| 1 | <html>
|
|---|
| 2 |
|
|---|
| 3 | <head>
|
|---|
| 4 | <meta name="content" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
|
|---|
| 5 | <meta name="page_topic" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
|
|---|
| 6 | <meta name="author" content="Marilee Mongello">
|
|---|
| 7 | <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
|
|---|
| 8 | <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
|---|
| 9 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
|---|
| 10 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
|
|---|
| 11 | <title>Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892:
|
|---|
| 12 | Chapter I</title>
|
|---|
| 13 | <style>
|
|---|
| 14 | </style>
|
|---|
| 15 | <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {color: #0000FF; font-weight: bold}
|
|---|
| 16 | .3text {font-size: 12 px;}
|
|---|
| 17 | </style>
|
|---|
| 18 | </head>
|
|---|
| 19 |
|
|---|
| 20 | <body link="#0000FF" vlink="#0000FF" alink="#0000FF">
|
|---|
| 21 |
|
|---|
| 22 | <table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%" height="667">
|
|---|
| 23 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 24 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
|---|
| 25 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29"> </td>
|
|---|
| 26 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
|---|
| 27 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 28 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 29 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
|---|
| 30 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
|
|---|
| 31 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
|---|
| 32 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 33 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 34 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
|---|
| 35 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
|
|---|
| 36 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
|
|---|
| 37 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
|
|---|
| 38 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 39 | <img border="2" src="eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
|
|---|
| 40 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
|
|---|
| 41 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
|
|---|
| 42 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
|---|
| 43 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 44 | </table>
|
|---|
| 45 | <blockquote>
|
|---|
| 46 | <blockquote>
|
|---|
| 47 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
|---|
| 48 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
|
|---|
| 49 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
|
|---|
| 50 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">
|
|---|
| 51 | <div align="left">
|
|---|
| 52 | <b>CHAPTER <font class="highlight_yellow">I</font></b><br>
|
|---|
| 53 | <b>EARLY LIFE: 1533-1558</b></div>
|
|---|
| 54 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font class="highlight_yellow"><font size="3">
|
|---|
| 55 | I</font></font><font size="3"> HAVE to deal, under strict limitations of
|
|---|
| 56 | space, with a long life, almost the whole of its adult period passed in the
|
|---|
| 57 | exercise of sovereignty--a life which is in effect the history of England
|
|---|
| 58 | during forty-five years, abounding at the same time in personal interest,
|
|---|
| 59 | and the subject, both in its public and private aspects, of fierce and
|
|---|
| 60 | probably interminable controversies. Evidently a bird's-eye view is all that
|
|---|
| 61 | can be attempted; and the most important episodes alone can be selected for
|
|---|
| 62 | consideration. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 63 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">The daughter of Henry VIII and
|
|---|
| 64 | Anne Boleyn was born on 6 September 1533. Anne was niece of Thomas, third
|
|---|
| 65 | Duke of Norfolk, and all the great Howard kinsmen attended at the baptism
|
|---|
| 66 | four days afterwards. <font class="highlight_yellow">Elizabeth</font> was
|
|---|
| 67 | two years and eight months old when her mother was beheaded, and she herself
|
|---|
| 68 | was declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament. It is not recorded that in
|
|---|
| 69 | after years she expressed any opinion about her mother or ever mentioned her
|
|---|
| 70 | name. She never took any steps to get the Act of Attainder repealed; but
|
|---|
| 71 | perhaps she indirectly showed her belief in Anne's innocence by raising the
|
|---|
| 72 | son of Norris, her alleged paramour, to the peerage, and by the great favour
|
|---|
| 73 | she always showed to his family. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 74 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">During her father's life
|
|---|
| 75 | Elizabeth lived chiefly at Hatfield with her brother Edward, under a
|
|---|
| 76 | governess. Henry had been empowered by Parliament in 1536 to settle the
|
|---|
| 77 | succession by his will. In 1544 he caused an Act to be passed placing Mary
|
|---|
| 78 | and Elizabeth next in order of succession after Edward. By his will, made a
|
|---|
| 79 | few days before his death, he repeated the provisions of the Act of 1544,
|
|---|
| 80 | and placed next to Elizabeth the daughters of his younger sister, the
|
|---|
| 81 | Duchess of Suffolk, tacitly passing over his elder sister, the Queen of
|
|---|
| 82 | Scotland. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 83 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">After her father's death
|
|---|
| 84 | (January 1547) Elizabeth, then a girl of thirteen, went to reside with the
|
|---|
| 85 | Queen Dowager Catherine, who had not been many weeks a widow before she
|
|---|
| 86 | married her old lover Thomas Seymour, the Lord Admiral, brother of the
|
|---|
| 87 | Protector Somerset, described as "fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in
|
|---|
| 88 | personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat empty of matter." The
|
|---|
| 89 | romping that soon began to go on between this dangerous man and Elizabeth
|
|---|
| 90 | was of such a nature that early in the next year Catherine found it
|
|---|
| 91 | necessary to send her away somewhat abruptly. From that time she resided
|
|---|
| 92 | chiefly at Hatfield. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 93 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">In August 1548 Catherine died,
|
|---|
| 94 | and the Admiral at once formed the project of marrying Elizabeth. This and
|
|---|
| 95 | other ambitious designs brought him to the scaffold (March 1549). It does
|
|---|
| 96 | not appear that Elizabeth saw or directly corresponded with him after he was
|
|---|
| 97 | a widower. But she listened to his messages, and dropped remarks of an
|
|---|
| 98 | encouraging kind which she meant to be repeated to him. She knew perfectly
|
|---|
| 99 | well that the marriage would not be permitted. She was only flirting with a
|
|---|
| 100 | man old enough to be her father just as she afterwards flirted with men
|
|---|
| 101 | young enough to be her sons. We already get a glimpse of the utter absence
|
|---|
| 102 | both of delicacy and depth of feeling which characterised her through life.
|
|---|
| 103 | When she heard of the Admiral's execution she simply remarked, "This day
|
|---|
| 104 | died a man with much wit and very little judgment." With Elizabeth the heart
|
|---|
| 105 | never really spoke, and if the senses did, she had them under perfect
|
|---|
| 106 | control. And this was why she never loved or was loved, and never has been
|
|---|
| 107 | or will be regarded with enthusiasm by either man or woman. For some time
|
|---|
| 108 | after this scandal she was evidently somewhat under a cloud. She lived at
|
|---|
| 109 | her manor-houses of Ashridge, Enfield, and Hatfield, diligently pursuing her
|
|---|
| 110 | studies under the celebrated scholar Ascham. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 111 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">When Edward died (6 July 1553)
|
|---|
| 112 | Elizabeth was nearly twenty. Although Mary's cause was her own, she remained
|
|---|
| 113 | carefully neutral during the short queen-ship of Jane. On its collapse she
|
|---|
| 114 | hastened to congratulate her sister, and rode by her side when she made her
|
|---|
| 115 | entry into London. During the early part of Mary's reign her life hung by a
|
|---|
| 116 | thread. The slightest indiscretion would have been fatal to her. Wyatt's
|
|---|
| 117 | insurrection was made avowedly in her favour. But neither to that nor any
|
|---|
| 118 | other conspiracy did she extend the smallest encouragement. Her prudent and
|
|---|
| 119 | blameless conduct gave her the more right in after years to deal severely
|
|---|
| 120 | with Mary Stuart, whose behaviour under precisely similar circumstances was
|
|---|
| 121 | so very different. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 122 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Renard, the Spanish ambassador,
|
|---|
| 123 | demanded her execution as the condition of the Spanish match, and Mary
|
|---|
| 124 | assured him that she would do her best to satisfy him. In the time of Henry
|
|---|
| 125 | VIII. such an intention on the part of the sovereign would have been
|
|---|
| 126 | equivalent to a sentence of death. But Mary was far from being as powerful
|
|---|
| 127 | as her father. The Council had to be reckoned with, and in the Council
|
|---|
| 128 | independent and even peremptory language was now to be heard. It was not
|
|---|
| 129 | without strong protests on the part of some of the Lords that Elizabeth was
|
|---|
| 130 | sent to the Tower, Sussex, a noble of the old blood, who was charged to
|
|---|
| 131 | conduct her there, took upon him to delay her departure, that she might
|
|---|
| 132 | appeal to the Queen for an interview. Mary was furious: "For their lives,"
|
|---|
| 133 | she said, "they durst not have acted so in her father's time; she wished he
|
|---|
| 134 | was alive and among them for a single month." But it was usless to storm.
|
|---|
| 135 | The absolute monarchy had seen its best days. Sussex, fearing foul play,
|
|---|
| 136 | warned the Lieutenant of the Tower to keep within his written instructions.
|
|---|
| 137 | Howard of Effingham, the Lord Admiral, had done more than any one else to
|
|---|
| 138 | place Mary on the throne. But he was Elizabeth's great-uncle, and he angrily
|
|---|
| 139 | insisted that her food in the Tower should be prepared by her own servants.
|
|---|
| 140 | A proposal in Parliament to give the Queen the power to nominate a successor
|
|---|
| 141 | was received with such disfavour that it had to be withdrawn. Finally the
|
|---|
| 142 | judges declared that there was no evidence to convict Elizabeth. Sullenly
|
|---|
| 143 | therefore the Queen had to give way. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 144 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">Elizabeth was sent to
|
|---|
| 145 | Woodstock, where she resided for about a year under guard. This was only
|
|---|
| 146 | reasonable. An heir to the throne, in whose favour there had been plots,
|
|---|
| 147 | could not expect complete freedom. In October 1555 she was allowed to go to
|
|---|
| 148 | Hatfield under the surveillance of Sir Thomas Pope. During the rest of the
|
|---|
| 149 | reign she escaped molestation by outward conformity to the Catholic
|
|---|
| 150 | religion, and by taking no part whatever in politics. But as it became clear
|
|---|
| 151 | that her accession was at hand there can be no doubt that she was engaged in
|
|---|
| 152 | studying the problems with which she would have to deal. She was already in
|
|---|
| 153 | close intimacy with Cecil, and it is evident that she mounted the throne
|
|---|
| 154 | with a policy carefully thought out in its main lines. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 155 | <p class="3text" align="left"><font size="3">When Mary was known to be
|
|---|
| 156 | dying, the Spanish ambassador, Feria, called on Elizabeth, and told her that
|
|---|
| 157 | his master had exerted his influence with the Queen and Council on her
|
|---|
| 158 | behalf, and had secured her succession. But she declined to be patronised,
|
|---|
| 159 | and told him that the people and nobility were on her side. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 160 | </font>
|
|---|
| 161 | <hr>
|
|---|
| 162 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
|
|---|
| 163 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly. Published in London by
|
|---|
| 164 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
|
|---|
| 165 | </font>
|
|---|
| 166 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
|
|---|
| 167 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 168 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 169 |
|
|---|
| 170 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 171 | <a href="beeslychaptertwo.html">to Chapter
|
|---|
| 172 | II: The Change of Religion: 1559</a></p>
|
|---|
| 173 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 174 | <a href="monarchs/eliz1.html">to the Queen
|
|---|
| 175 | Elizabeth I website</a> /
|
|---|
| 176 | <a href="relative/maryqos.html">to the Mary,
|
|---|
| 177 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
|
|---|
| 178 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
|
|---|
| 179 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
|
|---|
| 180 | </font>
|
|---|
| 181 |
|
|---|
| 182 | </body>
|
|---|
| 183 |
|
|---|
| 184 | </html><!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://hostingprod.com/js_source/geov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082620" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
|---|
| 185 | <IMG SRC="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082620" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
|---|
