Life of Elizabeth I (87 page)

For forty-five years, 'though beset by divers nations', Elizabeth had given her country peace and stable government - her greatest gift to her people. During that time, England had risen from an impoverished nation to become one of the greatest powers in Europe. Bolstered by the fame of her seamen, her navy was respected and feared on the high seas, and not for nothing had Elizabeth been lauded as 'the Queen of the Sea, the North Star'.

The Queen had also brought unity to her people by effecting a religious compromise that has lasted until this day, and making herself an enduring focus for their loyalty. She had enjoyed a unique relationship with her subjects, which was never seen before and has never been seen since. Few queens have ever been so loved. Under her rule, her people grew ever more confident in the belief that they were a chosen nation, protected by Divine Providence, and this confidence gave rise, in the years after the Armada, to the flowering of the English Renaissance.

Of course, there had been failures. A careful housekeeper, she had striven throughout her reign to live within her means, but towards the end, even she had been defeated by economic forces, and she died 400,000 in debt. Ireland was not fully subdued, Calais remained in French hands, and the English had so far been unable successfully to found a permanent colony in the New World. Yet, under Elizabeth, England had defeated the might of Spain, won the respect of the rest of Europe, and established a lasting peace with Scotland through the union of the crowns. Elizabeth had also been extremely fortunate in her advisers, which was due in part to her having an uncanny ability to choose those men of the greatest merit as her chief servants.

By constantly shelving or avoiding problems, such as the royal finances, the resurgence of Puritanism, or Parliament's attempts to limit the royal prerogative, Elizabeth passed on to her successor the potential for future conflict, but she had managed as best she could, even when she had been beset on all sides by seemingly insurmountable threats and concerns.

Many of her contemporaries bore witness to her abilities. Lord Burghley had said of her, 'She was the wisest woman that ever was, for she understood the interests and dispositions of all the princes in her time, and was so perfect in the knowledge of her own realm, that no councillor she had could tell her anything she did not know before.'

'Our blessed Queen was more than a man', wrote Cecil, 'and, in troth, something less than a woman.' Then he added wistfully, 'I wish I waited now in her Presence Chamber, with ease at my foot and rest in my bed.' Life under James was less easy than he had imagined it would be.

Yet it was not until some years later that most people came to realise what they had lost. 'When we had had experience of a Scottish government, the Queen did seem to revive,' recalled Godfrey Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester. 'Then was her memory much magnified: such ringing of bells, such public joy and sermons in commemoration of her, the picture of her tomb painted in many churches, and in effect more solemnity and joy in memory of her coronation than was for the coming of King James.' Within a generation of her death, the unity she had fostered in her realm would have disappeared, a casualty of an unavoidable clash between Crown and Parliament. Then, people would look back on the reign of Good Queen Bess with nostalgia, and the legends would become embellished and pass into popular folk-lore: Drake playing bowls before the Armada, Raleigh spreading his cloak for Elizabeth to walk on, Elizabeth herself playing at the marriage game and giving rise to centuries of speculation.

The most fitting epitaph to this extraordinary woman is to be found in the pages of Camden's biography: 'No oblivion shall ever bury the glory of her name; for her happy and renowned memory still liveth and shall for ever live in the minds of men.'

A Note on Sources

The source from which each quotation is taken will in many cases be clear from the text or the Bibliography. Where a quote is unattributed, it will in every case have been drawn from one of the many collections of contemporary documents, the chief of which are:

Acts of the Privy Council

Archaeologia

Calendar of the MSS at Hatfield House

Calendar of the MSS at Longleat

Calendars of State Papers, Foreign and Domestic

The Cecil Papers

Collection of State Papers relating to the Reign of Elizabeth,
edited by William Murdin

The Devereux Papers

The Dudley Papers

The Egerton Papers

Simonds D'Ewes:
Journals of all the Parliaments during the Reign of Queen- Elizabeth

N. Fourdinier:
Amy Robsart

Lives and Letters of the Devereux Earls of Essex

Memoirs of the Reign of Elizabeth,
edited by Thomas Birch

Sir Robert Naunton:
Fragmenta Regalia

Original letters: several collections

Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council

Progresses and Public Processions of Elizabeth I,
edited by . Nichols

Queen Elizabeth and Some Foreigners,
edited by Victor von Klarwill

Queen Elizabeth and her Times,
edited by Thomas Wright

The Rolls of Parliament

I. Rymer:
Foedera

The Sidney Papers

State Papers: various collections

Full details of these and the many other works consulted are listed in the Bibliography

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Acts of the Privy Council of England (32 vols., ed. John Roche Dasent, HMSO, 1890-1918)

Allen, Cardinal William:
Letters and Memorials
(ed. T.F. Knox, 1882)
L'Ambassade de France en Angleterre sous Henri IV, I5g8-i605
(4 vols., ed.

Laffleur de Kermaingant, 1886-95)
Anecdotes and Traditions Illustrative of Early English History and Literature

(ed. W.J. Thomas, Camden Society, 1839)
The Antiquarian Repertory: A Miscellany intended to Preserve and Illustrate

several Valuable Remains of Old Times
(4 vols., ed. Stephen Perlin and

Francis Blyth, 1775-84; ed. F. Grose and I. Astle, r8o8)
Archaeologia, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity
(102 vols., Society

of Antiquaries of London, 1773-1969) 'Archives of the English Tournament' (ed. Sidney Anglo,
Journal of the

Society of Archivists,
2, 1960) Ascham, Roger:
English Works
(ed. W.A. Wright, 1904) Ascham, Roger:
Opera
(1703) Aubrey, John:
Brief Lives
(ed. Andrew Clark, 1898; ed. Anthony Powell,

1949, and Oliver Lawson Dick, 1962)

Bacon, Sir Francis:
Collected Works
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Mary, Queen of Scots
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The Cabala sive scrinia Sacra: Mysteries of State and Government in Letters of

Illustrious Persons
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between England and Spain, preserved in the Archives at Simancas and

Elsewhere
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1547~15So, 1581-0.0, 1591-1603
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Calendar of State Papers: Foreign Series, Elizabeth 1
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Stevenson and W.B. Turnbull etc., 1863-1950)
Calendar of State Papers: Ireland
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Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts existing in the Archives and

Collections of Milan, Vol. 1 1385-1618
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Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts relating to English Affairs preserved

in the Archives of Venice and in the other Libraries of Northern Italy
7 vols.,

ed. Rawdon Brown etc., HMSO, 1864-1947)
Calendar of State Papers relating to Border Affairs
(ed. Joseph Bain, 1894-6)
Calendar of State Papers relating to English Affairs, preserved principally at

Rome in the Vatican Archives and Library, 1558-78
(ed. J.M. Rigg,

T916-26)
Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1509-1589
(ed. M.J. Thorpe,

1858)
Calendar of State Papers: Scotland, 1547-1603
(12 vols., ed. Joseph Bain,

W.K. Boyd and M.S. Guiseppi, 1898-1952)
Calendar of State Papers: Spanish, Elizabethan, 1558-1603
(4 vols., ed.

M.A.S. Hume, 1892-9) Camden, William:
Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum Regnante

Elizabetha
(1615; 3 vols., tr. Thomas Hearne, 1717; tr. . Norton,

1630, 1688; also published as
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in

'The Complete History of England' ed. White Kennett, 1706) Camden, William:
Britannia
(ed. R. Gough, 1789) Camden, William:
The History of the Most Renowned and Virtuous Princess

MlL

Elizabeth, late Queen of England
(1630); later published as
The History

of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth
(1675) Carey, Sir Robert:
Memoirs of the Life of Robert Carey, written by Himself (ed.

John Boyle, 1759; ed. Sir Walter Scott, 1808; ed. G.H. Powell, 1905) Carleton, Dudley:
Memorials of Affairs of State in the Reigns of Queen

Elizabeth and King James 1
(3 vols, 1725) Castelnau, Michel de:
Mcmoires de Michel de Castelnau, Seigneur de la

Mauvissiere
(3 vols, ed. L. Laboureur, T731) Castiglione, Balthasar:
The Courtier
(tr. G. Bull, 1967)
The Cecil Papers: A Collection of State Papers Relating to Affairs from the Year

1552 to 1570, left by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, at Hatfield House
(15

vols., ed. Samuel Haynes and William Murdin, 1740-59) Cecil, Sir Robert:
Letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Sir George Carew
(ed John

Maclean, Camden Society, LXXXVIII, T864) Chamberlain, John:
Letters
(ed. Sarah Williams, Camden Society,

LXXIX 1861; 2 vols., ed. N.E. McClure, American Philosophical

Society, Vol. XII, 1939) Chettle, Henry:
The Order and Proceeding at the Funeral of Elizabeth
(1603) Churchyard, Thomas:
The Service of Sir John Norris in Brittany in 1591

(1602) Clapham, John:
Elizabeth of England: Observations concerning the Life and

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(ed. E.P. Read and Conyers Read, 1951;

Pennsylvania University Press, 1951) Clifford, Lady Anne:
Diary
(ed. V. Sackville West, 1923)
Coleccion de Documentos ineditos para la Historia de Espaha
(112 vols.,

1842-95, and the
Nueva Coleccion, 6
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A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations for the Government of the Royal

Household, made in Divers Reigns
(Society of Antiquaries of London,

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1571-96
(ed. William Murdin, 1759)
A Complete Collection of State Trials
(ed. D. Thorn, William Cobbett, and