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4<meta name="author" content="Marilee Mongello">
5<meta name="content" content="Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Portraits with commentary, Primary Sources Elizabeth Tudor 1533 to 1603 The Virgin Queen Gloriana">
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11<title>Queen Elizabeth I: Biography, Portraits, Primary Sources</title>
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18<table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%" height="667">
19 <tr>
20 <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
21 <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29"><p align="center">&nbsp;</td>
22 <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
23 </tr>
24 <tr>
25 <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
26 <td width="50%" height="3">
27 <p align="center">
28 <IMG height=98 alt="Queen Elizabeth I"
29 src="eliz1-queenuse.gif" width=422></td>
30 <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
31 </tr>
32 <tr>
33 <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
34 <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
35 <p align="center">
36 <img border="2" src="eliz1-zuccaro2.jpg" alt="Zuccaro's sketch of Queen Elizabeth I; c1570s; the most authentic likeness of the queen" width="300" height="482"><blockquote>
37 <p align="left">
38 &nbsp;</blockquote>
39 <DIV align=left>Visit
40 <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html">Elizabethan
41 Images</a> to view portraits of the queen and her courtiers, with
42 commentary.<BR>Read poems, letters, and speeches by the queen at <A
43 href="../primary.html">Primary
44 Sources</A>.</DIV>
45 <DIV align=left>&nbsp;</DIV>
46 <DIV align=left>Read ES Beesly's 1892 biography of Queen
47 Elizabeth I at <a href="../secondary.html">
48 Secondary Sources</a>.<BR><BR>Visit <A
49 href="boleyn.html">the Anne
50 Boleyn website</A> to learn more about Elizabeth's mother.<BR>Visit <A
51 href="../relative/maryqos.html">the Mary,
52 queen of Scots website</A> to learn more about Elizabeth's
53 cousin.<BR><BR>Test your knowledge of Elizabeth's life and times at <A
54 href="../tudor1.html">Tudor
55 Quizzes</A>.</DIV>
56 <DIV align=left>&nbsp;</DIV>
57 <DIV align=left>Meet other Elizabethan enthusiasts at
58 <a href="http://www.alassea.net/fl/elizabeth/">The Virgin Queen
59 fanlisting</a>.</DIV>
60 <DIV align=left>&nbsp;</DIV>
61 </td>
62 <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
63 </tr>
64</table>
65
66<blockquote>
67 <blockquote>
68 <blockquote>
69 <hr>
70 </blockquote>
71 </blockquote>
72 <p><font size="4">'I cannot but deplore my evil fortune, seeing
73 you have been pleased not only to refuse me your presence, causing me to
74 be declared unworthy of it by your nobles; but also suffered me to be torn
75 in pieces by my rebels.... not allowing me to have copies of their false
76 accusations, or affording me any liberty to accuse
77 them.'</font><SMALL><font size="3">&nbsp;&nbsp; </font><I>Mary, queen of Scots to Elizabeth I after the Northern
78 Rebellion</I></SMALL></p>
79 <blockquote>
80 <blockquote>
81 <hr>
82 <p>There were three main plots concerning <A
83 href="../relative/maryqos.html">Mary, queen of
84 Scots</A> - the duke of Norfolk's scheme of 1569, the Throckmorton Plot of
85 1583, and the Babington Plot of 1586.&nbsp; For as long as Mary lived, she
86 was a potential threat to Elizabeth.&nbsp; And since she was now
87 imprisoned on English soil, she was an even greater menace.&nbsp; Domestic
88 enemies of the queen made no secret of their admiration for Mary
89 Stuart.&nbsp; And foreign ambassadors often communicated secretly with
90 her, particularly the French and Spanish ambassadors.&nbsp; As a former
91 queen of France, Mary had many friends in that country.&nbsp; And as a
92 Catholic queen, she was friendly with the increasingly pious Philip II of
93 Spain.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>
94 <P>Elizabeth was always of two minds regarding her cousin.&nbsp; She
95 recognized the danger which Mary represented, but she was acutely
96 conscious of Mary's status as a sovereign queen unlawfully deposed by her
97 subjects.&nbsp; She could not impugn her cousin's dignity without risking
98 damage to the ideal of royal prerogative.&nbsp; The trick was to deprive
99 Mary of her standing as a sovereign.&nbsp; Mary's own behavior, in
100 Scotland and England, gave Elizabeth a distinct advantage.&nbsp; Even
101 staunch Catholic allies were troubled by Mary's reported crimes.&nbsp;
102 Perhaps she was innocent of complicity in her second husband's murder, but
103 she had married James Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell in a Protestant ceremony.&nbsp; And the
104 evidence of the 'Casket Letters' (now believed to be false) supported the
105 theory that Mary and Bothwell had an adulterous affair and then plotted
106 Darnley's murder.&nbsp; This erosion of Mary's reputation necessarily
107 alienated her moderate supporters.&nbsp; But for the extremists, such flaws
108 could be overlooked for the greater good of overthrowing the heretic
109 Elizabeth.&nbsp;&nbsp; </P>
110 <P>At first, Mary was content to avoid plotting against her cousin.&nbsp;
111 But when it became clear that Elizabeth would not help her return to
112 Scotland, she was forced into a corner.&nbsp; She wrote constantly to the
113 English queen, begging for a personal meeting, much as Elizabeth had
114 requested an audience with Mary I.&nbsp; Elizabeth refused.&nbsp; Mary was
115 originally placed in the care of the wealthy earl of Shrewsbury and his
116 formidable wife, Bess of Hardwick.&nbsp; She was kept in comfortable
117 quarters, with a large retinue of servants and accorded respect as a
118 sovereign queen; she even ate beneath a cloth of estate.&nbsp; But she was
119 essentially a prisoner and no material comforts could obscure that
120 essential fact. </P>
121 <P>
122 <IMG height=229
123 alt="portrait of Elizabeth I's cousin, Mary queen of Scots"
124 src="eliz4-four.jpg" width=155 border=2 align="left">Those early years in England were spent in various hearings and
125 meetings, with Mary proclaiming her innocence of Darnley's murder and the
126 duplicity of her Scottish nobles.&nbsp; When these ended with her freedom
127 still denied, she became understandably bitter.&nbsp; She had been
128 condemned to prison without a fair hearing, with no end in sight.&nbsp;
129 For a lively young woman who had always lived openly and passionately,
130 with as great a love of the outdoors as Elizabeth, used to being her
131 own mistress and the former queen of two countries, the situation was intolerable.&nbsp; She was only 25 years
132 old when she arrived in England and all of her natural energy and
133 enthusiasm became fixed upon one goal - freedom. </P>
134 <P>She was essentially powerless.&nbsp; And so she turned to subterfuge,
135 relying upon a small network of Catholic and foreign allies.&nbsp; This
136 was surprisingly successful.&nbsp; She gained important news from the
137 continent and Elizabeth's court.&nbsp; But Shrewsbury complained
138 incessantly about the expense of Mary's imprisonment and Elizabeth's
139 councilors complained about her ceaseless correspondence with
140 Catholics.&nbsp; And so she was eventually removed from Shrewsbury's care
141 into less comfortable quarters. &nbsp;This had the paradoxical effect of
142 encouraging more plotting on Mary's part. &nbsp;<BR></P>
143 <P>After the plot to marry Norfolk and the Northern Rebellion failed in
144 1569, Mary increasingly turned to her foreign supporters. &nbsp;They were
145 able to provide crucial encouragement as well as the names of trusted
146 English sympathizers. &nbsp;In 1583, the second serious plan to free Mary
147 and kill Elizabeth was discovered. &nbsp;It is known as the 'Throckmorton
148 Plot', after its leader Sir Francis Throckmorton. &nbsp;A well-born
149 Catholic Englishman, Throckmorton was given money and guidance by the
150 French prince, the duc de Guise. &nbsp;De Guise wished to invade Scotland
151 and England simultaneously, murder Elizabeth with the assistance of
152 English Catholics, and then place Mary on the throne. &nbsp;Elizabeth's
153 great spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham was notoriously suspicious, a trait
154 which most (including Elizabeth) often condemned. &nbsp;But in this case,
155 his prudence, and an agent named Fagot, foiled the plot. &nbsp;The 30 year
156 old Throckmorton was arrested and tortured on the rack before confessing
157 everything. &nbsp;He was executed at Tyburn on 10 July 1584. &nbsp;Based
158 upon his confession, the complicity of the Spanish ambassador Bernadino de
159 Mendoza was discovered; he was expelled from England in January 1584.<BR></P>
160 <P>In June 1584, even as Throckmorton awaited execution, the Protestant leader William of Orange was assassinated
161 at Delft by a Catholic. &nbsp;Elizabeth's councilors became even more terrified for
162 her safety. &nbsp;It did not help matters that France was in the midst of
163 terrible religious turmoil. &nbsp;Catherine de Medici had sought to
164 placate both parties by tolerating Protestant services; she also married
165 her daughter Marguerite to the Protestant prince Henri of Navarre in 1572.
166 &nbsp;The St Bartholomew's Day Massacre was the result. &nbsp;Henri had
167 saved his own life by renouncing Protestantism, but in 1576 he was able to
168 escape imprisonment and publicly embraced his faith again. &nbsp;In 1584,
169 King Henri III of France named Henri of Navarre his heir presumptive.
170 &nbsp;None of Catherine de Medici's sons had produced a male heir and so the
171 throne would pass to a Protestant king.</P>
172 <P>This decision led to 'The War of the Three Henrys' and, indirectly,
173 Henri III's assassination in 1589 by a Catholic fanatic, Jacques Clement.&nbsp;
174 Henri of Navarre was then
175 crowned king of France, but was forced to fight against the Catholic
176 League. &nbsp;He could not enter Paris until 1594, after once again
177 renouncing his faith with the famous remark, 'Paris is well worth a Mass.'
178 &nbsp;But he continued at war with Spain for several more years and
179 embarked upon a policy of religious toleration which culminated in the
180 Edict of Nantes in 1598.<BR></P>
181 <P>Elizabeth and her council carefully considered the events in France.
182 &nbsp;There were three great Protestant leaders in Europe - Elizabeth I
183 (however unwilling she was to accept the role), William of Orange, and
184 Henri of Navarre. &nbsp;Of the three, William was assassinated in 1584 and
185 Navarre was once again forced to convert. &nbsp;Elizabeth survived
186 unscathed, but the Throckmorton plot was a very troubling development.
187 &nbsp;It meant that foreign powers were determined to destroy her; there
188 would be no more marriage proposals, only a shadowy network of
189 plots.<BR></P>
190 <P>In October, Cecil and Walsingham were concerned enough to draft the
191 'Bond of Association', a document which pledged protection of the queen
192 and destruction of her enemies. &nbsp;Walsingham was now secretary of
193 state, having assumed the more onerous duties of that office from Cecil in
194 1568; his focus was primarily on diplomacy and espionage. &nbsp;In January
195 1585, he arranged for Mary, queen of Scots to be moved to Tutbury Castle.&nbsp;
196 Her personal papers were minutely examined during the process, without her
197 knowledge. Walsingham wished to know all, but without rousing Mary's
198 suspicions.</P>
199 <P>Elizabeth approved of these plans. &nbsp;She was personally courageous
200 and refused to alter her many public appearances for fear of an assassin.
201 &nbsp;This caused her councilors many sleepless nights. &nbsp;But they
202 could not help but admire her bravery. &nbsp;She also took to keeping a
203 small sword beneath her pillow in case of an attack. &nbsp;It was her only
204 sign of distress and perfectly in keeping with her pragmatic approach to
205 life. &nbsp;The assassins might come, but she would be armed and ready to
206 fight<BR><BR>In February 1585, Parliament banished Catholic priests and
207 ordered the return of all Englishmen studying at seminaries abroad.
208 &nbsp;The 'Bond of<img border="2" src="eliz1-bettes1.jpg" alt="Elizabeth I, painted by John Bettes the Younger, c1580s" align="right" width="350" height="478"> Association' was also given legal force, which meant
209 that noncompliance with its terms would be a treasonable offense. &nbsp;It
210 would be officially ratified by Parliament in July 1586. &nbsp;And in May,
211 relations with Spain deteriorated further when Philip II ordered the
212 seizure of English ships in Atlantic ports. &nbsp;Three months later,
213 England signed the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of Alliance at Nonsuch Palace, in
214 which Elizabeth pledged military assistance to the Protestant Dutch
215 rebellion against Spain. &nbsp;Almost 7000 English soldiers under the
216 command of Robert Dudley immediately left for the Netherlands.</P>
217 <P>It was clear to everyone that conflict between England and Spain was
218 fast becoming inevitable. &nbsp;As much as she preferred to prevaricate
219 and remain neutral, Elizabeth was being forced to choose sides. &nbsp;The
220 problem of Mary, queen of Scots only encouraged Elizabeth's support for
221 the Protestant cause.</P>
222 <P>In December 1585, Mary was moved to Chartley Manor. &nbsp;Walsingham
223 knew she was plotting again, this time with increasing desperation.
224 &nbsp;Throckmorton's failure had shaken her badly, though she professed
225 innocence. &nbsp;Her exact role in that conspiracy remains unclear; it is
226 possible she only knew of it, but did not actively encourage it. &nbsp;But
227 she did enthusiastically support the treason of another English Catholic,
228 a young man named Sir Anthony Babington.<BR></P>
229 <P>Another well-born Englishman, Babington had served as a page in
230 Shrewsbury's household during the early years of Mary's imprisonment.
231 &nbsp;His romanticized memories of the queen, as well as his passionate
232 Catholicism, made him susceptible to the plans of Thomas Morgan, one of
233 Mary's trusted agents. &nbsp;In 1580, the 19 year old Babington was
234 traveling in France when he met Morgan. &nbsp;After he returned to
235 England, he became increasingly associated with Mary's admirers,
236 eventually smuggling letters from the French embassy to the imprisoned
237 queen.
238 &nbsp;Babington was only a half-hearted conspirator, but Walsingham was
239 content to use him to lure Mary into a final trap. &nbsp;When Babington
240 learned the Catholic priest Ballard planned to murder Elizabeth, he tried
241 to escape abroad but Walsingham refused him a passport. &nbsp;Babington
242 was frantic and turned to a friend for advice, confessing everything.
243 &nbsp;His friend then ran to Walsingham with the information. &nbsp;But
244 the queen's secretary of state did not act at once. &nbsp;He sensed this
245 was his best opportunity to catch Mary in the act, so to speak, and with
246 enough evidence to finally convince Elizabeth of her cousin's complicity.
247 &nbsp;The queen's refusal to condemn Mary was no longer a benevolent
248 quirk; for her councilors, it was a matter of life and death.<BR></P>
249 <P>Walsingham had soon collected a number of letters between Morgan, Mary,
250 and Babington. &nbsp;And in one of those, Mary explicitly approved the
251 murder of Elizabeth. &nbsp;It was this letter that Walsingham needed.
252 &nbsp;When confronted with it, Elizabeth was at first disbelieving and
253 then angry. &nbsp;She approved of moving Mary to Fotheringhay Castle and
254 sending a commission of statesmen there to investigate the Babington Plot.
255 &nbsp;She also sent along a letter to be delivered to her captive cousin.
256 &nbsp;It read:<BR></P>
257 <BLOCKQUOTE>
258 <p>You have in various ways and manners attempted to take my
259 life and to bring my kingdom to destruction by bloodshed. I have never
260 proceeded so harshly against you, but have, on the contrary, protected
261 and maintained you like myself. These treasons will be proved to you and
262 all made manifest. Yet it is my will, that you answer the nobles and
263 peers of the kingdom as if I were myself present. I therefore require,
264 charge, and command that you make answer for I have been well informed
265 of your arrogance. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Act plainly without reserve,
266 and you will sooner be able to obtain favour of me.
267 <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elizabeth.<BR></p>
268 </BLOCKQUOTE>
269 <p>Mary defended herself at
270 the resulting trial; her most potent argument was that she was a sovereign
271 queen and thus not liable to the laws of England. &nbsp;She also denied
272 ever plotting the death of Elizabeth. &nbsp;But it was too late. &nbsp;She
273 was condemned to death. &nbsp;Elizabeth at first refused to sign the
274 warrant for execution, much as she had earlier with Norfolk. &nbsp;It was
275 an agonizing decision. &nbsp;There is a possibility she was tricked into
276 signing it. &nbsp;Mary was finally beheaded on 8 February 1587. &nbsp;On
277 the 14th, Elizabeth sent the following letter to Mary's son, King James VI
278 of Scotland:<BR><BR>
279 </p>
280 <BLOCKQUOTE>
281 <p>My dear Brother, I would you knew (though not felt) the
282 extreme dolor that overwhelms my mind, for that miserable accident which
283 (far contrary to my meaning) hath befallen. I have now sent this kinsman
284 of mine, whom ere now it hath pleased you to favour, to instruct you
285 truly of that which is too irksome for my pen to tell you. I beseech you
286 that as God and many more know, how innocent I am in this case : so you
287 will believe me, that if I had bid aught I would have bid by it. I am
288 not so base minded that fear of any living creature or Prince should
289 make me so afraid to do that were just; or done, to deny the same. I am
290 not of so base a lineage, nor carry so vile a mind. But, as not to
291 disguise, fits not a King, so will I never dissemble my actions, but
292 cause them show even as I meant them. Thus assuring yourself of me, that
293 as I know this was deserved, yet if I had meant it I would never lay it
294 on others' shoulders; no more will I not damnify myself that thought it
295 not. <BR>The circumstance it may please you to have of this bearer. And
296 for your part, think you have not in the world a more loving kinswoman,
297 nor a more dear friend than myself; nor any that will watch more
298 carefully to preserve you and your estate. And who shall otherwise
299 persuade you, judge them more partial to others than you. And thus in
300 haste I leave to trouble you:&nbsp; beseeching God to send you a long
301 reign. <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Your most assured loving sister and
302 cousin, <BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elizabeth R.</p>
303 </BLOCKQUOTE>
304 <p>Elizabeth had been
305 queen for almost thirty years, surviving numerous obstacles and
306 conspiracies. &nbsp;Her councilors now believed the greatest threat to her
307 reign was over. &nbsp;But they were wrong, as the momentous events of 1588
308 would soon prove.</p>
309 <p>&nbsp;</p>
310 <CENTER>
311 <P align="center"><B>
312 <a href="eliz5.html">CONTINUE
313 READING</a></B> <BR>&nbsp; </P>
314 <P align="center"><FONT size=-1><A
315 href="../monarchs.html">to Tudor
316 Monarchs</A><BR>
317 <a href="eliz3.html">back to Queen
318 Elizabeth I, part three</a></FONT><B><BR></B></P>
319 <P><b>Visit the <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/maryqosimages.html">Mary,
320 queen of Scots Images site</a> to view portraits of the queen, with
321 commentary.</b></P>
322 </CENTER>
323
324
325 </blockquote>
326 </blockquote>
327</blockquote>
328
329</body>
330
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