Harold Titus's Blog, page 36

1587-1588: Philip II Defeated, John White Thwarted

King Philip II of Spain had reason to believe at the beginning of 1587 that his armada of war ships being constructed in the port of Cadiz and the port of Lisbon would be prepared to sail in June or July. They would travel to the Netherlands, upload on barges approximately 16,000 of the Duke of Parma’s soldiers, cross the English Channel, break through if not destroy opposing warships, and put ashore Parma’s troops, which would quickly vanquish all opposition, march to London, and depose the Queen. Elizabeth, her advisors, and every citizen of the realm knew his intentions. Desperate measures were required to defeat him.

Elizabeth began by providing Frances Drake four Royal Naval ships. A group of London merchants, looking to profit from the seizure of Spanish ships, armed an assortment of pinnaces and outfitted twenty merchantmen to accompany Drake. Drake’s motley fleet left Plymouth Harbor April 12. Seven days later, vacillating, Elizabeth sent Drake a message by ship instructing him not to initiate hostilities. Driven back to port by strong headwinds, the ship did not reach him. Drake’s attacks upon the shipping in Cadiz and Lisbon and assaults by raiding parties upon several forts along the Portuguese coast inflicted great damage. Over one hundred Spanish ships of various tonnage were destroyed or captured, including 37 ships burned in Cadiz Harbor. On June 8 Drake captured the Portuguese carrack Sao Filipe, laden with silk, spices, and gold valued at 108,000 pounds. Drake’s fleet returned to England July 6. Great celebrations ensued. In Madrid, Philip ordered the construction of a new armada.

While Drake was yet at sea, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, demonstrated again his incompetence as commander of English soldiers in the Netherlands. Returned to the United Provinces June 25 with 3,000 new troops and a fleet of warships, he alienated his Dutch allies with his imperious conduct and failed to check Parma’s advancement in the Protestant-occupied territory. Extremely displeased, Elizabeth recalled him November 10.

John White, artist-turned-governor, and 117 recruited settlers had left England May 8, nearly a month after Drake’s departure, intent upon establishing a colony on or near the southern shores of Chesapeake Bay. Walter Raleigh had instructed White to stop by Roanoke Island to pick up the 15 sailors that Richard Grenville had left there in late June 1586 after finding Governor Ralph Lane’s colony abandoned. Upon their arrival, White’s pilot, Simon Fernandez, ordered White and his settlers to disembark, claiming it was too late in the season to sail to the Chesapeake. White believed that Fernandez intended to use his ships to privateer. Historian Lee Miller believes that Fernandez was carrying out the orders of Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s chief secretary, Walsingham wanting the colonial venture to fail and, thereby, destroy Raleigh’s competing influence over the Queen.

Placed in great peril -- the previous Roanoke settlement’s governor Ralph Lane had alienated the local Algonquian tribe and murdered its leader -- White’s principal subordinates recognized that Raleigh had to be notified immediately of their whereabouts. They could not have ships sent by Raleigh intended for their benefit sail directly to the Chesapeake. Fernandez could not be trusted to deliver their message. It was agreed that White himself had to return to England on one of the expedition’s ships. He did so, arriving in Ireland October 16 after a harrowing crossing.

White found his countrymen extremely anxious. Philip II’s invasion plans had been foiled, but only temporarily. Substantial preparations to confront Philip’s forthcoming invasion remained to be accomplished. Raleigh promised to send a ship with needed supplies to Roanoke as soon as he was able. The following spring he would have his cousin Richard Grenville and a fleet of ships set sail out of Bideford, despite the Privy Council’s general stay on shipping from English ports. White’s colony would have to survive the winter at Roanoke before it could be relocated.

As Philip’s new armada was being built, Elizabeth was taking measures to defend her country. Harbors and land defenses were being strengthened. Eleven warships were being built and old warships refurbished. Arms and stores were being requisitioned. And, germane especially to John White’s situation, Walter Raleigh’s favored standing with the Queen declined.

Raleigh had been appointed Captain of the Queen’s guard in April 1587, succeeding Christopher Hatton, who had been appointed Lord Chancellor. It was an honorary position with no salary but with great prestige. He was expected to spend much time with her, among other duties serving her meals and delivering messages and performing errands. She had needed his presence to rally her from the deep depression she had suffered following Mary Stuart’s execution.

A handsome new face, however, had appeared at Court -- nineteen-year-old Robert Devereux, the Second Earl of Essex. Tall, dark-eyed, with auburn hair, elegant, intelligent, he was Leicester’s step-son. Essex had taken an immediate dislike of Raleigh, now well into his thirties. He was jealous of Raleigh’s literary accomplishments and envious of his overseas enterprises. Essex was of aristocrat, an ancestor of Edward III. Lord Burghley and his son Robert Cecil, two of Elizabeth’s key advisors, had encouraged a relationship between the young man and the Queen, believing he could best rejuvenate her from her depression. Playing cards frequently with him, she found him to be an exhilarating companion. Having a quick temper, Essex was given to passionate outbursts and tantrums. As time would demonstrate, he harbored great resentments. Elizabeth had allowed him a freedom of speech she had not Christopher Hatton or Raleigh. Raleigh’s enemies had watched gleefully as Essex had begun to supplant Raleigh as her favorite. In June 1587 she had made Essex her Master of the Horse, succeeding his step-father, the Earl of Leicester. After she had recalled Leicester in November, upon Leicester’s insistence, Elizabeth sent Essex and Leicester’s nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, to the Netherlands to replace him.

Raleigh’s assistance in helping Elizabeth prepare for Philip’s invasion would prove to be considerable. He had sold his ship, the Ark Raleigh, to the Queen for a modest 500 pounds. (It would be renamed the Ark Royal and be the flag ship of the Lord High Admiral, Charles Lord Howard) In November, while Essex and Sidney were being transported to the Netherlands and John White was pressing him yet for relief ships, Raleigh was appointed to Elizabeth’s Council of War. His specific duty was to levy troops and improve defenses in Southwest England. He would set up a system of beacons from Cornwall to the south coast to alert the early appearance of Philip’s fleet. 6,000 trained men would be held ready to march to Plymouth and another 8,000 to Falmouth if either port were attacked.

Winter passed. In March 1588, Grenville was poised with a fleet of ships at Bideford to sail to the Caribbean and, afterward, to Roanoke Island. Just before he was to lift anchor, the Privy Council ordered him to travel to Plymouth where he was to relinquish his ships to his long-time adversary, Francis Drake. Not one of the ships would be used months later against Philip’s Armada. Historian Lee Miller conjectures that Walsingham was responsible for this decision. “Yet ships did leave. … Specifically, the ships that are not allowed to sail are Raleigh’s” (Miller 194). White implored Raleigh for assistance. Raleigh was able to procure two small ships – the Row and the Brave -- unsuitable for naval engagement. “April 22, 1588. The boats leave the Devon coast. White rides in the Brave, captained by Arthur Facy. Fifteen colonists sail with him … If the weather is favorable, White can expect a two-month crossing, placing them on Roanoke at the end of June” (Miller 195). Instead, Facy and the Row engaged immediately in privateering. They encountered on May 6 a French vessel twice each of the English vessels’ sizes. The French ship’s crew attempted to board the Brave. White was wounded twice in the head -- by a sword and then by a pike -- and shot in the side of the buttock. The Brave surrendered and was looted. Released, the Brave and the badly battered Row limped back to England.

Raleigh was too busy to do anything more than commiserate. “There is no time now to think of any Roanoke rescue. … The kingdom’s troops are far too few; therefore Raleigh urges a radical plan of attack: hit the Spaniards by sea before they can land. The English navy is redesigned, the ships lowered to gain nimbleness and speed” (Miller 196). April 1588: “… Elizabeth ordered the refurbishment of twelve more ships and her government instituted a programme of intensive training for her fighting forces. Drake was in favour of sailing to Spain to sabotage Philip’s fleet, but she would not allow it, being concerned that her own ships would be either damaged or lost when she most needed them. Any confrontation at sea, she said, must take place within sight of the shores of England, in order to remind her sailors what they were fighting for” (Weir 388-389). Hoping yet that she could avert war, she dispatched Dr. Valentine Dale to meet with the Duke of Parma to negotiate a peace settlement. They met May 30, “the very day on which the Spanish Armada of 130 ships, manned by 30,000 men … set sail from Lisbon, bound for England” (Weir 389).

‘The progress of the Spanish fleet had been impeded by storms … As the chain of beacons flared, Elizabeth heard the news on the night of 22 July … A prayer of intercession, composed by the Queen, was read in churches” (Weir 389-390).

Philip’s Armada moved along the south coast headed for the Netherlands to upload Parma’s army. Waiting at Plymouth was the English fleet, 150 ships strong, its admiral Lord Howard of Effingham, assisted by the far more experienced Sir Francis Drake …

Effingham put out to sea after nightfall on the 19th. He skirmished briefly with the ships of the Armada off Eddystone, near Plymouth, on Sunday, July 21. Two days later near Portland, Dorset, he damaged severely several galleons. Two more were wrecked off the Isle of Wight July 25. “The English fleet continued to shadow the Armada as it sailed east, neatly avoiding any further engagements by sailing out of range whenever the galleons prepared for battle” (Weir 390).

The Armada anchored off Calais, where Parma and 16,000 troops waited. The English ships followed. At midnight on July 28 five “hell-burners” (fire ships), packed with wood and pitch, were sent amongst the galleons. The subsequent inferno, aided by high winds, caused great panic. The galleons scattered. Because of the high winds, the Spanish admiral was unable to regroup them into the Armada’s protective crescent formation.

“On 29 July, off Graylines … the two fleets engaged in what was to be the final battle. … The Spaniards lost eleven ships and 2000 men, and the English just fifty men. The action was only abandoned when both sides ran out of ammunition” (Weir 391).

On July 30 the wind changed. The Armada was forced northwards, off course, its galleons scattering. Effingham ordered his ships to chase them, but there was no need. “… the wind – the ‘Protestant’ wind, as people were now calling it … -- and terrible storms were bringing about more destruction than they could realistically have hoped to achieve themselves” (Weir 391).

Eventually, Effingham ended the chase. King Philip’s remaining ships, many of them broken, made their way dangerously around the coasts of Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall. Philip had suffered the worst naval defeat in his country’s history. He had lost two thirds of his men, “many dying stranded on remote beaches of wounds and sickness, or slaughtered in Ireland by the Lord Deputy’s men” (Weir 392). He had lost 44 ships. Many more were too damaged to be considered seaworthy. The English had lost only a hundred men and none of their ships. Yet Elizabeth was cautious. ‘This tyrannical, proud and brainsick attempt’ would be, she observed in a letter to James VI [of Scotland], ‘the beginning, though not the end, of the ruin of that king [Philip]’. The Spanish fleet might have been crippled, but there remained a very real threat from Parma and his army, who were poised to cross the Channel, and awaited only a favourable wind” (Weir 392).

Sources Cited:

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001. Print.

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

Mary Stuart Beheaded

It is important to know how dire Queen Elizabeth’s circumstances were at home and abroad while Walter Raleigh pursued his intention to establish an English colony in North America. We saw in last month’s blog that in 1584 he had sent Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to America to locate land suitable to establish a base for privateers to attack Spanish treasure ships. The location had to be rich in natural resources and its native inhabitants needed to be cooperative. Amadas and Barlowe returned to England in mid-September satisfied that they had found such a place.

They found Queen Elizabeth, England’s leaders, and the nation’s citizenry all greatly apprehensive about the safety of the country. During the two captains’ absence, France’s Duke of Anjou (presumed by many to be Queen Elizabeth’s future husband) had died and William of Orange, leader of the Protestant provinces of the Netherlands, had been assassinated. Philip II of Spain seemed poised to invade England. Additionally, Mary Stuart’s existence continued to be a threat to Elizabeth’s life.

At the end of December 1584 Dr. William Parry was arrested for his aborted attempt to assassinate the Queen. Parry, working as a spy for Lord Burghley, Elizabeth’s most senior advisor, had been assigned by Burghley to infiltrate papist circles. To reward him for his services, Elizabeth had awarded Parry a pension. He confronted her one day in her garden at Richmond palace while she was taking the air. Overcome by “the majesty of her presence, in which he saw the image of her father,” Parry could not “suffer his hand to execute that which he had resolved” (Weir 354). The Pope and Mary Stuart’s agent in Paris believed that Parry was acting on behalf of the deposed Queen of Scotland. Mary was moved to the forbidding fortress of Tutbury in January 1585 to be placed under the strict supervision of Sir Amyas Paulet, a staunch Puritan. In February 1585 Elizabeth authorized Parry’s hanging.

In 1585 Parliament passed a law that ordered all seminary priests to leave England within 40 days or suffer the penalty of high treason. A bond of association was signed by thousands of Protestant gentlemen who swore to take up arms and destroy Mary if she became involved in a plot against the Queen. Mary was showed the Bond. She denied any knowledge of a conspiracy, signed the Bond herself, but wrote King Philip two days later to urge him to press ahead with his planned invasion.

Richard Grenville, seven ships, and 600 men left Plymouth Harbor April 9 to establish a military colony on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Ralph Lane, a veteran of the Irish wars, was to be its governor. In May King Philip ordered all English ships in his ports seized. Trade with Spain and Portugal, vital to the English economy, ended. Queen Elizabeth “authorized the issue of letters of marquee, turning piracy into privateering, and English ships were dispatched to seize as many Spanish vessels and their cargoes as they could” (Quinn 85). Grenville returned to England October 18, having captured the Santa Maria de San Vicente, the value of its cargo exceeding the expense to investors of Grenville’s entire voyage.

In August 1585 Elizabeth extended to the Dutch, her sole ally, her protection, promising an army of 6,000 men and 1,000 horse. On September 17, she appointed Robert Dudley, the Duke of Leiscester, the army’s commander. Obeying her orders, Raleigh sent an armed squadron to Newfoundland, where it captured seventeen Spanish fishing vessels. The same month Elizabeth promoted Sir Francis Drake an admiral, “provided him with a fleet of twenty-two ships and 2000 men, and dispatched him on a voyage to capture several of Spain’s greatest naval bases in the Caribbean.” Drake sacked Santo Domingo, Havana, and Cartagena. “Her objectives … were to keep Philip fully occupied elsewhere, and at the same time demonstrate to him the might of England’s naval power” (Weir 357). In October she sent Philip a twenty-page declaration justifying her actions.

On December 8, Leicester and his stepson, Robert Devereau, the second Earl of Essex, left England for the Netherlands. (Essex would soon supplant Raleigh as Elizabeth’s Court favorite) Leicester “took with him a household of 170 persons, many of noble birth, as well as his wife, who insisted upon being attended by a bevy of ladies and taking a vast quantity of luggage, including furniture, clothing, and carriages” (Weir 358). The Dutch, disappointed that Elizabeth had declined to be their sovereign, treated Leicester as a visiting prince. Leicester accepted from them, without Elizabeth’s approval, the title of Supreme Governor of the Netherlands. Furious but upon her Privy Council’s advice, Elizabeth decided not to recall him. Leicester would prove to be an incompetent general, his gift of command being his ability to antagonize both his allies and his own men, many of whom subsequently deserted.

On Christmas Eve Mary Stuart was moved to a moated house at Chartley. She had complained to Elizabeth about her previous residence, at Tutbury. This provided Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s principal Secretary of State, to set a trap once and for all to eliminate Mary.

Walsingham turned a trainee priest, Gilbert Griffith, sent to England by Mary’s friends in Paris, to work for him. Walsingham instructed Griffith to pass on to Mary the many letters from abroad that were waiting for Mary at the French embassy. Any reply that she gave Griffith he would deliver to Walsingham, who would have it deciphered, copied, and resealed and afterward sent to its destination. Griffith informed Mary that he had organized a secret route whereby letters might be smuggled in and out of Chartley. Letters would be smuggled in and out inside a large beer barrel provided by the local brewer in Buxton. Gifford persuaded the brewer to convey Mary’s letters in a waterproof wooden box small enough to be slipped through the bung-hole of a barrel.

In March 1586 Philip wrote Pope Sixtus V to ask that he bless Philip’s planned invasion of England. He received the Pope’s blessing. “The planned invasion now assumed the nature of a crusade against the Infidel, a holy war that was to be fought on a grand scale” (Weir 363).

On May 20 Mary Stuart wrote to the Spanish ambassador to England Bernardino de Mendoza to inform him that she would cede her right to the succession of the English crown to Philip. The Spanish king told the Pope that he had no interest in receiving it but would transfer any claim to his daughter, the Infanta Isbella Clara Eugenia.
In late May, Gilbert Griffith gave Walsingham two other letters that Mary Stuart had smuggled out to him. One of them assured Mendoza that she supported Philip’s planned invasion. The second letter was sent to Charles Paget, an English nobleman, a staunch Roman Catholic, and a correspondent of Mary’s living in France. The letter asked Paget to remind Philip of the need for urgency in invading England. In a return letter Paget told Mary that a priest, John Ballard, had arrived in England from France to orchestrate a Catholic rebellion against Elizabeth.

Meanwhile, Walter Raleigh’s colony at Roanoke Island under Ralph Lane’s governorship was failing. A drought, hostile relations with the local natives, the failure of supply ships to arrive from England, a dearth of food supply: all contributed to Lane’s desperation. He was rescued from starvation unexpectedly by Francis Drake, sailing north from the Caribbean on the whim of adding to Lane’s fort armament that he had taken from the Spaniards. A ferocious storm convinced Lane to load his entire colony onto Drake’s ships. The fleet left June 19. It reached England July 27.

While Lane and Drake were considering Lane’s options at Roanoke, John Ballard, watched closely by Walsingham’s agents, was seen visiting Anthony Babington, a rich twenty-five year old Catholic gentleman of Dethick. Ballard and Babington were overheard discussing Philip’s projected invasion and Elizabeth’s murder. The deed was to take place either in her Presence Chamber, while she walked in the park, or while she rode in her coach. Babington would do the deed himself with the assistance of six of his friends, themselves idealistic young Catholics of gentle birth. On June 25 Mary wrote to Babington, who replied July 6. He outlined to her his conspiracy: his “six noble gentlemen” would dispatch the Queen; he would rescue Mary from Chartley; and with the help of the invading Spanish forces, she would become Queen.

On July 17 Walsingham was given Mary’s return letter to Babington. Written by her two secretaries from her notes, which she subsequently burned, the letter indicated that Mary endorsed Babington’s plan and Elizabeth’s murder. Walsingham had his forger had a postscript that asked for the names of Babington’s six gentlemen.

Much to Walter Raleigh’s surprise, Drake and the entire Roanoke colony arrived in Plymouth July 27. He had sent Grenville and a relief squadron off to Roanoke in April, the squadron arriving off the Outer Banks approximately two weeks after Drake and Lane’s departure.

While London was celebrating Drake’s boastful return – “In half a year … he has destroyed what Philip cannot rebuild in twenty, even with all his millions in gold” (Miller 160) – Walsingham pounced. John Ballard was arrested August 4 and put in the Tower of London. August 9 -- Mary Stuart’s jailor, Sir Aymas Paulet, confiscated Mary’s letters, jewelry, and money while she was hunting before arresting her on the moors. August 14 – Babington was located and taken to the Tower. Fearing torture and believing that being cooperative would earn him a pardon, four days later he confessed. September 20 -- Babington, Ballard, and five other conspirators were executed. They were hanged briefly, had their privates cut off and bowels taken out while alive and seeing, and then beheaded and quartered.

On October 11 a special court of 36 commissioners assembled to hear evidence against Mary Stuart, who refused to acknowledge its jurisdiction. During her trial, Mary denied all knowledge of the Babington Plot, declared that her crucial letter to Babington was a forgery, insisted that she had never sanctioned the murder of Elizabeth, and that all she had ever done was seek help to gain her freedom wherever she could find it. Parliament assembled October 29 to ratify the special court’s guilty verdict. It petitioned Elizabeth November 12 to authorize Mary’s execution.

Elizabeth could not act. “If she signed the death warrant, she would be setting a precedent for condemning an anointed queen to death, and would also be spilling the blood of her kinswoman. To do this would court the opprobrium of the whole world, and might provoke the Catholic powers to vengeful retribution. Yet if she showed mercy, Mary would remain the focus of Catholic plotting for the rest of her life to the great peril of Elizabeth and the kingdom. Elizabeth knew where her duty lay, but she did not want to be responsible for Mary’s death. For weeks she existed under the most profound stress which affected her judgment and brought her close to a breakdown” (Weir 375).

On February 1, 1587, Sir William Davison presented Elizabeth the death warrant to sign. She did so, but, according to what she insisted days later, she then commanded Davison not to disclose the fact. As Davison was about to leave the room, Elizabeth suggested that he might ask Mary’s jailor, Sir Amyas Paulet, to quietly do away with Mary. Elizabeth could claim that Mary had died of natural causes. Although horrified, Davison agreed to write to Paulet, who answered back that he could not in good conscience.

Acting apparently against her wishes, Davison took the death warrant to the acting Lord Chancellor, who attached to the warrant the Great Seal of England. When Elizabeth discovered that this had happened, she made Davison swear on his life not to let the warrant out of his hands until she had expressly authorized him to do so.

In an emergency meeting, Elizabeth’s ten councilors agreed to take the responsibility for Mary’s execution. Lord Burghley drafted an order to have the sentence carried out. Mary Stuart was decapitated February 8.

Elizabeth “erupted, not only in a torrent of weeping, but also in rage against those who had acted on her behalf and driven her to this. Her councilors and courtiers … quaked in fear at the terrible accusations that were hurled at them” (Weir 380). Walsingham fled to his country home and feigned illness. Leicester and Burghley were banished from the royal presence. Davison was arrested Feb. 14, tried in the Star Chamber, sentenced to a heavy fine, and imprisoned in the Tower.

By May, Elizabeth had begun to forgive. Burghley was allowed back to Court. Leicester was forgiven. Sir Christopher Hatton was sworn in as Lord Chancillor, and Walter Raleigh replaced him as Captain of the Guard. Paulet was appointed Chancillor of the Order of the Garter. Davison would remain in the Tower until after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

King Philip of Spain was poised to strike. He had ordered General Parma to subjugate as much of the Dutch Provinces as was possible to create a springboard for the invasion. Acting on Elizabeth’s orders, Francis Drake and 24 ships left Plymouth Harbor April 16, 1587, to attempt to cripple Philip’s armada of ships. When John White, authorized by Walter Raleigh to found a colony somewhere on the south shore of Chesapeake Bay, left Plymouth May 8 with 117 men, women, and children, nobody in England knew what Drake had accomplished, and nobody but the perpetrator and his agent knew that White’s venture would be sabotaged.

Sources cited:

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001. Print.

Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair for Roanoke. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Print.

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

War with Spain Imminent

In 1580, prior to Queen Elizabeth’s knighting of Francis Drake, Pope Gregory XIII reissued his bull of excommunication. In December he let it be known that he sanctioned Elizabeth’s assassination. Meanwhile, Jesuits priests trained in Rome were arriving in England in droves. To combat the increased threat of Catholic insurgency, Parliament passed on March 18, 1581, the Statue of Recusancy. A monthly fine of 20 pounds would be imposed on anyone who didn’t attend Anglican services. Anyone who participated in a mass would spend a year in jail. Anybody who converted to the Roman Catholic faith would be classified as a traitor. Anybody who spoke defamatory remarks about the Queen once would have his ears cuts off and would be fined 200 pounds. Anyone so foolish as to commit the crime a second time would be put to death. Wide-scale prosecution was not prevalent, however. Over the next 20 years no more than 250 Catholics were executed or died in prison.

As the danger to her person increased, so also did Elizabeth’s difficulties with Spain. By annexing Portugal and declaring himself its king in August 1581, King Philip acquired Portugal’s wealth and a strong navy. In turn, Elizabeth recognized the deposed Portuguese heir, Don Antonio. Additionally, she pledged support to the Duke of Anjou (formerly the Duke of Alencon), the unstable brother of King Henry III of France. On September 19, Anjou accepted the Dutch offer that he become Prince and Lord of the Netherlands. The Dutch rebels had been weakened by a series of defeats delivered by the Duke of Parma, King Philip’s sterling general. They needed Anjou’s assistance. Anjou’s desire was military fame and glory. To achieve it, he needed financial assistance, which he believed he would receive if he were to marry Elizabeth. She needed the threat of marriage to Anjou and a military alliance with France to dissuade King Philip from invading her country. Prolonged negotiations, not marriage, was her intention.

In April – before Philip’s annexation of Portugal and Anjou’s acceptance of the Dutch crown -- impatient French commissioners had arrived in London to complete the marriage negotiations. (She took them on board Francis Drake’s ship to participate in his knighthood ceremony) Failing to gain a marriage agreement, they wanted her to provide Anjou both military and financial support. Elizabeth delayed. She stated her misgivings. She was yet concerned about her and Anjou’s age difference. Their marriage would encourage English Catholics to become more demonstrative. Helping Anjou in the Netherlands might cause Philip to declare war upon her. In June she told them that they could draw up a marriage treaty, but Anjou would have to endorse it in her presence. Disgusted, the French delegation returned to Paris. Elizabeth subsequently learned that Anjou’s and King Henry III’s mother, Catherine de Medici, had suggested that Anjou marry a Spanish princess. Elizabeth sent her chief secretary and advisor, Francis Walsingham, to Paris to maintain the fabrication that she really did intend to marry the Duke. She wanted a defense treaty with France without the marriage. Henry III and Catherine insisted that she could not have it without the marriage. Walsingham told her that she had to make up her mind.

In August, Philip threatened war. His ambassador to England, Bernardino de Mendoza, informed Elizabeth that if she did not heed his sovereign’s words, “it would be necessary to see whether cannons would not make her hear them better.” She retorted that if he (Mendoza) thought to threaten and frighten her, she would put him “into a place where he could not say a word” (Weir 338).

Thinking to capitalize on Elizabeth’s vulnerability, Anjou arrived in England October 31 to call her bluff. Elizabeth entertained him openly and affectionately. Mendoza reported to Philip several prescient observations. One, the French ambassador and Anjou’s entourage believed that the marriage was an established fact. Two, the English people, believing that Anjou was after her money, scoffed at the idea of marriage. Three, the Queen would do her best to avoid offending Anjou. Four, she would pledge Anjou support in the Netherlands to drive Anjou’s brother, Henry III, into a war with Spain. And, five, she would reap the benefits of such a war without engagement or loss to herself.

On November 24, Elizabeth made an almost fatal mistake. The French ambassador told her directly that King Henry wanted to hear from her own lips her decision. Elizabeth answered: “You may write this to the King: that the Duke of Anjou shall be my husband” (Weir 340). She then kissed Anjou on the mouth, took a ring off her hand, and gave it to him. He gave her a ring of his own. This, before witnesses, amounted to a formal betrothal. After a sleepless night, she told Anjou that she could not marry him yet. She had to sacrifice her happiness for the welfare of her subjects.

Anjou decided that if he could not finance his activities in the Netherlands by marriage, he would make Elizabeth pay for it to get rid of him. Elizabeth offered him 60,000 pounds. He accepted, but remained. On December 20 she paid him 10,000 pounds on account. Still he would not leave, believing that if he left he would never see the promised money. By then, King Philip had informed Elizabeth that he was willing to forgive her past offenses. He was willing to renew their old Anglo-Spanish alliance.

Elizabeth persuaded Anjou to leave on New Year’s Day 1582 with the offer of an additional 10,000 pounds. His fortunes plummeted in the Netherlands due largely to his incompetency. He was frequently seen playing tennis or engaged in hunting while the Duke of Parma captured Dutch city after Dutch city. Enraged that the Dutch were placing demands on him, Anjou turned against them in January 1583, initiating attacks on several cities. Retaliating, the Dutch rebels forced him to return to France. Disillusioned, they accepted William of Orange as their leader.

Making his second attempt to establish a colony and a naval base far north of Spanish Florida, Sir Humphrey Gilbert left Plymouth Harbor June 11, 1583. He died at sea September 9 on his return voyage, not having accomplished his mission. (See blog entry Sept. 4, 2013) Establishing a viable colony and a base for English ships to attack Spanish galleons in the Caribbean would now be undertaken by his half-brother Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth’s new favorite at Court.

On June 10, 1584, the Duke of Anjou died of a fever. King Henry III had no sons. After Henry’s death, the crown would go to his cousin, Henry of Bourbon, the Huguenot King of Navarre. Elizabeth could no longer deter King Philip by utilizing the possibility of an alliance with France. On July 10, William of Orange was murdered. Philip had been behind the assassination. Nothing in the Netherlands stood in the way of Parma’s great army. Mary Stuart was a participant again in plots to dethrone Elizabeth. Would Elizabeth also be assassinated? England’s future appeared very bleak.

Within this context Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe (see blog entry “Two Ships Enter Pamlico Sound” June 2013) sailed for America in late April 1584, explored the environs of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and returned to England in mid-September with Manteo and Wanchese, two Algonquian natives chosen to be trained and to serve as translators the following year. 1585 would see England’s first concerted attempt to found a colony in North America.

Source cited:

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London, Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

Elizabeth and Drake -- Piracy on the High Seas

Francis Drake returned to England September 26, 1580, dropping anchor at Southampton after nearly a three year absence circling the globe. Disembarking, he asked if Queen Elizabeth were still alive. He needed her protection. Informed that she was alive and well, he might then have recalled their meeting prior to his departure December 14, 1577. She had said: “‘So it is that I would be revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that I have received.’ Drake answered that the most effective way to do this would be to prey on Philip’s ships and settlements in the Indies, with which Elizabeth wholeheartedly agreed” (Weir 309).

Preying on Spanish shipping and settlements he had, seizing 800,000 pounds worth of treasure. Spain demanded that the entirety of it be returned, along with Drake’s head. Instead, Elizabeth honored him. Relating his adventures, he entertained her for six hours. He gave her a crown set with five huge emeralds, which she would wear on New Years Day 1581. She took 160,000 pounds of his booty. Moored on the Thames River, the Golden Hind was exhibited to the public as a memorial of his service. She would knight him aboard his ship April 5, 1581. In Madrid King Philip was planning his military and naval conquest of England.

What had transpired on the high seas previous to Drake’s triumphant return that had incited England and Spain to expect war?

We must begin with the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Spain and Portugal in 1494 and, thereafter, sanctioned by the Pope. Its purpose was to settle disputes between the two countries as to which area in the recently discovered New World each was entitled to claim ownership. A horizontal line was agreed upon that divided the globe in half. Spain received ownership of most of North and South America. Portugal received Africa and what today is Brazil. France, England, the Netherlands and lesser nations were forbidden to establish settlements there or engage in commerce.

Two decades later the Spanish Caribbean and Portuguese Brazil were in need of substantial numbers of slaves. Cash crops -- sugar and tobacco -- which had become highly valued in Europe, had to be cultivated. Having access to West Africa, the Portuguese began supplying the necessary labor: seizing Africans, transporting them across the Atlantic, selling them in Spain’s West Indies. Covetous of the profit that they might acquire, enterprising foreign merchants became illegal slave traders. Rather quickly, Spain and Portugal made their activities too risky to be gainful. Meanwhile, Spain had been extracting immense mineral wealth from the lands it had taken from the Mayan, Aztec, and Inca people. Its galleons were transporting back to Spain colossal fortunes in gold and silver. Accordingly, French, Dutch, and English sea adventurers engaged in piracy, selecting poorly protected treasure ships to seize and weakly defended Caribbean depot settlements to plunder.

England’s conflict with Spain and Portugal was exacerbated by the exploits of John Hawkins, born into a seafaring family and related to other daring seafarers out of Devonshire. In 1562 and again in 1564, he sailed to the Guinea coast, robbed Portuguese slavers of their chattel, and sold his stolen cargo to agents of plantation owners in the West Indies. Not until September 1569 was Hawkins made to suffer.

He had left Plymouth Harbor in 1568 with a squadron of five ships both to plunder and to trade. Nearly a year later (September 15, 1569) he anchored his ships in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulúa to make repairs and resupply before sailing home. While his men were reprovisioning his ships – Hawkins had made a truce with the port’s commander -- a Spanish escort fleet commanded by Don Francisco Luján arrived in the port. Luján launched a swift attack that caused Hawkins to lose 4 ships, 500 men, and nearly all of the year’s ill-begotten loot. Only two small ships (a sixth ship, a Portuguese caravel had been seized near the coast of Ghana and put to use) -- the Judith, commanded by a young Francis Drake, and the Minion, carrying Hawkins -- escaped. These ships were dangerously overcrowded and vastly short of food supplies. Hawkins abandoned 110 crewmen on what is now the coastline of Texas. Most of the abandoned surrendered to Spanish authorities, “were burned at the stake or made galley slaves for life” (Miller 145). Drake reached Plymouth January 20, 1569. Hawkins’s Minion limped into a Cornwall harbor days afterward.

“Along the quay, onlookers gasp at the sight of the grisly crew. Pale, skeletal faces, bony hands clawing at proffered food. Here they are: fifteen men, all that remain of John Hawkins’s squadron” (Miller 145). From this time forward, English soldiers and sea-farers craved war. Queen Elizabeth did not. Fearing that Spain might declare war and her country was too weak to defend itself, Elizabeth ceased giving even marginal consent to slave smuggling and acts of piracy.

The Netherlands had exploded in rebellion in 1568. Seven states had declared themselves free. There were riots. “In Antwerp, a mob descended upon the Cathedral of the Virgin and desecrated more than seventy alters: smashing the organ with axes, trampling holy waters underfoot, toppling a giant crucifix by pulling it down with ropes and chopping it into bits” (Miller 146). King Philip sent his top military commander, the Duke of Alva, to restore order. Martial law was declared in Brussels. Businesses were shut down. “Ports and exits from the country are sealed and the Inquisition swings into action. February 16, 1568. The entire population of the Netherlands is condemned to death. … Incapable of carrying out the full sentence, Alva creates a Council for Disturbances to determine who shall die” (Miller 146-147).

In December Philip borrowed huge sums of money – 400,000 pounds -- from Genoese bankers to finance his suppression of the Dutch rebellion. Vessels carrying the money, entering the English Channel, chased by French Huguenots, were forced to seek refuge in English ports. News of the decimation of Hawkins’s fleet and loss of crew members had filtered into London. Elizabeth deposited the borrowed sums in the mint at the Tower of London. Retaliating, Alva seized English goods and imprisoned Englishmen throughout the Netherlands. Elizabeth, in turn, impounded Spanish ships. Spain, thereupon, imposed an embargo, forbidding oil, alum, sugar, spices or such other commodities to enter her country. English merchants were arrested and given to the Inquisition. Hatred between England and Spain was never more intense. Philip, however, decided not to declare war. “His priority was to bring his Dutch subjects to heel before entering into any overt hostility with England” (Weir 202).

Privately financed English expeditionary fleets preyed on Spanish possessions throughout the Caribbean and Atlantic well into the 1570s. While the Queen was engaged at keeping Philip at bay by contemplating marriage with the Duke of Alencon (France’s King Charles IX’s younger brother), Francis Drake embarked on an ambitious raid upon Spain’s silver deposits at Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Darien, Panama, in 1572. “With the assistance of a local people known as the Cimarrones, the ‘wild ones,’ mostly slaves escaped from Spanish mines, Drake attacks. Victory is complete; the loot incredible. The ships, groaning with treasure, can carry home only a small portion. In desperation, the men discard the silver, cramming the vessels only with gold” (Miller 151). Drake arrived in Plymouth Harbor August 9, 1573. Great celebration ensued. “But beyond Plymouth, Drake received no accolades, for England and Spain are on the verge of a détente” (Miller 151).

On April 12, 1576, Humphrey Gilbert, who had made his name in Ireland imposing English rule, published “A Discourse of a Discovery for a New Passage to Cataia.” His publication was supported by influential London intellectuals: Walter Raleigh (Humphrey’s half-brother), the Richard Hakluyts, the historian William Camden, and Dr. John Dee (Elizabeth’s astrologer and England’s most versatile scientist). Members of the scientific circle in and about London declared in writing their support of Gilbert’s idea that encompassed both colonization and the discovery of a passageway to China north of Spain’s sphere of control. Martin Frobisher’s three voyages to Baffin Island 1576, 1577, and 1578 (See blog entries June 1, July 1, and August 1, 2013) resulted.

Encouraged by Dr. Dee, on November 6, 1577, Gilbert submitted to Elizabeth his “A Discourse How Her Majesty May Meet with and Annoy the King of Spain.” The idea was to strike directly at Spain’s sea forces by direct attack or by the pretense of letters patent to North American lands. He proposed a Bermudan base from which English ships could attack Spanish sea routes. Bermuda was deemed too visible. A hidden base on the North American coast was considered more sensible.

On December 13, 1577, with Elizabeth’s blessing, Francis Drake with five ships and 164 men left Plymouth Harbor for the coast of Africa, the first leg of what would be his circumnavigation of the world.

In 1578 Gilbert received from Elizabeth a six-year letters patent to sail to the New World to establish a colony. He was instructed not to attack Spanish forces or ships. Due mostly to sickness, poor provisioning, disobedience of crews, and bad weather, most of his ships failed to leave England. One ship, commanded by Walter Raleigh, did leave and spent six months sailing off the coast of Africa pirating.

In February 1580 Spain invaded Portugal. That nation’s King Henry had died. Its people had selected Henry’s nephew Don Antonio to succeed him. The Duke of Alva conquered all of Portugal in 70 days. Don Antonio fled to England to solicit Elizabeth’s support. Drake returned in triumph September 26. On April 4, 1581, Elizabeth dined with him on board the Golden Hind. Publicly defying the King of Spain, she knighted her favorite sea adventurer. She had brought with her the French commissioners yet negotiating her marriage to the Duke of Anjou (formerly the Duke of Alencon). “When Drake escorted her around the ship, telling him that King Philip had demanded he be put to death, she produced a sword, joking that she would use it ‘to strike off his head,’ whilst teasingly wielding it in the air. Because Elizabeth wished to emphasize to King Philip her defensive alliance with France, she turned to one of Anjou’s envoys, … and, handing over the sword, asked him to perform the dubbing ceremony. Thus it was that the short, stocky adventurer [Drake] found himself kneeling on the deck before a Frenchman, while the Queen looked on, beaming approval” (Weir 336-337).

Sources Cited:

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2001. Print.

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

The Most Perfect Goddess of the Heavens

Queen Elizabeth’s difficulties with foreign princes and Mary Stuart continued into the new decade with the assassination in Scotland January 23, 1570, of James Stuart, the Earl of Moray. Moray was Mary Stuart’s half-brother, one of King James V’s many bastards. Moray had taken Mary’s part in her quarrels with the Calvinist John Knox and had won her confidence. During her reign, until she married Lord Darnley, Mary had followed his advice. Becoming regent of Scotland after Mary’s abdication in 1567, Moray had opposed any movement to restore her as Queen. Elizabeth saw Mary’s restoration as a means of ridding herself of a major difficulty, but only if the stringent conditions of the Treaty of Edinburgh, which Mary had refused to ratify, were followed -- the treaty’s most important condition being that Mary renounce all claims to the English throne. Moray had been murdered by rival lords who believed he had wanted to become King. William Maitland, the former Scottish ambassador to England, had thereupon organized a faction to restore Mary; and the kings of France and Spain were demanding that Elizabeth assist in the restoration.

Pope Pius V’s excommunication of Elizabeth February 25 produced considerable turmoil. The Pope’s bull deprived “the pretended Queen of England, the serpent of wickedness,” of her kingdom. Elizabeth’s subjects were free of their oath of allegiance. The bull’s intention was two-fold: to incite Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects to rebel and to encourage foreign princes to assist in her removal. Its immediate consequences were counter-productive. Pius’s action angered Spain’s Philip II and France’s Charles IX. Each resented that he had not been consulted. English Protestants pressed “increasingly for Mary’s execution and for tougher laws against Catholics.” The bull “subverted the loyalty of Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects and made every one of them a potential traitor to be regarded with suspicion. … each one of them would face an agonizing choice of loyalties, for it would no longer be possible to compromise on matters of conscience” (Weir 213).

In late April the Privy Council warned Elizabeth that if she forced Mary’s restoration she would never feel secure in her kingdom. Conversely, the French had threatened war if she did not. Seeking a middle course, Elizabeth sent Mary an additional condition for restoration, that her son James be brought to England as a hostage to guarantee Mary’s good conduct. In October Mary agreed to Elizabeth’s conditions. Because of the increased threat of Mary being crowned Queen of England, the need for Elizabeth to marry soon and give birth to a male heir now seemed imperative. “Without that child, Elizabeth stood alone, unguarded against foreign invaders, traitors at home, and the constant fear of assassination. If she died childless, there would be no bar to Mary’s succession” (Weir 215).

Consequently, Elizabeth sent an envoy to the Holy Roman Emperor in August to attempt to renew marriage negotiations with the Archduke. He was not interested. To her surprise, Elizabeth received in September a marriage proposal from France’s Henry, the Duke of Anjou, King Charles IX’s brother and heir. Charles and his mother Catherine de Medici wanted to unite England and France in a defensive alliance against Spain, whose presence in the Netherlands Charles feared. Additionally, Charles needed support against the increasing threat to his sovereignty of the House of Guise. And, finally, by having Elizabeth marry his brother, he hoped to deter Elizabeth from helping the ever-increasing masses of French Huguenots. Prolonged negotiations were precisely what Elizabeth desired. Because France was King Philip’s most powerful rival, Philip would be obliged to tolerate Elizabeth’s religious heresy for fear that if he were to act against her, he would force her to commit to a French marriage even though her husband would be Catholic. Anjou was luke-warm about the proposed marriage. So was Elizabeth. He was 19; she was 37. It was already well know that he was bisexually promiscuous. Even though she was insistent that he would have to obey her country’s rules and Anjou was unbending about not abandoning his faith, she encouraged the French ambassador to believe that she was ready for marriage. The Queen Mother Catherine de Medici sent a flattering portrait of her son and a list of demands: Anjou had to be permitted to practice his faith, he would be crowned King of England the day after the marriage, and he would receive an annual income of 60,000 pounds for life. Elizabeth’s only concession was that Anjou would not be forced to attend Anglican services.

In February 1571, Scottish commissioners, acting on behalf of the four-year-old James VI, appeared before Elizabeth. The Scottish people do not want you to press for Mary Stuart’s restoration, they informed. Embittered by Pope Pius’s excommunication and resentful of the desire of European monarchs to depose her, Elizabeth had no intention now of doing so. Soon thereafter, Mary was told of Elizabeth’s refusal to help her. She realized that only foreign princes could deliver her. “If intrigue could secure her liberation, and hopefully the crown of England, that was the course she was now obliged to take” (Weir 270).

Mary had already received a letter from Roberto Ridolfi, a Florentine banker who acted as a papal agent. He had conceived of a plan whereby Catholic powers would invade England, overthrow Elizabeth, and crown Mary and the English subject Lord Norfolk (who had entertained thoughts of marrying Mary previously -- and had spent time in the Tower of London because of it) Queen and King. Philip and the Pope had agreed to the plan in principle. Ridolfi received Mary’s consent.

According to Ridolfi’s plan, Philip’s general in the Netherlands, the Duke of Alva, would invade England with 6,000 troops, march to London, and occupy it. Norfolk would incite loyal English Catholics to rise up against Elizabeth. Alva would seize Elizabeth and either assassinate her or hold her hostage for Mary’s safety. Mary would be liberated and proclaimed Queen of England. Mary and Norfolk would be married and would reign as joint sovereigns of England and Scotland.

The Duke of Alva rejected the plan, recognizing that it had little chance of succeeding. Spies working for Elizabeth’s chief advisor, Lord Burghley, discovered it. Arrested, Norfolk confessed. The Spanish ambassador was expelled from the country. Ridolfi fled abroad. Elizabeth ordered her cousin Mary to be more closely confined and watched. Never again would she consider restoring Mary to the Scottish throne. Acting swiftly, she recognized James VI King of Scots. She had Mary’s letters implicating her in the murders of her secretary/lover David Rizzio in 1566 and her husband Lord Darnley in 1567 published. Norfolk was beheaded June 2, 1572. Yet Elizabeth turned down Parliament’s request that Mary either be executed or be barred legislatively from succession and be warned that future plotting against Elizabeth would require her execution.

On April 19, 1572, England and France concluded the Treaty of Blois. Each country would provide the other military and naval assistance against their common enemies. France would end its support of Mary Stuart. Catherine de Medici thereafter proposed a marriage between Elizabeth and her youngest son, Francis, the Duke of Alencon. Seventeen years old, he was said to be somewhat sympathetic toward Huguenots. His skin was badly marked from two childhood attacks of smallpox. He was undersized for his age. Elizabeth agreed to allow negotiations to proceed, hoping to prolong them indefinitely. The Massacre of St. Bartholemew in August interceded.

Backed by the Catholic House of Guise, Catherine de Medici, jealous that the Huguenot leader Admiral de Coligny had gained influence with her son King Charles, had ordered the Huguenot murdered. The attempt failed. Riots broke out in Paris. Reluctantly backed by Charles, Catherine ordered all Huguenots removed from the capital. Catholics murdered every Huguenot they could find – between 3,000 and 4,000. Similar attacks erupted in the provinces. Elizabeth responded cautiously. She could not compromise the French alliance. She expressed deep shock and anger. She hoped that King Charles would make amends. She would not make a decision about marriage until she was satisfied that Charles would henceforth treat his Huguenot subjects fairly. Secretly, she sent arms to the Huguenots.

In July 1573 King Charles declared that all Huguenots were free to practice their religious beliefs. Ten months later, May 30, 1574, he died. His brother, the Duke of Anjou, became King Henry III. Fearing an end of religious tolerance in France and possibly the peace treaty that she had signed, Elizabeth moved closer to Spain by signing in August the Treaty of Bristol. (Henry did continue the moderate religious policies begun by Charles) Elizabeth had agreed to meet the Duke of Alencon at Dover in March 1574, two months before Charles IX’s death. Alencon, however, had become implicated in a series of intrigues against his brother Charles and had been put under house arrest. (After Charles’s death, Alencon’s title became the Duke of Anjou, being that he was now the first heir to the French throne, his older brother, the original Anjou, having become King. I will continue to identify him as Alencon, to avoid confusion) After Charles’s death, Alencon escaped his incarceration and wandered for some time about Europe. Elizabeth informed his mother Catherine that under no circumstance would she now marry him.

A new threat to Elizabeth’s safety began to surface in 1574. Hundreds of highly-trained, committed, militant Catholic priests from Jesuit seminaries located throughout Europe had started to arrive in England. These “seminarists” were comprised of two groups. One group provided spiritual comfort for beleaguered English Catholics. The other group strived to undermine the English church and state. The government would view both groups as traitors deserving the worst of punishments.

In January 1575 Protestant leaders in the Netherlands asked Elizabeth to become Queen of Holland and Zeeland. She procrastinated, not wanting to provoke Philip of Spain, who was the anointed king and hereditary ruler of the Netherlands. Also, she opposed in principle the overthrowal of any rightful monarch. The Protestant leaders took offense at her procrastination.

Elizabeth’s relations with France and Spain appeared to improve. France’s King Henry requested a renewal of the Treaty of Blois. Yet Mary Stuart, now 32, still posed a definite threat. Mary knew she would never again be Queen of Scotland. Her ambition now was to dethrone Elizabeth. With the help of attendants as well as friends who lived outside the estate where she was confined, Mary managed to communication with the Pope, King Philip, and other Catholics. Spies working for Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s secretary, had intercepted enough of her ciphered letters to know that she was waiting for the day of her deliverance and ascension to the English throne.

1576 witnessed additional trouble in the Netherlands. Elizabeth had not yet answered whether she would consent to be Queen of Holland and Zeeland. In February Philip asked her if she intended to provide aid to the Protestant rebels. She evaded his question. In the spring she declined the Holland and Zeeland Protestant leaders’ offer. That summer Spanish troops stationed in the Netherlands mutinied and rioted over non-payment of wages. Dutch Protestants and some Catholics coalesced under the leadership of William of Orange. The rebels agreed that they should elect their own assembly and fight for independence. They wanted their and England’s military forces to combine to form a Protestant army with Elizabeth its leader. Elizabeth rejected their proposal. Philip appointed a new Regent for the Netherlands, his half brother Don John of Austria, “the most renowned soldier in Europe” (Weir 306). Elizabeth had in fact given the Dutch 20,000 pounds. She had loaned them another 106,000 pounds – almost half her annual income. She offered to act as mediator between Don John and the Dutch rebels. Her proposal was rejected. Ultimately, Don John offered the rebel Dutch favorable terms for peace.

In the early months of 1577 Walsingham’s spies uncovered a Catholic conspiracy to remove Elizabeth and re-establish Catholicism as England’s official religion. Don John would invade England with 10,000 troops. He would marry Mary Stuart. They would rule England jointly. Don John was too busy in the Netherlands to initiate the plan. Elizabeth refused to punish Mary.

In January 1578 Don John decisively defeated the Dutch Protestant armies in a major battle. Elizabeth immediately renewed marriage negotiations with the French. “Thanks to the provocation given to King Philip by English privateers” (information about this next month) and the help Elizabeth had given the Dutch rebels, “the peace with Spain now seemed to be on a very precarious footing, … Philip might yet invoke the Pope’s interdict and make the rumoured Enterprise of England a reality” (Weir 311). She had also been worried about reports that the Duke of Alencon was planning to meddle in the Netherlands. Alencon’s ambition had found no outlet at the court of France. Regarded as a troublesome nuisance, he craved military fame and glory. Elizabeth wanted no French presence whatsoever in the Netherlands. When she learned that Alencon’s intention was not supported by the French government, she thought to control him by suggesting that she might yet marry him. Alencon was amenable. Without the backing of a powerful ruler he knew he could not achieve his ambitious goals.

Alencon participated in a Netherlands attack upon Don John in August 1578. Thereafter, he signed a treaty with the Protestant States that conferred upon him the title, “Defender of the Liberties of the Low Countries against Spanish Tyranny.” Enraged, Elizabeth sent a friendly letter to King Philip. Don John died October 1. Philip sent another army under the Duke of Parma to subjugate the Netherlands. Parma pushed back William of Orange’s forces to Holland and Zeeland. Returning to France in November, Alencon, desperate for receive aid to support his next foray in the Netherlands, sent Jean de Simier, Baron de St. Marc, to England to woo Elizabeth. “Exquisitely skilled in love toys, pleasant conceits and court dalliances,” Simier indeed wooed her. Elizabeth responded “like a skittish girl, never happier or better-humoured than when in his company” (Weir 318, 319). She nicknamed him her “Monkey.” Alencon wrote from France: “If Your Majesty will consent to marry me … you will restore a languishing life, which has existed only for the service of the most perfect goddess of the heavens” (Weir 319).

In March 1579 Simier presented a draft marriage treaty to the Privy Council. The Council rejected three of the marriage articles: that Alencon be crowned immediately after the wedding, that he share jointly with the Queen the power to grant land and church offices, and that Parliament give him an annual income of 60,000 pounds payable until his children had reached their majority. Elizabeth stipulated that no decision could be reached about the marriage treaty until Alencon came to England to meet her. Alencon arrived “secretly” August 17. She appeared taken by him. She nicknamed him her “Frog.” Alencon returned to France at the end of the month. Public opposition to the marriage was never greater. Angered, Elizabeth had the right hands of the author and printer of a salacious pamphlet cut off. The public was outraged all the more, forcing her to recognize that if she were to retain the love of her subjects she could not accept Alencon as a husband. Yet it was necessary that the marriage negotiations be prolonged, to keep the French government friendly, to keep the Duke under control, and to keep King Philip at bay. Therefore, she feigned a great love for her French suitor. Into the year 1580 she wore his gift jewel at Court; she tucked his pair of gloves in her belt, kissed them hundreds of times; she wrote him many letters. Her Councilors had no idea what she would ultimately decide.

Sources Cited:

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

Not Insensible to Human Emotions

Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England in 1558. She was Henry VIII’s third child to rule.

During her half-brother Edward’s six year reign (1547-1553) the Anglican Church underwent substantial Protestant reform. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s only child, Mary, succeeded Edward in 1553. She was a resolute Catholic. Dubbed “Bloody Mary,” she married Prince Philip of Spain in 1554 and persecuted Protestants severely. Philip remained in England during Mary’s phantom pregnancy. When it became clear that she was not with child, he left England to wage war against his arch enemy France. He became King of Spain in 1556. Two years later Mary died. For 47 years Philip would be Elizabeth’s most dangerous enemy.

Philip II was Catholicism’s staunchest champion. Whether it be accomplished by marriage, assassination, or military conquest, he was determined that England would again be a Catholic nation. Elizabeth parried him adroitly. Their conflict reached its climax in 1588 when Philip sent his great armada of war ships into the English Channel.

For more than a decade Elizabeth tried not to provoke him. Her treatment of English Catholics, although restrictive, was not oppressive. Early on, her primary advisors, believing that no woman should rule a nation independently, pressured her to marry a Catholic prince. They feared dissention, chaos, and foreign aggression. They were adamant that she end all dispute about who should be her successor. The birth of a child fathered by a foreign prince would settle it. Elizabeth used their persuasions to her own advantage. Philip offered to marry her in 1559. He would return England to Papal authority and he would protect Spain’s commercial interests in the Netherlands by allying Spain with England. Elizabeth rejected his proposal. He sought then to persuade her to marry his cousin, Archduke Charles of Austria. Interpreting Elizabeth’s conduct, Philip’s ambassador ventured that although she had “never set her heart upon, nor wished to marry anyone in the world” there was yet hope. “She was but human and not insensible to human emotions and impulses.” She appeared to be amenable, but she harbored reservations. She would rather be a nun than marry “on the faith of portrait painters.” She “had heard rumours that Charles had an abnormally large head: she dared not risk accepting a deformed husband” (Weir 65). Charles would have to come to England to be inspected. The Holy Roman Emperor (Charles’s father) vetoed her stipulation, as Elizabeth knew he would. Seemingly indecisive, she prolonged marriage negotiations until it became obvious to the Austrians and Philip that she would not comply.

Elizabeth understood that Philip needed her now as his ally in his dealings with France. He would be willing to overlook temporarily the fact that she was Protestant if she provided him assistance. England had long ago earned France’s enmity. Henry VIII had invaded France. Henry II, the current French king, believed that the English annulment of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon’s marriage had been illegal. Elizabeth was, therefore, a bastard, not entitled to rule. The legitimate English queen was Mary, Queen of Scots. This was because Margaret, Henry VIII’s older sister, had been Mary’s grandmother. Margaret and her husband, King James IV of Scotland, had produced Mary’s father, James V. Mary’s mother was the French noblewoman Mary of the powerful House of Guise. James V had died days after Mary’s birth. Mary had been raised in France by the Guise family while Catholic regents had ruled Scotland. Not yet 16, Mary had married Henry II’s son Francis, the French Dauphin in 1558, the same year Elizabeth had become Queen.

An unexpected torrent of events changed Europe’s political landscape in 1559. Philip married Elisabeth of Valois, Henry II’s daughter. Henry II died from a jousting accident. Mary’s husband Francis became king. France and Spain signed a peace treaty. England and France signed a peace settlement. Francis II, the new King of France, influenced by Mary’s mother, his Guise uncles, and his own mother, Catherine de Medici, remained bellicose. Francis boasted that he would have himself declared King of England. Elizabeth fired back: “I will take a husband who will give the King of France some trouble, and do him more harm than he expects” (Weir 75).

Behind her bravado was alarm. Mary of Guise was now regent of Scotland; French troops were stationed there; Elizabeth feared a two-prong attack. She did not foresee that Francis II and Mary of Guise would both die the following year (1560), that Protestant lords would gain the upper hand in Scotland, that the Treaty of Edinburgh would remove French soldiers from Scotland, and that religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots in France were about to tear France apart.

With the French threat diminished, Mary, Queen of Scots, now became the focal point of Elizabeth’s concern. Mary’s mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, the Queen Regent of France, sent Mary back to Scotland in August 1561. Eighteen years old, Mary needed a new husband. Elizabeth was concerned that Mary might marry a prince from one of the royal houses of Spain, Austria, or France. That would place the Catholic threat right back at her back doorstep. Scotland could be used as a springboard for an invasion of England. Elizabeth wanted Mary’s husband to be Robert Dudley, Elizabeth’s long-time Protestant friend and advisor (and presumed lover). Philip II approved. Dudley and Mary did not. Dudley wanted to be Elizabeth’s husband and King Regent. Mary believed that Dudley was beneath her. In 1565 she married the British subject Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, a descendent of Henry VIII’s sister Margaret from her second marriage.

No longer needing Elizabeth as an ally, Philip now looked upon Mary as the means to return England to Catholicism. Mary’s minimal demand had been that Elizabeth declare her to be next in line to the English throne. Her lineage and her husband’s lineage traced back separately to Henry VIII’s older sister. But, quickly, Mary all but destroyed her chances of a peaceful ascendency. Unable to control her passions, much to Philip’s horror, she indulged in love affairs that led to two murders – that of her secretary/lover in 1566 and of Darnley in 1567 – murders in which many of her subjects believed she was complicit. Fearful that she might be tried for conspiracy to commit murder, she abdicated her throne July 24, 1567. Her year old son -- Elizabeth’s eventual successor -- was crowned James VI of Scotland. Protestant lords placed Mary in custody in Lochleven. She escaped May 2, 1568. The 6,000 man army raised to defend her was defeated eleven days later. She fled into England May 26.

These events placed Elizabeth in a most precarious position. Unless Mary was cleared of the charges of conspiring to murder Darnley, Elizabeth could not receive her. Sending her back to Scotland would mean her death. Sending Mary to France or Spain would encourage those countries all the more to attempt to depose her. Philip’s large army lay close by in the Netherlands, where it had been quashing Huguenot rebellion. Allowing Mary to be at liberty in England as a private citizen would inspire Catholic malcontents to rally to her cause. Elizabeth decided to keep Mary in custody as an “honorable guest.” Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s ministers would create a tribunal. The tribunal would investigate the conspiracy charges declared against Mary. It would then determine her innocence or guilt.

The inquiry began October 4. Letters were produced by the prosecution that clearly implicated Mary. Her defenders claimed that the letters were forgeries. The tribunal commissioners declared them authentic but were divided about how they should proceed. Elizabeth would not allow them to declare Mary innocent, aware of the strength of adverse public opinion against Mary. She was cognizant also that Catholic subjects could begin to view Mary as their champion. Worst of all, Mary wanted Elizabeth’s crown now. She had written the Queen of Spain that with Philip’s help she would “make ours the reigning religion” in England (Weir 199). In January 1569 the commissioners declared that nothing had been proved -- that, in effect, Mary was neither guilty nor innocent. Elizabeth placed Mary in the custody of George Talbot, Sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, at whose residence she would remain for most of the next 15 years.

There still remained the issue of Elizabeth’s eventual successor. Would Elizabeth in fact marry and give birth? If not, would she actually name her successor? And how could she continue to thwart Philip II? At the end of June 1565 she had rejected the marriage proposal of the fourteen-year-old King Charles IX of France. Several of her advisors had then revived their efforts to convince her to marry Charles, the Austrian Archduke. Elizabeth made conditions that the Holy Roman Emperor would not accept. Foremost, Charles would not renounce his faith. But the Emperor was willing to compromise. If Elizabeth would allow Charles to attend mass in private, he would publicly accompany her to Anglican services. If this concession was agreeable, he would marry Elizabeth at once. Elizabeth instructed her emissary, Lord Sussex, to inform the Emperor that her conscience and her policy of religious uniformity would not allow her to permit Charles to practice his religion in private. She knew that attitudes in her country about religion had hardened and that her acceptance of this compromise would invite controversy, quite possibly rebellion, perhaps even civil war. “She wished to make clear to her subjects that she would do nothing to forfeit their love and loyalty, and that she would never allow the laws of her country to be broken, even by her husband” (Weir 192-193).

Then there was the difficulty of Protestant rebellion in the northern provinces of the Netherlands and the presence there of Philip’s soldiers. Catholic churches had been desecrated. Imperial officials had been attacked. Philip had sent to the provinces the Duke of Alva and 50,000 soldiers. The rebellion had been crushed, but the army had remained, too close to England for Elizabeth’s ease of mind. She sympathized with the rebels, but she could not send them assistance for fear of Spanish retaliation. It was at this time that Mary abdicated her throne, escaped her imprisonment in Scotland, and fled to England.

In 1569 Elizabeth witnessed just how serious was the threat that she could be deposed. Catholic lords in northern England – led by the Earls Northumberland and Westmorland -- had conceived a plan to foment rebellion, murder royal officials, liberate Mary, whom they had been in contact, replace uncooperative royal advisors, remove Elizabeth, and crown Mary. Spain and France had promised aid. A royal army of 26,000 men was sent north. By December 20, the uprising collapsed. Northumberland and Westmorland fled into Scotland. Between 600 and 750 commoners were subsequently hanged. Spared their lives, 200 of the gentry were deprived of their estates.

Next Month: Elizabeth pretends to entertain marriage to impede Philip’s objectives, English sea captains raid Spanish treasure ships, and daring adventurers look to colonize in North America.

Sources Cited:

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

Father, Do Me No More Favors!

To appreciate better England’s attempt to establish a colony in North America in 1585, a student of history should know certain facts about the difficulties that Queen Elizabeth faced when in 1558 she became Queen, difficulties that she would continue to have during her lengthy reign.

Most of Elizabeth’s initial difficulties were caused by her father, Henry VIII. This blog entry explains how.

Throughout Henry VIII’s reign France was England’s enemy. Henry invaded France three times wanting to regain territory that had once belonged to England. He also wanted to be France’s King. Not surprisingly, France was hostile to Elizabeth when she became Queen.

Until the late 1520s Spain was more Henry’s ally than his enemy. Near the beginning of his reign (1509) Henry married Spain’s Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. He stayed on good terms with their successor, King Charles (also the Holy Roman Emperor) for ten years, siding with him several times during Charles’s ongoing conflict with France. The relationship soured when Henry sought permission from the Pope to have his marriage annulled. Catherine, who was Charles’s aunt, had not borne Henry a male heir. Thwarted mostly by Charles, in 1533 Henry removed himself from Papal authority by declaring himself the head of the Church of England. A special English court declared the marriage null and void. Prior to the court's decision, Henry married the independent-minded Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of Henry’s mistresses, Mary Boleyn, one of Catherine’s ladies-in-waiting. Crowned queen-consort June 1, 1533, Anne gave birth to Elizabeth September 7. Henry ordered Anne Boleyn beheaded three years later. He married thereafter Jane Seymour, who gave birth to Edward, who became King in 1547. By separating his kingdom from the Catholic Church and having his marriage to Catherine voided, Henry gave Elizabeth’s nemesis King Philip II (Charles’s successor) every motivation to convert her or replace her with a Catholic monarch.

Henry also created problems for Elizabeth in Scotland. They would plague Elizabeth her entire reign. Henry’s father (Henry VII) had established peace with that Catholic nation by marrying his daughter Margaret to King James IV in 1503. James V, a devout Catholic, crowned King in 1513, maintained a close relationship with France. He married the French king’s daughter Madeleine (January 1537) and, after Madeleine’s death, Mary of Guise of the powerful House of Guise (June 1538). His and Mary’s only surviving child was Mary, born in 1542. She would become Mary, Queen of Scots, and claimant of the English throne.

The death of James’s mother (Margaret Tudor – Henry VIII’s sister) removed any remaining incentive for England and Scotland to remain at peace. When Henry had broken with the Roman Catholic Church, he had asked James to do the same. James had refused. Henry wanted to unite the two kingdoms. Warfare ensued. A small Scottish army met and defeated a similar-sized English army in August 1542 near the Scottish border. In November a larger Scottish army was beaten decisively on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish border. James died December 15 of a fever, six days after his daughter’s birth.

Henry proposed a marriage between his young son Edward and the infant Mary. The regent of Scotland reluctantly agreed. The Treaty of Greenwich was signed July 1, 1543. It stipulated that at the age of ten Mary would marry Edward. Mary would move to England where Henry would oversee her upbringing. The two countries would remain legally separated. If Edward and Mary had no children, the union between the two countries would dissolve. The Treaty was rejected by the Parliament of Scotland in December. Seeking to force the marriage, Henry invaded Scotland. In May 1544 the Earl of Hertford raided and burned Edinburgh. Warfare ended in 1546 without a definite resolution. Henry died January 28, 1547.

In 1548 an agreement was reached between Scotland’s regent and France’s King Henry II regarding Mary. She would marry the Dauphin Francis sometime in the future. Mary was subsequently taken to France by her mother, Mary of Guise, to spend the next 13 years at the French court. Years later, Mary, Queen of Scots, would become the focal point of plots to remove or assassinate Elizabeth.

Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth

Queen Elizabeth took special notice of Walter Raleigh in 1582 when she summoned Arthur Grey, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and Raleigh to appear before her Privy Council to be interrogated. A captain of English troops in Ireland, Raleigh had sent critical messages about Grey’s job performance quelling rebellion to Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to the Queen. Responding, Grey had accused Raleigh of making misrepresentations and fomenting plots. “I neigher like his carriage nor his company,” Grey had written Walsingham. Eloquent, persuasive, Raleigh presented himself before the Queen and her councilors far better than his superior. Not wanting to go back to Ireland, Raleigh thereafter sought to and was permitted to stay on at the Royal Court.

Raleigh was 30 years old. Eighteen years older than Raleigh, Elizabeth was taken by his masculinity, intellect, self-confidence, and charm. Highly intelligent herself, erudite, fiercely independent, craving male adoration, she demanded his daily presence eager to debate his opinions, appreciate his wit, welcome his brass dismissal of rivals’ criticism, and bask in his declarations of courtly love.

Throughout her lengthy reign Elizabeth thrived on masculine flattery. She reveled in the artificial rituals of manly courtship. She was not a beautiful woman; but her personality, according to biographer Alison Weir, was compelling, charismatic. She charmed the opposite sex by utilizing her wit, vivacity, and expressive eyes. She was far more at ease with men than women, whom she regarded as rivals. It pleased her to believe that those who flattered her were really in love with her. “As the years went by, she took more and more extreme measures to recapture her lost youth, but her chivalrous courtiers continued to reassure her that she was the fairest lady at court, a fiction her inordinate vanity allowed her to swallow” (Weir 229).

Raleigh was nearly six feet tall (a good eight inches taller than the average male). He was dark haired with a lighter, neatly-trimmed beard and moustache. He had piercing light brown eyes. He was handsome, graceful, and very bold. He had a charming Devonshire accent. She teased him about it, calling him “Water,” not “Walter.”

Raleigh was born in Devon in 1552, the youngest of five children. His father was of the lower gentry. Raleigh was a distant relative of Francis Drake (by way of his father’s first marriage) and the half brother of Humphrey Gilbert (by way of his mother’s first marriage). Raleigh attended Oxford and the Inns of Court. He was boisterous with friends and was often in trouble for brawling and playing practical jokes. One of his roommates recalled him as being "riotous, lascivious, and incontinent." He was bright, ambitious, and energetic. He was inquisitive; he was a free-thinker. He had a wide range of interests and possessed many talents. He believed he could attain greatness. He interrupted his studies in 1569 to join the Huguenots in France to fight against Catholic tyranny. He may have been in Paris August 25, 1572, to experience the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Raised listening to the exciting tales of Devonshire seafarers, fired by the idea of global exploration, he participated in Humphrey Gilbert’s first attempt (1578) to found an English colony in North America. Three of the seven ships that Gilbert commanded deserted; foul weather kept three others in port. Raleigh’s ship left port and was gone for nearly six months, sailing probably as far as the Cape Verde Islands (off the coast of Africa), its crew and captain intent on practicing piracy.

Mostly because of the recommendation of his mother’s aunt, Katherine "Kat" Ashley (who had served as governess and confidante to Elizabeth before she became Queen), in 1580 Raleigh secured a position at the royal court. He became one of the Esquires of the Body Extraordinary, a group of personable young courtiers who performed for Elizabeth ceremonial duties. Exhibiting a volatile temper, almost immediately he fought two duels and was imprisoned. Needing to remove him from the contentious environment of the Court, Raleigh’s allies persuaded the Queen’s advisors to assign him to officer English soldiers in Ireland. This entailed engaging Papal troops sent to a Catholic fort at Smerwick, County Kerry. Accepting Lord Grey’s pledge of clemency after a three day siege, the Pope’s troops surrendered. The fort's women were thereupon hanged, its priests tortured and executed, and all of the soldiers stabbed. Much of this was done under Raleigh’s supervision. Raleigh remained in Ireland until early 1582, when he and Deputy Lord Grey were summoned to appear before the Queen.

It had become nearly impossible for a courtier who lacked a noble pedigree to establish himself at Court. England’s nobility had become even more resistant to social class upward mobility. Expanded trade with European countries had enabled English merchants and the lesser gentry to become rich and powerful. The influence of older landed families had begun to wane. Peers were no longer automatically filling the highest levels of government. The nobility, reacting, strived to redefine upper class status. Gentlemen, henceforth, were to be defined by how money was made, not solely by wealth. Great emphasis was placed on education and correct behavior. “Nobility is a way of living, a sharing of tastes, a mastering of social graces” (Miller 138). The nobility demanded enforcement of laws that defined the clothing styles allowed each class. They and rich merchants strived to outdo each other, each wearing fine and costly garments. The rise to prominence of a son of the lower gentry or mercantile class was fought against vehemently.

Moreover, competition to win favor at Court, regardless of a man’s pedigree, was fierce. “The nearer one was to the Queen, … the greater the reward, which included court and government posts, knighthood, peerages (very rare), monopolies on goods, annuities, pensions, wardships and loans” (Weir 254). Few openings for young candidates existed. Success ultimately depended on winning Elizabeth’s approval. Striving to do so was exceedingly costly. It required a massive outlay of funds to create a competitive visual image. Many lost their fortunes; others had to sell off manor lands to pay their London debts. If a young man was so fortunate as to be admitted into Elizabeth’s circle, he now had to worry about maintaining his advantage. He could easily be supplanted. Fashion at Court was all important, a public statement. A courtier had to compete in the display of outlandish attire. He also had to compete in dancing, writing poetry, and exhibiting accomplishments that revealed a fluency in many languages. Elizabeth had created an exceedingly high bar. Raleigh surmounted it handsomely.

In Elizabeth’s eyes Raleigh was fearless, daring, and overpoweringly virile. He wooed her, sending her notes of endearment, playing skillfully the unrequited lover. He traveled with her from palace residence to palace residence as well as on progresses throughout the kingdom. Using a diamond ring Raleigh carved a message on a stained-glass window that read “Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall.” She carved a witty response: “If thy heart fails thee, climb not at all.” One of his poems, written in 1588 read in part:

Those eyes which set my fancy on a fire,
Those crisped hairs which hold my heart in chains,
Those dainty hands which conquered my desire,
That wit which on my thought does hold the reins!

Those eyes for clearness do the stars surpass,
Those hairs obscure the brightness of the sun,
Those hands more white than every ivory was,
That wit even to the skies hath glory won.

Elizabeth provided him a substantial income. She bestowed on him two leases from All Souls College, Oxford. He received the authority to charge every vintner in the country one pound a year to retail wines. Import wine permits had to be obtained initially from him. Later, he was given large and very profitable grants involving the export of woolens. In late 1582 or early 1583 he was given a commodious house on the Thames River. He used his income to dress lavishly, like a prince. His clothes glittered with rubies, diamonds and pearls. His footwear was adorned with jewels. All the vessels at his table were of silver with his own code of arms. His bed was draped with a green velvet spread bordered with silver lace. His four posts were garnished with white feather plumes. His rivals, and most of the nobility, hated him. Raleigh was denounced as a manipulator, a fraud, a deceiver. They made cutting jibes about his low birth. Raleigh disdained their contempt, wearing it as a badge of honor. Elizabeth reveled in it, even encouraged it. Fearful of his effect on the Queen, many Privy Council members viewed him as an enemy.

Profiting from Elizabeth’s favoritism, Raleigh pursued his objectives. After his half-brother’s death at sea in 1583, Raleigh wanted Gilbert’s colonial patent transferred to him. Elizabeth obliged. Raleigh’s enterprises at Roanoke were about to begin.

Sources Cited:

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2000. Print.

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth the Queen. London: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.

"We Will Live and Die Together"

The following scene, which I may include in a forthcoming novel about the conflict caused by English attempts to establish settlements at Roanoke in the 1580s, sets up an interesting side-note to Humphrey Gilbert’s botched attempt to found an English colony off the coast of Maine.

Gilbert and his crew sensed how close to Sable Island’s rocks the Squirrel, riding the crests of turbulent waves, had come. If he dared to put out to sea, how many days or weeks would it be before he could return? On this island roamed wild pigs and cattle, set ashore by Portuguese explorers. He had to replenish his food supply. The alternative was to return to the Queen in disgrace! The Newfoundland fishermen had warned him about Sable Island, about how in bad weather too many ships had been dashed against its rocks. "Approach it in the best of conditions." Well, he had done the opposite.

Slanting rain pelted him. He turned his face away from its force. Minutes passed. Sailors were staring at him, turning their faces when he attempted eye contact. He would wait a bit longer!

If the fog lifted, he could then be certain. If not, … The waiting was intolerable! He stared, at drifting, amorphous shapes.

A ferocious blast of wind drove him off his feet. He careened down the slippery starboard deck, his right leg striking stanchions. Adjusting painfully to the roll of the ship, gripping a foremast spar, he stood. The boards beneath his feet trembled. Fear constricted his throat.

"Admiral! Here!"

Gilbert hesitated, then followed the beckoning sailor to a cluster of four seamen just aft of broadside. There! The fog had opened. Gilbert's largest ship, the Delight, was coming apart on dark rocks. And in the water . . . the ship's crew: heads, flailing arms. Miraculously, a boat in the water, just beyond, in one eye-blink, capsized. Churning bodies, disappearing. Gone!

For an hour Gilbert’s two ships maintained their positions. Then he ordered their departure. All one hundred of the Delight’s crew had perished. Numbed with guilt, he retired to his cabin.

There were sixteen survivors. During Gilbert's seventeen day lay-over at Newfoundland, his carpenters had built a pinnace (a small sailing ship used frequently to transport people from ship to shore). The Delight had towed the pinnace behind her to Sable Island. The sixteen sailors boarded her. They headed northward, attempting to steer with one oar. On the seventh day of their ordeal they reached the shoreline of southern Newfoundland, where they ate wild peas and berries. When a French ship discovered them, four had died. The remaining twelve were transported across the Atlantic to a Spanish port near the French border. They crossed over into France that night, and they eventually returned to England.

Richard Hakylut’s The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation includes an account of their survival by the master mariner of the Delight, Richard Clarke. Here is my summary, aided by excerpts from his account.

Some of the Delight’s company in the water were able to swim. They recovered the pinnace and hauled out of the water others afloat, including Clarke. Eventually, sixteen men occupied the boat. Expecting death, they were determined to “prolong their liues as long as it pleased God.” They anticipated “euery moment of an houre when the Sea would eate them vp, the boate being so little and so many men in her, and so foule weather.” For two days and two nights their boat went where the ocean directed them, “God pleased to allow their boat to live in the sea.”

A master named Hedley proposed to Clarke that it might “please God that some of vs may come to the land if our boate were not ouerladen. Let vs make sixteene lots, and those foure that haue the foure shortest lots we will cast ouerboord preseruing the Master among vs all. I replied vnto him, saying, no we will liue and die together.” Hedley asked Clarke if his memory of their location was good. Clarke answered that he knew how far off land they were (“but threescore leagues from the lande”) and hoped to come to land within two or three days. This put them all “in comfort.”

“Thus we continued the third and fourth day without any sustenance, saue onely the weedes that swamme in the Sea, and salt water to drinke.” On the fifth day Hedley and another man died. During all of the five days and nights “we saw the Sunne but once and the Starre but one night, it was so foule weather.” All were very weak. Doubting that they would ever reach land, they wished to die.

“I promised them that the seuenth day they should come to shore, or els they should cast me ouer boord.” At 11 a.m. on the seventh day they sighted land (southern Newfoundland), and at 3 p.m. they reached shore. All during the seven days and nights the wind had “kept continually South. If the wind had in the meanetime shifted vpon any other point, wee had neuer come to land: we were no sooner come to the land, but the wind came cleane contrary at North within halfe an houre after our arriuall.”

“But we were so weake that one could scarcely helpe another of vs out of the boate, yet with much adoe being come all on shore we kneeled downe ypon our knees and gaue God praise that he had dealt so mercifully with vs. Afterwards those which were strongest holpe their fellowes vnto a fresh brooke, where we satisfied our selues with water and berries very well.”

The area abounded with berries. They spied a little wood consisting of pine, spruce, fir, and birch. They made a little house with boughs inside which they spent the night. The next morning Clarke “deuided the company three and three to goe euery way to see what foode they could find to sustaine thenselues, and appointed them to meete there all againe at noone with such foode as they could get.” They found great stores of peas “as good as any wee haue in England: a man would thinke they had bene sowed there.” They rested there three days and three nights, eating berries and peas. Afterward, they rowed their boat along the shore five days, putting on land “when we were hungry or a thirst.”

They “came to a very goodly riuer that ranne farre vp into the Countrey and saw very goodly growen trees of all sortes.” There they happened upon a French Basque whaling vessel, which took them across the Atlantic Ocean to the Spanish harbor, The Passage. “The Master of the shippe was our great friend. … When the visitors came aboord, as it is the order in Spaine, they demanding what we were, he sayd we were poore fishermen that had cast away our ship in Newfound land and so the visitors inquired no more of the matter at that time.” Had he told the truth, Clarke and his men would have been put to death.

That night their friend put them on land “and bad vs shift for our selues.” They were ten or twelve miles from the French border. They walked that night into France and “came into England toward the end of the yeere 1583.”

You may read a brief biographical account of Richard Clarke by the historian David B. Quinn by accessing http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/clarke....

As Near to Heaven

On August 31, 1583 – less than a year before Captains Barlowe and Amadas would make peaceful contact with Algonquian natives at Roanoke Island – Sir Humphrey Gilbert decided to return to England. He had not deposited settlers at Norumbega -- the Queen would surely fault him -- but he had declared Newfoundland an English possession. Using his wit, his charm, and his half-brother’s recently-acquired influence -- Raleigh would happily assist him -- Gilbert felt confident that he could persuade Elizabeth to allow him to return. Next summer he would plant the colony, it would become a privateering base, precious minerals would be mined, and a northwest passage to China might be found. This expedition that he was concluding had ended badly. Very badly. Next year, outcomes would be quite different.

His first mistake had been leaving Plymouth so late, June 11. Five ships had sailed; he had now but two: the Golden Hinde, 40 tons, and the Squirrel, dangerously small at 8 tons. The Bark Raleigh, 200 tons, had returned to Plymouth two days after it had left, too many of the crew members disobedient or sick. He had arrived at St. John’s Bay in Newfoundland August 4.

The following day Gilbert had declared all land 400 leagues north, south, east and west of St. John’s English territory. For 16 days he had impressed upon the many Spanish, French, and Portuguese fishermen – from 36 ships in the harbor -- that Newfoundland would no longer be an international territory. Fishing captains could not regulate local affairs. English law would prevail. The Church of England would be supreme. Fishing licenses would be dispensed. "If any person should utter words sounding to the dishonour of Her Majesty, he should lose his ears and have his ship and goods confiscated." Attempting to win their allegiance, Gilbert had feasted them, using much of his dwindling ships’ stores. Concerned solely about returning to their countries with full catches, content to wait for his departure after which they would ignore his declarations, they had regarded his antics as so much theater.

The crews of Gilbert’s four ships had worked against him, his second major difficulty. Blackguards, thieves, pirates, they had stolen fish. A group had plotted to use one of Gilbert’s ships to privateer. Foiled, they had stolen a foreign ship. Every sailor, it had seemed, had been disgruntled. This land, this enterprise, had offered him nothing. And there had been much sickness. This, that, the lateness of the season, and insufficient supplies to sustain through the winter months a yet to be founded settlement had convinced Gilbert that he had to quit Newfoundland.

He had not, however, conceded defeat. He had believed that he could still return to England in triumph, provided he obtained food immediately and planted his settlement at the mouth of what would eventually be called the Penobscot River. Simon Fernandez had scouted Norumbega in 1579. John Walker had done so in 1580. Leaving Newfoundland, he would sail 100 miles out to sea from central Nova Scotia to Sable Island, where, years before, Portuguese explorers had released pigs to roam wild and procreate. That would solve his food problem. Shipping the worst of his disaffected and sick sailors back to England on his 30 ton ship Swallow would solve his crew management problem. Accomplishing what remained had seemed straightforward, attainable. Deposit his colonists and their necessities at Norumbega. Sail to England. Return to Norumbega with colonists and supplies in the spring.

Gilbert had left St. John’s Bay August 20 aboard the Squirrel. He had spent several days separated from the Delight and the Golden Hinde reconnoitering the rocky inlets, creeks, and rivers of southern Newfoundland before rejoining them. Experienced seaman at Newfoundland had warned him about Sable Island. They had told him to avoid it altogether. Many ships had been destroyed on its treacherous rocks. If you had to go there, don’t approach it in a fog. But if you did, lead with your smallest ship. Gilbert had approached Sable Island ensconced in fog -- his largest ship, the Delight, 120 tons, leading. The Delight’s master, Richard Clarke, had argued with Gilbert about the best course he should take. Clarke had advised a south-west-south course, because “the wind was at South and night at hand and vnknowen sands lay off a great way from the land.” Gilbert had declared that Clarke’s reckoning was untrue. He had wanted Clarke to take a west-north-west direction. Clarke had answered that the island “was Westnorthwest and but 15 leagues off; and that he should be vpon the Island before day, if hee went that course.” Invoking Queen Elizabeth’s authority, Gilbert had demanded obedience. Clarke had complied.

The weather had then turned stormy. Thick fog had shrouded the island. At seven o’clock in the morning the Delight had run aground and broken apart. 100 crewmen, many having leaped into the water, had drowned. Gilbert had backed “off to Sea, the course that I would haue had them gone before,” Clarke would later write. Gilbert had stayed safely away from the island for two days before determining that none of the crew members had survived. (Unbeknownst to Gilbert, Clarke and 14 of the crew had boarded the ship’s recently constructed pinnace, which had been towed behind the Delight. I will relate this survival story in next month’s blog) A great disaster had occurred, for which Gilbert was entirely to blame. On August 31 he had come aboard the Golden Hinde to announce his decision to return to England.

Humphrey Gilbert was many things: soldier, scholar, writer, adventurer, visionary. He was impulsive, hot-tempered, passionate, opinionated, and toward certain people exceedingly cruel. In 1569, serving Queen Elizabeth in attempting to quell Irish resistance to English Protestant rule, he had committed terrible atrocities. To inspire terror in those who had to appear before him, he had skulls -- “the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kindsfolke, and friends” – arrayed on each side of the pathway to his tent. Upon boarding the Golden Hinde after the Delight had been destroyed, he had his cabin boy brought before him. The lad had forgotten to transfer Gilbert’s charts, notes, and mineral samples from the Delight to the Squirrel, as he had been instructed, before leaving Newfoundland. Using a cane, Gilbert delivered one stroke upon the boy for each chart and sample lost.

Thereafter, Gilbert told his officers that he would return to England on the Squirrel. Warned that the undersized, heavily laden ship was in great danger of being swamped, he responded: "I will not forsake my little company going homeward, with whom I have passed through so many storms and perils.” Well and good, you might think, but what might have been his true motives? Was he punishing himself for his awful judgment and its tragic consequence? By displaying singular courage did he believe he could expunge his guilt and neutralize forthcoming savage attacks on his reputation?

Gilbert’s two ships made their way across the Atlantic in manageable weather until they approached the Azores, off the coast of Africa. On September 8 they passed through a strong weather front. The men of the Hinde watched the Squirrel ride the huge peaks and descend into the deep valleys of a distressed sea. The light on its main-mast appeared, disappeared, reappeared. Gilbert remained seated on the stern deck, reading as he had said he would Thomas More’s Utopia.

When the Golden Hinde neared the Squirrel, Gilbert stood. His red hair flapping, he leaned against the railing. The wind carried his voice. "We are as near to heaven by sea as by land," he shouted.

A strange man with strange thoughts, the Hinde’s crew members must have thought. Their vigil of the disappearance and reappearance of the Squirrel's light continued. Just before midnight, the sailors of the Hinde saw the light a final time. They waited, several minutes, before admitting that the sea had indeed swallowed Gilbert and crew.