Princess Elizabeth to King Edward VI, May 15, 1547.

Isaac Disraeli may have been the first to mention a letter by Princess Elizabeth in the Cotton MS, Vespasian, F. III.  He first published it in his Curiosities of Literature (1791). Bryson and Evans describe the collection from which it comes as “some twenty-three extant holograph letters in English, French, Italian and Latin, and a number of other compositions in her hand, all written before her accession to the throne in 1558”[1].

All of the letters were written by a secretary, in secretary hand, and seven were signed by Elizabeth.  Five were sealed and endorsed indicating that they had actually been sent.

The remainder — the present letter included — would seem to have been rough copies dictated to a secretary and held on file as a record.  Such was generally the practice of nobility and other busy upper-class persons.

Because the letters from F. III. are not in her own hand, they do not appear in the standard collections.  The text of this letter, however, does appear in the biographies of Elizabeth by Agnes Strickland, Lucy Aiken and numerous later biographers. They and those who come after generally assigned it to the year 1550. It is the kind of gesture that might comfort her that Somerset’s machinations against her of 1549 were dismissed from the young King’s mind.  It seems too immature and tentative for the Princess, favored by her brother,  who appeared on the scene in 1551.

The Royal Collection Trust assigns the letter to 1547.  It assigns the portrait that heads this article the earlier date of 1546, at the end of Henry VIII’s life.[2]  This due to close matches of style and materials to a portrait of Edward as prince.[3]  The above portrait  is listed in a 1547 inventory of Edward VI’s chattels.

Janet Arnold suggests[4] that the style and materials could have been a close match even if Elizabeth was painted, by William Scrots, shortly after Henry VIII, had died and Edward shortly before by the same artist.  She makes a strong argument that the above portrait is the subject of the letter.  For this reason, I assign the letter to the year 1547.

LIKE as the riche man that dayly gathereth riches to riches, and to one bag of money layeth a greate sort til it come to infinit, so me thinkes, your Majestie not beinge suffised with many benefits and gentilnes shewed to me afore this time, dothe now increase them in askinge and desiring wher you may bid and commaunde, requiring a thinge not worthy the desiringe for it selfe, but made worthy for your highness request. My pictur I mene, in wiche if the inward good mynde towarde your grace might as wel be declared as the outwarde face and countenance shal be seen, I wold nor haue taried the comandement but prevent it, nor haue bine the last to graunt but the first to offer it. For the face, I graunt, I might wel blusche to offer, but the mynde I shall neur be ashamed to present. For thogth from the grace of the pictur, the coulers may fade by time, may giue by wether, may be

spotted by chance, yet the other nor time with her swift winges shall ouertake, nor the mistie cloudes with their loweringes may darken, nor chance with her slipery fote may ouerthrow. Of this althogth yet the profe could not be greate because the occasions hath bine but smal, notwithstandinge as a dog hathe a day, so may I perchaunce haue time to declare it in dides wher now I do write them but in wordes. And further I shal most humbly beseche your Maiestie that whan you shal loke on my pictur you wil witsafe to thinke that as you haue but the outwarde shadow of the body afore you, so my inwarde minde wischeth, that the body it selfe wer oftener in your presence; howbeit bicause bothe my so beinge I thinke coulde do your Maiestie litel pleasure thogth my selfe great good, and againe bicause I se as yet not the time agreing therunto, I shal lerne to folow this saing of Grace, Feras non culpes quod vitari non potest. And thus I wil (troblinge your Maiestie I fere) end with my most humble thankes, besechinge God longe to preserue you to his honour, to your comfort, to the realmes profit, and to my joy. From Hatfilde this 1[5] day of May.

Your Maiesties most humbly Sistar

and Seruante

ELIZABETH.

[1] Allen Bryson, Mel Evans.“Seven rediscovered letters of Princess Elizabeth Tudor”, Historical Research, vol. 90, no. 250 (November 2017)

[2] https://www.rct.uk/collection/404444/elizabeth-i-when-a-princess [accessed July 21, 2020.]

[3] https://www.rct.uk/collection/404441/edward-vi-1537-53 [accessed July 21, 2020]

[4] Arnold, Janet. “The 'Pictur' of Elizabeth I When Princess”, The Burlington Magazine Vol. 123, No. 938 (May, 1981), pp. 302-304.

Also at Virtual Grub Street:

Edward de Vere, Shakespeare and Tycho Brahe.  June 9, 2020. “When Brahe was encouraged by his friends and associates to publish a book on the November 1572 supernova for which he is now famous, his answer belonged to his times.”

Shakespeare’s Funeral Meats. May 13, 2020. “Famous as this has been since its discovery, it has been willfully misread more often than not.  No mainstream scholar had any use for a reference to Hamlet years before it was supposed to have been written.”

A Most Curious Account of the Funeral of Queen Elizabeth I: April 28, 1603.  April 28, 2019.  “Once it was clear that James I would face no serious challenges, Cecil and the others could begin to give attention to the matter of the Queen’s funeral.”

Gossip as History: The Murder of Amy Robsart. February 17, 2020. "The first sudden death Leicester was rumored to have caused was that of his wife, Amy Robsart, in 1560. In that year, it was still not clear whether the Queen would marry. But certainly not her beloved Leicester if he were married."

Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.

Check out the English Renaissance Letter Index for many letters from this fascinating time, some related to the Shakespeare Authorship Question.