Some exciting news: two anthologies that I have contribute to in the past has gotten some mild accolades. I contributed a chapter to both of them, and is very proud of having been a part of it–but most of all, I offer my congratulations to the editors who these respective books together.
Here are the accompanying footnotes and bibliography for the Elizabeth 1 biographical comic. Feel free to email me if there are corrections required. Some of the books also have multiple editions, so if you have a different edition, the page numbers may not be correct.
FOOTNOTES
[1] (Castor, 2018, pp. 3-4) (Weir, 1998, pp. 11-12) King Henry VIII was of royal Plantagenet blood, but Queen Anne Boleyn was a commoner whose ancestry consisted of upwardly mobile Norfolk merchants and farmers. Their accumulated wealth allowed them to strategically marry daughters of the nobility, and her mother Elizabeth Howard was related to the Howards, earls of Surrey and dukes of Norfolk. Anne was the first woman to be granted peerage as the Marquis of Pembroke, but also the first English queen to die by execution. On a personal level, Anne was overly flirtatious and vengeful to enemies, which made her highly-unpopular with the public, though it was likely her failure to bear Henry any sons that made him want to remove her. She was arrested along with five men (including her brother), and charged with plotting to murder the king and 22 accounts to adultery, 11 of which has been proven false since, which suggested that motives for her death were largely political.
[2] (Weir, 1998, p. 41) Elizabeth’s bastard status was set in law in 1536, after the disgrace and death of Queen Anne, which saw Anne’s marriage to Henry declared null and void by the Bishop of Canterbury. This law was never repealed throughout Elizabeth’s reign, which made her legitimacy to the throne a delicate issue. This was despite the fact that in 1544, Henry enacted an Act of Succession in parliament that named Elizabeth as third in line for the throne after his heirs Edward and Mary.
[3] Henry VIII’s six wives were: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Catherine is Spanish royalty, and the daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, who was originally married to Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur until he died 5 months into their marriage. Being only able to bear him one daughter, Henry VIII also allegedly resented that she was once married to Arthur (although the marriage was not consummated), and Henry would eventually defy the Catholic church to become Protestant so he could divorce her. This was done in order to marry Anne Boleyn, England’s first commoner queen, whom Henry VIII was smitten with. However, his ardour would cool when she failed to bear him any healthy children apart from Elizabeth, and eventually, she was beheaded after she was accused of adultery with several other courtiers, including her own brother. Henry would then marry Jane Seymour, who died two weeks after giving birth to Henry’s only son, and as such, was the only one of Henry’s wives to be given a queen’s funeral and be buried next to him. After that, Henry would marry Anne of Cleves, a German noblewoman whose family was deemed suitable to be England’s allies against a dispute with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The marriage was not consummated though, and was quickly annulled, and Anne was the only one of Henry’s wives to be given a generous settlement and die a natural death. Next was Catherine Howard, who was a mere teenager when she married Henry, only to be executed within 16 months for adultery and therefore treason. This time, however, the allegations that Catherine was not a virgin when she married Henry due to her involvement with a nobleman called Thomas Culpeper appeared to have some truth in it. Lastly, Henry would marry the twice-widowed Catherine Parr, who had a good relationship with all three of his children and would outlive him by a year before dying in childbirth after her fourth marriage to Thomas Seymour, uncle of Jane Seymour.
[4] (Weir, 1998, pp. 13-14) (Castor, 2018, pp. 13-17) Elizabeth was sent to live with Henry’s sixth wife and widow Catherine Parr at her palace at Chelsea manor. At the time, Catherine had married Admiral Thomas Seymour in secret, without the approval of the Privy Council, which particularly angered his brother Edward Seymour (later Duke of Somerset), who was Lord Protector of England at the time. This marriage happened too soon after Henry VIII’s death, which did not make either party look good, especially since Catherine was originally in love with Thomas Seymour before Henry VIII met her and professed his love. There was also the possibility that this was done to spite Edward Seymour, since it was rumoured that Thomas was jealous of his older brother’s success as Lord Protector, while Catherine possibly resented the fact that Edward’s Privy Council power grab had deprived her the role of regent, which as the Queen Dowager should have been rightfully hers.
[5] (Williams, 1998, p. 24) (Castor, 2018, p. 14) Thomas was arrested for possessing a loaded pistol outside young King Edward’s bedroom, and accused of a series of bizarre ploys including attempting to kidnap Edward and to force him to marry his ward Jane Grey, which will remove Edward from the Lord Protector’s custody. He also carried out a series of other incoherent moves aimed at shoring up his political and financial capital, with his amorous pursuit of Elizabeth as his bride as possibly one of them.
[6] (Castor, 2018, pp. 14-17) When Seymour’s ploy was discovered, both Elizabeth’s governess Kate Ashley and cofferer Thomas Parry were the first arrested and taken to the Tower of London for interrogation. Luckily for Elizabeth, both of them denied any serious wrongdoing on Seymour’s part, and Elizabeth was also able to fend off the questions of her new guardian/interrogator Thomas Thorwit. This was a very serious matter, since Elizabeth was third in line to the throne, and by law, unable to marry without the king’s permission. Her marital status was a very sensitive political issue, even when she was a child.
[7] (Castor, 2018, pp. 18-19) (Weir, 1998, p. 15) After the death of Thomas Seymour, his brother the Lord Protector Edward Seymour would find himself struggling to fend off the political manoeuvres of his fellow Privy Council members. In 1549, there would be a series of peasant revolts caused by King Edward’s reforms and other economic problems, and soon after, Edward Seymour would be ousted from his position and taken to the Tower of London. He was pardoned a year later and returned as a normal Privy Council member, but after a lot of political in-fighting, he would be executed in 1552, with a new Lord Protector called John Dudley coming to power. John’s reign would also be very short, since it was soon followed by the death of King Edward, and his own poor political moves.
[8] (Weir, 1998, p. 13) It was believed that Elizabeth made the statement ‘I will never marry’ to her young friend, Robert Dudley and son of the Earl of Leicester, when she was 9. This was allegedly the result of the death of Katherine Howard, a cousin of Anne Boleyn and the fifth wife of King Henry VIII who was beheaded.
[9] (Castor, 2018, pp. 18-19) Edward had contracted but quickly recovered from measles and small pox in 1552 A.D., although his constitution was always rather weak.
[10] (Castor, 2018, pp. 20-21) (Weir, 1998, pp. 15-16) John Dudley hid the news of Edward’s death, not even telling Jane Grey until 3 days after the event. He chose Jane Grey not only because she was the grand-niece of King Henry VIII, but also because she was married to Dudley’s son Guilford. This close relationship made it clear that she would be a pawn of the Dudley family, much to the chagrin of other powerful families. For Jane herself, she was unwilling and tearful when told that she was to become the next queen, but was quickly overruled and forced to accept, eventually moving into the Tower of London to prepare for her coronation. This was not to be, as when Mary became Queen, Jane, Guilford and John Dudley were executed, though Dudley’s son Robert was spared. Robert would later go onto become the rumoured love of Elizabeth’s life.
[11] (Castor, 2018, pp. 23, 27) These green and white livery colours were first adopted by Elizabeth’s grandfather, King Henry VII. Elizabeth wore them for obvious reasons—now that Mary has been accepted as England’s first queen regnant, Elizabeth was once more heir to the throne. At the young age of twenty, she was probably a more desirable candidate than Mary due to Mary’s comparatively advanced age and questionable ability to produce an heir. Elizabeth was also believed to physically resemble her father by the general populace, which probably helped her public image.
[12] (McIlvenna, 2018) Queen Mary burned over 300 religious dissidents at the stake, and as ‘Bloody Queen Mary’, her name would henceforth be associated with religious intolerance and persecution. However, it should be noted that King Henry VIII and Elizabeth also executed not a few people for religious reasons, and being burned at the stake (to prevent a martyr’s body parts to be used as holy relics afterwards) was the normal punishment for heretics at the time. Mary’s unpopular reign made it easier for people to label her as cruel, while Elizabeth was shrewd enough to have heretics drawn and quartered rather than burned during her reign, which subtly positioned these crimes as ‘treason’ rather than ‘hereticism’. Thus, Elizabeth managed to dodge a similar label, something that was also helped by her long and successful reign.
[13] (Williams, 1998, p. 27) There was considerable animosity between Mary and Elizabeth, mostly from Mary’s side since Mary’s mother Catherine of Aragon was abandoned by King Henry VIII for Elizabeth’s mother, the commoner Anne Boleyn. Since Mary’s resentment of Elizabeth—both for personal and religious reasons—was no secret, Elizabeth had to be extra careful in her rejection of Catholicism, since leaning to heavily protestant could set her up as a rival to Mary. However, moving away from Protestantism could also cause Elizabeth’s popularity to drop among protestant nobles whose support she needed, so Elizabeth had to tread a careful line.
[14] (Williams, 1998, p. 28) Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain made a lot of sense to Mary, since she was half-Spanish herself, with her mother being Catherine of Aragon. Catholic Spain was also a powerful country at the time, and Philip was also not only the ruler of Spain, but also of the Netherlands, Milan and the New World. Unfortunately, Mary underestimated the xenophobia of the English against a Spaniard, so while the fear of England being exploited by the economic might of Spain was a concern, most of the rebel leaders were largely motivated by resentment of Spaniards.
[15] (Williams, 1998, p. 28) (Castor, 2018, p. 25) The Kent rebellion began in January 1554 A.D., and was led by Thomas Wyatt, the son of a Tudor poet. He was only one of many conspirators, who used Elizabeth’s name freely due to its popularity, and while they met with her, she never gave them anything more than verbal support. After being caught, Wyatt would deny Elizabeth’s involvement, retract that statement upon torture, but would again deny Elizabeth’s involvement upon his execution. Elizabeth was imprisoned, but other people were not so lucky—Jane Grey and her husband Guildford Dudley was executed within a week, and the Earl of Devon, a distant relative to the 15th Century Plantagenet kings and thus a possible candidate for the throne, was also imprisoned.
[16] (Weir, 1998, p. 16) (Castor, 2018, p. 26) (Williams, 1998, p. 29) Elizabeth was ill when brought from Ashridge and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 2-3 months. After that, she was moved to the Palace of Woodstock in Oxfordshire, where she remained for around 10 months. All this time, all of Mary’s attempts to build a case of treason against her failed due to lack of evidence.
[17] (Castor, 2018, p. 26) (Williams, 1998, p. 29) In April 1555, Elizabeth was finally summoned to see Mary, mostly on the advice of her husband Philip of Spain who was certainly happy to see Elizabeth alive and available as a ‘backup heir’ to Mary. Part of this was because even though Elizabeth was an illegitimate child and a protestant, the next Catholic heir to the English throne was actually Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary was born the sole heir to the Scottish throne, and at the time, she was in the French court waiting to marry the dauphin. Thus, if Scottish Mary was to inherit the throne due to Elizabeth’s death, it would push England and France together, which was something the Spanish wanted to avoid.
[18] (Castor, 2018, p. 56) Mary’s reign was only for five years, and was quite unpopular. Apart from her persecution of protestants, she also committed English soldiers to fight in Spanish wars. The resulting defeat led to the loss of Calais, England’s last remaining foothold in Europe.
[19] (Castor, 2018, pp. 34-35) (Weir, 1998, pp. 19-23) (Williams, 1998, pp. 40-41)Elizabeth wasted no time in appointing those close to her, particularly her relatives, onto the Privy Council. Out of Mary’s councillors, 10-11 were retained (all of them also served under her brother and father), while the remaining were dismissed, particularly those who had strong Catholic views. Elizabeth’s decisions were helped by the death of Cardinal Pole, Mary’s Archbishop of Canterbury, who passed a few hours after Mary and thus gave the impression of a clean break with the past. Of the 9 new councillors appointed, most were protestants who fell out of favour under Mary, but the key was the 38 year-old William Cecil, who already knew Elizabeth since her teens and would serve as ‘her spirit’ for the next 38 years of her reign. Loyal long-time servants such as her steward Thomas Parry, tutor Roger Ascham and nurse Kate Ashley would all be part of her royal household, and her court favourite Robert Dudley would become her Master of the Horse. Sir Francis Walsingham, a key figure in Elizabeth’s later administration due to his role as her principal secretary and spymaster, would join this retinue as another protestant supporter. However, since he was in exile at the time of her coronation, he wouldn’t join forces with William Cecil to foil plots on Elizabeth’s throne until about a decade later.
[20] (Castor, 2018, pp. 35-40) To be clear, the matter of religion was only temporarily settled in parliament, with Elizabeth’s advisors attempting to hammer out a broader church that had Protestant beliefs with Roman Catholic trappings. Her many protestant advisors meant that reform was always on the agenda, but there were also enough influential Catholics around that that the push and pull between these two forces remained a constant danger throughout her reign. It is also interesting that Elizabeth resisted Protestant reform every step of the way, and appointed no clerics to her Privy Council.
[21] (Weir, 1998, pp. 54-55) According to Spanish ambassador Count De Feria, sent by King Philip of Spain to broker a marriage union between Spain and England, Elizabeth had a habit of ‘laughing meaningfully’ as if she knew what he was thinking.
[22] (Castor, 2018, p. 43) (Weir, 1998, pp. 116-133) (Williams, 1998, p. 26) Catholic King Philip II of Spain was the first to court Elizabeth, though it was clear to his envoy that she wasn’t interested and Philip would court a French princess instead. After that, Philip’s cousin Austrian Archduke Charles, son of Holy Roman Emperor I, was also considered, but also gently rebuked. Then came the German Dukes of Hostein and Saxony, then King Eric XIV of Sweden (undergoing Protestant Reformation at the time, later to become Lutheran), who vied with the Austrians, but to no avail despite pursuing Elizabeth for two years. Elizabeth toyed with the idea of marrying an Englishman after that, but would return to diplomatic matrimonial discussions in the 1570s (due to the problem of Mary, Queen of Scots) with a possible French husband. At the time, the key suitor was Duke Henry of Anjou, son of French King Henry II, but he proved unsuitable, so his younger brother Duke Francis of Alencon was offered. While there was a strong attraction between the two (despite a 10-year age gap), the marriage was ultimately scuttled by xenophobic Englishmen and the complications of religious warfare across Europe. After this, Elizbeth would pursue no diplomatic marriage alliances, since her age was also a problem by then.
[23] (Castor, 2018, pp. 44-45) For Elizabeth, marrying a foreigner means committing England to an irrevocable international alliance, which could be problematic for England’s interests if something should happen. Likewise, marrying an Englishman also upsets the balance of domestic power, since it allows the elevation of one of Elizabeth’s subjects over the others.
[24] (Williams, 1998, pp. 55, 110-111, 165-168) Elizbeth’s childhood friend Robert Dudley was the love of Elizabeth’s life, though she had a number of suitors from her own court as well. There was the diplomat Sir William Pickering, who she quickly lost interest in after only 6 months. The most steadfastly faithful to her was Christopher Hatton, who remained a bachelor his whole life—she called him her ‘Lids’, just as she called Dudley her ‘Eyes’. For 10 years, there was Walter Raleigh, who lost Elizabeth’s favour when he met and married another woman. Late in her life, Robert Devereux the Earl of Essex would earn her favour as Dudley’s stepson, though he would lose it in a failed rebellion.
[25] (Meares, 2018) Mary had a radically different childhood compared to Elizabeth. Pampered and sheltered, that was perhaps the reason for her lack of judgement and political acumen in her later life. Since Mary was the only heir to the Scottish throne due to her father’s death in battle 6 days after her birth, she was raised to believe that she was the rightful heir to the English crown. Being the daughter of King Henry VIII’s older sister and thus Elizabeth’s senior also bolstered her belief in this. Originally, she was meant to marry Elizabeth’s younger brother Edward VI, but the Scots decided to ally with France instead, and so at age 5, she was sent to France to become the fiancé of Francis, the future French dauphin. Francis was sickly, but the French royal family was grateful for the alliance with Scotland, so Mary was revered as a queen at the French court. So lofty was her position that she walked in front of the French king’s daughters, since she was a queen even before she married the dauphin.
[26] (Williams, 1998, pp. 60, 81) (Castor, 2018, pp. 48-49) In Mary’s absence from Scotland, Robert Cecil had managed to aid Scottish Protestants to power and dethrone Mary’s mother, the French regent Marie de Guise. This has the advantage of preventing Scotland of being used as a springboard for a Catholic invasion of England. The leader of these Protestants, John Knox, managed to persuade Elizabeth to send troops to Scotland to expel the French, in turn for recognising Elizabeth’s claim to the English throne and asking Mary to relinquish her own claim. This ‘Treaty of Edinburgh’ was signed in July 1560, but Mary refused to ratify it unless Elizabeth recognised her as heir, which never happened either. This expulsion of the French from Scotland made England isolated and friendless in Europe, though religious war also broke out in France shortly after.
[27] (Weir, 1998, pp. 124, 155-156. ) (Williams, 1998, pp. 49, 58-67) Elizabeth had originally planned to bring Scotland and England together by marrying Mary to Robert Dudley, and she even raised him to the Earl of Leicester to sweeten the deal. She had even agreed to name Mary as her successor if Mary would marry Dudley and live together at the English court. While this was considered surprising since Dudley is the love of Elizabeth’s life, it’s possible that Elizabeth knew that she could never marry Dudley due to his unpopularity in court, the fact that he was already married, and the strange death of his wife Amy Robsart in mysterious circumstances. Dudley, even though he didn’t believe Elizabeth was ever interested in marriage, declined the offer to marry Mary in the hopes that he can still win Elizabeth’s hand, and encouraged Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley, the next in line to claim the English throne after Mary) to go to Scotland in his stead. This was done without Elizabeth’s permission and she was enraged, but this would also set off a chain of political events that led to Mary’s dethronement. As for Mary’s attitude towards Elizabeth’s earliest proposal, she was possibly offended by Elizabeth offering her own cast-off as Mary’s consort, though she was very taken by Lord Darnley due to his good looks. Ultimately, Mary was happy to marry Darnley when he arrived (though she would soon regret her decision), but it’s possible that Mary’s relationship with Elizabeth was always doomed to be icy. This is because before the marriage alliance was even on the horizon, Mary had already quartered England’s coat-of-arms in her own, and when she traveled back to Scotland, Elizabeth had refused her passage through England for that very reason. That Mary continually claimed that she was the rightful queen of England didn’t help, nor the fact that she was younger and more reportedly more beautiful than Elizabeth.
[28] (Castor, 2018, p. 50) (Weir, 1998, pp. 163, 172) (Williams, 1998, pp. 66-67) Lord Darnley and Mary’s marriage was tumultuous, since Darnley turned out to be hard-drinking, erratic and arrogant. He alienated a lot of the Scottish court, and kept demanding that Mary make him the next in line to the Scottish throne. Mary refused, and later, when she showed favour to her private secretary David Rizzio, Lord Darnley stabbed Rizzio to death in a fit of jealously. This happened in front of Mary when she was six-months pregnant, possibly a plot by Darnley’s co-conspirators to shock her into miscarriage. The plan was to pin the blame for the murder on Darnley, so they can get rid of Darnley and Rizzio at the same time.
[29] (Castor, 2018, pp. 50-51) (Weir, 1998, pp. 172, 187-189) (Williams, 1998, pp. 81-86) Mary and a number of Scottish lords were suspected of Darnley’s death, and suspicions would fall chiefly on James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, due to his closeness with Mary. Mary also hesitated to investigate Darnley’s death, and the subsequent sham trial and acquittal of Bothwell would only hurt Mary’s reputation and fuel salacious gossip, and the claim that Mary had married Bothwell in a Protestant ceremony because he raped her didn’t help. Rumours at the time, bolstered by the discovery of the “Casket Letters” which were believed to be by Mary’s hand, said that Mary conspired with Bothwell to kill Darnley, and that she had willingly allowed Bothwell kidnap her. The fact that she miscarried twins sometime after also suggested that she was pregnant before Bothwell’s kidnapping, possibly due to an affair with Bothwell. However, it is also possible that Mary’s exiled Protestant half-brother the Earl of Moray had a role to play in Darnley’s murder, though Bothwell’s actions suggest he was involved too. It is also likely that the “Casket Letters” were forged to discredit Mary.
[30] (Castor, 2018, pp. 50-51) (Weir, 1998, pp. 163-168) (Williams, 1998, p. 86) Mary was forced to appoint her half-brother, James Stuart and the Earl of Moray, as regent to her 13 month-old son, who was crowned king in Stirling Castle. Previously, Moray was outlawed in Scotland due to his Protestantism and opposition to Darnley, and had to flee to England as an exile until his return after Rizzio’s death. Elizabeth, meanwhile, was horrified by this turn of events since Mary was an ordained queen like herself, but she had no choice but to accept this political reality since Mary has severely damaged her own reputation due to her ‘dalliance’ with Bothwell and her alleged involvement with Darnley’s murder. By the time Mary was rescued from Bothwell, her reputation was so poor that even Scottish commoners openly called her a whore.
[31] (Weir, 1998, pp. 210-211) This was the first serious rebellion against Elizabeth, and was known as the ‘Northern Rising’. It was a rebellion that began in the north of England, where a group of disgruntled Catholics, along with support from King Philip II of Spain and the Duke of Norfolk, decided to save Mary from captivity and make her the English queen. The rebellion fell apart within 2 months, since Elizabeth moved Mary to Coventry in the Protestant Midlands and shut all ports, effectively making it impossible for the Catholic rebels to reach Mary. Disheartened, they fled to escape the 28,000-strong royal army, and the rebel leaders fled to Scotland. The remaining rebels were brutally suppressed and executed, strengthening Elizabeth’s position. Soon after, another rebellion broke out, led by the influential Lord Dacre, but this was also brutally suppressed.
[32] (Weir, 1998, pp. 270-278) The assassination plot against Elizabeth took place in 1571 A.D., after the papal bull against her was published by the Pope. They were masterminded by an Italian banker called Roberto Ridolfi (a papal agent who was also involved in the first rebellion), and was known as the ‘Ridolfi plot’, which had the support of the Spanish King, the Pope, and Mary herself. This time, the Duke of Norfolk became besotted with the idea of marrying Mary, and although Elizabeth castigated him for this, he continued on his dangerous path. Ultimately, the plot was exposed by the network of spies created by William Cecil, aided by Francis Walsingham, the latter of whom became Elizabeth’s principal secretary and Spymaster. After the discovery of the plot, Norfolk was executed for high treason, and while public opinion in England and Scotland was deeply against Mary, she was again spared by Elizabeth.
[33] (Weir, 1998, pp. 213-214) In February 1570 A.D., Pope Pius V issued a papal bull and excommunicated Elizabeth for being a protestant. Based on outdated letters regarding the ‘Northern Rising’ rebellion, he incited Catholics all over Europe and England to depose her. Contrary to the Pope’s belief, this angered the Catholic kings of France and Spain since he didn’t consult with them first, and also irritated a lot of Englishmen regardless of religious belief, since the English thought of it as political meddling from Rome. This made Elizabeth stronger, since a lot of English Catholics actually supported Elizabeth.
[34] (Weir, 1998) (Williams, 1998, pp. 169-170) Mary never stopped plotting against Elizabeth, but luckily Elizabeth had her spymaster Francis Walsingham to help her. As a fervent Protestant, he created a complex system of counter-espionage, and in this instance, enlisted a Catholic man named Robert Gifford to help him uncover Mary’s plots. Walsingham had Gifford tell Mary that he had devised a foolproof scheme of communication by concealing letters within watertight barrels, and Mary soon began communicating with the French embassy. Mary eventually committed a lot of her plans to assassinate and replace Elizabeth in these letters, and thus it doomed her to execution for treason. This ploy eventually became known as the ‘Babington plot’, from the name of Anthony Babington, whose letter to Mary revealed the full plan to her.
[35] (Williams, 1998, pp. 175-177) England was already fighting Spain in the Netherlands during that time, while English ‘privateers’ such as Sir Francis Drake has long been robbing Spanish merchant ships to line their own (and Elizabeth’s) pockets in the New World. Before Mary’s death, Mary had written to King Philip II of Spain to assign her right to the English throne, and so he had taken restoring England to Catholicism as his holy crusade. Thus, the clash of these two countries was long in motion, even when considering the traditional animosity between the Spanish and English. England was to remain at war with Spain for the rest of Elizabeth’s reign, and while Elizabeth considered wars wasteful, it helped England develop a sense of unified national consciousness and bolstered Elizabeth’s popularity.
[36] (Williams, 1998, p. 182) (Castor, 2018, pp. 77-78) Elizabeth sent Sir Francis Drake to raid the port of Cadiz off the Iberian coast, which Drake did, destroying ships and plundering Portuguese warehouses. After he left, however, she changed her mind and sent orders to cancel the action, but it reached Drake too late—perhaps a deliberate choice, since it then gave Elizabeth a chance to use diplomacy by telling King Philip II of Spain that she had asked Drake not to. This accomplished little but delayed the inevitable war, which was enough to help the English prepare better since they were outnumbered by the Spanish.
[37] (Williams, 1998, p. 180) England was fighting the Spanish in the Netherlands, led by the Earl of Leicester, to mixed success since English troops were amateurs compared to the Spanish. However, England’s navy fared much better, largely thanks to Sir John Hawkins who reformed the dockyards, built good ships, and even saved Elizabeth some money. The royal fleet was only 25 vessels, but all were first-class with long-range guns, while the smaller galleons Hawkins made were easy to handle and could stay at sea for a long time. The rest of the boats were hastily fitted merchant vessels whose owners had participated in ‘privateering’ (ie. piracy) like Sir Francis Drake, and could be counted on to defend the English coast in an attack. All this industriousness caused the English economy to soar, helped by the naval expansion in the previous decade which discovered new trade routes and now rewarded innovation in a time of war.
[38] (Castor, 2018, p. 81) The ideas behind these words came from Protestant scholar John Aylmer in 1559 A.D., who said them to defend his queen’s fledgling rule at the time. The concept of a weak and fragile woman able to overcome impossible odds through divine intervention was something Elizabeth channelled in this instance.
[39] (Castor, 2018, pp. 80-81) (Williams, 1998, p. 182) The invasion plans that the Spanish prepared was fatally flawed—the original planner Marquis of Santa Cruz had died, so the Duke of Medina Sidonia had to take command, despite a lack of experience commanding navies. The arrangements were rushed and the number of soldiers reduced, and Duke had also set off without properly arranging the rendezvous with the Spanish army in the Netherlands. The original plan was for these two groups to rendezvous and invade England by land, but the barges the Spanish soldiers in the Netherlands were not ready to be used and was ill-suited for the open sea. The scattered Armada was forced to sail north past the rendezvous point, around the coast of Scotland and Ireland, while being harried by the English all the way. By the time what was left of the Spanish Armada made it back to Spain, around 15,000 Spanish men had died.
[40] (Castor, 2018, p. 82) Also as Old Testament heroines such as Deborah and Judith.
[41] (Weir, 1998, pp. 470-471, 487) When the end of Elizabeth’s reign drew near, there were a number of social problems. Elizabeth had to cut back on expenditures to save money (she died 400,000 pounds in debt), and the rising cost of living made life for people at all levels hard. Her execution of the Earl of Essex for treason made her unpopular, and the country suffered economically due to the on-going war with Spain, though the war ended in 1602 A.D. when the Spanish surrendered and left Ireland. England’s prolonged peace has also doubled the population, and famine and beggars became a serious problem until a law was drafted that required local parishes to care for their own poor. One of the main complaints of the common people was the abuse of monopolies that were granted by the crown, which gave owners the sole right to make or sell consumer goods like salt or starch—a system that was eventually removed by Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth’s lack of vigour also meant that bribery and corruption was rampant at court, which her lack of interest in governing and loneliness at having outlived many of her contemporaries only made worse. It can also be argued that by shelving some of the biggest problems she faced such as debt, the resurgence of Puritanism, or Parliament’s attempts to limit royal power, she passed them onto her successor. This contributed to the English civil war of 1642–1651 A.D., which with the Parliamentarian victory saw the execution of King Charles I and the end of the Britain’s absolute monarchic system—a mere two generations after Elizabeth’s reign.
[42] (Weir, 1998, p. 478) It was clear to everyone that only James VI of Scotland, Mary’s son, could succeed Elizabeth. While Elizabeth was dearly loved, the nobility and gentry still resented a woman’s rule, and thought it shameful. James VI had two sons, so he was preferred—as well as Elizabeth ran England, it seemed that few wanted another woman sovereign in England.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Castor, Helen (2018). Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity. London: Allen Lane.
Weir, Alice (1998). The Life of Elizabeth I. New York: Randomhouse.
Levin, Carole (2013). The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Websites
Meares, Hadley (2018, December 10) The Wildly Different Childhoods of Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/elizabeth-mary-queen-of-scots-imprisonment-death
McIlvenna, Una (2018, October 25) What Inspired Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary’s Gruesome Nickname? Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/queen-mary-i-bloody-mary-reformation
Rising of the North. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 14, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_of_the_North
Church and state in medieval Europe (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 2, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_and_state_in_medieval_Europe
The Mary Rose. (n.d.) Retrieved March 22, 2020, from https://maryrose.org/
Page, William (1912) “Parishes: Hatfield,” in A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3. Retrieved January 4, 2020, from British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp91-111.
Croot, Patricia E.C. (2004) A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 12, Chelsea. London: Victoria County History. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol12/pp108-115.
When it comes to the people in Elizabeth’s life, portraits of them are fairly easy to find. I sourced all of the above paintings Wikipedia, though it should be noted that not all of the characters are drawn according to their portrait, and some are reproductions of missing originals or symbolic representations rather than depictions of actual people.
Elizabeth in her coronation gown. There are several variations of this image, some of which reproductions of lost originals.From a painting of Elizabeth 1 as Pax, holding an olive branch in her hand, and with the sword of justice below her. The original painting was not from Elizabeth’s time, and as such, only appears on the first page of the comic.
Elizabeth’s Makeup: As Elizabeth ages in the comic, you may have noticed that her makeup gets noticeably heavier. With caked-on white make up (white lead and vinegar) and rouge which made her look clownish, this concoction actually poisoned her over time. The truth is, Elizabeth started wearing heavy makeup earlier than depicted in the comic, starting at age 29 due to a near-lethal bout of smallpox in 1562 A.D. that left her skin scarred. Self-conscious, she covered all these flaws with makeup, and when her hair grew extremely thin, constantly wore a wig.
King Henry VIII with his six wives. From the top left hand corner and in an anti-clockwise direction, they are: Catherine of Aragon (1st, Mary’s mother), Anne Boleyn (2nd, Elizabeth’s mother), Jane Seymour (3rd, Edward’s mother), Anne of Cleves (4th), Catherine Howard (5th), Catherine Parr (6th).
Elizabeth’s half-siblings, from left to right: King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and finally Elizabeth herself as a teenager.
Some key figures in Elizabeth’s life, from left-to-right: Mary, Queen of the Scots, who was Elizabeth’s main rival for the English throne until her execution. William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, who was Elizabeth’s chief advisor and who worked tirelessly under her and whom she called her ‘Spirit’ for his dedication. King Phillip II of Spain, who courted Elizabeth (and had married Mary) early on, but who would ultimately be her biggest enemy.
Some characters who were very important, but whom didn’t get much time in the comic due to the need to tell a compressed story, from left to right:
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and the rumoured love of Elizabeth’s life. He doesn’t look like his portrait since I wanted to distinguish him from all the other characters, though he was allegedly dark-complected like a gypsy.
Sir Francis Walsingham, who was Elizabeth’s Spymaster and who ran a network of spies that uncovered several assassination plots. His role in her government was secondary only to William Cecil’s, even though it was rumoured that Elizabeth didn’t like him much on a personal level. When he died, his spy network died along with him.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who launched the failed ‘Essex rebellion’ later on in Elizabeth’s life. I glossed over his story since it lasted barely one afternoon, but he was indeed very dear to Elizabeth, and was also Robert Dudley’s stepson. It is not without some irony that he launched his rebellion partly out of dissatisfaction with the influence of Robert Cecil, son of William Cecil, who had replaced his father in Elizabeth’s group of advisors. This rendition of him is not based off his portrait, but off an artist’s depiction of a melancholy youth representing Robert, since Essex was actually quite well-liked.
The locations in the comic were not easy to research, not least because many of the palaces Elizabeth lived in no longer exist today. Greenwich palace, where Elizabeth was born, was demolished; Whitehall palace, where Elizabeth spent a lot of time in, was mostly demolished in a fire; Richmond palace, where Elizabeth died, was also mostly demolished. Surviving palaces, such as Windsor Castle, Hatfield House and Hampton Court, all fell into disrepair after her reign (especially in the Oliver Cromwell era), and so look little like they originally did today.
Here is an image of Chelsea Manor, where Elizabeth spent a portion of her teenage years with her stepmother Catherine Parr. The history of Chelsea Manor and the image comes from this British Landownership Records, but the image itself is of the rear side of the Tudor manor, and shows 17th Century additions that did not exist in Elizabeth’s time. All in all, not a reliable depiction of the original, and the building no longer exists today.
Hatfield House is where Elizabeth spent her time after she left Catherine’s manor, and where she first received news of her accession to the throne. Hatfield house is actually much larger than this–most of it was demolished. while this picture from ElizabethI.org only shows the banquet hall.
Elizabeth riding to see her half-sister Mary 1, and here is the gate of Anne Boleyn at Hampton Court Palace from Wikipedia.
Since there are very few historic buildings in England that still has period-era Tudor architecture, most existing references are recreations such as this Henry VIII bedchamber from Hever Castle. We know from locations such as Hardwick Hall, an Elizabethan country manor, that Tudors favour extensive wood-panelling everywhere, so much of the backgrounds in this comic have a lot of wood panelling even as it’s not entirely historically accurate.
We have no true idea of what Elizabeth’s ships looked like in the battle against the Spanish armada since so many were retrofitted merchant ships, but here is a recreation the Mary Rose, which is a carrack-type warship from the reign of Henry VIII. While not accurate to Elizabeth’s navy, this is a raised shipwreck that last saw action in 1545, about 40 years before the Spanish battle, and so carries a fair amount of Tudor accuracy even as it’s inaccurate to Elizabeth’s time.
The tomb of Elizabeth 1, which is located in Westminister Abbey in the Chapel of Henry VIII. There’s multiple renditions of this (from the British Museum), and it exists in modern times, so it was pretty easy to find references of it.
Some of the remaining sources come from the movie “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007) starring Cate Blanchett, and while some scenes are fairly accurate such as Elizabeth’s coronation, a fair amount of this movie is inaccurate both in plot and in the background details.
The movie’s depiction of Robert Dudley’s betrayal of Elizabeth is particularly irritating, because while Robert wasn’t entirely “faithful” to Elizabeth (having secretly married more than once after his wife’s death), he seemed loyal to her until his death and never seemed to have ever considered rebellion.
The movie’s depiction of Elizabeth’s sexual “adventures” was even stranger. Due to Elizabeth’s traumatic early life experiences with childbirth and marriage involving her father’s wives, she probably had a fair amount of body horror relating to both of these things. Being a king’s daughter and potential heir to the throne also meant that she knew her body was also never truly hers, and that any mere suggestion of pregnancy is instantly a political affair, and may endanger her life and her claim to the throne. Coupled with the fact that she was surrounded by ladies-in-waiting and councillors almost 24/7 makes the suggestion of any kind of physical affair unlikely.
