On This Day in Elizabethan History: Babington & Co-conspirators Go on Trial

The Babington Plot letter, signed by Anthony Babington. Image Barb Alexander (c) Tudor Tutor.

On this day in Elizabethan history in 1586, Anthony Babington and his thirteen co-conspirators went on trial. Babington, a Catholic nobleman who had formally served in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and his associates were charged with plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth I and attempting to sieze the the English throne on behalf of the imprisoned Mary Stuart, the former Queen of Scotland. The final stage of the so-called Babington Plot was that King Philip II of Spain would invade England and restore Catholicism, bringing the country back under the control of the Church of Rome.

The Babington Plot was an elaborate Catholic plot, created by King Philip II of Spain and the former Spanish ambassador in England, Don Bernardino de Mendoza; Mendoza had recently been banished from the English court because Queen Elizabeth I had become suspicious of his activities. There would never be another Spanish ambassador in England during Elizabeth I's reign. 

An engraving of Bernardino de Mendoza, c. 1595. By an artist from the Spanish School. Image public domain.

While Mary Stuart was not the instigator of this plot, once she was informed of Philip II's plan by Babington, she gave her consent in writing. An imprisoned Queen without a country, Mary was tempted by this offer of liberation and a kingdom to rule. Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, who was tired of waiting for Mary to condemn herself through her other correspondances, orchestrated a ruse in order to obtain just cause to have her arrested. Under Walsingham's orders,  Mary Stuart was led to believe that her letters in support of the Babington plot were being smuggled out of the castle securely in wine barrels, when in reality the letters were delivered directly to Walsingham. Today, modern legal systems would consider Walsingham's methods entrapment, but even so, Mary made the decision to commit her compliance to paper. Had she rejected Babington's plan entirely, she would have been clear of treason.

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham. By an artist of the Anglo-Netherlandish School, circa 1590. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Unfortunately for Babington, and eventually for Mary, Queen of Scots, there was copious evidence to convict them of their crimes.

Babington described to Mary Stuart his plans in such great detail that there would be absolutely no way that Mary could have misinterpreted the message:
 
"First, assuring of invasion: Sufficient strength in the invader: Ports to arrive at appointed, with a strong party at every place to join with them and warrant their landing. The deliverance of your Majesty. The dispatch of the usurping Competitor. For the effectuating of all which it may please your Excellency to rely upon my service.... Now forasmuch as delay is extreme dangerous, it may please your most excellent Majesty by your wisdom to direct us, and by your princely authority to enable such as may advance the affair; foreseeing that, where is not any of the nobility at liberty assured to your Majesty in this desperate service (except unknown to us) and seeing it is very necessary that some there be to become heads to lead the multitude, ever disposed by nature in this land to follow nobility, considering withal it doth not only make the commons and gentry to follow without contradiction or contention (which is ever found in equality) but also doth add great courage to the leaders. For which necessary regard I recommend some unto your Majesty as fittest in my knowledge for to be your Lieutenants in the West parts, in the North parts, South Wales, North Wales and the Counties of Lancaster, Derby and Stafford: all which countries, by parties already made and fidelities taken in your Majesty's name, I hold as most assured and of most undoubted fidelity." (reproduced in Pollen)
 
He also explained his intent to rescue Mary and have Queen Elizabeth murdered:
 
"Myself with ten gentlemen and a hundred of our followers will undertake the delivery of your royal person from the hands of your enemies. For the dispatch of the usurper, from the obedience of whom we are by the excommunication of her made free, there be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends, who for the zeal they bear to the Catholic cause and your Majesty's service will undertake that tragical execution." (reproduced in Pollen)
 
After this letter was deciphered and read by Walsingham, it was re-sent to Mary, who received it on the 14th of July. Mary gave her enthusiastic consent:
 
"For divers great and important considerations (which were here too long to be deduced) I cannot but greatly praise and commend your common desire to prevent in time the designments of our enemies for the extirpation of our religion out of this realm with the ruin of us all. For I have long ago shown unto the foreign Catholic princes—and experience doth approve it—the longer that they and we delay to put hand on the matter on this side, the greater leisure have our said enemies to prevail and win advantage over the said princes (as they have done against the King of Spain) and in the meantime the Catholics here, remaining exposed to all sorts of persecution and cruelty, do daily diminish in number, forces, means and power. So as, if remedy be not thereunto hastily provided, I fear not a little but they shall become altogether unable for ever to rise again and to receive any aid at all, whensoever it were offered them. For mine own part, I pray you to assure our principal friends that, albeit I had not in this cause any particular interest (that which I may pretend unto being of no consideration unto me in respect of the public good of this state) I shall be always ready and most willing to employ therein my life and all that I have or may ever look for in this world." (reproduced in Pollen)

This statement from Mary alone could have had her convicted of treason; there was no additional evidence needed. But, since Walsingham and his associates would leave no room for error in building their case to get Queen Elizabeth to believe in her cousin's guilt, Walsingham's man Phellipes made a copy of the original letter, adding an incriminating post-script. Phellipes than made another copy of the letter for Walsingham, doodling an ominous gallows on the paper. Mary was doomed.

The key to the Babington Plot cipher code of Mary Stuart, circa 1586. UK National Archives.

Babington and his associates were found guilty of high treason and were sentenced to be hung, drawn, and quartered, a traitor's execution. Babington tried to buy a pardon, but his offer was unsurprisingly rejected. He was executed, and his dismembered body was displayed in pieces throughout London. He was just 24 years old. 

Elizabethan Privy Council manuscript concerning Mary, Queen of Scots. Photo (c) Paul Fraser Collectibles.

Sources
Pollen, J.H. "Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot," The Month, Volume 109. 1907. Online.

On This Day in Elizabethan History: Robert Cecil is sworn in as Privy Councillor

A portrait of Robert Cecil after he was created Earl of Salisbury. Painted in 1608, by John de Critz. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

On this day in 1591, William Cecil, Lord Burghley experienced a proud moment when his son Robert Cecil was sworn in as a Privy Councillor. Robert had been made Secretary of State just a year before upon the death of Sir Francis Walsingham. Robert had been groomed as a statesman by his father and soon took his place in government during the last years of Queen Elizabeth I's reign, as well as during the reign of her successor, James I.

On This Day in Elizabethan History: Elizabeth I signs Mary Stuart's Death Warrant

The Babington Plot letter from Anthony Babington. Image from Barb Alexander's Pinterest page.

On this day in Elizabethan history in 1587, after much deliberation, Queen Elizabeth I signed the warrant for her cousin, Mary Stuart's execution. Mary, the former Queen of Scots had been found guilty of treason back in October of the previous year. To learn more about Mary Stuart's involvement in the elaborate Babington Plot, which led to her still-controversial conviction of treason, please visit out article here.

Also, please share your questions and comments below. Do you think Mary, Queen of Scots was guilty of plotting against Queen Elizabeth's life? Do you question the validity of the treason charge? Was Walsingham's method of obtaining proof of Mary Stuart's guilt ingenious or entrapment? I would love to hear your opinions, since this is still a historical event that Tudor-philes are passionate about.

On This Day in Elizabethan History: Francis Walsingham Appointed Secretary

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham by John de Critz, circa 1597. Image public domain through Creative Commons licensing, NPG, London.

On this day in Elizabethan history in 1573, Queen Elizabeth I appointed Sir Francis Walsingham as her principal secretary. Though he was a competent statesman, Walsingham's true calling was intelligence and espionage. Through a combination of diplomacy and the use of informants and spies, Walsingham and his men managed to keep Queen Elizabeth safe from several assassination plots. 

Walsingham's finest hour was also to be his most controversial: exposing Mary Stuart's approval and support of the well-organized Babington Plot. Anthony Babington and his co-conspirators sought to have Elizabeth I deposed and killed, and then liberate the imprisoned Queen of Scots and place her on the English throne. Mary Stuart, with the help of Philip II, would restore Catholicism in England and bring the country back under papal influence. Walsingham's methods for obtaining proof of Mary Stuart's guilt may be considered entrapment by modern standards, but the fact remains that Mary did give her consent in no uncertain terms.

The Babington letter. Photo courtesy of by Barb Alexander, the Tudor Tutor.

The cipher code used by Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, to correspond with Anthony Babington and, unknowingly, Walsingham and his men. UK National Archives.

Mary Stuart, the former Queen of Scots, was executed for her crimes at Fotheringay on Febrary 8th, 1587. Walsingham served as Queen Elizabeth I's secretary in an official capacity, and her "spymaster" in an unofficial capacity, until his death on April 6th in 1590.


For further reading, we recommend:

Her Majesty's Spymaster: Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham, and the Birth of Modern Espionage by Stephen Budiansky.

The Watchers: A Secret History of the Reign of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford

Also, to learn more about Sir Francis Walsingham and his family, please visit our Walsingham Family board on Pinterest.

On This Day in Elizabethan History: Mary, Queen of Scots is Convicted of Treason

A portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots by an unknown artist, c.1575. Glasgow Art Gallery. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

On this day in Elizabethan history, October 25th, 1586 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots was found guilty of treason, due to her involvement in the Babington Plot.

The Babington Plot was an elaborate Catholic plot, created by King Philip II of Spain and Don Bernardino de Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in England; Mendoza had recently been banished from the English court because Queen Elizabeth I was growing suspicious of his motives. There would never be another Spanish ambassador in England during Elizabeth I's reign. 

In England, the representative of the plot was Anthony Babington, a Catholic nobleman. Babington and his co-conspirators (of which there were few of any importance, since most powerful Catholics were loyal to the Queen, to whom they owed their fortunes) planned to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, a "heretic" Queen, and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots as a Catholic monarch. King Philip II of Spain would invade England and help to restore Catholicism to the country, thus securing Mary's new regime.

A portrait of King Philip II of Spain, by Sofonisba Anguissola. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

While Mary Stuart was not the instigator of this plot, once informed of Philip II's plan by Babington, she gave her consent in writing. An imprisoned Queen without a country, Mary was tempted by this offer of liberation and a kingdom to rule. Sir Francis Walsingham, who was tired of simply waiting for Mary to condemn herself through her other correspondances, orchestrated a ruse in order to obtain just cause to have her arrested. Under Walsingham's orders,  Mary Stuart was led to believe that her letters in support of the Babington plot were being smuggled out of the castle securely in wine barrels, when in reality the letters were delivered directly to Walsingham. Today, most modern legal systems would consider Walsingham's methods entrapment, but even so, Mary made the decision to commit her compliance to paper. Had she rejected Babington's plan entirely, she would have been clear of treason. 

A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham by John de Critz, circa 1587. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain through Creative Commons licensing, NPG, London.

Babington described to Mary Stuart his plans in such great detail that there would be know way that Mary could have misinterpreted the message:

"First, assuring of invasion: Sufficient strength in the invader: Ports to arrive at appointed, with a strong party at every place to join with them and warrant their landing. The deliverance of your Majesty. The dispatch of the usurping Competitor. For the effectuating of all which it may please your Excellency to rely upon my service.... Now forasmuch as delay is extreme dangerous, it may please your most excellent Majesty by your wisdom to direct us, and by your princely authority to enable such as may advance the affair; foreseeing that, where is not any of the nobility at liberty assured to your Majesty in this desperate service (except unknown to us) and seeing it is very necessary that some there be to become heads to lead the multitude, ever disposed by nature in this land to follow nobility, considering withal it doth not only make the commons and gentry to follow without contradiction or contention (which is ever found in equality) but also doth add great courage to the leaders. For which necessary regard I recommend some unto your Majesty as fittest in my knowledge for to be your Lieutenants in the West parts, in the North parts, South Wales, North Wales and the Counties of Lancaster, Derby and Stafford: all which countries, by parties already made and fidelities taken in your Majesty's name, I hold as most assured and of most undoubted fidelity." (Pollen)

He also explained his intent to rescue Mary and have Queen Elizabeth murdered:

"Myself with ten gentlemen and a hundred of our followers will undertake the delivery of your royal person from the hands of your enemies. For the dispatch of the usurper, from the obedience of whom we are by the excommunication of her made free, there be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends, who for the zeal they bear to the Catholic cause and your Majesty's service will undertake that tragical execution." (Pollen)


After this letter was deciphered and read by Walsingham, it was re-sent to Mary, who received it on the 14th of July. Mary gave her enthusiastic consent:

"For divers great and important considerations (which were here too long to be deduced) I cannot but greatly praise and commend your common desire to prevent in time the designments of our enemies for the extirpation of our religion out of this realm with the ruin of us all. For I have long ago shown unto the foreign Catholic princes—and experience doth approve it—the longer that they and we delay to put hand on the matter on this side, the greater leisure have our said enemies to prevail and win advantage over the said princes (as they have done against the King of Spain) and in the meantime the Catholics here, remaining exposed to all sorts of persecution and cruelty, do daily diminish in number, forces, means and power. So as, if remedy be not thereunto hastily provided, I fear not a little but they shall become altogether unable for ever to rise again and to receive any aid at all, whensoever it were offered them. For mine own part, I pray you to assure our principal friends that, albeit I had not in this cause any particular interest (that which I may pretend unto being of no consideration unto me in respect of the public good of this state) I shall be always ready and most willing to employ therein my life and all that I have or may ever look for in this world." (Pollen)

The Babington Plot letter. Photo acquired through Pinterest courtesy of Barb Alexander. Image public domain.

This statement from Mary alone could have had her convicted of treason; there was no additional evidence needed. But, since Walsingham and his associates would leave no room for error in building their case to get Queen Elizabeth to believe in her cousin's guilt, Walsingham's man Phellipes made a copy of the original letter, adding an incriminating post-script. Phellipes than made another copy of the letter for Walsingham, doodling an ominous gallows on the paper. Mary was doomed.

The key to the Babington Plot cipher code, circa 1586. UK National Archives. Image public domain.

Despite Mary, Queen of Scots being convicted of treason and sentenced to death on October 25th, 1586, Queen Elizabeth I hesitated to sign her death warrant, despite pleas from Walsingham, her Privy Councillors and Parliament. To kill an annointed sovereign was taboo; monarchs were supposed to be subject to the laws of God, but not to the laws of one another. Furthermore, Elizabeth likely had an emotional reaction to the idea of killing a Queen; her mother, Anne Boleyn, had been callously disposed of in the exact same way.

A composite image of Queen Elizabeth I and her mother, Queen Anne Boleyn. Image courtesy Inor19.

Queen Elizabeth knew if she did not kill Mary, her life, her throne, and the security of her realm would always be in question. She also knew that when the axe fell on Mary's head, Philip II would invade England, though he had been planning to do that anyway.The next two years would be dark ones indeed for Queen Elizabeth I; on February 8th, 1587 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle, and in 1588, England faced the Spanish Armada.

A 17th century interpretation of the execution of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. Image acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Sources
Pollen, J.H. "Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot," The Month, Volume 109. 1907. Online.

Elizabethan Fact of the Day: John Dee's Home Set on Fire

A 16th century portrait of John Dee in the Ashmoleon Museum collection, Oxford University. According to Charlotte Fell Smith, this portrait was painted when Dee was 67 years of age. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

In September of 1583, a mob set fire to Master John Dee's home in opposition to his academic pursuits, which some deemed as dubious. Dee and his associate Edward Kelley left London in that same year to travel with a Polish nobleman abroad (MacKay). Upon Dee's return to London six years later, he found much of his personal property in his estate of Mortlake ruined or stolen (MacKay). Queen Elizabeth I agreed to help him financially, appointing him Warden of Christ's College, Manchester in 1595, a position he would hold until his death in 1609 (EB).

The Kitchner Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, circa 1580. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

John Dee was a complicated man of many interests and talents; he was an astrologer, prophesier, alchemist, navigator, and mathematician. He was also known to dabble in the occult. Dee collected one of the largest libraries in England so that he could study these topics with ease. Although he was mostly a hermetic scholar, preferring to spend his days in relative seclusion consulting angels and demons, Dee was married twice and had eight children. He also formed close bonds with a few fellow scholars, chief among them Edward Kelley. The associates had a falling out shortly after Kelley informed Dee that an angel had told him that they should share their wives (Roberts). 

"John Dee and Edward Kelley, a Magician, in the Act of Invoking the Spirit of a Deceased Person." An engraving by Ames of Bristol, from an 1806 edition of Astrology, A New and Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences by Ebenezer Sibly. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Queen Elizabeth I valued Dee's abilities, often consulting him on matters of astrology (which was deemed a real science in the 16th century) and prophesy. By 1577, Queen Elizabeth and her administration had proven so competent that Dee saw fit to predict the formation of an "incomparable British Empire" encompassing most of the Northern Hemisphere, and conquered and maintained by sea power. Dee's foresight of England as Empire came to pass; the foundations for England as we know it today were indeed established in the Elizabethan era.

Instruments used by John Dee in his academic studies, which sometimes crossed over into the occult. These artifacts reside in the British Museum, London. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Dee was also held in high regard by Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Sir Francis Walsingham and other prominent figures at Queen Elizabeth's court.

John Dee's "Seal of God", an intricately carved stone platform to support the "shew-stone", or crystal ball that was used for scrying. British Museum London. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Sources

Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. London: Office of the National Illustrated Library. 1852. Print

"John Dee". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed. ed.). London: Cambridge University Press. 1911.

Julian Roberts, ed. (2005). "A John Dee Chronology, 1509–1609". Renaissance Man: The Reconstructed Libraries of European Scholars: 1450–1700 Series One: The Books and Manuscripts of John Dee, 1527–1608. Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved 27 October 2006.

Theatre Thursday: The Mysterious Marlowe and His Works

This anonymous portrait that hangs in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is allegedly of Elizabethan playwrite Christopher Marlowe. The painting was completed c. 1585, when Marlowe was 21 years old. He was the only 21 year old student at Cambridge that year; the painting itself was discovered on Cambridge grounds. This painting graces the cover of almost every major Christopher Marlowe biography. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Christopher Marlowe's (1564-1593) first play, Tamburlaine The Great tells the story of Timur, a 14th century Turkish warlord. Marlowe portrays the historic figure, "threatening the world with high astounding terms, and scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword." The play was first performed in 1587 by The Admiral's Men, the theatre company of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral and maternal relation of Queen Elizabeth I. Tamburlaine was an immediate success, due to the writing, but equally because of the exotic setting. Marlowe, the son of a Canterbury shoemaker, moved to London in time to see it put to the stage (Wagner, 194).

A detail of a portrait of Charles Howard, Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I. Howard is depicted wearing his robes for The Order of the Garter. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Marlowe's literary contributions, like the man himself, were dark, psychological, and pushed the boundaries of societal expectations and propriety in Elizabethan London. He was charged with atheism, and widely suspected to be a spy before he was killed in a bar brawl (though some conspiracy theorists have called it murder, or a way for Marlowe to stage his own death and then disappear). We know that Marlowe's literary patron was Thomas Walsingham, brother to Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster Francis Walsingham, and that Francis and Christopher were well acquainted, which could have led to his employment as a spy or informant (Wagner, 194). Had he lived in the 17th century, and more specifically under the reign of King Charles II, Marlowe's material and his character would have been far less shocking to the sensibilities of the theatre-goers of London.


A detail of a portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's spymaster and a likely acquaintance of Marlowe.


Marlowe's most famous work is The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus. According to Logan and Smith, "no Elizabethan play outside the Shakespeare canon has raised more controversy than Doctor Faustus. "(Wagner, 14).  In the play, Doctor Faustus learns necromancy from two magicians. In a thirst for knowledge and power, Faustus summons a devil named Mephistopheles, and sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for 24 years of Mephistopheles doing his bidding on earth. Even if you have not read Doctor Faustus yourself, you can already surmise that no good can come of such an arrangement.

Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604, eleven years after Marlowe's death, but it had been staged much earlier; The Admiral's Men performed it twenty-five times in three years, between October  of 1594 and October of 1597. It was probably revived again in 1602 (Chambers, Vol. 3, pages 423-424).

Today I would like to leave you with a dark, twisted visual from Marlowe's play, and thus his mind. This line is spoken by an 'evil angel' (one of Lucifer's followers) :

Now Faustus, let thine eyes with horror stare

Into that vast perpetual torture-house,

There are the furies tossing damned souls

On burning forks. Their bodies broil in lead.

A cautionary tale about faith by a suspected atheist? An example of the psyche of the author? I will let you decide!

Sources:

Wagner, John A. The Historical Dictionary of the Elizabethan World. Print.

(pages 194-195)

Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage, 4 Volumes. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923. Print.

Logan, P. Terence, Smith S. Denzell. The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama. University of Nebraska Press, 1973. Print.

For further reading on Christopher Marlowe:

Christopher Marlowe: His Life and Work by A. L. Rowse
Christopher Marlowe and Edward Alleyn by Adam Hart.

Elizabethan Fact Of The Day: Protecting the Queen

Queen Mary I had reigned directly before her sister Elizabeth I for a brief and disastrous five years, bequeathing her a bankrupt Treasury, along with a myriad of other problems. One of the ways Elizabeth cut costs and thus expedited replenishing the Treasury was by choosing not to keep a standing army during her reign. The costs of employing a standing army were astronomical, as the powers on the Continent who kept them had demonstrated. Standing army's with nothing to do also bred anxiety in the population, especially when they caused disturbances of the peace, as they were known to do. The immediate safety of England fell to the local magistrates, who were entrusted with ensuring peace within their own districts (Palliser). And the overall safety of Elizabeth and her realm would be ensured by a network of spy's and informants, overseen by Elizabeth's "spymaster" Sir Francis Walsingham.

A detail of a 16th century portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's "spymaster".Walsingham's ability to protect the Queen was never doubted, although sometimes she greatly disliked his methods. Elizabeth nicknamed him her "Moor". Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Queen Elizabeth prided herself on being accessible to all of her subjects; her practice of walking amongst throngs of people when she exited and entered buildings, often stopping to speak with them, was something that made her Councillors fear for her, and they often told her so. On Elizabeth's progresses throughout her realm, which we know she very much enjoyed, she would always stop and speak with villagers and tradesmen, without a retinue of guards to protect her. Like her mother Queen Anne Boleyn had done so many years before, Good Queen Bess would distribute coins in exchange for poesy's of meadow flowers from village children (Denny).

An Elizabethan Maundy, a miniature by female court painter Leevina Teerlinc depicting Queen Elizabeth I meeting with her subjects. Image public domain.

Elizabeth had good faith in her subjects, and they in her. These were her people, who along with God she believed had preserved her and guided her to become Queen of England. Unlike her father, whose paranoia in the latter half of his reign compelled him to order the locks of his personal apartments changed every time he moved his court to a new castle, Elizabeth would remain tangible to her people up until her death at age 69 in 1603.

Queen Elizabeth used her image (clothes, appearance of perpetual youth due to heavy makeup) and the good faith she demonstrated with her people  to build nationalism and loyalty to the crown. This "Cult of Gloriana" made Elizabeth semi-divine, and thus her people invincible.


A painting of Queen Elizabeth en route to the wedding of Lady Anne Russell, c.1600. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Elizabethan Fact of the Day: Elizabeth the Protector

BREAKING NEWS: The Act of Succession has been updated! Hundreds of years of Primogeniture has been turned on its head! Should the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have a daughter first, and a son second, the son will not precede the daughter in ascending the throne, simply due to his gender. A daughter can now inherit first, regardless if her other siblings are boys!

This is wonderful news, and while I had no doubt that the act would pass, I am delighted and I think I can safely say that somewhere, Elizabeth I is smiling...In fact, Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria have been mentioned copiously in news coverage of this recent development in the monarchy. Some of the best monarch's of England where undoubtedly queens!

Think of all that Elizabeth, the Empress Matilda, and Mary Tudor went through to become monarchs, and to keep their thrones. It is a blessing no Princess shall have to struggle for the throne again!

Queen Elizabeth II rightfully announced this year's theme as "Women as Agent's of Change"! This will be a great year for British women, if it was not already!

Also, monarch's can now marry a Catholic; previously this was not allowed and could prevent an heir from inheriting the throne altogether. As Barb Alexander (@tudortutor) said on, "somewhere Mary I and Catherine of Aragon are high-fiving!"

Elizabeth the Protector

The Wanstead Peace Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by Marcus Gheeraerts. Painted between 1580-85.Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

There are countless instances, recorded both in state records and in personal papers and letters, that demonstrate the magnanimous nature of Queen Elizabeth. While she could be temperamental and prone to outbursts, she balanced these volatile Tudor traits nicely with her genuine love for her subjects.

Today I will share with you two such instances that exhibit Elizabeth’s defense of those who could not defend themselves...

Queen Elizabeth personally intervened to protect some of the 6^th Earl of Shrewsbury’s Derbyshire tenants, after they made allegations of his abuses of power. The fact that the Earl of Shrewsbury was a trusted courtier of the Queen, and that their friendship did not cloud her judgement and make her biased, is commendable. Elizabeth always could tell right from wrong.

George Talbot, the Earl of Shrewsbury was appointed to keep Mary, Queen of Scots under house arrest in 1568. This was a position he would fill for the next 18 years. Shrewsbury was also the father of Catherine Herbert by his first wife. Catherine was a good friend of the queen who was married to Henry Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke, whose 3/4 length suit of armor resides in the collection at the museum where I work. The Earl of Shrewsbury would go on to marry the impressive Elizabethan matriarch Bess of Hardwick

A detail of a portrait of George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

In 1590, Queen Elizabeth protected a minor customs official who had “blown the whistle” on the financial corruption of some of his superiors. Cecil and Burghley disapproved of the queen’s involvement in what they thought to be a very trivial manner. She responded to their judgment that she was ‘queen of the meanest (lowliest) subjects as well as the greatest’ in her kingdom.

A detail of a portrait of Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's Spymaster. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Picture acquired through Wikimedia Commons. Image public domain.

Queen Elizabeth not only improved lives on a grand scale, but also in more minor and personal ways. She pardoned, pitied and assisted the nobles, the tradesmen and the poor of her kingdom, and I look forward to sharing more anecdotes of her good nature on this blog.