Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Elizabeth I > Status Update

‘For Elizabeth, Leicester’s death had been a grievous blow, but she could at least find some consolation in the company of Leicester’s twenty-two-year-old stepson, Robert, Earl of Essex. Vibrant, dashing and charismatic, Essex was tall, handsome... His pedigree was impeccable: on his father’s side he could trace his ancestry back to Norman times, while through his mother he was related to the Queen.’

‘Ton for ton, the Spanish galleons were roughly on a parity with those of the English, but the Spanish ships looked much more imposing, being heavily built up above the decks. They were also weighed down with quantities of supplies and ammunition needed for the projected campaign on land, and this affected their sailing performance.’

‘If James had really wanted to save his mother, he could of course have sent Elizabeth an ultimatum to the effect that he would at once declare war if she went ahead with Mary’s execution, but he was never prepared to go so far as this.‘

‘In all, one hundred and eighty-three Catholics were executed during Elizabeth’s reign. One hundred and twenty-three of them were priests, and of the sixty lay victims three were women. By no means all captured priests were put to death, for in about three out of four cases they were either imprisoned or banished.’

‘In theory, Burghley’s efforts to cut costs had Elizabeth’s wholehearted backing, but she herself had some extravagant habits which did not make his task any easier. Twice a week the Court was supposed to serve only fish, but Elizabeth frequently deviated from this rule, and the cost of the additional meat dishes prepared for her on those days amounted to £646 a year.’

‘the populace who anyway thought it obnoxious that the Queen could contemplate matrimony with a Catholic and a Frenchman, for a combination of xenophobia and religious bigotry ensured that many Englishmen were strongly opposed to the match. The ill-feeling had been stimulated by attacks from the pulpit, as for months now Puritan preachers had been heaping invective on the proposed union’

‘Puritans felt passionately that if their dress was reminiscent of that of the Catholic priesthood, it would confuse the simple and encourage superstition. The Queen, on the other hand, insisted on the retention of vestments precisely because she felt that simple believers would have difficulty identifying with a Church which had discarded too many of the practices associated with traditional religious observance.’

‘she delayed making an official response to the sentence of excommunication... She did not want to be rushed into tightening up the laws against the Catholics, and besides she was worried that a new Parliament, like its predecessor, would importune her to name a successor.’

‘Over marriage, at least, the Queen was theoretically prepared to accommodate her subjects, but this was the only comfort on offer, for when she addressed herself to the subject of the succession, she was categoric that this was no business of theirs. She explained that it was not a matter on which they were qualified to adjudicate’

‘Of the fifteen or sixteen members present, ‘there were nearly as many different opinions about the succession to the crown’, and it proved impossible to achieve any sort of consensus... the Council’s failure to reach agreement proved beyond doubt that the Queen’s death would result in political disintegration and utter chaos’