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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

The Queen is Dead! Long live the Queen!

The Spaniard Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, Count of Feria, arrived in London on November 7, 1558,[1] as representative of King Philip II who was in Brussels attending the affairs of the rebellious Spanish Netherlands. He went straight to the doctors attending to Philip’s wife, the Queen Mary. He was informed that there was no hope of recovery.

The Queen was pleased to see him, soon after, when he entered her chambers. She was not, however, able to read the letter Feria had brought from Philip.

Most of Mary’s councilors were present, observed Feria, and Sir John Mason, a close advisor to the Princess Elizabeth. In an earlier visit prospects must already have been grim as Feria wrote to Philip to ask permission to visit the princess at Hatfield which he received. Further visits made him witness to the activities at Hatfield House where Elizabeth was in residence.

Feria’s most important task, on  that first visit, was to arrange for Elizabeth to be married to an ally of the Spanish Court. This we learn from Michiel Surian, Venetian ambassador from the Doge, who was with Philip in Brussells. In the words of Surian’s dispatch to his master in Venice

Now the matter to be treated by him is the marriage of Miladi Elizabeth, to keep that kingdom in any event in the hands of a person in his Majesty's confidence.[2]

This was  to be arranged under the utmost secrecy, continues Surian,

because these lords suspect, that were the French to come to know it, they would easily find means to thwart the project, as the greater part of England is opposed to the Queen, and most hostile to King Philip and his dependents, and much inclined towards Miladi Elizabeth, who has always shown greater liking for the French faction

Mary’s marriage to King Philip was a disaster on just about every level. Her reign of five years and five months would be too short to recover from it and it is unlikely that she would have been willing to address the failure if there had been more time.

As the final few days of Mary lingered out, Feria, back in London, turned once again to the princess Elizabeth. On the 10 of November he visited her at the house of an unnamed knight where he found her having dinner with Lady Clinton and three other female friends. He noticed that she was not so happy to see him as usual. The ladies, she assured him, could understand only the English language so they could speak freely in any of his other.

Feria had come to remind the princess that Philip had prevented her from suffering the worst of Mary’s temper in the past and taken her part with the dying Queen. The King, he reported, hoped their kingdoms would be allies in light of his support. He assured her that he wished always to be her friend. During his visits, Feria informed the King, he found Elizabeth “extremely vain and sharp… much in the manner of her father,” Henry VIII.[3] He held out little hope for a Catholic reign.

In these last days of Mary’s life, Surian seems to have returned from Philip’s Court, in Brussells, to serve in London. He is the source of a fascinating detail.

Many personages of the kingdom, flocked to the house of Miladi Elizabeth [at Hatfield], the crowd constantly increasing with great frequency.[4]

In the words of Stone, when the end finally came

It is scarcely matter for surprise that Mary's time-serving Council should have made no long lingering over their mistress's yet warm ashes. The scene was quickly changed from St. James's to Hatfield, where Sir Nicholas Throckmorton was the first to acquaint Elizabeth with the news of her accession.[5]

Like so much of the vituperation by English Protestants that followed Mary into the grave, the observation is specious. John Nichols is likely to have given the true interpretation of the actions of the deceased Queen’s council.

Elizabeth, to prevent an alarm among the partisans of the Catholic Communion, had prudently retained thirteen of Mary's Privy Counsellors.[6]

This had to have been agreed upon between the parties before Mary’s death. The new Queen showed unusual wisdom from the first. Surely, both Catholic and Protestant counselors were hopeful that the invitation would keep sectarian violence to a minimum.

Again, arrangements had clearly been made, before Mary’s death, to announce within hours that all parties at Court and in Parliament knelt before Elizabeth as their new monarch. As for Elizabeth herself and her household Nichols provides details:

The Lady Elizabeth was at her seat at Hatfield when Queen Mary died. Thither some great persons forthwith repaired to her; namely, the Earl of Pembroke; Lord Clinton, Lord Admiral; the Earl of Arundel, Lord Chamberlain; which three, with Sir Thomas Parry, Sir William Cecil, Sir Ambrose Cave, Sir Ralph Sadleir (who was sent from the Lords at London), and Sir Richard Sackville, sat at Hatfield in Council with her, being the first Privy Council she held. (Yet the Lords of the deceased Queen's Council sat at London.) The chief matters then done were, that Sir Thomas Parry, Knight, aforesaid, who had been a servant much about her, was by her command, and in her presence, declared the Comptroller of her Household, and sworn of her Privy Council; Sir Edward Rogers, Knight, her Vice-Chamberlain, and Captain of her Guard, and one of her Privy Council ; Sir William Cecyl, Knight, her Principal Secretary, and one of her Privy Council.

*

In the afternoon the bells in all the churches in London rung in token of joy; and at night bonfires were made, and tables set out in the streets, where was plentiful eating and drinking, and making merry.[7]

 


[1] Gonzales, Tomas. Memorias de la Real Academia de la Historia (1832). VII. 253.

[2] Stone, J. M. The History of Mary I., Queen of England As Found in the Public Records... (1901). 463. Citing Ven. Cal., vol. vi., pt. iii., 1274.

[3] Gonzales, 254. “una muger vanísima y aguda… mucho la manera de proceder del Rey su Padre.”

[4] Tytler, Patrick Fraser.  England Under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary (1839). II.

[5] Stone, 470.

[6] Nichols, John. The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (1823). 29.

[7] Nichols, 29-30.


Also at Virtual Grub Street:

  • To Where Did Queen Elizabeth I Disappear in August 1564? July 18, 2021. “Leicestershire was in the opposite direction from London. Nichols could discover no more.”
  • Elizabeth I’s Progress to Cambridge University, 1564: Her Arrival. June 20, 2021. “The Queen would be the only woman riding a charger. It was a statement that she could rule as well as any king, including the rule of a war horse.”
  • Simnel Cake: Lenten Treat of the Ages. March 7, 2021. “Samuel Pegge sees confirmation that saffron was used in the crusts of simnel cakes in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale…”
  • Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador.  April 3, 2019.  “…the Queen of England, with the permission of her physicians, has been able to come out of her private chamber, she has permitted me… to see her…”
  • Lady Southwell on the Final Days of Queen Elizabeth I.  March 24, 2019.  “her majesty told [Lady Scrope] (commanding her to conceal the same ) that she saw, one night, in her bed, her body exceeding lean, and fearful in a light of fire.”
  • 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.
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