Elizabeth I - Study in Power and Intellect

538 Pages·1974·10.655 MB·English

by  Paul B. Johnson

ElizIa beth
as tuidnpyo waenrid n tellect
PaJuolh nson
We idenfeld and Nicolson
London
Was Queen Elizabeth I the beneficiary of
the brilliant age which assumed her name?
Or was she, rather, the central architect of
its fortunes, skilfully managing state and
society to allow the dynamism of her
subjects to find its full expression?
This is the first full-length political
biography of Elizabeth to appear for many
years, and in it Paul Johnson uses the rich
resources of modem scholarship to relate
Elizabeth's character and beliefs to the
history of her age. He portrays her as a
liberal conservative, deeply committed to
the hierarchical structure of society, and to
the preservation of her inherited powers
and the traditional procedures of govern­
ment, but intellectually capable of grasping
the need for timely concessions, and
adjusting her policies accordingly.
Elsewhere in Europe there was tyranny,
political breakdown, or civil war. In
England, Elizabeth maintained
constitutional and religious balance, and
held in equipoise violent forces which, in
the half-century after her death, were to
explode in the Great Rebellion.
She was an intellectual in politics, but
one who worked not through ideas but
by the systematic employment of her
superb intellect on her fellow creatures.
Confident in her powers, she never
hesitated to use ministers of outstanding
capacity, even when they disagreed with
her on fundamental issues. Nor was she
afraid to confront parliament on its own
terrain of high-level debate and oratory.
Her education made her a beneficiary of
the Renaissance; the perils which
encompassed her as a child and young
woman left her prudent, reserved and clear­
headed under stress; and her sex gave
continued on back flap
With 16 pages of illustrations
Jacket portrait reproduced by courtesy of
the National Portrait Gallery
DesibgyRn o Cya rpenter
Price
(in UK only)
£5·95 net
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The Queen never travelled beyond the
area enclosed by the dotted line.
Principal palaces and hunting lodges
of Queen Elizabeth. •
Copyright© 1974 Paul Johnson
First published by W eidenfeld and Nicolson
II St John's Hill, London swn
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN O 297 76713 5
Printed in Great Britain
by Ebenezer Baylis and Son Limited
The Trinity Press, Worcester, and London
Contents
�-�
Chapter 1 Her Father's Daughter (1533-1547) I
Chapter 2 Chaste and Unexpressive She (1 547-1553)
23
Chapter 3 In Trust I Have Found Treason (1553-1558)
38
Chapter 4 The Deep Consent of All Great Men (1558-1567) 62
Chapter 5 The Best Match in Her Parish 109
Chapter 6 Monstrous Dragons and Roaring Lions
144
Chapter 7 God's Virgin
195
Chapter 8 Daughters of Debate 237
Chapter 9 The Dice Is Thrown
300
Chapter 10 Holding the Balance
325
Chapter 11 The Public Burden of a Nation's Care
377
Chapter 12 In Our Blessed Queen's Time 424
Notes
445
Select Bibliography
487
Index
493
ToM yM other
Illustrations
(between pages 248 and 249)
I Forebears: Henry VII, Margaret Beaufort, Elizabeth of York, Anne
Boleyn.
2 Influences: Catherine Parr, Lord Thomas Seymour, Roger Ascham.
3 Mentors: Sir John Cheke, Sir William Cecil, Sir Nicholas Bacon,
Sir Anthony Cooke.
4 Confidantes: Lady Sidney, Lady Nottingham, Catherine Knollys.
5 Favourites and Suitors: Robert Dudley, Sir Christopher Hatton,
Archduke Charles, due D'A lencon.
6 Swordsmen: Earl of Sussex, Howard of Effingham, Sir John Norris,
Sir Francis Drake.
7 Scribes: Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Walter Mildmay, Sir Thomas
Smith, Sir Ralph Sadler.
8 Intellectuals: Sir Walter Ralegh, Dr John Dee, Sir Philip Sidney,
Sir Thomas Sackville.
9 Administrators: Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Henry Sidney, Henry
Carey, Earl of Huntingdon.
IO The Younger Generation: Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Francis Bacon,
Sir John Harington, Sir Fulke Greville.
II Divines: Archbishop Parker, Archbishop Grindal, Archbishop
Whitgift, John Jewell.
12 Casualties: 4th Duke of Norfolk, Mary Queen of Scots, Earl of Essex.
13 Possessions: Riding Gloves, Riding Boots, Table Clock.
14 Palaces: Richmond, Whitehall, Plan of Holdenby, Greenwich,
Remains of Theobalds, Nonsuch.
15 Obsequies: Elizabeth's Head, Elizabeth's Funeral.
Her Father's Daughter
(1533-1547)
In 1535, when the future Queen Elizabeth was a child of two, Stephen
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester -a man who grew to hate her, and whom she
feared until his death - published his Sermon on True Obedience, in which he
spoke of the role of sovereigns in the divine providence:
Indeed, God, according to his exceeding great and unspeakable goodness
towards mankind . . . substituted men, who, being put in authority as his
viceregents, should require obedience which we must do unto them with no
less fruit for God's sake than we should do (what honour soever it were)
immediately unto God himsel£ And in that place he hath set princes, whom,
as representatives of his Image unto men, he would have to be reputed in the
supreme and most high room, and to excell among all other creatures.1
Five years before, the great Renaissance scholar Erasmus, whom Elizabeth never
met but who exercised an imponderable influence over her fortunes, reflected
gloomily on the bitter religious dissents of his day, and the difficulty of knowing
God's true will, even as transmitted through his princely viceregents. He
accurately predicted: 'The long war of words and writings will terminate in
blows.'2
Here, then, we have the two themes which, interlocking and reacting on one
another, were to dominate the life and reign of Elizabeth. On the one hand was
the theme of kingship, supreme in the secular world, but dispensing wide, if
debatable, powers on the way in which men and women were organized
spiritually, and thus on their eternal destinies. On the other hand was the theme
of religious truth: if the monarch were to determine it, in an age when men
were fiercely divided on what it was, how was the throne to be kept above th�
debate, in origins religious, but increasingly political in its implications? Must
not the religious dispute thus degenerate into civil war? And, if one section
triumphed in one state, and its rival in another, must not the conflict
internationalize itself, and engulf the civilized world?
I
Elizabeth I
In truth, the arguments about religious and secular ideology could not be
separated. This was the problem which confronted Elizabeth, a woman who,
by temperament and conviction, sought peace above all other objects. In
tackling it she became, and remained, a liberal conservative. The power of the
throne, vested in her person, must be conserved, but buttressed by the judicious
and timely acceptance of liberal ideas; the authority pf religion, for which the
throne was ultimately responsible, must be conserved too, but made acceptable
by the liberality of its exercise. This was her alternative formula to chaos, which
she pursued with a tenacity concealed by ambivalence and hesitation, but which
sprang from a deep conviction that it was the only way.
Such a formula cannot be made to work by the mere use of force; it demands
persuasion too. Elizabeth's reign is thus a story of how authority is preserved,
and civil peace maintained, by the application of intellect. It is, in fact, the story
of a royal intellectual - but of an intellectual fascinated not by the abstract
powers of mind, but by its practical ability to influence persons and events. It is
also a story of success. Human societies are always faced by crises, of greater or
lesser magnitude. In dealing with them, the essence of statecraft is to win a
breathing space, during which more permanent solutions can evolve through
the interplay of many intellects. No more can fairly be asked of any single
statesman, or stateswoman. If this is a true definition of the duties of a ruler,
Elizabeth may be said to have fulfilled them.
The origins of Elizabeth's birth, on 7 September 1533, lay in the fragility of the
Tudor claim to the throne, and the nature of the English monarchy. This
monarchy, as it had evolved in the Middle Ages, was consultative. The king was
in theory an unfettered chief executive, but in practice reigned by the advice
and consent of his subjects. His ability to maintain himself in power was thus
limited by the accident of events, and the success of his policies. With such an
ambiguous constitution, vaguely defined at its core, but increasingly specified
at its periphery by a mass of parliamentary statutes, the strength of the
monarch's claim to the throne was an important factor. And the Tudor claim
was weak. It rested, in all essentials, on victory in battle and confirmation by
parliament. 3 The Tudors were an old north Welsh family which rose from
obscurity in the fourteenth century. 4 Owen Tudor (c. 1400-61) became a page
in, or near, the household of Henry v, subsequently a gentleman-attendant to
his widow, Catherine of Valois, and finally her husband. The date of the
marriage is not known; it was contracted secretly and, though almost certainly
canonically valid, it was some time before it received the political sanction of
the authorities, that is, the granting to Owen Tudor of English citizeruhip. 6 In
2