A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Elizabeth, (Queen of England)
ELIZABETH (QUEEN of ENGLAND), Daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyn, born Sept. 7, 1533, died March 24, 1602.
Upon that king's marriage with Jane Seymour, in 1535, she was declared illegitimate, with Mary, her half sister, and the succession to the crown established on the king's issue by this third wife. Her mother, at her death, had earnestly recommended her to Dr. Parker, a great reformer, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, who had the care of her education, and appointed her such tutors as instructed her well in the principles of religion professed by the protestants.
She learned Latin and Greek, and made so considerable a progress, not only in those languages, but also in French and Italian, that at eleven years of age she translated out of French verse into English prose. The Mirror, or Glass of the sinful Soul. She dedicated this to queen Catherine Parr, by an Epistle dated from Asheridge, Dec. 21, 1544.
When no more than twelve years old, she translated from the English tongue, into Latin, French, and Italian, Prayers or Meditations, by which the Soul may be encouraged to bear with Patience all the Miseries of Life, to despise the vain Happiness of this World, and assiduously provide for eternal Felicity. Collected out of prime Writers, by the most noble and religious Catharine, Queen of England. Dedicated by the Princess Elizabeth to King Henry VIII. Dated at Hatfield, Dec. 30, 1545, MSS. in the Royal Library at Westminster. About this time she also translated into English, from the French original, The Meditations of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, concerning the Love of her Soul towards Christ.
What farther advances she made in literature, Mr. Ascham signified in a letter to Sir John Cheke. "It can scarce be credited," says he, "to what degree of skill in the Latin and Greek she might arrive, if she shall proceed in that course of study wherein she hath begun by the guidance of Grindal." But she had the misfortune to lose this ingenious and learned instructor, who died of the plague in 1548; at which time, as Camden observes, before she was seventeen years old, she well understood French, Latin, and Italian, Greek indifferently, and was also skilled in music, both vocal and instrumental.
King Edward, her brother, who was fond of her, usually called her his Lady Temper, encouraged her studies, and she was no longer apprehensive of her father's jealousy in regard to her religious principles, and could read such books in divinity as she and her tutors thought proper.
Her next preceptor was the celebrated Ascham. With him she pursued her studies with great ardour, and read the best Greek and Latin historians, philosophers, and orators.
On the death of Edward, 1553, Mary ascended the throne; and having received many testimonies of Elizabeth's esteem, returned her some slight outward forms of civility; but the dislike she bore to her, either on account of her mother, or her religion, could not be long concealed: articles were devised and drawn up against her, and her person, upon suspicion and surmises only, was seized and hurried from place to place: she was imprisoned, and most inhumanly treated; but at last, by the interposition of Philip, Mary's husband, released from imprisonment, and in a measure freed from persecution the remainder of her sister's life. In gratitude for this piece of service, she had his picture placed by her bed-side, and kept it there to the end of her life, as an acknowledgment of gratitude to her preserver.
A priest, during her persecution, once pressing her to declare her opinion concerning the bodily presence of Christ in the sacrament, she cautiously answered him in these lines:
'Twas God the word that spake it,
He took the bread and brake it,
And what his word did make it,
That I believe and take it.
Mary dying 1558, Elizabeth ascended the throne; and when she had settled the perplexed affairs of the kingdom, which had given a long interruption to her studies, Ascham informs us, that she began to renew them under his care and inspection, and tells the young gentlemen of England, in his Schoolmaster, "It was their shame, that one maid should go beyond them all in excellency of learning and knowledge of divers tongues. Point forth," says he "six of the best given gentlemen of this court, and all they put together shew not so much good-will, spend not so much time, bestow not so many hours daily, orderly, and constantly, for the increase of learning and knowledge, as doth the queen's majesty herself." And the famous Scaliger tells us, that she spoke five languages, and knew more than all the great men then living.
She was truly and substantially learned, having studied the best ancient as well as modern authors. The confinement and persecutions of her youth afforded scope for the acquisition of eminent intellectual attainments. How well skilled she was in the Greek, was manifest from her writing a comment on Plato, and translating into Latin a Dialogue of Xenophon, two orations of Isocrates, and a play of Euripides. Into English she translated Plutarch de Curiositate. Her versions from Latin authors were, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, Sallust's Jugurthine War, and part of Horace's Art of Poetry. With her general learning, Elizabeth united an uncommon readiness in speaking the Latin language, a talent which some very good scholars do not possess, though it was more frequent in that age than the present, which she displayed in three orations; one delivered in the university of Cambridge, and two in Oxford. An extraordinary instance of her ability in this way, was exhibited in a rapid piece of eloquence with which she interrupted an insolent ambassador from Poland. "Having ended her oration, she, lion-like, rising," says the historian, "daunted the malapert orator no less with her stately port and majestic departure, than with the tartness of her princely chekes (reproofs); and, turning to the train of her attendants, said, "God's death! my Lords! I have been forced this day scoure up my old Latin, that hath long laid rusting." By her cotemporaries, Elizabeth has been highly extolled for her poetry, but this must be set down to the flattery of the age—yet she had a capacity for Latin versification.
We leave it to the more copious narrator to take notice of her translations from the French, her prayers and meditations, her speeches in parliament, and her letters; which last are dispersed in vast numbers through a variety of collections. Education and interest led her to favour the Reformation; nor could she hesitate on the subject, but acted with caution, not to alarm the adherents to popery by too explicit a declaration of her sentiments, and yet taking care to afford early indications of her favourable views to the cause, some of them displayed in a manner pleasing and ingenious.
At the time of her coronation, when she was solemnly conducted through London, a boy, who personated Truth, was let down from one of the triumphal arches, and presented her with a copy of the Bible, which she received in the most gracious manner, placing it in her bosom, and declaring, that amidst all the costly testimonies which the citizens had that day afforded of their attachment, this present was by far most precious and acceptable.
Elizabeth conciliated all ranks of people by that amenity of manner which Dr. Robertson calls her flowing affability, and secured their confidence by the spirit and decision which appeared to influence even those motives they did not rightly penetrate. When parliament met, she began to take measures for settling her own prerogative, and establishing the protestant faith as the national religion. Philip of Spain had offered her his hand, but Elizabeth declined the alliance. He espoused Elizabeth of France, whose queen, the beautiful Mary of Scotland, was supposed by catholics to have a better claim to the throne than Elizabeth, and had assumed the arms of England. A fatal assumption, which was the first rise of all those fears and jealousies, which at last impelled Elizabeth to an act that will for ever blot her memory, and entwined the system of her politics with those of Scotland, in which kingdom she was more powerful than its sovereign, by protecting the protestant leaders. Cabals about the second marriage of Mary, after the death of the king of France, continued for some years. This was an important event to Elizabeth, whom the former soon wearied with importunities to declare her right to the succession, a measure that she felt pregnant with danger and uneasiness to herself, and which she could not be persuaded to take. To have chosen a husband would have decided the difficulty, and answered the wishes of her people, but many reasons made her averse to the proposal. She was skilful in governing, saw the beneficial effects of the system she had adopted, and was jealous of anything that could interfere with her authority. A husband might be tempted to snatch the reins from her hand, his opposition might impede the freedom of her actions, and his passions disconcert the system of political wisdom which, by the means of Cecil and her other ministers, she had established. Yet Elizabeth was by no means indifferent to the homage of lovers: the archduke Charles, Eric king of Sweden, the duke of Holstein, and when she was more advanced in life, the young duke of Anjou, were by turns amused and disappointed; and she distinguished one of her subjects, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, by a peculiar partiality. But Elizabeth, amidst the weakness of vanity, and individual preference, still preserved her understanding uninfluenced. When the great Sully, who came as ambassador from Henry IV. conversed with her on the situation of affairs in Europe, he was lost in astonishment to hear her speak with such perspicuity, promptness, and discernment, and was then convinced that she herself was the source whence the energy of her government was derived, and found that she had a perfect knowledge of the political interests of the different European powers, of their respective strength, their relative situation, and internal resources, from whence she was enabled to judge of their means of attack and defence. He found, that although she had never conferred with Henry the Fourth, they both entertained the same design of forming a new political system, and laid the same plan of establishing a balance of power to check the aggrandizement of the house of Austria. We see no wild projects in the views of Elizabeth: her ambition was great, but it was also consistent.
That able politician, whom Elizabeth used to say was a princely, and not a priestly pope, Sixtus V. placed her among the three persons who alone, in his opinion, deserved to reign; the other two were himself and Henry IV. of France.
The hope of the protestants throughout Europe, Elizabeth felt that all persecutions of them militated against her own power. She protected the inhabitants of the Low Countries, who fled from the severities of the Duke of Alva, their Spanish governor, and in return, their skill in manufactures opened a way for a further influx of riches to England. She held her rival, Mary, queen of Scots, in confinement; and though the spirit and address of that unfortunate princess, and the activity of her adherents, were continually exercised in plots for her deliverance, which sometimes threatened Elizabeth with personal danger, she kept her own kingdom in peace and safety amidst the convulsions of a tumultuous period. The massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day, filled her with alarm and sorrow. She had a powerful enemy in the king of Spain, but ventured to brave him by assisting his Flemish subjects with money and troops, though she declined an offer they made of acknowledging her as their sovereign.
The pope (who had succeeded Sextus), with the powerful house of Guise, and Philip, were continually the source of danger to Elizabeth. Encouragement, and offers of protection from the two latter, and an idea which was then common even with the pious, that any heretic who was so declaredly under the displeasure of the former, should be considered as a wretch whom it was meritorious to extirpate, induced several to plan the assassination of the queen. The vigilance of her ministers discovered and defeated their plots: but the nation began to be anxious for the safety of their beloved sovereign, whose patriotic economy had secured them from burthensome taxations, whose safety was so intimately connected with their religious security, and whose concern for them had tempted her to break off a marriage with the prince of Anjou, to which she had manifested an inclination. These fears were encouraged in the people, and facilitated the death of the queen of Scots, on whose account the plots were laid, which endangered her enemy. It seems that Elizabeth, when Mary was first imprisoned by her subjects, meant to serve and protect her, which appeared by many spirited and earnest remonstrances through her ambassador. When Mary made her escape, and fled into England, she was still in the same way of thinking, and happy had it been for her fame had she persisted in acting from that principle; but her ministers saw danger in her favouring the head of the catholic party, one who had claimed a superior right to the throne of England, and who was the next heir. Elizabeth was startled and convinced, her temporary generosity vanished, and former jealousies resumed their dominion over her mind. She confined her as a prisoner, under the pretence that till she was cleared of the crimes her rebellious subjects alledged against her, she could not be admitted into her presence; and led her on by insidious pretences to submit her ease to the decision of the laws, favouring her enemies, till the injuries heaped upon the unhappy queen rendered it unsafe to act more generously towards her: her life really began to be dangerous to Elizabeth, and it was therefore sacrificed at the block, in contradiction to every principle of generous hospitality and justice.
Yet while the eye turns disgusted from the ungenerous policy and dissimulation of Elizabeth, it sees, with admiration, her undaunted courage and conduct at the apprehended attacks by sea and land of her enemy, Philip of Spain, who made such preparations for the overthrow of England as Europe had never before witnessed. Seconded by the chearful alacrity of her subjects, the inadequate preparations her country could at that time afford against his immense force was diligently prepared. She engaged the aid or connivance of all the protestant states and towns, and the liberal spirit of toleration which regulated her behaviour to her catholic subjects, made them also forget religious prejudices, and join heartily in defence of their country.
When the Invincible Armada was upon the seas, and in daily expectation of landing, she went to her camp at Tilbury, rode through all the squadrons of her army, and addressed them in a patriotic oration, in which she declared the confidence she placed in her people, that she was ready to live or die with them, and raised their emulation by the display of her own fortitude.
The entire discomfiture and destruction of these immense preparations, filled the English with joy, and made their sovereign still more dear to them. The power and riches of Spain, which by this blow suffered great diminution, was still farther lowered by successful naval attacks; and England gained the importance which that kingdom lost.
After the death of the earl of Leicester, Elizabeth had much distinguished the earl of Essex, a brave and learned, but impetuous young man, whose mistakes and mal-administration in Ireland, occasioned her displeasure, and whose passions afterwards hurried him into a rebellion. The queen could not suffer herself to sign his sentence, till persuaded that he disdained all application to her mercy, and even then did it with reluctance and sorrow. Public affairs soon occupied again her active mind; nor till she found that she had been cruelly deceived in this respect, did the memory of Essex seem to cast a cloud over her happiness:—but the countess of Nottingham, to whom he had delivered a ring once received from the hands of Elizabeth, as a token of high favour and promised protection against his enemies, confessed on her death-bed, that he had besought her to deliver it to the queen, and implore her pardon; but that her husband, who was his bitter enemy, had persuaded her to keep it.
Elizabeth, though constant to her friends, and grateful for every manifestation of attachment, by her willingness to overlook injuries which her susceptibility and pride made her feel most keenly, had often fully shewn how little she experienced the comfort of sincere and consistent regard. This appeal to her kindness, though from one who had forfeited all claims, struck her with horror and remorse. "God may forgive you," cried she, in the agony of her soul, "but I never can." This blow was very deeply felt; and the discovery she at that time made, that her confidential servants, in expectation of her death, were corresponding with her successor, sickened her heart. She had lost much of her popularity since the death of Essex, and feelingly complained that her people no longer loved her, and why should she wish to live? A deep melancholy took possession of her senses; she almost abstained from food; and, during the fortnight that preceded her dissolution, sat upon the floor with her finger in her mouth, in the last stage of bitter despondence, attending to nothing but the prayers of the archbishop of Canterbury, to whom she listened with the deepest attention, till a few hours before her death. She had named James, king of Scotland, her successor, who honoured her memory with a magnificent monument in Westminster abbey. She lived 70 years, and reigned 44.
Jealous of any encroachments upon her prerogative, Elizabeth appears to have really loved her subjects: affable, frugal, moderate, and skilled when to assert and when to yield what she considered as her rights; she maintained equally the command and affection of the Englishman and the respect of foreign powers. Her personal vanity was the greatest weakness of her character; but, when young, she was considered as handsome. Her complexion was very fair, and her hair of a reddish hue.[1]
- ↑ She was called:
Spain's rod, Rome's ruine, Netherlands' reliefe,
Earth's joy, England's gem, World's wonder, Nature's chiefe.