Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Queen Elizabeth > Status Update

‘So, in the autumn of 1570, negotiations were set on foot for a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou. Apparently, there were no dregs of Elizabeth’s old passion for Leicester left to disturb her resolution. The romance had sobered down into a sentimental friendship - a sweet memory of the past, and no more. She was entirely the Queen in this wooing. She was probably sincere in her resolve to marry’

‘No doubt her kingdom was to be Protestant, and in times of danger Cecil and her keener councillors were allowed to harry disobedient Catholics. But she wanted no inquisitorial practices, opening windows into men’s souls. Outward conformity was enough; a man’s conscience should be his own, not the State’s concern.‘

‘The Duke of Norfolk and his brother-in-law, the Earl of Sussex, were the leaders of the anti-Leicester party. Fortune and influence, possibly life itself in addition to the sweets of it, might be endangered if Leicester became King; their opposition was therefore sleepless and bitter. In June, 1565, and again a year later, Sussex and Leicester were at open feud’

‘The previous midnight Cecil had been hastily summoned from London to Hampton Court, and there the Council, faced as they imagined with Elizabeth’s impending death, anxiously discussed who should succeed her. All that emerged was a conflict of opinion. Some were for Lady Catherine Grey, some for the Earl of Huntingdon, apparently none - or none openly - for Mary Queen of Scots.’

‘by the feeling that a foreign match would be unpopular. Her doubts might have disappeared if Court and Council had given a unanimous lead; but some were for one candidate, some for another. The result was that she kept on hesitating, ever ready to dilate on the attractions of a maiden life, baffling everyone with her art and wit and coquetry.‘

‘Elizabeth was Protestant and in her Englishry was no foreign strain. If Mary died childless she would be their ruler, and the more rash were tempted to make such a future certain and speed its coming. It was a position of infinite difficulty. Let Elizabeth’s prudence be divine, she could not keep her name from every hot-head’s lips; and sisterly affection could not live in such an atmosphere.’