.

A LIST OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S PRINCIPAL SUITORS

This list gives the names of the principal suitors to the Queen over the course of her life. Some individuals appear more than once as their suit was considered and reconsidered. Those suitors that were given serious consideration by the Queen's government or whose desire for her hand in marriage had a profound influence upon the Queen's personal and political life, have been highlighted.

      1534  Duke of Angoulme (third son of Francis I)

    c1542 A Prince of Portugal

1543    Son of the Earl of Arran

1544    Prince Philip (Philip II)

1547    Sir Thomas Seymour

1552  Prince of Denmark

1553  Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire

1554    Philibert Emanuel, Duke of Savoy

1554  Prince of Denmark

1556  Prince Eric of Sweden

1556  Don carlos (son of Philip II)

1559  Philip II

1559  Prince Eric of Sweden

1559  Son of John Frederic, Duke of Saxony

1559  Sir William Pickering

1559  Earl of Arran

1559  Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel

1559  Robert Dudley

1560  King Eric of Sweden

1560  Adolphus, Duke of Holstein

1560  King Charles IX

1560  Henry, Duke of Anjou

1566  Robert Dudley

1568  Archduke Charles

1570  Henry Duke of Anjou

1572- 1585 Francis, Duke of Alencon, later Anjou.

Compiled from Elizabeth Tudor: The Lonely Queen by Sir Arthur S. MacNalty (1971 edition).

ELIZABETH AND MARRIAGE : QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION

Response to a Parliamentary Delegation on Her Marriage, 1559

Elizabeth's response to a delegation from Parliament who petitioned her to marry soon, and not to marry a foreigner.  The delegation wanted to be sure of the succession by her having a male child, and they wanted it to be English through and through, so that no foreigner would have a claim to the throne (she was under pressure to marry her sister's widower, Philip of Spain).

As I have good cause, so do I give you all my hearty thanks for the good zeal and loving care you seem to have, as well towards me as to the whole state of your country. Your petition I perceive consisteth of three parts and my answer to the same shall depend of two.

And to the first part I may say unto you that from my years of understanding since I first had consideration of myself to be born a servitor of almighty God, I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live, which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God. From the which, if either ambition of high estate offered to me in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my prince whereof I have some records in this presence (as you our Lord Treasurer well know); or if the eschewing of the danger of my enemies or the avoiding of the peril of death, whose messenger or rather continual watchman, the prince's indignation, was not a little time daily before my eyes (by whose means although I know or justly may suspect, yet I will not now utter, or if the whole cause were in my sister herself, I will not now burden her therewith, because I will not charge the dead); if any of these, I say, could have drawn or dissuaded me from this kind of life, I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see me. But so constant have I always continued in this determination, although my youth and words may seem to some hardly to agree together, yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present; with which trade of life I am so thoroughly acquainted that I trust God, who hath hitherto therein preserved and led me by the hand, will not now of his goodness suffer me to go alone.

For the other part, the manner of your petition I do well like of and take in good part, because that it is simple and containeth no limitation of place or person. If it had been otherwise, I must needs have misliked it very much and thought it in you a very great presumption, being unfitting and altogether unmeet for you to require them that may command or those to appoint whose parts are to desire, or such to bind and limit whose duties are to obey, or to take upon you to draw my love to your likings or frame my will to your fantasies; for a guerdon constrained and a gift freely given can never agree together. Nevertheless if any of you be in suspect, that whensoever it may please God to incline my heart to another kind of life, you may well assure yourselves my meaning is not to do or determine anything wherewith the realm may or shall have just cause to be discontented. And therefore put that clean out of your heads. For I assure you--what credit my assurances may have with you I cannot tell, but what credit it shall deserve to have the sequel shall declare--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 shun 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 least ways, by my goodwill and desire he shall be such as shall be as careful for the preservation of the realm and you as myself. And albeit it might please almighty God to continue me still in this mind to live out of the state of marriage, yet it is not to be feared but He will so work in my heart and in your wisdom as good provision by his help may be made in convenient time, whereby the realm shall not remain destitute of an heir. That may be a fit governor, and peradventure more beneficial to the realm than such offspring as may come of me. For although I be never so careful of your well doings and mind ever so to be, yet may my issue grow out of kind and become perhaps ungracious. And 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.

And here I end, and take your coming unto me in good part, and give unto you all eftsoons my hearty thanks, more yet for your zeal and good meaning than for your petition.

Response to Erik of Sweden's Proposal, 1560

Elizabeth had dozens of suitors during her life, none so ardent as King Erik of Sweden, who had proposed to her when she was only the "Lady Elizabeth." In 1560, he tried to come to England, but was thwarted by storms, so he sent his brother as a proxy groom. Here is Elizabeth's reply:

Most Serene Prince Our Very Dear Cousin,

A letter truly yours both in the writing and sentiment was given us on 30 December by your very dear brother, the Duke of Finland. And while we perceive there from that the zeal and love of your mind towards us is not diminished, yet in part we are grieved that we cannot gratify your Serene Highness with the same kind of affection. And that indeed does not happen because we doubt in any way of your love and honour, 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 therefore beg your Serene Highness again and again that you be pleased to set a limit to your love, that it advance not beyond the laws of friendship for the present nor disregard them in the future. And we in our turn shall take care that whatever can be required for the holy preservation of friendship between Princes we will always perform towards your Serene Highness. It seems strange for your Serene Highness to write that you understand from your brother and your ambassadors that we have entirely determined not to marry an absent husband; and that we shall give you no certain reply until we shall have seen your person.

We certainly think that if God ever direct our hearts to consideration of marriage we shall never accept or choose any absent husband how powerful and wealthy a Prince soever. But that we are not to give you an answer until we have seen your person is so far from the thing itself that we never even considered such a thing. But I have always given both to your brother, who is certainly a most excellent prince and deservedly very dear to us, and also to your ambassador likewise the same answer with scarcely any variation of the words, that 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.

God keep your Serene Highness for many years in good health and safety. From our Palace at Westminster, 25 February.

Your Serene Highness' sister and cousin,

Elizabeth

Response to Parliamentary Delegation on Her Marriage, 1566

In 1566, Parliament was still nagging Elizabeth to marry. A delegation from both houses came to petition her. Here is part of the angry dressing-down she gave them:

'Was I not born in the realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country? Is not my kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other's harm? What turmoil have I made in this commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard to the same? How have I governed since my reign? I will be tried by envy itself. I need not to use many words, for my deeds do try me.

'Well, the matter whereof they would have made their petition (as I am informed) consisteth in two points: in my marriage, and in the limitations of the succession of the crown, wherein my marriage was first placed, as for manners' sake. I did send them answer by my council, I would marry (although of mine own disposition I was not inclined thereunto) but that was not accepted nor credited, although spoken by their Prince.

'I will never break the word of a prince spoken in a public place, for my honour's sake. And therefore I say again, I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself, or else some other great let happen. I can say no more except the party were present. And I hope to have children, otherwise I would never marry. A strange order of petitioners that will make a request and cannot be otherwise assured but by the prince's word, and yet will not believe it when it is spoken.

'The second point was for the limitation of the succession of the crown, wherein was nothing said for my safety, but only for themselves. A strange thing that the foot should direct the head in so weighty a cause', a cause, she pointed out, to which she had give careful consideration since it concerned her more nearly than it concerned them.

'I am sure there was not one of them that ever was a second person, as I have been and have tasted of the practices against my sister, who I would to God were alive again. I had great occasion to hearken to their motions for whom some of them are of the common house.'

She forbore to name those who had plotted against the Crown in Mary's reign, contenting herself with:

'And were it not for my honour, their knavery should be known. There were occasions in me at that time, I stood in danger of my life, my sister was so incensed against me. I did differ from her in religion and I was sought for divers ways. And so shall never be my successor. I have conferred with those that are well learned, and have asked their opinions touching the limitation of succession.'

The lawyers, she said, had been silent; they understood the legal complications but 'they could not tell what to say considering the great peril to the realm.'

As for those who thought they knew better:

'They would have twelve or fourteen limited in succession and the more the better. And those shall be of such uprightness and so divine, as in them shall be divinity itself. Kings were wont to honour philosophers, but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such piety in them that they would not seek where they are the second to be the first, and where the third to be the second and so forth. It is said I am no divine. Indeed I studied nothing else but divinity till I came to the crown; and then I gave myself to the study of that which was meet for government, and am not ignorant of stories wherein appeareth what hath fallen out for ambition of kingdoms--as in Spain, Naples, Portugal and at home; and what cocking hath been between the father and the son for the same. You would have a limitation of succession. Truly if reason did not subdue will in me, I would cause you to deal in it, so pleasant a thing it should be unto me. But I stay it for your benefit. For if you should have liberty to treat of it, there be so many competitors--some kinsfolk, some servants, and some tenants; some would speak for their master, and some for their mistress, and every man for his friend--that it would be an occasion of a greater charge than a subsidy. And if my will did not yield to reason, it should be that thing I would gladliest desire to see you deal in it.'

And still she had not finished. She accused them of errors; she accused them of 'lack of good foresight'; and then she turned on the bishops with withering scorn:

'I do not marvel, though Domini Doctores, with you my Lords, did so use themselves therein, since after my brother's death they openly preached and set forth that my sister and I were bastards. Well, I wish not the death of any man, but only this I desire, that they which have been the practisers herein may before their deaths repent the same, and show some open confession of their fault, whereby the scabbed sheep may be known from the whole. As for my own part I care not for death, for all men are mortal; and though I be a woman yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am indeed endowed with such qualities that if I were turned out of the realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

'Your petition is to deal in the limitation of the succession. At this present it is not convenient, nor never shall be without some peril unto you, and certain danger unto me. But as soon as there may be a convenient time and that it may be done with least peril unto you, although never without great danger unto me, I will deal therein for your safety and offer it unto you as your prince and head without requests. For it is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.'

She told the Lord Chief justice to deliver this message to the House of Lords, and Cecil to inform the Commons. It took Cecil three drafts to word the matter diplomatically enough for it to bear repeating.

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